I saw. I played. I lost. Duh! And as if that wasn’t bad enough, I got into a Male Chauvinism Vs Feminism argument with a colleague and good friend (name withheld). He thought my defeat was to do with my gender – yes I am a woman, but excuse me, I play and win games too!

It is not uncommon to hear reputable news portals / sources claim that video games are designed and conceived for men and that most women lack the zest to play.

According to the male chauvinists, games like God of War, MGS4 and GTAIV are designed for men and so are the other sports games, driving simulators, etc. The ones not made for men are made for children. All the while, women are left out in the cold.

But is that remotely true? I definitely do not agree, and lets face it – isn’t it demeaning to suggest such a thing about women? Just because most game advertisements and promotions show men playing video games and a majority of people who play games are men doesn’t mean women don’t play. Such men would be taken aback to know that women really do play games and have a very real interest in the industry.

It is sad that we have reached a point where we denigrate the fact that women play video games. Most men believe that the gaming industry is dominated by male gamers. Evidently it stems from a total disregard for facts, but maybe (just maybe) some people are opening their eyes for once. According to the International Game Developers Association, women represent 40 percent of all gamers. And although the Entertainment Software Association pegs that number at about 38 percent, it found that the average female gamer plays games 7.4 hours per week.

Considering the above statistics, would you still believe that women represent just 12 percent of the video game industry? According to CNN, “More than 60 percent of female students enrolled in game design programs at The Art Institutes said they believed male dominance in the industry is a deterrent to women pursuing a career in gaming, according to a survey commissioned by SOE.”

Instead of welcoming the fact that more women are getting into the gaming industry, the same old stereotype rules. It is time we realize that women really do enjoy video games. It is not appropriate to conclude that men rule the gaming industry just because most developers and game critics are men and women aren’t members of the gaming community. In reality, it’s quite the opposite.

It is a common myth that women only play games like Wii Fit, but the reality of the situation is something else. As Torrie Dorrell, senior vice president of global sales and marketing for Sony Online Entertainment, explained to CNN: “Women are out there in significant numbers playing MMOs, action games, first-person shooters. What is lacking in the equation are women behind these games.”

So what do we conclude now? Let us not sit back and accept the fact that stereotypes exist in the video game industry and that women are being forgotten. Instead, we need to accept the fact that women are very much a part of the video game industry. Going forward, I hope to see more and more women play significant roles in the gaming industry.

So next time you hear someone say that women don’t play video games or come across some uninformed loon who tries to tell you that the video game industry is for men, make them realize that women play video games too. And just in case they don’t believe you, have them log on to Halo 3–I’m sure a woman would be more than happy to frag them into oblivion.

Last week as a group we went out and purchased a new PS3 video game – Soul Calibur IV. Assuming it to be just another Japanese fighting, harakiresque war game, I was probably the least interested person in the room while buying it.
I play sport games. Give me Chelsea in Fifa or the Steelers in Madden, Penguins in NHL, The Nets in NBA or the Yankees in MLB and I’m happy
Fighting games are filled with button mashing right? Graphics don’t matter in video games right, its only gameplay and story?
WRONG!!!!

It all matters, its the package, the fun, the experience that we imagine Cart Kings will be.
Soul Calibur was surprisingly the best choice for a game to buy for the team.
It took a week for the fancy lightening tipped swords, crazy quick spears and laser tipped nun chuks to transform a game we imagined would be a casual 10 minute break to a religion with fanatic like following.

Copywriter vs Producer
Marketing vs Development
Artist vs Tester (The most one sided affair ever)
HR vs Operations (The most pathetic display of gaming imaginable)
eventually turned into
Seigfried (me) vs Tira
Kilik vs Raphael
Ivy vs Nightmare
Cassandra vs Maxi

With every player finding his different perfect character, sporting it on his profile and strategizing how it would make him the local champion.
We aren’t playing for money, trophy’s or bling – we’re playing for Bragging rights – water cooler bragging rights – to be the person people strategize against over lunch. Yesterday that champion was me. Today the title was passed along to someone else. Care to challenge us. WE’RE ALWAYS GAME!!!!!

Vijay, Raj and Nathan – we three were chosen to attend GDC 2010. This post will run you through our experience.
The overall trip was a great success in terms of the activities that we did. Our aim was to attend the key sessions and we luckily did manage to attend. The next intent was to meet our clients, and yes, we did meet some of the key guys, mostly technology providers. We came across several game engines this year and some of them were stunning. We checked out Unity’s latest version of engine for the Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii and PSP. Infernal engine is as good and offers a lot of cool features across all the platforms. We spent some time with the Sony research team and checked the Phyre engine, which is a complete free technology for the PS3. In fact we have taken a plunge into it and have our hands on it now. And yes, Cryengine 3 for the X360,PS3 was simply the best and awed everyone.

The hotel we stayed at was nice and comfortable. The best part about the stay was the proximity it shared with the Moscone center where the GDC happened. We could just walk to that place when ever we wanted.

