Interview with CaliGirl
Owner of LadyGamers.com
By DamnedAnnie of TheDamned.org

Jody 'CaliGirl' Robinson has been a gamer since 1997 when she first played Command & Conquer. Fast-forward to the present: Caligirl is in command, and conquering the the hearts and minds of women gamers world-wide with LadyGamers.com, one of the best gaming sites for women—and men—we've seen. In this interview, CaliGirl explains the who, what, where, why and how of her most innovative and cool project yet.

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[DamnedAnnie] Please give our readers some vital stats, first of all. Like, your age and general location. Are you married, have family? Are you the daughter of the richest woman in the world? Who is CaliGirl?

[CaliGirl] I am in my mid-20s. I haven’t ever been married and don’t have any kids. At this time I reside in Texas, and plan to be here for about a year or so longer. After that, I plan to move to Seattle for a few years, then live in California for the rest of my life.

Having lived in California most of my life pushed me over the edge to try new places so I moved to Dallas back in January 2002. I didn’t like Dallas as much as Houston because of the trees. When I lived in Palo Alto (CA), working for Mplayer, I was spoiled with that whole woodsy atmosphere. Houston would be a place to live forever if there wasn’t so much heat during the spring/summer seasons.

Hehe. No, I am not the daughter of the richest woman. To me she’s rich from the love she has for her children.

I am simply just a California Girl who loves computer games. In my early days as a gamer I was well known as a Command and Conquer expert. As time passed I was known for being a newsie for over 20 gaming sites. I do miss those days of labor; not having weekends or holidays off from freelancing with four different gaming companies.

Now I update CaliGirl.net and LadyGamers.com as a hobby, while I work full time as a Human Resources assistant in the oil industry. It’s a wonderful job with high toned stress but I love it nonetheless. Sometimes I have this gut feeling that I still belong in the gaming industry again though. My dream job would be to work in Public Relations for a gaming company but I have to complete college for a Communication Arts degree to get there.

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[DamnedAnnie]  How did you come to be involved with online gaming? What was your first taste of it, and did it lead you all the way to your current place in the gaming world?

[CaliGirl] My first encounter was bittersweet to online gaming. In early 1997, my brother was playing a game called Command & Conquer, and asked me if I wanted to play it. At the time I told him no because I just got home from a long stressful day at work. He kept asking me so I finally tried the game out. From then on I was addicted to the real-time strategy game, and started getting more familiar with the whole world internet scene.

About 5 years prior I had tried out America Online to chat with people about comics for about 2 months. I never went on the internet again until I played C&C Multiplayer. The first few games I played I stunk at it all from being so new to that style of gameplay of building a base. The only type of game that was similar to it was SimFarm. But think about it! I was building a farm, not a base that needed to be protected or my game would end!

A week after I had been playing on Mplayer gaming service, a Wizard asked me in the lobby to enter a game room with him. I went to the room with him since he was a man of higher power. At the time I thought he was an employee of Mplayer, little did I know all Wizards were volunteers. He asked me how long I had been playing C&C. I told him about a week in single player, and this was my first week with Mplayer. He told me that since I wasn't good enough to play the game I couldn’t play on Mplayer anymore until I played EVERY CD on C&C single player for a full month. Once I passed every mission I would be able to come back and play on the gaming service. I told him I already passed 2 missions on the CD but that wasn’t good enough for him.

When I told my brother about what was said, he was very upset and confronted the guy. The Wizard told him I definitely couldn’t play on there unless all of the C&C missions were completed through single player.

I wouldn’t have survived unless I had four different friends on Mplayer help me like they did. I had only been playing multiplayer mode for about a week by then. They told me to change my nick from California Girl to a name that didn’t sound like a female gamer. I picked Road Runner and played on Mplayer for about 2 weeks. The Wizard saw RoadRunner and played me often, not knowing who I was. He never confronted me like he did when I played as CaliforniaGirl.

