This is the time of the year where most sites are doing their top ten lists about different subjects. Personally, I hate top ten lists. If I'm going to do one, then it's going to be about something I'm passionate about. Therefore, we have two top ten list articles on GamingAngels.com. Here we are looking at the ten women that influenced the gaming industry in a big way over the last ten years. This isn't an all-inclusive list and I'd love for you to join in the conversation by including your nominees in the comments. The game industry is starting to see change and some of it is due to the women on this list paving the path. Here in random order, are ten women that really changed the game industry over the last ten years.

Lucy Bradshaw has to start the list with her work on the Sims beginning in the year 2000. Lucy and the Maxis team created a game that would be named the best selling PC game to date. The Sims is also credited for bringing more women into playing games. Lucy Bradshaw now leads the efforts of the Maxis team on the various Spore titles. She is an amazing speaker and is always pushing the industry forward.

Kim Swift took the game industry by storm with the much praised hit, Portal. Swift was hired by Valve after graduation and won many awards with a title that appealed to casual and the hardcore. Swift has now joined Airtight Games to assist with games aimed at a more diverse audience.
Jade Raymond was the producer on Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed. While she had been a producer on previous titles including The Sims Online, Jade definitely had to put up with controversy from men that couldn't get over her looks. Yes guys, it is possible to be gorgeous and talented.
Corrinne Yu is an amazing woman. She's the principal programmer at Microsoft's Halo team. I met her at a GDC Women in Games luncheon where she was rewarded for her work on the Halo series. She dresses like a rock star and talks about programming theory unlike anyone I know. Corrinne is an inspiration as we look at the problem of not enough women going into programming as a discipline.
Megan Gaiser is the President and CEO of Her Interactive. Through her work at Her Interactive, she has helped make intelligent games for the younger female audience. Her Interactive games create the Nancy Drew series of games that are very popular. Megan works hard in both talks and through her work at Her Interactive to get more girls interested in gaming both as a hobby and as a career.
Kellee Santiago is an amazing young woman from the Interactive Media program at USC. She is the president and co-founder of ThatGameCompany, a company that strives to create games that create an emotion in the player. Their first two games, flOw and Flower on the Playstation 3 are not only beautiful but also appeal to a more diverse audience. During our interview with her at the Spike VGAs, it was great to see her passionate and excited about the future of ThatGameCompany. We look forward to Kellee pushing the boundaries of what we think about games.
Amy Hennig works as Naughty Dog as the Creative Director on Uncharted and Uncharted 2. Uncharted 2 is second in the top 20 ranked Playstation 3 games on Metacritic. Amy concentrates on story and actors and it shows. Uncharted 2 has some of the best voice acting of any game out there. It will be interesting to see how close to films that Amy and the Naughty Dog team can take video games.
Deborah Mars is the Managing Producer at SCEA Santa Monica Studio who worked on PSN title, Fat Princess. The title had early uproar from various websites because the game was built around the mechanic of feeding your princess cake so she would weigh more and be harder to kidnap. In the end, Deborah and her team proved that Fat Princess is an incredibly fun title.
Cammie Dunaway is the executive vice president of sales & marketing at Nintendo. As one of the most powerful people at Nintendo, she led the way to reach out to women gamers with the Nintendo DS and Wii. She has had a rough road being criticized for being too nice or even fake. I interviewed Cammie at the 2007 Women's Conference and she was sweet but also very knowledgeable about the products available. She genuinely wants to see a more diverse audience enjoy gaming.
We end our list with a female that has taken community on the Xbox 360 to another level. Christa Phillips Charter, better known as Trixie360, was responsible for many community initiatives for the 360 that is what makes us feel at home on the 360. She organized Game with Fame nights, Community Spotlights, Gamer Spotlights, and created/founded GamerChix a place where female Xbox gamers can gather to talk about gaming. Christa has always made herself available to gamers. Her new title is Social Media Lead of Xbox LIVE and we can't see where she takes Community and Games next!

I hope you enjoyed our list and I'd love to hear who you think should be on the list. We didn't include the wonderful women that run amazing communities or clans, but they definitely could be here as well. I'd like to thank Robin Yang for working with me on ideas for this list. Here's to another 10 years of greatness from women in games!

Reprinted with permission from GamingAngels.com.