We learned that Phyre is still sort of half cooked and is shaping up. But it looked great and is appropriate for a lot of studios stepping into PS3 development including us. We now have Phyre at our studio and are gearing up to develop a game called ‘Eklavya’ on it. How cool is that?.
We checked the ‘PS3 Move’ and it sounds promising. To put it crudely, it has all the features of the HD Wii plus more. It offers unprecedented control and immersion that the Wii could not offer. In other words,this is the Wii for the hardcore gamers. PS3 Move also offers a lot to the casual gamers. In fact most of Sony’s demo was family gaming centric and we think they should catch up on that front. We are also planning to take a plunge into the PS3 Move development and should announce a title soon.

The Expo floor was abuzz with a plethora of players. Goodies were distributed and we managed to get T-shirts from various studios The only think that lacked was posters. The major attraction this time was the enormous technology showcase from different studios. We noticed a lot of Germany based companies demonstrating their engines and tools. The other key attraction this year was the 3D stereoscopic gaming, which quite a few companies showcased including Crytek. They had demonstrated an underwater sequence of Crysis in 3D and it was mind blowing. This indeed will push the envelope on how games are made and will form the core of the next-generation gaming experience. The expo floor had a section called the carrier pavilion where most of the top studios were hiring talent with and without work experience.

Lets talk something about the city of SFO. The city is very beautiful. The climate was mostly pleasant except the chilly breeze all the time It took us a while to adapt to that and we were fine. Raj did manage to stay without a jacket for an entire day. The city was walk friendly and we walked most times while exploring the city.

We went for a nice scenic coastal ride along the coast of San Francisco, visited the Golden gate, China Town, Fisher Man’s Wharf  and few other places. Thanks to Prakash for spending his time and taking us on a beautiful drive.

To buy stuff, we went all the way to Freemont and did all the shopping at Walmart and Bestbuy. We managed to buy a PS3 which surprisingly was not available with Gamestop anywhere, and picked up an Ipod touch.

Thanks to Starbucks for all the wonderful cafe latte, cheese danish, hot panini etc and yes the free internet. Thanks to Lufthansa for flying us back and forth safely. We were accompanied by our VP of Business Development, Mr Dan Kitchen and he was a wonderful companion and guide. He was very patient and took us to the nicest restaurants in the city.
Thanks to the admin team for making the communication arrangements and a big thanks to finance team for financing the trip. Thanks to the HR team for all support they gave. And a big thanks to each one you for making this possible. We must also thank Mr Uthsav for giving us an idea about the city of SFO before we left India. It helped us all through.

Overall, it’s certainly a dream come true for all of us and we must thank the company for giving us this opportunity. The level of exposure, confidence, maturity it has given us is tremendous and something we would preserve for the rest of our career. We got to learn not only technical knowledge, but also the techniques and the approach that is to be taken during the production. The clarity, plan and the amount of research that needs to go before starting to work on an actual feature was also made clear. This is what we believe, differentiates us from the top tier game studios in the west and this is a quality which we all need to badly adapt. While leaving GDC, we firmly decided to implement certain techniques and approaches we learned there in our production, especially with the larger titles that we currently do. We are hopefully implementing a lot of those now and will be evident with our oncoming titles which will enforce quality in every content we develop.

One thing which is quite evident now is that we have, way to go with the Indian gaming industry which is still at its childhood. This is just the right time to shell out quality content to the market and capture million of gamer just right here. It is well proven and established in the west and now its our turn to make the same here. So get it going people!

Vijay, Raj and Nathan

You don’t notice this much in the US but I was really bugged one day last week when 3 of the artists were working on the same image (1 rigging, 1normal mapping, 1 tweaking) and the image looked totally different one each monitor.  I could not figure it out until I realized that the different graphic cards/monitors/quality led to each image having a different hue.  We really take standardization for granted until it disappears from our ability and we have to try and pull something off with stuff paid for out of advances.  Anyway; enough about work all anyone wants actually are the travelogues so here goes.

The company I am with here offers the employees free lunch (on the roof) each day of varied (fried) cuisine (Indian vegetarian fare) that is healthy (spicy) and nutritious (fried).  Now after 5 weeks of this my body was saying ‘How about some Chipotle?’ which, of course, was impossible.  However next door is Senior PePe’s Tex-Mex cuisine:

So naturally one afternoon finding myself intrigued I decided to give it a shot. I walked in and immediately was intrigued by a menu that had nachos, enchiladas (now this is in a city where when I tried to get a package of tortillas it was $8) fajitas and burritos.  Hmmmm: my salivary glands started to burst in anticipation so I ordered the chicken nachos as an appetizer and the sizzling seafood fajitas for the main course.

So far I have not located a single Avocado or head of lettuce in the entire region so this should have been a clue.  The nachos arrived and the chicken was tandoori.  Tandoori nachos…It’s just wrong on so many levels.  There were (kinda) refried beans but they had cumin and something else that made me want chutney for my nachos. Ok; so the appetizer didn’t cut it but how do you screw up fajitas?

