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Thoughts from a (girl) Gamer
Tara Voelker's thoughts. A lot about video games, a little about life
About Tara
Interested in professional Tara? Check out taratefertiller.com
I’m Tara. 
I just think this picture me is cool. It was one of those helping a friend with her photography homework sortof things and it turned out awesome. And sorry about the glare on it, that’s my bad. Photo credit to Kate McComas.
I got my start in the video game industry by working as a QA tester for Volition. (No, I don’t count my nearly 3 years of working as a Game Advisor at EB Games/GameStop as working in the industry. Because it isn’t.) I was working at Volition for about 14 months before the recession hit and I was laid off with about 80 of my coworkers. But, it worked out though. I met a lot of awesome people (including my husband) and learned that I wanted to work with my passion- video games. And if I hadn’t gotten laid off I wouldn’t have been have learned about game accessibility.
Right after getting laid off I started my own blog, Thoughts from a (Girl) Gamer. Enjoying writing about videos games and very interested in game accessibility I picked up working for AbleGamers.com – News, Reviews, and Community for the Disabled Gamer as a Game Journalist where I reported on gaming news, interview members of the game industry, and review games generally and for accessibility. I also worked for the AbleGamer Foundation, the non-profit organization by attending and organizing events and fundraisers. I’ve always been passionate video games, so it was really easy for me to become passionate about making games for everyone. I really recommend you check out their site, and see what they are about.
Continuing my love for game accessibility, I became (and still am) the VP of Game Industry Relations for the Pursuit of Happiness Foundation, a non-profit organization that was just recently founded my friend Michelle Hinn. She’s a pretty kick ass lady. We work both for getting controllers to children in hospitals and towards teaching people about game accessibility. We plan to start speaking to students a lot, as they are young and impressionable. While working for them I’ve gotten to speak at GDC and attend some other awesome events.
Partially started through working for AbleGamers, and also partially by Michelle, I really began to push for game accessibility and became a member of the IDGA SIG for game accessibility. At GDC 2010 I even hosted a poster session called”Accessibility Arcade: Bringing AAA Game Titles to Disabled Gamers through controller Hacks” in addition to leading the Gaming Accessibility SIG round table with Thomas Westin. Later that year I was elected on to the GA SIG steering committee, and then elected chair. Since then I’ve been pushing our revamp of our online presence and I loved leading my 2 sessions at GDC 2011, the SIG roundtable as well as “Industry Game Accessibility Ratings System: Promoting Mainstream Games to the Gamer with Disabilities.”
After moving to Florida to live with my now Husband, I became the the QA Lead for a small studio called Firebrand games. It was a lot different than my previous work, but it was a great learning experience. I also worked on an island, so that’s pretty cool. The drive isn’t bad but the tolls were killer. However, Florida wasn’t for me and I missed being passionate about the projects I worked on.
So, I decided to apply at Irrational Games. And here I am, Irrational Senior QA.
I’ve also taken an interests in game design recently, and have started putting together my first design document… I will keep you posted on how that’s going.
I used attend a lot of fighting game tournaments, although it was rare that I actually compete. I get a sort of stage fright when I compete sometimes, so I tend to just show up and play casual matches. I’m not very good at fighting games anyway. I have competed in Tekken 6 and Street Fighter Third Strike, but I’ve played casuals for about all the Street Fighter Games and Tekken 5 at tourneys… I’ve even played against Daigo Umherara. My apartment used to be the HUB for the Champaign fighting game scene, and I totally didn’t even take advantage of it.
You can find me kicking ass on the 360 now-a-days, when I’m not busy wedding planning. I love Resident Evil(s), Silent Hill(s), Borderlands, Zelda(s).
And finally, I love tattoos. I’ve got 5, and 3 are video game related.
Favorite Video Games: (There are too many to list so I’m only naming a few)
Zelda(s)
Silent Hill(s) (I OWN THEM ALL!)
Left4Dead(s)
Bioshock
Resident Evil 4/5
Portal
Fav TV Shows:
Adult Swim
Daily Show
Colbert Report
A Haunting
Archer
Fav Movies:
Ponyo
Secret of Kells
28 Days Layer
Sunshine
The Original Indiana Jones Movies
Pan’s Labyrinth
Spirited Away
Fav Books:
The God Delusion
The Hot Zone
I am America (And so Can you!)
Pale Blue Dot
World War Z
Hey, Tara
I couldn’t find a direct easy to follow link for your email (read: I didn’t look past this page) so here I am! You got a nice site, I dig the motivation to do something. I put my email address that I check in the comment section. I’ll see you at school.
josh
Ya I just found this Raychul and she’s a tool, ugly and leaves little to the brain about how she reviews games. I can understand your frustration. But at least the site is great and showing what real girl gamers are!
Pingback: The Burn: Raychul Moore « Your Health is Low
You’re a hypocrite. If you have a problem with combining looks with gaming, perhaps you ought to remove all photos of yourself from the website.
Oh, and the “OMGZ girl gamerz?!” argument is sooooo 2008.
I think you may have missed my point. I have a problem with using your body for attention, especially if you don’t have anything worth paying attention to besides suggestive pictures (which I don’t have posted.) But, that’s a discussion for another day. I don’t feel getting into that again right now.
