Miriam Aguirre has been
a gamer since the days of Atari. Today, as director of engineering at a mobile
gaming company, she's working to bring esports to the masses and make the world
of gaming more diverse.
More people are playing
video games than all offline sports combined, and 188 million people currently
watch professional competitive video gaming, or esports,. And according to
Juniper Research projections, total esports viewing hours will reach 6.6
billion by 2018. The industry currently has a fan base that rivals many
traditional sports leagues, and is on track to surpass $9 billion in revenue by
2017.
Esports are facilitated
by electronic systems and are moderated by both human and computer input.
Gamers have long organized informal competitions between players, but esports
takes it to an entirely new level, with formal leagues, widely broadcast
tournaments and hefty prizes.
Even IT heavyweights
like Microsoft are getting in on the action by targeting the latest release of
their popular Halo series directly at esports leagues. An industry with this
much potential that's still flying under the radar has plenty of room for
diversity and inclusion, and Miriam Aguirre, director of engineering at mobile
esports and gaming platform Skillz is dedicated to helping democratize the
industry to make it diverse, open and accessible to everyone.
On the leading edge
Aguirre's interest in
gaming began with Atari, and was cemented when the technology evolved and the
Internet made it possible to compete with other players a world away. Now,
she's excited to be at the forefront of a new industry that's helping to bring
gaming to a larger audience, including women and to other groups who've largely
been underrepresented in gaming. But as popular as esports are, there are
challenges in breaking new ground.
"The biggest
challenge is just how new this industry is, honestly, and how untapped the
potential is. Skillz launched in 2012, and while there's a bunch of companies
in the space now, we're still on the forefront, and that's so exciting and
challenging at the same time. We're in the entertainment industry, so we're
competing hard for people's time and energy. We're not a necessity -- but the
exciting thing to see is how it's bringing so many people together over shared
interests," Aguirre says.
The IT industry in
general can be a tough place for women, but gaming in particular has proven
it's extremely unwelcoming. While there's more awareness today around the lack
of diversity and the need for greater inclusion, and a recent study showed that
more women than men own gaming consoles, it's still an uphill battle for equal
representation.
Plenty of room at the
table
But an industry as new
as esports has plenty of room for everyone; it can be built from the ground up
to be accommodating, inclusive and welcoming to anyone who just wants to have
fun and compete, Aguirre says.
"The potential is
huge and it's really exciting. What I love about gaming is that it's a really
level playing field for anyone; there aren't that many women right now in
esports, they're a minority now, but that's changing rapidly. This is one of
the most engaging aspects of the gaming industry and it's accessible to
everyone, especially with smartphones. You don't have to learn the ins-and-outs
of a new console, a new controller, it's all mobile and very simple,"
Aguirre says, which appeals to almost every possible demographic.
While many tech
companies struggle with talent diversity, Skillz is highly successful at
attracting, hiring and retaining female engineers and IT talent from underrepresented
groups. The company emphasizes diversity at every step in the talent search
process and it's a core value on which the company is built, according to
Aguirre.
"Once the
candidates are in the door, we let our very diverse teams speak for themselves.
It's obvious from the first time they interact with us. They can see the
diversity of the people right around them -- working on code, walking the
halls, talking with each other; people of every shape, size, skin color,
gender, ethnicity -- it's about the farthest thing from 'bro-grammer land' over
here, and we know it's important that women and people of color can see others
like them represented in a company, in the culture," she says.
Having a diverse
workforce helps when recruiting new talent, too, says Aguirre, as candidates
can see that Skillz's hiring team isn't just paying lip service to diversity
and inclusion; they're "walking the walk." It helps the company
attract elite talent that shares similar values and a common mission.
"We try and make diversity
and inclusion part of everything we do. Women, in particular, are half the
population -- why shouldn't we want to represent everyone when we're making,
marketing and selling games? You don't leave out half your potential audience
-- it's not just good business," Aguirre says.
By Sharon Florentine
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