Well the answer starts with using cabbage.  Remember: no lettuce = cabbage is the du jour fajita accessory.  No avocados = no guacamole but it was making the appropriate sizzling noises so I gave it a try… And immediately burned off at least 4 levels of tongue and mouth tissue from the insane amount of scotch bonnet and jalapeño juices that had been used to marinate the fish.  Once I got past that bit it was then that I noticed that the fish had tikka (as in tikka masala) paste on it. So ended my foray into Mexican food in Hyderabad: first stop after the salad bar when I get back to Redmond will be the Chipotle naked burritos.

Recently we won the Red-Herring “Global 100″ award (after we won Asia 100).

Prakash, our CEO was interviewed, here is the video

My sojourn at Gameshastra has been quite a roller coaster ride. Trust me when I say that. When I joined Gameshastra, I joined as the executive assistant to the CEO. Soon, I was given the responsibility of managing marketing. In about first six month’s time, I would have met about 3-4 investors and made presentation on various business plans my boss came up with. As it happens in all businesses, some deals worked out some dint. A few dint work out when almost 80 % work on the plan was over. It hurts when you see your several sleepless nights working on the plan, getting wasted. Wasted…? Well not entirely, for the lessons learnt are invaluable.

My first marketing assignment was to brand the gaming lounge at our office and to market it to make people come and play at the lounge. One of the major challenges to work in a start up is to work on a very tight budget with minimal resources to get your work done. This is where the challenge lies. It feels like solving one of your problems of optimization where you have to optimize all your resources your strategist mind, your execution capabilities, your operational skills. Interesting isn’t it?

One fine day our finance controller decided to leave. Soon, I was handling finance along with marketing and strategy.

Quite recently, we have launched Gameshastra University. They say when you are pushed you realize your potential. I realized my potential when I also started working on the website and marketing collaterals without the help of any ad agency. The budgets were tight, time was short and I had no other option but to do it myself. Right from the conceptualization, copy, creative work to organizing promotional events: It surely was an exciting ride.

To talk of the team, it’s a bunch of young professionals very well known in their fields. One common theme binds them: passion for games. And yes one of the perks of the job: the fantastic gaming lounge with access to the latest consoles and latest games.

Today, I am a multitasker extraordinaire. I am very confident that I can own and operate my own company without any problem with the breadth and depth of learnings acquired at Gameshastra. You can consider yourself an outstanding problem solver if you could figure out how many departments I handle.

To sum up my experience at Gameshastra I would say, here unlike other companies, you are pushed into the sea to make you learn swimming. You would be given all assistance so that you don’t drown. You would be pushed through the tides high and low; nevertheless this swim would be worth a lifetime!

I was thinking about the enormous change my life has gone through over the last 18 months…and it made my head spin ! After being “relatively” single for nearly 33 years, I got married in October 2006. The East coast was never in my radar for a place to live but I moved from Dallas to New Jersey in March 2007 and changed jobs. I had been settling comfortably at HCL, India’s 4th largest outsourcing powerhouse, enjoying the benefits and the “power” of being a senior manager at a $4bn company. However, the risk taker in me made me dive into a startup – Gameshastra. My wife and me had a baby boy, Arjun, in August 2007 . Before anyone could say “baby boy”, we packed our stuff and moved to the beautiful city of Marina Del Rey. The highlight of course, in all this madness, was meeting my wife and having Arjun. Having a child is absolutely the most amazing life changing experience for any human being. Mita (my wife) and Arjun are the only things which kept me sane in the midst of all this change. Working for Gameshastra is the next best thing !! The opportunities and challenges in a startup are scary and exhilarating – Like the proverbial Roller coaster ride ! Every hour here is unique and since this is “my” company the buck starts and stops at me.

Long back, Bjorn, out CTO and VP-Development, ‘ordering’ ice cold beer…

Role reversal??? I said, “Get me butter chicken, chicken tikka, aloo gobi and 2 Rotis in precisely 31 seconds, or consider yourself fired”!

SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a cool way of protecting a domain against fraud. We publish SPF records to say where our mails rightfully originate from. This adds another way for people to whitelist a particular domain.

Also, beyond the great help that the fallback MXs can give a domain, there are a few holes that make them vulnerable to spam which pretends to be destined for the primary MX but contacts secondary MX relay. The unsuspecting secondary MX will accept this and forward to the primary. This is how impersonating spam mails happen.

SPF check on self and other domains resolves this smoothly.

When someone tries to use the above technique from a non-SPF relay for the domain, (s)he will be politely told before the conclusion of the SMTP session that the dialog can not progress as SPF says it is not proper.

Good riddance thanks to postfix and its policy daemon.

Its been 3 hrs since she arrived into my life… she already stole my heart! Isn’t she beautiful… she is 63 days old, weighs abt 13kgs and as you can see a pure bred Great Dane. Her name is Juno, after the film “Juno” by Diablo Cody and the other Juno, daughter of Saturn – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_(mythology)