The Frag Dolls, Ubisoft’s in-house, all-female group of professional gamers, are set to be retired after 11 years, according to a blog post on Ubisoft’s website from Frag Dolls founder Morgan Rominem who has said that “the world of video games has moved on” from an all female video game team. Speaking about moving on, Rominem said:
“We can count it as progress that ‘girls playing games’ is no longer the source of surprise that it once was. We’ve said many times over the years that we hoped to one day see true gender equity across gaming communities, rendering an all-girl gaming team unremarkable. I won’t claim that we’ve reached gender equity, by any means; we still have a long way to go. But there has been progress enough that we’ve reached the clear beginning of a new era…
“We’ve always believed that the video game is a powerful medium that anyone from anywhere could learn to love, and it’s heartening to see that truth being recognized more broadly. We are proud to think that we might have played a small part in moving the needle on that dial.
“Sad as it is to see something we have loved so much, for so long, reach its final days, there is a sweetness in this simple closure. As the wide community of gamers grows up, we are beginning to learn how to incorporate this burgeoning diversity into our cultural identity. There are growing pains, like with any cultural sea change. But as we say goodbye to the Frag Dolls, we welcome the emerging world in which it will be taken for granted that women do, of course, play and love games, because video games truly are for everyone.”
Frag Dolls were founded in 2004 with over 20 members in its ranks; when it was first formed, as Rominem says, there wasn’t much of a goal for the team; “we weren’t really sure what the Frag Dolls should be, and certainly never imagined what it would become.”