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On 7 June 2017, Sam Wright (Tech Girl) along with Acer will be hosting #AcerForGaming, an all-girl gaming event at The Nexus in Johannesburg. This is all in a bid to get more women involved with, and exposed to, the gaming and Esports space and to identify up and coming female Esports talent.
Typically, Esports is seen a male-dominated space (not only in South Africa, but around the world too) and so it’s often intimidating for females to find a “safe space” to expose themselves to the world of gaming without fearing they’ll be criticised by their male counterparts.
Sam is one such person who felt that way, and decided to create an event to help other females immerse themselves in the gaming space without worry of judgement. “I’m really passionate about Esports. I’m also passionate about gaming. I’m not a good gamer though. Never have been. I don’t naturally get the mechanics and I struggle in the beginning to figure it out. For a long time, I felt a little bit ashamed about that. I felt embarrassed to try my hand at a new game when people were around. Even if I really wanted to. I’m still not sure if that is because of the stereotypes that affect women who play games. The truth is I’m sure there are stacks of guys who feel the exact same way but I think being a woman also plays a role. I didn’t want to be just another girl sucking at video games. So I hid from it.”
Until now.
“This event is just the start of my efforts to try encourage more women to get into gaming and tech. We're seeing this boom of Esports around the world and a strong focus on gaming - not only as a competitive sport but also as a means to better educate in schools. Gamification continues to develop as a teaching method. However, I do still think the typical stereotypes exist and not enough girls are actively gaming,” Sam adds.
The international figures show that close to half of gamers are women but we don't see them at big Esports competitions or playing online. This is something that Sam is intent on changing. “I'd also like to educate parents on the benefits of gaming and kill the stereotype that their kids are ‘nerds’ or ‘anti-social’ if they game. Gaming has opened up a new career for me, allowing me to quit my ‘day job’ at the start of the year. I want to be able to show other young females that this is a space where they are not only welcome but can also thrive.”
Sam has pulled in some of SA’s best female gamers and tech fundi’s to join in on hosting this event:
• Pippa Tshabalala - gaming writer and TV producer, and one of the first female-faces on the SA gaming scene.
• Shazz - one of the best Esports professionals in South Africa and a Copenhagen Games winner.
• Zoe Hawkins - a mom, a journalist at Critical Hit and a mommy blogger. She turned gaming into her career.
• ChaniZA - a giant geek, rad gamer, Youtuber, and writer for TechGirl.
• Constantine104 – writes for TechGirl and has the most incredible gaming YouTube channel.
• Bish - the current captain for eNergy Esports all-female team and a brilliant CS streamer on Twitch.
“If you’ve never played a game, you should pull through. If you’ve been too afraid to learn a new game, you should pull through. If you’ve been playing online and are ready to take your passion professional, you should pull through. The Nexus houses the AWX store, a restaurant that makes the best milkshakes in Joburg and a host of experience rooms. Each room offers fun new tech and incredible games, and will be kitted out for every level of gamer for this event. From Xbox consoles to learn the ropes on in smaller rooms, to an entire Esports area where you can scrim with some of the best female (and a few male) gamers in the country – we’ll have it all. This is your chance to just kick back, hang out with friends and game. Acer will be providing the best devices to game on, and other brands such as Red Bull, Razer, Dentyne, Urban Decay, GHD, Converse and more will be joining in on the fun too!”
For more information on the event (and upcoming Tech Girl events) check out http://techgirl.co.za/
