In March Anita Sarkeesian was awarded the Ambassador Award for her work on her vBlog, Feminist Frequency. In an interview regarding her award, she mentioned that she was the first woman to receive it. This immediately resulted in me getting numerous emails, tweets and facebook contacts from many people asking me if I felt she was attempting to take away from my work or my Game Developers’ Choice award. Some of this contact has even been from press.
I want to clear the air right now.
The award I received in 2005 was the IGDA’s Community Contribution Award. It was an award only given for seven years and I was the first and only woman to receive it. But it was NOT the Ambassador Award. That award did not exist at that time.
While I do believe the Community Contribution award contributed to what is now the Ambassador Award, I do not think it is the same thing. For one thing, I believe the Ambassador Award is actually a broader award where as my award was specifically for people who were working within the IGDA and working with community issues. If you look up the list of Ambassador Award winners, my name does not appear. My name does appear on the list of IGDA Community Contribution award winners.
So congratulations to Anita on her award and I think we both hope that she is the first of many deserving women who are awarded the honor!
Finally, thank you to everyone who showed concern about this. I am truly honored that there are those who really want to make sure my contributions are remembered and honored. That is a very humbling feeling!