Founder Stephanie Ijoma and other members of the team at NNESAGA LTD discuss the ways gaming can become more inclusive for women and other marginalized genders.
How did you begin gaming, and do you think the gaming world has changed for women since then?
I have been gaming since the age of 4. Gaming brings me a lot of joy — it’s therapeutic and allows me to escape from reality. From early childhood to now, there have been changes for women in the industry, but it has been the bare minimum, and the games industry still has a long way to go.
Creating and building NNESAGA since 2015 has not only allowed me to channel my frustrations with the gaming industry, but NNESAGA has also influenced a lot of what the gaming industry is now and how it works with marginalized groups.
What do you think the gaming industry will look like in five years?
I would like to hope that we continue to see more orgs like ourselves lead and be trusted with consulting to help bring a new perspective.
What is NNESAGA year 7?
NNESAGA is the reawakening of seven years in the building of an empire. This is now the time for NNESAGA to elevate and house extraordinary upcoming, raw talent that can represent NNESAGA for what it has always been. For the culture. I am proud of the new team we have built to highlight the multi-faced platform NNESAGA is.
How can we make sure that we continue to celebrate and support women beyond Women’s History Month?
We can support women by pioneering equality daily, highlighting our wins, and giving females equal opportunities in the space. Being a woman in this space can sometimes be tough, so having support systems and visibility is important and makes us feel like we’re never alone.
Do you have any resources for women looking to either get into gaming or find a community?
Find a game you absolutely love and join their communities. There are Discord servers for every game under the sun where you can meet like-minded people, and a lot have groups exclusively for women and other marginalized genders. Content creators also attract people that will reflect them, so if you can find a creator you relate to, start typing away in their chat/comments and eventually you’ll find people you “gel” with.