Every guy listed on the about page at LadyGamers.com under C&C were guys that stood by me to help me grow in the gaming online world. They pushed me, made me stay up until the wee hours in training. With their help I became excellent C&C player that was ruthless and had ‘no mercy’. With about every strategy you can think of, they gave it to me freely, and they told me not to tell the other guys who helped me with other strategies. They trusted that I wouldn’t give out their secrets. I owe it to all of them for being the men they were to help me through my newbie days. I wasn't ever backed by women gamers, I had male gamers there to help me all of the way through my love of gaming.

Overall, my love for C&C brought me an urge to create a website for it. I first created CGN Cali Girl News back in October 1997 for the purpose of updating news for the game. Once I became addicted to Quake, the news at my site changed drastically. I ended up creating bios/interviews for well known gamers like Thresh, Kornelia, Killcreek, Unholy, Da5id and the list goes on.

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[DamnedAnnie]  What do your family and friends think about your involvement in online gaming? Get any flak from unbelievers? Support from those who understand? Does the fact that you're a lady affect how they feel about it?

[CaliGirl] My family has always been great about it all. One of my brothers, everyone knows as DarkViper, is the person who influenced me into online gaming and even showed me how to create websites from teaching me HTML. My older brother and dad always loved console games, while my mom liked to watch us play the games. Lady Emerald even ran a few websites like Jediknight.net, RPGXtreme, StarWars Gaming sites and helped at CaliGirl.net.

When I worked in the Gaming Industry most of my other relatives thought it was cool. It was my friends that I grew up with who were a little hasty at first. They didn’t like me spending time with people online since they were ‘strangers’. I understood their concerns but most of my online friends are people I know in real life. Then I was playing games and spending no time with them. Many times when they asked to go out to eat or see a movie, I would turn them down to play Quake scrimmages with my XP clanmates.

My friends and family didn’t ever change their ways of support from me being a girl playing games. Even my friends felt it was my type of field they could picture me in. They weren’t ever surprised about it; they just missed me being around as much.

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[DamnedAnnie]  Tell us about LadyGamers.com. How did you start it, and why?

[CaliGirl] It was something that came up out of the blue one day. I was doing research for the Search for Quake Women Legacy section that was originally going to be featured at CaliGirl.net. I happened to be talking to Jube about a few ladies she knew of that I was still missing. I told her how much I missed the Quake Women Forum site that Leann used to maintain. Then mentioned how nice it would be for a site like that today that features not just a game specific focus but all action game girls. She agreed but we both really didn’t have time for a site with such mass of bios for female gamers.

Just out of being curious about a new website, I looked around for female domain names that centered on the action genre. Then I checked at dictionary.com under women or girl. Lady came up. I typed ladygamers.com and it was surprisingly available.

About a month flies by and I didn’t buy the domain name yet. A friend of mine told me he could host my site and it took off from there. I already had a Female Gamers Alive section at CalGirl.net from people constantly requesting female related links. Since I am a female gamer, people just automatically assumed that I would be in the ‘know’ of it all. Well, I had to work at it to be in the know of it all. ;)

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[DamnedAnnie]  What do you most love about your successful project? Do you have plans to change LadyGamers.com in any significant way in the future? What factors might affect how LadyGamers.com evolves? Where do you want to go with it, ultimately?

[CaliGirl] I was extremely excited about the feedback I received once the site was launched. I didn’t expect it to get so much attention and favor until the site was around a little longer. The Search for Quake Women Legacy was a very hot item as well. I really have missed a lot of game girls that I used to play in the Quake community. To be able to get back in touch with half of them was amazing. I am satisfied with the outcome but there are still many girls that are missing. Suicide Sally, Chronic, EvilNun, Georgiana, Hellkitten, HotIce, Ms. Dead and Lael are personally the girls I wish I could find.

I am also pleased that our artist put his 20 minutes into the art on the main page. Hehe. I had someone else color her in. The artist took out some very precious time out of his work and school schedule to create her one day. He finally finished his degree at the Art Institute of Houston about a week ago and has been working on a 3d model of the ActionGirl that is almost done. Cliff ‘inpho’ Young is not really a focused artist, he more so draws to create his 3d models.

