How did you become Frag Dolls?What are your favourite games?What’s your view on female gamers?Aren’t Frag Dolls just an Ubisoft marketing trick?What’s a day in the life of a Frag Doll?How did you become Frag Dolls?
In late 2005, Ubisoft advertised for dedicated, friendly, fun female gamers. The applicants were whittled down to a final fifteen, and these fifteen were invited to Ubisoft’s offices in the UK. All the girls went through a formal interview process, as well as gaming and talking together as a group. Frag Dolls needed to be great communicators and team players - not just good gamers.
What are your favourite games?
We’re all very different gamers, with very different tastes. We play on a variety of titles, on a variety of platforms, from a variety of publishers. We decide what we want to play. Kitt loves RPGs, Sarin loves action-adventure, and Jam loves survival horror. Check out Kitt’s, Sarin’s, and Jam’s profiles for more information.
What’s your view on female gamers?
It would be great to say there’s no such thing as girl gamers and that gamers are genderless, but the demographics just don’t back it up. Girls sometimes feel that gaming is ‘not for them’ because games are often developed and marketed in a way that makes girls feel excluded. The Frag Dolls were brought together by Ubisoft to try to address some of these problems and to give girl gamers and those curious about getting into gaming a ‘go to’ resource. When you come to our website and forum you can find out what you want to know about gaming and get straightforward answers. No one should feel excluded whether you’re a hardcore gamer or totally fresh to gaming.
Aren’t Frag Dolls just an Ubisoft marketing trick?
We play and talk about Ubisoft games, sure - but we also play and talk about plenty of other games too. Ubisoft have given us a great opportunity to bring new people into gaming through our work - including more girl gamers. That’s why we attend conferences such as Women in Games. There’s a financial side of course - more gamers means more money for publishers and developers and that means more money being pumped into making games. There’s no secret to it. Behind helping to promote the latest games we are genuinely passionate gamers who want to make gaming a more inclusive community and see all groups equally represented and marketed to. We respect and encourage other websites and clans to do the same.
What’s a day in the life of a Frag Doll?
We have a friendly and welcoming Frag Doll community. We chat to people on our forum and Xbox Live on a daily basis. If we’re not attending and reporting on gaming events across Europe, we’re recording podcasts, writing blogs or interviewing gaming professionals for our website. It’s an extremely pro-active role, and you really need to think on your feet. Of course there is a lot of gaming involved too, but it’s also very much about communicating ideas and helping build an accessible gaming community within the UK
