Last week GamesGirlz was very kind to interview me about my site, LadyGamers.com.
RESTORED INTERVIEW
CaliGirl Talks LadyGamers.com
Created by Jody (a.k.a. CaliGirl), LadyGamers is a gamer run site dedicated to action and strategy games. The site features an excellent selection of news updates, interviews, and articles on a regular basis. One of the best parts of the site however is LadyGamers’ extensive devotion to the women who play games as the site highlights the female gaming community with sections devoted to female events, girl gamer interviews, female gamer website listings, and more.
“I just love the gaming community a lot. If I could bring that old school passion back by remembering where we all once were as gamers I feel I have accomplished something. ” ~ CaliGirl
>>> The Basics
The Site: LadyGamers
Name: Jody
Online Nickname: CaliGirl
Location: Currently in Texas, but California at heart!
>>> About Jody (aka CaliGirl)
GameGirlz: For those who haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Jody: My name is Jody, I was born and raised in San Diego, California. At the moment I reside in Texas but I don’t plan on staying out here for long. I am in my 20s but that’s all you’re gonna get from me! *snicker* My nickname is CaliGirl, taken from my original nick name, California Girl. I am still in one of the old Quake clans around to this day, XtremePrejudice. Although we don’t play Quake really anymore. That game only comes out of the closet at LAN parties.
GameGirlz: What type of games do you play on a regular basis?
Jody: My roots as a gamer is real time strategy games, but I tend to fall for futurist style First Person Shooters. The only tactical realistic game I have enjoyed is RtCW: Enemy Territory. The games I have been playing regularly are City of Heroes and Star Wars Galaxies. I also play Unreal Tournament 2004 but not as frequent as CoH and SWG.
GameGirlz: What is the one game that you think is ‘the best game ever made” (and why)?
Jody: Dang Aurora, you sure know how to hit a girl for old times sake! Well, I want to say Quake 1. There was something so new about that game among other games in that time. My first love for multiplayer games was Command & Conquer but when I first entered a Quake multiplayer game, I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. It was scary hearing people scream. My automatic reflex was that I needed to get out of the game. But I stayed in the game wondering where those people were. It was my first real encounter to First Person Shooters so it stood out with such mystery behind it all. Every map id Software created made me come back for more. No matter how many times I played on the same map, I still had a fun time every time I logged on to a server. It was like Quake had its own adrenaline that kept feeding on your imagination. At first it was weird running around as a man with an axe or gun. But after a while I didn’t care what my appearance was in the game. Running around and axing other people to get kills off them was so much fun! Not to mention how awesome the Rocket Launcher felt when you owned a server. In my opinion, Quake 1 is still one of the best games of all time.
>>> About LadyGamers
GameGirlz: LadyGamers is the best resource online for tracking down women gamers. In fact, I have used it myself to locate a couple of old Quake friends. Why invest so much time in this section of your site?
Jody: Some of my old friends, and even people I never met but knew of me, kept emailing me about where some of their old Quake friends were. They automatically felt I would know for some reason. I did happen to know many of the gamers they asked about but started to notice some old quake girls that I hadn’t even talked to in ages. That curiosity caused me to investigate to see if I could find some of them. I noticed that there were tons of links I found in my google.com searches for action related female gamers during this process so I created a section called Game Girls Alive at CaliGirl.net. This was the beginning of what you now see in LadyHunt. Once that section started, I decided to really hunt for some of these old Quake girls to find where they were that day, and where they have been since I last talked to them. I found out many of them left FPS games to play MMORPGs. This is one big reason why LadyGamers.com is not focused on games in general. I wanted to bring back the love for Action and Strategy games again. It was sad to find many of these girls were so deep into MMORPGs where they didn’t even talk to many of their old gamer friends anymore. They had no reason to use IRC, ICQ, or any other chat programs because EQ or other MMORPG’s was their chat world. I researched for months, asked literally hundreds of gamers, then created this article called Search for Quake Women Legacy. It seemed like it took forever but I was able to find many of my old Quake buds and even met some very cool other game girls I heard about but never really got to know.