If you ask Trina, she was born a geek girl at heart. Starting with the Atari 2600, Trina was quickly hooked. By eight she was programming games in Basic and starting her collection of comic books. Trina created a female-based guild for Phantasy Star Online. This started the idea of what a place on the web for women gamers would look like. GamingAngels.com was born in 2003 as a video game cosplay site and transformed in 2006 to an online gaming community. Today GamingAngels.com is more than just gaming. With the help of her team, Trina has created a community where women that love all things geek can speak freely about their hobby.

Trina has appeared on panels and been interviewed about her strong opinions about women in gaming and technology fields. If she's not working on GamingAngels.com, she might be cheering on the Vikings, playing videogames or reading Twitter.

Find her on Xbox Live with Gamertag, GamingAngel or on Twitter as GamingAngel.

While tidying up the various highs and lows of gaming forum NeoGAF's reaction to the three major E3 keynotes, Andrew Hiscock notes that when it comes to the lows, he found something interesting:

It should be noted that in nearly all instances of an appearance of a known person — whether executive, developer, or celebrity — the threads responded initially as positive. The sole exceptions to this were: Cammie Dunaway, Yoko Ono, and Peter Molyneux.

Who'd have thought that Smiles and Promises would some day end up in the same boat as "that creepy lady who broke up The Beatles"?

Hardcore Gamers vs. The Big Three E3 Press Conferences: An Empirical Study Considered [Bitmob]

Yes, Nintendo of America executive vice president of Sales & Marketing Cammie Dunaway will be there. Also appearing will be Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and Reggie Fils-Aime, the company announced today. The three amigos of Nintendo's E3 keynote will be handling all new Wii and Nintendo DS announcements at this year's E3 expo, delivering a fresh batch of promises and an update on Nintendo's smiles per faces tie ratio.

Since this one's "about the games," expect more focus on promised Mario and Zelda titles, less onstage demonstrations of Personal Trainer Walking. No mention of a Wii Music jam session, but we can always hope.

The action kicks off June 2nd at 9 A.M. Pacific Time. Nintendo fans in Mario outfits bearing supportive signage can begin loitering at the Nokia Plaza in downtown Los Angeles at 7 A.M. if they'd like to be photographed.

Nintendo marketing exec Cammie Dunaway is upbeat about this year's though, giving reasons why we should be excited about this year's presser. "Well, because, I'm going to be up on stage presenting, something that your fans ought to love," Dunaway told IGN. "But I'm not gonna snowboard, I'm not gonna show my mother's day card. I'm just going to talk about the games." And smile! A LOT.

The saleswoman seems to have gotten cut-off in the IGN interview, because when asked if there was anything she could say about E3, she shrugged and replied, "All I can say is I hope we have something."

We hope so, too! Don't forget folks, Dunaway doesn't actually make the games, but rather, she markets them to you. And smiles. (^ ^)

Nintendo talks about E3, Dunaway confirms she'll take the stage again [Nintendo Everything via VG247] [Pic]

Nintendo's mom Cammie Dunaway and the host of G4's Attack of the Show, Kevin Periera will be on hand, counting down to the midnight launch of the third iteration of their dual-screen handheld, the Nintendo DSi. The event will feature music by VJ Fader on a giant projection globe, I Am 8-Bit art giveaways, interactive gaming stations, and for some strange reason, parkour street running stunt performances. It may sound hastily cobbled together, but I'm sure there's some sort of theme going on here. We just have to figure out the connection between parkour and Kevin Periera and we'll have it.

The festivities start at 9PM on Saturday, April 4th, with the system going on sale at midnight amidst some sort of big celebration. Me? I'll be getting up early Sunday and parkour running down to my local GameStop to pick mine up, just to keep in the spirit of things.

We asked each of the companies to write up a welcome letter to new owners of their consoles. They did the rest. We are running them in the order they were received. Check out Microsoft's and Sony's letters.

And now a word from Cammie Dunaway, executive vice president of sales and marketing, Nintendo.

To: New Wii owners
From: Cammie Dunaway,
Nintendo of America’s Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing

Hello everyone,

Welcome to Wii! I know it’s a little late and unnecessary to address this letter to the many Kotaku readers who bought their Wii when it first hit the videogame scene back in 2006. But to the more than four million consumers who only just discovered this new way of gaming during the November and December holiday period, congratulations on your purchase. In total, ten million other Americans bought a Wii in 2008, and you owners range from the most dedicated, passionate of players, all the way to first time gamers. If you’re in that latter group, you shouldn’t feel alone. Millions of Americans had no other video game system in their homes when they unpacked their Wiis. In fact, one of those new Wii families is probably about to set up their system in their new home, The White House!

