June 2024 - Womenize! Action Program

Monthly Archives: June 2024

26. June 2024

Julia Weitzel – Womenize! – Inspiring Stories

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational individuals from games and tech. For this edition, we collaborated with ESBD – eSport-Bund Deutschland e.V. and talked to Julia Weitzel, Head of Product Management at Freaks 4U Gaming. She speaks about her journey into esports fueled by a passion for gaming, her role as Head of Product Management, the challenges in balancing community, team, and business needs, and offers advice for aspiring individuals to leverage their strengths and seek mentorship. Read more about Julia in this interview:

Hi Julia! Can you share your journey into the esports industry? What initially drew you to gaming, and how did your experiences shape your professional path leading to your current role as the Head of Product Management at Freaks 4U Gaming?

As with many others, my journey into the esports industry began with a deep love for gaming. This passion led me to study Media Informatics with a focus on Game Development. Though my initial career path diverged from gaming, I always maintained side projects related to gaming, which kept my passion alive.

Over the years, I dedicated myself to building local gaming communities by organizing tournaments, viewing parties, and themed meetups. These projects not only strengthened my love and commitment to the gaming community but also enabled me to gather strong skills and connections.

Joining Freaks 4U Gaming was the culmination of the long-held dream to align my career with my passion. My diverse background has been a significant asset in my current role as Head of Product Management. I’ve gained valuable insights from working in small companies, large corporate groups, startups, and even through running my own business. This variety of experiences has equipped me with a broad skill set and an ability to adapt to different environments and challenges. In my previous roles, I’ve consistently held product and project lead positions, which has allowed me to work on a wide range of products, enabling me to effectively collaborate with various professionals within my team. My time as a self-employed individual was particularly impactful, as it required me to manage all aspects of a business independently, fostering rapid learning and continuous adaptation.

At Freaks 4U Gaming, I oversee internally conceptualized, monetized, and operated products like the Prime League (DACH League of Legends Esports League), 99Damage (German CS Channel), and DreamHack (yearly gaming culture event). I leverage all the knowledge and experience I’ve gathered over the years to drive these projects forward. This role allows me to merge my professional expertise with my personal passion, creating a fulfilling and dynamic career in the esports industry.

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in product management within the environment of esports, and how do you address them?

One of the biggest challenges in product management within esports is balancing the diverse and sometimes competing needs of the community, esports teams and players, and the business requirements of a product.

The esports market is in constant flux, driven by growing professionalism and rapid technological advancements. Modern esports products require substantial resources and often significant initial investments. While sponsorships, partnerships, and merchandise play critical roles in revenue generation, they don’t always provide a stable income stream, making it challenging to build sustainable business models. These business requirements form the foundation of a successful, long-lasting product and therefore need careful planning and execution.

In tournaments or leagues, esports teams bring specific expectations regarding formats, rules, accessibility, prize money, and the visibility we offer them. These factors are crucial for teams, as running a successful esports organization requires substantial investment, which they need to recoup.

Community expectations are another key consideration. As the esports industry continues to grow and new opportunities emerge, staying ahead of the curve is essential to maintain relevance amid other entertainment and sports options. Meeting these expectations is critical to keeping the community engaged and loyal.

Balancing my own vision with these diverse requirements can also be challenging. On one hand, I see immense opportunities in innovative and creative concepts; on the other hand, my strong dedication to developing esports as a whole sometimes presents alignment challenges.

To address these challenges, I prioritize regular communication and collaboration. I enjoy engaging with different people and encourage open dialogue to find joint solutions. Within the esports ecosystem, we all face similar challenges and can learn from one another. By fostering a culture of collaboration and shared learning, we can develop strategies that address these complex requirements effectively.

What is your vision for the future of esports, and what advice would you give to women and other marginalized voices aspiring to make their mark in this industry?

My vision for the future of esports is to see it evolve into one of the most innovative and influential forms of entertainment and competition, underpinned by a robust and sustainable ecosystem. With its deep connection to technology and the drive of young, ambitious individuals, esports is uniquely positioned to lead the adoption of cutting-edge innovations such as VR/AR, AI, and beyond. By leveraging these assets, we can not only advance the esports industry itself but also influence and inspire adjacent sectors. With the foundation we laid in the past years, esports will transcend traditional boundaries, integrating seamlessly with other entertainment forms and creating immersive, interactive experiences for audiences worldwide. It will be a space where creativity, technology, and competition converge, setting new standards for engagement and community-building.

To everyone who wants to take their first steps in this industry I can fully recommend giving it a try. Understanding your unique strengths and how they can contribute to the esports landscape is a primary step on this way. Set clear, achievable goals that align with your passions and skills. Whether you are interested in playing, coaching, content creation, event management, or another role, having a clear vision will guide your path.If you have trouble starting your first steps, seek out for mentorship from those who have navigated the industry successfully. Engaging with like-minded individuals and learning from their experiences can provide invaluable guidance and support. I’m always up for supporting newcomers and like-minded people, so if you need someone for an exchange, feel free to reach out!

