THE CULTURE OF VIDEO GAMES is at a crucial turning point. Though the industry is still perceived as a boy's club, and many still cling to the apocryphal belief that "average" garners are men between the ages of 18 to 35, research by the Entertainment Software Association of Canada shows that 46 percent of garners are now women. Despite this data, women often feel alienated by the games they love. While industry critics like Anita Sarkeesian provide a valuable critique of the systemic sexism, several home-grown initiatives are making Canada's gaming community more inclusive.

Cecily Carver, co-founder of Toronto's Dames Making Games, originally left her position as a software developer for a career in the arts. "I felt like I was always having to justify my presence, I worried about my geek cred," she says, adding that her classes were composed of 10 percent women and her workplaces even less. "I always felt that my presence there needed some extra explanation, that it could never be taken for granted that it was something that I wanted to...