I begged him one day to create something—anything, so our ActionGirl was an excellent outcome for the time that was put in to it.

Other plans for LadyGamers.com are the female gamer profiles. I thought it would have been launched with the site but unfortunately that just didn’t end up happening. These profiles will be very similar to my personal photo album with a kick of Quake Women Forum game bio flavor.

I’d like to take LadyGamers.com to a new level for strategies and walkthroughs on every hot Action and Strategy game out there, whether it is console or PC games. That’s something I really desire since many female gamers really need help in learning games that aren’t that easy to learn. If only I had a multiplayer guide on what would be involved when I was so new at playing C&C. I really just desire to see less frustration among female gamers most of all. The GuidesBin is my main focus after the Female Gamer Profiles are released.

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[DamnedAnnie]  You must read a lot of emails, websites and related news sources on women in gaming, in addition to all of your other contacts with lady gamers and the industry. Give us your broad view on the current state of things and emerging trends both in playing the games and the industry itself.

[CaliGirl] I have noticed that a lot more women are coming back to gaming by storm. I created CG.net’s Female Gamers section back in November 2001 with lots of linkage to related articles. The LadyHunt section at Ladygamers.com is a replica of it now. Back when I did research to create the section, articles that I would find were always written in 2000 and back. Not many were written in 2001 that I could find at the time. Then every female resource site I did visit had a lot of female related links but every time I checked these links, only 10% would work. The other 90% were all broken links to news sites, homepages and clans. Now if you do a search today there’s tons more than you would have found back even in 2001. It shows me now that there’s just so much more that will be going on for female gamers even in 2003.

The list goes on; there are some very nice newer resources like Digital-Girl.com and GameGirlAdvance.com. I also came across an amazing German female gamer site a few months ago that simply blew me away. Zockerweibchen.de is an excellent gaming site if you can use a good language translator to read their news. I am a fan of other countries that can show their love for games. I was so overwhelmed about that site that it encouraged me to start learning German language again. I already knew colors in German but that doesn’t help if you’re trying to talk to any
German gamers that email you. They always crack up laughing when I use certain English/German translators. Hehe.

Then there are some new female and coed clans that have been coming out even more abruptly. Clans like TexanGirlz, CSGirls, Clan Brats to name a few.

To be quite honest, I am not a girl who is about women only in gaming. Many of my female friends feel the same way. It’s not a Girls vs Boy thing. It’s something I feel that is much like what CPL’s founder, Angel Munoz, said one day about the Female Tournament that was held a few years ago.

“The motivation behind the female tournament is that we feel there are some incredibly talented female gamers that get overshadowed in our normal tournament, because they are dominated by male players. We think that this small tournament will give attention to the top 20 females in the world, and we like that.

"The intention behind it is not to segregate, but to bring attention to hard working female gamers that can't get the attention, because they are overwhelmed by the sheer number of male gamers. Especially when playing Quake I, II, and III, it is so much larger. It is not just a male thing, and not just an American phenomenon. We want it to be an international event that works across all genders..."

As for the gaming companies in the industry, I do notice there have been a lot of excellent games that feature female model players. However, most of the women who played Quake agree, it’s the gameplay and sometimes the game story that matters the most. It’s not always that we have a female game model to show that we are female gamers who play the games. That is just an extra feature that is awesome if included. Many girls who are fans of Quake 1 and not Quake 2 can understand that whole fun feeling we had playing Quake. We were Ranger male models, a hefty guy who wasn’t anything near feminine or petite. Quake is a game that we all have fond memories about to this day.

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[DamnedAnnie]  Do you see all-female gaming clans as a necessary and positive response to the predominance of male-only clans? Are attitudes among men changing in a favorable way toward women in gaming? (We heard a rumor to that effect!) Is the gaming industry behind any of this, in a positive or negative way? What are those guys in R & D thinking lately?

