Women In Gaming: Jenn Tsao Leaves 1up.com joins Sega

I Tried To Post One With Her Son, But Flickr Didn't Let Me...

If you have been reading the message boards of 1up.com and NeoGAF then you wouldn't know how valuable a figure Jennifer Tsao really was at 1up.com. From the responses I've been seeing [in regards to the negative] most people merely saw her as a casual gaming mom who may not have had the background to be reviewing hardcore games. Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is Tsao was a huge MMO/RPG nerd who did and still does host LAN parties. What's more important, is that when I was reading EGM & 1up in 2002-03 she was able to question the gaming industry as far as: how women are portrayed, how to include those that may be intimidated by the culture as well as how to have a hardcore gamer play something [good] that isn't a part of the norm.

Jenn's last day was Oct. 31st and she bid everyone a fond farewell on a podcast she helped build and develop. She's leaving game journalism and heading over to the production side, where she will be working at Sega as Associate Creative Director for Family/Casual games. If you've been following Jenn's work for the past six years at 1up, then you know this is kind of a no-brainer opportunity. Just can't help but think how big of a loss this is for 1up.com what with the most recent departures of Jeff and Shawn.

More after the jumps...

"It helped that I worked with a tremendous group of people who valued initiative and good old-fashioned elbow grease. Then again, it wasn't always easy; arguing about why "slut" isn't a fair term to use to describe women and why jokes relying on the "girlfriend" punchline were lazy, and constantly insisting we could do better wasn't exactly fun and didn't always make me popular among my coworkers. But even if there were times I would lose the fight, I'm glad I was there to fight at all. And when I look at the make-up of the gaming press now, I am utterly happy to see so many women playing integral roles. "

 What I find the 'most weirdest' out of this news is the lack of media outlets [such as Joystiq & Kotaku] that haven't posted or said anything about this recent development.  Maybe these popular sources and blogs don't want to risk looking as if they are taking an inadvertant jab at an organization that has had more downs than ups as of late. There is always the case of Jenn just not being that newsworthy of a person to garner the attention of outlets that are feverishly reporting the latest happenings to their favorite first-person shooter sequel [insert title here].

Whatever the case may be, I'm sure I will not be the only person missing the scribings and gripes of the queen bee. Although, there are more women now who are writing about gaming; there seems to be a void of genuine arguments coming from women in games journalism, which was a bone Jenn Tsao was more than willing to pick.

Although I disagree with her about the death of the hardcore gamer, I do believe, because of people like Jenn; there will always be shades of grey. Gamers are maturing [well...in the matters of taste] and it is not safe to say the same person who plays a JRPG won't be playing Gears of War 2. It is indeed much harder to say that a person who plays Wii Sports could eventually be a fan of God of War 2.  This is a huge digression, Jenn is going to Sega to hopefully be the person that revives the Dreamcast 2 and  Shenmue 2: Pinata Smugglers [hey...it could happen!].

I know people have been saying "See ya later" as opposed to "Goodbye", but I'd rather say...

Keep Up The Great Work!