As for why I invest so much time, I am naturally one of those type of people who love to help others. If I could help a connection to someone’s past by rekindling old friendships I feel like I am type of hero. I just love the gaming community a lot. If I could bring that old school passion back by remembering where we all once were as gamers I feel I have accomplished something. One reason why I love archiving (on my HDD) a lot of interviews and articles found in Ladyhunt, is so we never lose the history of gaming. Many sites go offline and you never can see that content again. When these sites die I feel we lose a part of what we once knew. I don’t want the legacy of Quake to ever die. It’s what brought me to know so many wonderful people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. With that said, I care so much about all of you (you know who you are!), especially my XP Bros & Sisters! *wave*
GameGirlz: What are some of the goals and accomplishments you’ve met with the LadyGamers website?
Jody: We had a figurine contest that I felt was one of the most interesting ones I have done. I brainstormed a lot of neat contest at Quake3world.com, but this was more focused on a type of digital paper doll so it received a lot of interest. It was almost overwhelming during the voting process with all of the feedback I received. We had some very interesting submissions too! I was really happy with the outcome.
GameGirlz: Is the site your own creation or do you have writers who contribute as well?
Jody: Most of the site content such as LadyHunt is all done with my blood and sweat… months of research, and then there’s that whole thing of checking every link every few months. Its like when a baby is born, you need to feed it, wipe its butt and make sure it gets taken care of. I wouldn’t know how it is having a real baby but I have seen it done! 😉 The site design was created by my brother who now works for Sony Online. I requested for him to give me a sporty look and he created almost a car racing design. As for some of the features like Focus of the Month and Interviews, I have a handful of awesome helpers but who helps out the most is my bud, Climax. I don’t know what I would do without Max! -beta and Bitter Ivy are also great gals who help from time to time. I really enjoy having them contribute when they can.
GameGirlz: What is the most difficult aspect of running a game site, and specifically running a game site that goes the extra mile to include women gamers in its audience?
Jody: The issue I have had more recent is real life and playing City of Heroes when I do have some extra free time. I do feel that when I play the games they get in the way with my updating both of my sites but hey, a girl needs to game too you know? I don’t think its hard to run a female gaming site in general. It seems the same as running any other sites I have worked on since we don’t really exclude the good ol’ boys. In fact, I believe that there is a possibility most of our readers could be male. The site’s main focus is to keep that love for action and strategy games. So if I feature guys in the Focus of the Month you’ll know why they aren’t all about females in focus. Its about the love of games! 😀
GameGirlz: Who is one person you have interviewed on the website that really said something that opened your eyes to gaming (and women gamers) in a new light?
Jody: I believe the best interviews that really opened my eyes is Ms Quakecon pre-coverage. I was able to connect with each female gamer by something they replied to in their interview. It was amazing how each of them had something I could relate to. That doesn’t come around that very often with other female gamers. In the past I always had connections with other guy gamers so it was a real eye opener. It showed me how much these girls were really serious about the games. It wasn’t about being in the spotlight, it was about their passion for Quake 3.
GameGirlz: What are your future plans for LadyGamers?
Jody: Well the most exciting future plan I can talk about is LG’s 3d model! She is in creation for looks of a 3d version of the character you see on our main LadyGamers.com logo. Only I think she’s much more real looking than the tooney/anime action girl we have. One of my friends graduated from the Houston Art Institute over a year ago and has been working on her on his time off. He works for TimeGate Studios so he’s finishing up development on one of their games. He has put our Action Gal on hold for now. She’s come a long way though. I am such a fan of Inphoe’s work!
>>> Just For Laughs
GameGirlz: Lastly, what is one game you play that you wouldn’t want your ‘Quake friends’ to know about? 😉
Jody: HAHAH!!! Good one. You’re killing me tonight Aurora. To be quite honest its Zuma! But I will not be ashamed… its too much fun. I was also a big Bubble Bobble fan, and if I could get that on my computer with some better keyboard controls I’d be all over that. teehee 😀