Thanks for this interview, Julia!

Julia’s links: LinkedIn

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories Feature by Madeleine Egger

19. June 2024

Freyja Melhorn – Womenize! – Inspiring Stories

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational individuals from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Freyja Melhorn, Director Marketing Communication at BXDXO GmbH. She speaks about her work on the “EVERSPACE” series and the Gaming Zone at The CCON | COMIC CON Stuttgart, her transition to a Director of Marketing Communications role, and the importance of passion and communication skills in game PR. Read more about Freyja here:

Hi Freyja! Since entering the games industry more than 15 years ago, you’ve worked on a diverse range of PR campaigns for games across various platforms. Could you share a particularly challenging or rewarding campaign that stands out from your career and the lessons you learned from it?

After 17 years in the games industry, I’ve managed hundreds of PR campaigns in my career, from AAA to super small part-time indie devs. What I value the most is that my job is never boring as every campaign is unique due to the different requirements, backstories, and goals. However, one of my favorites are definitely the campaigns for “EVERSPACE” and “EVERSPACE 2” from ROCKFISH Games. I’ve been working with the Hamburg-based studio since day one (I even worked with Michael Schade and Christian Lohr back in the days of Fishlabs Entertainment), and the PR business has changed a lot during that time. From the very first announcement of a Kickstarter for a new space game from Germany, the release of the original EVERSPACE, to the most successful German Kickstarter campaign back then for the 2nd instalment of the series, the release of EVERSPACE 2 which became an international bestselling space game, to winning “Best German Game” at Der Deutsche Computerspielpreis 2024 – I’m proud that I contributed to this success story over the last 10 years and I’m happy to continue working with these incredibly talented guys to share all the exciting things they’ve been working on for space fans.

A particularly challenging project was the Gaming Zone at The CCON | COMIC CON Stuttgart, which we created for the first time in December 2023. We were able to implement our vision of a gaming event from the idea to the implementation on site as the organizer fully trusted our expertise. It was a lot of fun to bring the 500m² area to life, but as typical for the event business, it was also quite nerve-wracking at times. We were particularly pleased that the Gaming Zone was voted the third most popular area at CCON by visitors right from the start. For 2024, we want to implement some improvements and offer even more great games, tournaments and show programs for visitors.

You transitioned into the role of Director of Marketing Communications in May 2023. How has this new position allowed you to further leverage your expertise in PR and contribute to the success of gaming-related marketing efforts, and what excites you most about this role?

The biggest advantage in my new role is that I have been able to expand my area of expertise to include marketing and project management. I now have much more insight into campaigns, where PR is always just a small part of a big picture. At BXDXO, we work like a fully functional marketing department, are often more involved in product management and strategic consulting than a traditional PR agency. By gaining insight at a much earlier planning stage, we can coordinate marketing and PR campaigns even better.

As someone who graduated with a diploma in Public Relations, how important do you think formal education is for individuals looking to enter the gaming industry, and what skills or qualities do you believe are essential for success in game PR?

The games industry is nowadays very open to career changers, and I firmly believe that if you are passionate about a topic, you can learn the necessary skillset. In addition, communication skills, organizational talent and social media knowledge are of course in demand and useful, especially in PR and marketing – the rest is more or less learning on the job. However, you can’t teach passion – either you have enthusiasm for games or you don’t.

Thanks for this interview, Freyja!

Freyja’s links: LinkedIn

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories Feature by Madeleine Egger

12. June 2024

Lena Falkenhagen – Womenize! – Inspiring Stories

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational individuals from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Lena Falkenhagen, Narrative Director, Novelist and Game Writer. She speaks about adapting storytelling for games versus novels, emphasizes media analysis, dramatic structures, and personal perspectives in teaching, and highlights balancing player agency with predefined narratives for immersive games. Read more about Lena in this interview:

Hi Lena! Your versatility in writing spans across various genres, from modern literature to historical fiction. How do you approach the creative process differently when crafting narratives for games compared to traditional novels, and what unique challenges and joys does each medium bring to your storytelling?

Stories usually have to adapt to the medium you’re telling them in, and to external factors. If you want to sell a concept for a book to a publishing company, you need an outline of what you’re going to write. But then, in the writing process, you can err from the script, because the novel only has to function in itself. A game needs a lot of structure and preplanning because you’re working in a team. If you go and try to find the story in the making, a lot of people have to wait for you, twiddling their thumbs.

That being said, a lot of game studios use the 1-3-2-method, as I like to call it. You concept the story in preproduction, and in production, you build the beginning of the game first, the end second, and the middle third. Then you go over everything again to smooth all parts together. You never want to build the end at the end of production, because then, time and ressources are scarce. You want a perfect beginning and a perfect ending.