[CaliGirl] I think it is very important for female gamers to be in some type of team/clan—coed or all female. The unity that you feel when you belong to a gaming family is like no other experience you can encounter, just as long as you are in a clan that has some type of rules to keep things organized. Especially if you are new to gaming, I feel clans are a very valuable piece to the gaming world. I think the reason why I am so attached to the Xtreme Prejudice clan is from knowing them for so many years in person. I know their kids and their wives and we’re just one happy big family. When problems arise, we figure them out like any family would. Having a clan were you can attend meet ups in person once a year or at LANS is a great way to become closer and to know them better too.

On another note, I think it would be neat to see a clan say BOYS ONLY. You see it in those old fashioned movies like Little Rascals. I haven’t noticed a clan over the years that say this on their clan websites. Maybe I haven’t been looking but I know I would have noticed. Most of the time I have only noticed clans that have no female gamer in them.

My observation throughout the years has been this. The guys that have been against girl gamers seem to be teenagers. Don’t get me wrong! Not every teenager but the years I have been in the gaming community this is what I have noticed. Think of it as a little boy pulling the girl’s braids to tease her for only ‘one thing’ - to get her attention. Many female gamers don’t realize how old these guys are sometimes and take it to heart. But of course I have caught many teenagers saying they are 20 through 26 just to be older.

I personally haven’t had a problem with guys objecting to the idea at all. They have always raved about it. The only problems I have ran into is when guys have asked me why girls get so much attention from playing the games. On that touchy subject, I haven’t ever understood it either. How can I explain to one guy why girls receive the attention while another guy sitting next to him is simply intrigued with the whole female gamer concept? I guess I can see it from another point of view at the same time. There are a lot of women who happen to play sports or watch sports. Some guys love the fact that women are sporty and athletic. Then you have some guys hate the idea, it’s a man’s sport to love. To me it really matters on the people you hang out with online or in person.

I am unsure if the gaming industry is helping in a bad or good way to be honest. I hope it’s a good way! We aren’t all men haters. A lot of us are Man Lovers, you know? ;)

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[DamnedAnnie]  Do women play games differently than men? We know you aren't a psychologist, but you might know something they wouldn't because you are so close to the scene.

[CaliGirl] The only thing I can think of is the times I have observed Kornelia play her games in Quake and Quake III Arena. She’s a very sneaky person on her strategies, almost cat like. I have noticed women who are very talented at action games have that prowl style. Kornelia is one woman I have played Quake with and from that day, I never played her Quake III Arena because of it. She’s ruthless at her games but in real life she’s a one of a kind sweetheart.

Some guys that are professional gamers have a different stealth style of gameplay. Watching Dennis ‘Thresh’ Fong play Quake 2 at Professional Gamers League (PGL) in 1998 are moments I’ll never forget. Thresh had a psychic stealth style. Everywhere his opponent went, Thresh knew before the opponent himself knew where he was going to go next.

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[DamnedAnnie]  We have seen some big money prizes awarded in international gaming competitions lately. There is a trend here, and the money and publicity is drawing more and more people into gaming than ever before. As these competitions continue and more gamers—women and men—get involved, how will LadyGamers.com respond to it all?

[CaliGirl] LadyGamers plans to be a hawk looking for its prey. We’ll release as much coverage as we can get our little hands on. I don’t see us sponsoring any gaming events at this time but who knows what tomorrow brings.

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[DamnedAnnie]  CaliGirl, sum it up for our readers. It's hard to tell the whole story of LadyGamers.com in 10 questions and answers. Have we missed something? The floor is yours and we're all ears, err, eyes.

[CaliGirl] LadyGamers.com isn’t really a site that will focus on women only, that’s just a assumption from the domain name. It’s a site that desires to focus on action and strategy games. Having a female touch to it is just an extra feature to the site.

On another note, Jube has done an awesome job at gathering various action topics with a pinch of strategy news. I appreciate her awesome work and hope she’ll be with LG for the long run. I also would like to thank Digimosis.com for their sporty race car style design for LadyGamers.com!

Oh! I would like to also ask if anyone is a ‘know it all’ gamer, to check out our GuideBin section. We’re on the hunt for people who have tips, strategies, walkthroughs or knowledge for a game guide on hot titles for Action or Strategy games.

Thanks for the challenging interview Annie! Take care.