PotBS’ Anna Murchison on being a female gamer

Killer Betties was able to score an interview with Anna Murchison, Mission Designer for Pirates of the Burning Sea, and since the chitchat was really more of a dev profile, most of the bases covered weren’t about the game, but about Murchison herself.

And because the interview was done as a part of the site’s Killer Women portion where they feature kickass women in the gaming industry (and basically because the interview was by Killer Betties), the subject of being a female in a male-dominant industry was also discussed. But before we get into that, just a primer on Anna Murchison: she’s the Mission Designer/Web Specialist at Flying Lab Software, the company who will bring us Pirates of the Burning Sea.

In the interview, Murchison admits to being a newbie in the industry, as she started working for Flying Labs just a year ago (almost) and that King’s Quest I was the game that got her interested in the whole video game industry. Also, she doesn’t claim to be a “hardcore gamer” because she prefers to be referred to as an “avid gamer,” with an attention span for playing games ranging from a mere 8-12 hours a week (a week!), which is more than we can say for our WoW addicts. Hahaha.

As for that pressing question of what it’s like to work in a male-dominated industry AND environment, she says that she’s lucky because so far there haven’t been any instances where she felt she was at a disadvantage because of her gender. However, she does share that just because she’s a woman, some people automatically assume that she’s not as “hardcore” (read: up to par) as other gamers (read: male gamers).

The interview tackles all this and more, including the part where she hails Oblivion (PSP, Xbox360, PS3) as her favorite game and FPS’s as her least favorite game genre.

I tried Googling Anna Murchison to see what she looks like but this is what the search turned up (see image on the right).

Hmmm…I’m not sure, but I’m guessing that’s not her. Hahaha. Anyway, just click on the read link below to check out the interview.

Killer Betties was able to score an interview with Anna Murchison, Mission Designer for Pirates of the Burning Sea, and since the chitchat was really more of a dev profile, most of the bases covered weren’t about the game, but about Murchison herself.

And because the interview was done as a part of the site’s Killer Women portion where they feature kickass women in the gaming industry (and basically because the interview was by Killer Betties), the subject of being a female in a male-dominant industry was also discussed. But before we get into that, just a primer on Anna Murchison: she’s the Mission Designer/Web Specialist at Flying Lab Software, the company who will bring us Pirates of the Burning Sea.

In the interview, Murchison admits to being a newbie in the industry, as she started working for Flying Labs just a year ago (almost) and that King’s Quest I was the game that got her interested in the whole video game industry. Also, she doesn’t claim to be a “hardcore gamer” because she prefers to be referred to as an “avid gamer,” with an attention span for playing games ranging from a mere 8-12 hours a week (a week!), which is more than we can say for our WoW addicts. Hahaha.

As for that pressing question of what it’s like to work in a male-dominated industry AND environment, she says that she’s lucky because so far there haven’t been any instances where she felt she was at a disadvantage because of her gender. However, she does share that just because she’s a woman, some people automatically assume that she’s not as “hardcore” (read: up to par) as other gamers (read: male gamers).

The interview tackles all this and more, including the part where she hails Oblivion (PSP, Xbox360, PS3) as her favorite game and FPS’s as her least favorite game genre.

I tried Googling Anna Murchison to see what she looks like but this is what the search turned up (see image on the right).

Hmmm…I’m not sure, but I’m guessing that’s not her. Hahaha. Anyway, just click on the read link below to check out the interview.