Women who are gainfully employed in the games industry are becoming more and more common. The assumption that video games are a man's domain is finally becoming outdated. Women are playing and working with video games in astounding numbers. According to the ESA in 2006, 38% of game players are women. While the percentage of women working in the industry is still small, these women are paving the way for equality in this environment as well. More and more young women are going to technical schools and getting hired by game developers who see the value of a female perspective when creating video games.

So, how did these women get started and why do they do it? Those are the questions I want answers to, so I ask. This will be a continuing series of profiles of the women who have broken stereotypes and taken jobs in the video game industry.

Anna Murchison works for Flying Lab Software as a Mission Designer/Web Specialist on the Pirates of the Burning Sea game. Here's what she had to say:

Name: Anna Murchison
Title: Mission Designer/Web Specialist
Company: Flying Lab Software

What's your earliest memory of video games? Did you grow up on games or did you find them later in your life?

I don't remember the first game I ever played, but the game that got me interested in video games was King's Quest I.

What kind of education do you have and has it prepared you well for this industry?

I went to a very good, very experimental college, so I had the opportunity to explore many different facets of what "makes" a game. Most of my background is in programming, which I think is indispensable for what I do. But I don't think any classes I could have taken would have *fully* prepared me for the industry.

What type of work did you do before you got into the industry and what jobs in the industry have you held?

This is my first job in games. My previous jobs were all programming-related, most of them writing the backbones for websites and other web applications.

Was your entry into working with video games planned or chance? What initiated your interest in working in this industry? How did you get started in the industry?

Well, I went to college with the starry-eyed dream of working in the game industry, so I suppose I could say it was planned. I had worked at a number of jobs before I found my current job, and I couldn't have asked for a better place to work.

How long have you been working in the industry?

About a year -- I'm a newbie.

What does your job entail? What is an average day like?
I'm first and foremost a mission designer -- I lay out what the structure of a mission (quest, job, what have you) in the game looks like, and implement it with our in-house tools. I also do odd jobs for the backend of the website and write internal tools. My day mostly consists of a giant to-do list of things I need to fix or work on, and me trying desperately to remember to do it all.

Tell us about the most interesting or exciting moment for you in your job.

I love the feeling of finishing a creation task -- a storyline, a single mission, or just an NPC that I particularly like. Especially when I feel like all that time I put into it really shows in the final product.

What is your least favorite thing about working in the industry?

Since the gaming industry is so very young, there aren't a lot of standard procedures for things in any company. Documentation for internal tools was probably the biggest bubble that burst upon getting this job -- sometimes it happens, but it's not something you can count on. From what I've seen, the web industry is the same way. I can only assume it's because the game industry is very young, and has yet to set down a rigid formula for how things should work.

What is the one misconception you feel people have about working in the industry in your type of position?

When people hear the word "designer" in my title, the first thing they ask is "so you design the whole game?" While I'd sure love to put that on my resume, that's not the case. The content of the game brings the game's features to life, but designing those features is spread out among different departments.