Gaming is one of the few industries that openly encourages female intelligence. When women start posting clad and tasteless photos of themselves to feel heard it sets back the hard work of those who work so hard to make it based on that, hard work. We’re not against photographs, we’re against degradation in the gaming industry (especially the female gaming industry). Please, by all means post a photo of yourself, but make it tasteful, make it classy. I can think of 10 different people I know close to me who actually have valuable input on the gaming industry who don’t need to show their body to be heard. This is the type of message we’re trying to deliver. And, from female to female, I really hope you can embrace this type of message and even more, share it.
We can talk about it more in depth later. Thank
I understand your point completely, but I think you’re failing to execute a point that was made over and over again in 2007-2008. It’s the slippery slope argument: You say you started this site due to Raychul Moore, and she chooses to post pictures of herself alongside her gaming hobby. But where do you draw the line? You’ve posted pictures of yourself… do you think for a moment that even so called “classy” photos don’t have some impact on your hits or the attitude of others towards you? What about the fact you’ve announced from even the URL that you are “girl gamers,” thereby implying you have all the girl parts AND play games? Is that not nearing the same thing?
If this was a point you truly wanted to make, you would’ve chosen writing handles that were non gender specific, never mentioned “girl gamers,” and never posted photos of yourselves. You would’ve left in the anomynity, and allowed your writing to be judged soley for writing’s sake, and not in any connection with your gender. If you truly felt strongly about your point of view, you would’ve removed all personal aspects and simply put your writing out there first and foremost, and allowing only that to be observed by the gaming community.
This is why I used the word hypocrite.
Frankly, it’s not a message I embrace at all. Having been an active member of the gaming community a few years ago, I learned from my mistakes. It isn’t about taking the power back, empowering other girls to be “loud and proud,” and it’s not even about trying to be treated as equals. Gaming is genderless, and should’ve remained that way. But I forever left the “scene” because the community grew so toxic to be apart of for the obvious reasons. No, I will have my gaming anonymous and genderless, and people are free to make their own assumptions. I would encourage anyone else, male or female, to do the same.
I didn’t like the point that Raychul used her body to call attention to her gaming hobby… not that the both existed. And then I was upset that once she had your attention she had nothing to say. I was upset the mindless, part time models, and not the real women gamers, were the ones who were in the media. I know that being a girl in the gaming industry can get you ahead if you work it right. I mean, you’re a girl in a sea of boys and that makes you stick out and easy to remember. It you want to use it, fine. I just wanted to prove the point the when you have a girl that games, the most likely outcome isn’t people like Raychul. And to prove that, I would have to show I was a girl. So anonymous isn’t for me.
And, I’ve only written one article that was gender specific, so I’m not sure why you brought that up. And I’m not sure why you think that I feel like girls should “take power back.” Because I haven’t said anything like that at all.
Either way, I do respect your opinion and I love hearing other people’s points of view, even if they think I’m wrong. Thanks for sharing.
I think Tara really covered most of what I wanted to say, but I do have a few more things to add.
This site takes a huge chunk of time to manage. We put a lot of ourselves in the things we do. While the site is mainly directed towards gaming, we do write on other subjects as well. With all of these factors, we want to share with others who we are. One of them is that I’m a female. Should it matter? No, but will it realistically affect someone’s opinion at one point in time or another? Probably. When I read an article (on any subject) I love to get to know the person behind it’s content. Not because it affects my opinion on the article’s content, but rather just understanding someone and their point of view more. I don’t feel it’s necessary to hide who I am in the dark. I’m not throwing it in anybody’s face either. My profile is there, and if someone chooses to read it, so be it.
In no way am I pursuing the “loud and proud” road. I’m pursuing a positive image of women in the gaming industry. They’re fairly different. Things will never be equal, and I understand this. I advocate a positive image of men in the industry as well. I speak more on the behalf of women because I feel there are many women who don’t understand the negative effects of exploiting their bodies for gaming media. Does this mean hide who you are? No, but you don’t need to skip around nude in a quest for ratings. They are different, and I think that is a fairly obvious line to draw.
Great point and thanks for your input.
You are lovely and I agree with what you said about the Ray..chu..l? girl… haha I vouch for your realness and your gaming ability! Also the fact that you have professional experience, not just some girl who likes to show hr boobs and mentin video games once in a while. Your technical ability is what will set you apart, and not taking yourself super seriously is perfect hhaah
And a note to others, I vouch for Tara, I have seen her work firsthand – our companies worked cooperatively on a game a few years ago for a looong time.
Go Tara. Love your work
Katie
Oh, Katie. I love you. You’re so awesome.
Pretty new pictures
I think I may try getting into Street Fighter… I know practice must be had.. When is the tounrey you are coordinating?
It wouldn’t to be for a while… couple months away… We just started looking for venues this week. If you are interested in learning Street Fighter though you should come visit at my apartment. Mike is crazy good at it, and so are a lot of my other friends. They can whip you into tourney shape in no time.
They’re good, real good.
I will expose the issue for myself but I can’t side with you sorry. I know you post pic sof yourself online on here and elsewhere and so I cna’t side with you. I would if the clothing was less revealing.
I’m a little confused by your response. I just want to say there is 1 suggestive picture of me online. Just the one, and it’s only on this site. And, it’s not crazy scandalous. Secondly, it was to prove a point. Did you read the article that was associated with it at all?