@Trust me, I'm a doctor:

"Who invented wars? Men!
Who invented the plague? Men!
Who make the best murderers? Men!

We've got it all!!!"

Ah, Judge Grady. My hero.

DigitalHero

How is it legal to exclude people from a scholarship based on gender or race? I first noticed this in the financial aid office at Purdue. There were several phone book sized books filled with scholarship opportunities. 90% of these required the applicant to be a woman, a minority, or both. So, because I am vaginally impaired, I get a $78,000 in student loans and the little miss keeper of the cooch gets free money.

Men really get a raw deal sometimes. Too bad we own everything.

Trust me, I'm a doctor

@Arsenicberyllium:

Uh I think that the myspace profile you posted is actually a girl from Brazil not the Julia from the SOE thing.

Emperor_Guam

Good for her! But isn't that like a month's rent in SF?

Emperor_Guam

Wow, they didn't have any good internships at my Art Insitute... :(

DigitalHero

@Reetesh: Yes, their dreams were crushed underfoot by the cold, compassionless machinery of fate.

Wouldn't be a real contest if not =D

greyhoundbus

When do we get to try the game out? =D

greyhoundbus

@OkayOctane: The percentage of women in the industry has been slowly rising, but it's still far below the "normal" levels.

DigiMish

hm, they let girls into college now?

robotleawesome

STage 1: The Scholarship
Stage2: THE WEDDING
Stage 3: "THE CARRIGE"
STage 6: THe fossil
Stage 12: The time vaccume
Stage 11: The PRotien & The ProCESS
Final STag:e THe Punishment

SmokeFemur

Thats great to hear!

But what about others' dreams of getting selected? didn't those NOT come true :?

Reetesh

@FullyShadow: Not likely. As long as women feel unjustifiably repressed in the industry there will always be conventions, and things like this geared towards females only.

PumpkinPieman

@Jazhuis: After you said that, I just had to try it to see who she was.

She's got a myspace.
[profile.myspace.com]

Arsenicberyllium

@FullyShadow: I honestly thought you were immediately imploring us to Google her to find more pictures or something. There must be something wrong with me.

Jazhuis

Once again, I'll say, where's our G.U.Y. Scholarship?

I deserve ten thousand dollars for being a Gamer with Unrealistic yearnings.

Arsenicberyllium

Is there a link to her work? I've often spent hours perusing Deviant Art looking at some amazing works- I'd like to check hers out.

Krondonian

Congratulations Julia! Can't wait to see your game!

BlueWizard422

OMFG its a girl

Argyle

Kudos, Julia. Good on you.

wild homes gets retconned!

Congrats to her indeed. I really like how the games industry is opening its doors to new ideas and people. It's nice to see, and means us as gamers are in for a treat or two.

OkayOctane

Good for her. Hope to see more stuff like this in the future.

Sammo21

Good for her. I think we need to see more of stuff like this.

Sammo21

damn it edit button

good**

FullyShadow

goog for her! =)

now how bout for us boys?!!?

FullyShadow

Instead of feeling happy for someone getting some help via a scholarship, I'm annoyed by pissants trying to create an artificial issue of reverse sexism. It's like it's my first day on the internet or something.

Señor Vorpal Kickass'o

@Trust me, I'm a doctor: In the case of scholarships paid by individuals or interest groups, they set the rules (of course, the uni could reject it entirely). I mean, it's free money - they get to decide who gets it. The uni gets free money for some of their students, the donor gets to have their money go to someone who meets conditions they feel merit the scholarship.

I was the recipient of a minority scholarship (queer students with financial conditions), for which I had to write an essay on how I contributed to our group's wellbeing at the uni), and I've contributed to funds for similar scholarships because I like to know that my money is going towards someone undergoing the same situations I did and are helping improve them. I imagine the same sentiment applies.

If I remember correctly, there are also quite a few scholarships like this for those that contribute to the group in question - you don't actually have to be in the 'affected' group/minority/whatever.

Idontloveyou

@FullyShadow: B.O.Y. I can't think of any acronyms about games from those.

:| I had a great idea for a game and teh concept art to back it..

Megan Fox iz Hot ^-^ -ph15h

@Tzepish: Have we ruled out the possibility of desire for this field?

I'm in IT security at my workplace and there is only a handful of women in this department, where as the marketing department the men are outnumbered to the same ratio. This makes me believe that it's really the type of work that's the reason for the small number of females in the industry.

On a separate note. Could it be classified as a sexual matter if in fact the employer hires a male employee over a female one solely based on their portfolio?

PumpkinPieman

When I read the title, I just though Kotaku were being really immature and spelling out GIRL because they couldn't stand saying it. Like some playground thing...

Tycoonalex1337

@FullyShadow: "now how bout for us boys?!!?"

We don't need it; males are already far over-represented in game design.

Tzepish

@Idontloveyou: Well, it's nice that they would offer you a scholarship solely based on your sexual preference. Unfortunately at my school they don't offer scholarships for people like me. Cripples.

