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The Today Show says Girls Love Games
June 18, 11:00 AM

The Today Show says that girls love games, and we say “no duh”. I was lucky enough to be able to hang out with a bunch of representatives of our newest generation of gamers at the Ubisoft office in San Francisco while they were being filmed by the Today Show crew. The 6 girls, ranging between 7 and 12 years old, were thrilled to get to play video games all day and we ran the gamut of the Imagine and Petz games. I didn’t get to test their skills on any FPS games even though several of the girls said they’d like to try them (most of those games are rated M, after all). But it was still a full-blown geek session full of DSes, Wiis, intense competition (yes, several of the Imagine and Petz games on the Wii have multiplayer modes with competitive challenges), and a good deal of trash talking. I was so proud! If you haven’t seen the Today Show segment yet, you can watch it on their site. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the gaming session that day: Such focus! Most of the girls brought in their own DSes. We gave each of them a Frag Doll shirt, and the Future Frag Dolls of America program was born. Things went in a silly direction very quickly. Mmmm… tender young gamer braaaaaainnnssss.... Vogueing out was totally their idea. How cute is that?! They’ll grow …

XBOX LIVE GAMERTAG: Rhoulette FD
GAMES I'M PLAYING
* World of Warcraft
* Guitar Hero III
* Braid
* Castle Crashers
* soon to be playing the new Prince of Persia...
HEIGHT: 5'8"
EYES: Hazel
HAIR: Red & curly
LOCATION: Southern California
HOMETOWN: San Diego, CA
FAVORITE GENRES: MMORPG, RPG, Puzzle, and Action
FAVORITE GAMES: Shadowbane, EverQuest, Okami, Final Fantasy VII, Baldur's Gate 2 Guitar Hero, Sim City, WoW, Portal
FAVORITE SNACK: cheese , gummy bears, and dark chocolate
FAVORITE CHARACTER: Amaterasu from Okami
FAVORITE EMOTE: /raspberry
FAVORITE QUOTE: "Go for the eyes, Boo! Go for the eyes!"
FAVORITE MUSIC: The Beatles, Air, David Bowie, Nick Drake, Portishead, Led Zeppelin, Bjork, Outkast, Tori Amos
FAVORITE TV SHOWS: The Daily Show, The Family Guy, The Simpsons, House, The Office
FAVORITE BOOKS: Wheel of Time, Dune, LoTR, Ender's Game, Song of Ice and Fire, Harry Potter, Snow Crash
FAVORITE COLOR: Purple
FIRST GAME ADDICTION: Sim City 2000
FIRST CONSOLE: Sega Genesis
GREATEST MOMENT: Becoming one of Shadowbane's first Empresses
LONGEST SPREE: 30+ hours on EverQuest
OBSESSIONS: gardening, snowboarding, piano, reading, running, people watching, food, my cats
I HATE: An itchy nose, long lines, losing things, waking up before 8.
I LOOK LIKE: I never see sun.

Morgan Romine, better known as “Rhoulette” in the video game online community, epitomizes the complex super hero-like persona that her gamer-tag portrays: sophisticated, classy, educated and feminine while also a tech-head, “gamer geek” and no-nonsense former Pac-10 basketball player who has the ability to excel in multiple areas both professionally and personally.

Romine is currently a graduate student at the University of California, Irvine studying to get a PhD in cultural anthropology. She plans to research sociality in online communities, and is specifically interested in the dynamics of leadership in multiplayer videogames, and deviance in online social environments. Her background as a community manager for Ubisoft and experience as a Frag Doll provide a strong foundation for understanding online cultural phenomena.

Romine helped found and build Ubisoft’s all-girl gaming team, the Frag Dolls and as captain of the team, she serves as spokesperson, gamer, road manager, and liaison between the team and Ubisoft.  In 2006 she was named one of the game industry’s Top 100 Most Influential Women by www.next-gen.biz for her work with the Frag Dolls.

Although Romine’s tenure in the video game industry began after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, she’s no ‘n00b’ to video games.  She started out playing video games when she was six years old and she’s been playing ever since, with online games as her current passion. In fact, her introduction to Ubisoft was through their MMORPG title, Shadowbane, where she led a clan of more than 200 players.  Currently she is playing games like World of Warcraft, Spore, Guitar Hero III, Viva Pinata, and Rainbow Six Vegas 2. She is especially looking forward to Far Cry 2, Prince of Persia, Fallout 3, and Little Big Planet for this holiday season, 2008.

Romine is excited about the continued growth of the video game industry and how women will play an integral role as gamers and within the business itself.