In a book, you usually work chronologically, because you have more insight into the characters mentality and way of thinking. This needs to be a continuous development, otherwise the character will have breaks and gaps in their growth process. So, in novels, I usually pre-plan what I’m going to do, and then I have to let the outline go and find the way that makes sense for the characters in the story. Because sometimes, you plan things that just don’t work for a character.

Your passion for writing extends to teaching game design at university. What key insights or principles do you emphasize when guiding the next generation of game designers, and how do you inspire them to explore unconventional and thought-provoking narratives?

I have three principles that I teach and that I find highly important for anybody, but especially for narrative designers.

First, it’s learning to analyze any media. Looking at different levels of techniques and mechanics to tell a story, for example. In a movie, you could differentiate lighting and contrast from camera perspective, from cuts and omissions to different layers of story. In a game, mechanics and indexical storytelling and how games achieve to tell a non-linear story would be among these things. And how all different levels (narrative, gameplay, art, music) tell the same story (hopefully).If you can analyze media, you can find out what works and what doesn’t – or how you can break expectations and find something new.

Secondly, I teach dramatic structures. I start with linear dramatic structures (3/5-act structures, 7-plot-points, you name them), and then find the linearity in their non-linear fiction. Sounds wrong? I think that every player follows their own linearity. And then I teach them that a „narrative“ is not only ‚story‘. A narrative is resonant in all levels a player sees in a game: world building, non-player characters you meet and interact with; sound, art, and of course gameplay. So, for a lot of games, all of these aspects need to grip into each other to create a working, compelling, immersive experience.

Thirdly, I try to help students find their own perspective on what’s happening in our society. I firmly believe that if five people read the same outline and go away and make games from them, they will make five totally different games, because every one of them brings their set of experiences, their view on the world, and on people.

This is living diversity, living art through the eyes of the designers. And yes, art and design sometimes seem to happen at different ends of the same process, but I think that with game design, you need both.

How do you strike a balance between providing players with agency and guiding them through a predefined story? What techniques do you find effective in ensuring an immersive and emotionally resonant gaming experience?

These are actually two very complicated questions. First, I think that a predefined story and agency (as far as games can actually allow for them) don’t have to exclude each other. There are different levels you can offer a player agency: dialogue options that outline your player character’s personality according to your wishes, options that let you decide the path of a certain substory, or which direction to go to next in a level. If you combine a semi-linear story with gameplay that offers agency and creates choices with a meaningful experience, that balance is met.

Secondly, techniques to find an immersive and emotionally resonant gaming experience are many. I usually teach students to find not „just a story“. I try to help them find an authentic, meaningful story that people actually care about. Topics that they might have themselves, that they find worth their time to explore. I teach people to keep the diegesis, the closed garden of the game, believable and interesting.

To find that meaningfulness in a game is not only a matter of narrative, but also of game design, and art. But if you don’t find it in narrative, it usually does not happen. Building meaningful, resonating characters and conflicts in a game is happening over all areas of expertise. Somebody has to find that important and worth the extra effort in the development process. And somebody has to steer that ship. That usually happens in narrative, but other departments might do it, too.

As to emotionally resonant games: to me, this lies in the conflict design. If the conflict of a game or a game world is built in a way that we as players can relate, and the characters in the game mirror that conflict, and are built believable, and then swept away in the conflict as our proxies, the game as a whole usually resonates with us.

So, it is all in the craft of Narrative Design. There are no shortcuts.

Thanks for this interview, Lena!

Lena’s links: LinkedIn, website

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories Feature by Madeleine Egger

Hi Julia! Can you share your journey into the esports industry? What initially drew you to gaming, and how did your experiences shape your professional path leading to your current role as the Head of Product Management at Freaks 4U Gaming?

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in product management within the environment of esports, and how do you address them?

What is your vision for the future of esports, and what advice would you give to women and other marginalized voices aspiring to make their mark in this industry?

Thanks for this interview, Julia!

Hi Freyja! Since entering the games industry more than 15 years ago, you’ve worked on a diverse range of PR campaigns for games across various platforms. Could you share a particularly challenging or rewarding campaign that stands out from your career and the lessons you learned from it?

You transitioned into the role of Director of Marketing Communications in May 2023. How has this new position allowed you to further leverage your expertise in PR and contribute to the success of gaming-related marketing efforts, and what excites you most about this role?

As someone who graduated with a diploma in Public Relations, how important do you think formal education is for individuals looking to enter the gaming industry, and what skills or qualities do you believe are essential for success in game PR?

Thanks for this interview, Freyja!

Your passion for writing extends to teaching game design at university. What key insights or principles do you emphasize when guiding the next generation of game designers, and how do you inspire them to explore unconventional and thought-provoking narratives?

How do you strike a balance between providing players with agency and guiding them through a predefined story? What techniques do you find effective in ensuring an immersive and emotionally resonant gaming experience?

Thanks for this interview, Lena!

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