PumpkinPieman

Good to see some more female videogame artists. Might lead to some less stereotypical game design, especially regarding female characters in videogames.

DugDawg

1/~100 odds for $10k is pretty good.

everybest

Awesome!

Congratulations Julia!

.em.

That's effn' A. I wish I was aware of this. =(

I so need to stay on top of the times when it comes to gaming and scholarships.

Lainface

@Tzepish: It's not about if a certain characteristic of a person is the majority in a field or not; it's about a person with a passion trying to get into the field they love and want to contribute in. If two people try for something, but the determining factor is gender, then that's a problem.

Daemonstar

She's cute. Clearly an S.O.E plant... c_c;;

cable83

Ten bucks says this girl ends up developing a next gen version of Barbie Horse Adventures.

>_>

theherlihyboy

@FullyShadow: None for boys because they couldn't come up with a good gaming acroynm.

everybest

In other news, the first B.O.Y. scholarship drew 10,000,000 submissions. However, no winner was chosen because it was found that every idea was a clone of a previously existing FPS.

Adam

That's great and all, but I'm disappointed that the winner's submission hasn't been posted.

I'd really like to see what she came up with.

TaggarT6

=D I'm going to the same institute as her!!! =D

Woohoo for game art!

Scaraba

I met Julia at the GDC, and she's a very cool person, and totally deserves this. I'm sure we'll see good games form her soon enough.

Anguirel

@PumpkinPieman: @Daemonstar:

These are the same arguments for and against affirmative action that have been repeated for decades now...

"Have we ruled out the possibility of desire for this field?"

Nope, but it's very possible that there's less desire for this field amongst women because of societal pressures, not biology, as has been found in mathematics and sciences. I don't think anyone has done formal studies on this topic for game design, though.

"If two people try for something, but the determining factor is gender, then that's a problem."

Exactly, and that's why programs like this exist, to correct for gender-selection. Whether they are effective or not, and/or whether or not their premise(s) are incorrect, I suppose is a completely different matter.

@everybest: This is my favorite explanation.

Tzepish

"Due to the popularity of the initiative, SOE will make official G.I.R.L - Gamers In Real Life - T-shirts available for purchase sometime this summer. For more information about G.I.R.L., go to girl.soe.com."

Is that really necessary?, couldn't you just give up the 10 grand solely on her talent?, perhaps jump start a career of a young women?. I mean, I know they are in the fucking gutters when it comes to profit margin, but must they exploit every single thing?

Well, the return will be significantly higher then 10 grand. Guess the usual superficial, inspiration spin-off worked well. Kudos to SOE's PR team.

Someone has to be a cynic ^^

PsycheE

Here I am paying my way through software design school by working a full time job and trying to make straight A's so I can get an internship somewhere next year (I'm looking at you Insomniac who are opening a studio an hour from where i go to school) and she gets a paid scholarship for having boobs. Awesome.

Hard work be damned for women!

svenhoek

@DugDawg: It has happened many a time that female artists have designed scantily dressed female characters.

fire ze missiles

Awesome news, gratz Julia!

Wish I had opportunities like this when I was youngin'...

*sigh*

chirpingbee

@svenhoek: It's useless if you're paying your way through software design school by working in a full time job and trying to get straight As when you're not smart enough to read the topic before making thoughtless comments.
But here straight As guy, I'm making it simpler to you:

"Brasil was one of nearly 100 applicants vying for the winning title of the 2008 SOE G.I.R.L. Game Design Competition. In order to become the winner, Brasil had to submit an in-game design, original concept art and two essays."

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

congrats, Julia. don't listen to the hatahs out there. they're just jealous.

i, too, would like to know what kind of game she came up with. thanks for the deets, SOE! lesson: marketing sucks no matter what gender is putting it out.

geekgrrl

Good for her! And she's also cute, from that pic.
I'm also curious about her surname... is she daughter of brazilians or something?

Julia is a common name in Brazil. Which, for those who don't know, is "Brasil" in portuguese.

Anyways, expecting to see what she'll be doing next.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

@Emperor_Guam: Yeah, I was pretty sure it wasn't her. I was just being kind of silly.

Arsenicberyllium

I don't care if they thought G.I.R.L. was clever. I'll always associate that with "Guy In Real Life." >_>

Saprol

dude so not fair, here i'm stuck paying thousand dollars just to get into my comp sci major before i can even branch out into gaming. Some girls have all the luck, she gets to straight into it, i have to suffer two years of weird computer speak i have no desire for...

ohayou_kun

@ohayou_kun: RTFA. She didn't "get straight into it" by any means.

Also, if you have no desire for learning weird computer speak, then you probably have no desire for this field as well.

Tzepish

@Bokusatsu_Tenshi: Dude stfu. Its people like you that make the internet no fun. Learn to take a fucking joke and pull the stick out of your ass. Of course I realize this girl busted her shit to get this award. Its called sarcasm. And having a sense of humor. I figured since you read Kotaku you might understand that. Apparently not.

svenhoek