Let me talk directly to those of you who are new gamers…or haven’t played in a very long time. Chances are the first Wii you saw belonged to a friend or relative. You probably smiled while watching them play, thought it looked like fun, and agreed to give it a try. It may not have taken long to decide you wanted one for your own. But the total experience is a lot more than just swinging around the Wii Remote (with that wrist strap always attached, of course!)

On the startup screen, I’m guessing you’ve already clicked onto the Mii channel and created an in-game version of yourself. Maybe you’ve even tried viewing your digital photos by plugging your SD memory card and flipping through the pictures with the Photo Channel. Just like the Wii itself, all the functions are set up to be simple to use.

But you won’t really understand the full range of Wii until you’re connected to the Internet. Just click on the lower left of the home screen and it will walk you through the setup. If you have any problems, the quickest help is available at support.nintendo.com.

Once you’re online, there’s a lot more to enjoy. Let me mention just two of your new channel options. The Wii Shop channel on one hand allows you to step back in time. Maybe you fondly remember a game you used to play 20 years ago (could it be that you actually played the original Donkey Kong?) Maybe you wish games could still be like that today. Well, they are—exactly the same. The Virtual Console feature on the channel lets you choose from more than 250 classics, originally released on Nintendo, Sega, and other vintage consoles. What’s old really can be new again.

Or, maybe you’re looking for innovative alternatives to the big name new game releases that grab all the headlines. Then the place for you is WiiWare, where we’ve invited small, independent development teams to show their work directly to players. A prime example is World of Goo, whose developers created a place where various forms of goo balls combine to build bridges, towers, and interact with the World of Goo Corporation. It’s so inventive and so engrossing that it was just named the Best Independent Game of the Year. But that’s just one game—there are already over 60 other WiiWare games available.

In both cases, you purchase these games by downloading them right to your system, and each game becomes a new channel button on your startup menu. They’re easy to find, and easy to buy. To make purchases, use the currency we call Wii Points, available either online using a credit card, or in physical card form at thousands of retail locations.

The second channel is the Nintendo Channel. It’s an interactive guide to all things Nintendo. You can find information on new and upcoming games, watch video trailers, rate the games you’re playing and share your thoughts with other users, and if you someday buy a portable Nintendo DS, you can even use the Nintendo Channel to download demos of DS games. (On the channel, I really recommend the video featuring Reverend Run from Run DMC playing Wii Music). But of course, the great thing about your Internet connection is that you can find dozens of independent game sites with more info and videos, each targeting particular groups of gamers according to their skill level and game taste.

So, I could talk a lot more about the channels, but I think it’ll be more fun to do some of the exploring yourself.

Instead, I’d like to close by discussing some of the key thinking that went into the invention of the Wii. Our global president, Mr. Iwata, has said that the video game industry over the years had inadvertently created a huge wall, distinctly separating gamers from non-gamers. I’m sure many of you have seen someone playing in a store or at a friend’s and said, ‘whoa—that’s way too hard for me!’ That kind of reaction really isn’t in the best interest of anyone.

So Wii Sports was born as a fundamental response to that kind of reaction—it not only had to be fun, but it had to be fun for anyone. With Wii Sports now the most-played video game in history, I think we reached that goal. But at the same time, it also raises the question, ‘OK—what’s next?’

For us, the stepping stone is what we call a ‘bridge’ game, something that will easily move you new players closer to the full world of gaming. I’ll give you one example, Mario Kart Wii. It comes bundled with a Wii Steering Wheel, because even though that wheel isn’t required to play the game, we thought it would be the most comfortable way for new players to start racing. Next, instead of just classic Nintendo characters, we let you put your own Mii into the game. Again, the idea is to make it feel friendly. And on the far end of exploration, we even wanted the experience to be so simple and involving that you’d eventually try to jump into online competition, racing against people around the world. So this bridge really leads in two directions: not just from simple-to-more-involving, but also acting like a link between new gamers and veteran ones. If you’re interested in more of the thinking behind this, you can find Mr. Iwata and the key developers talking about it at Nintendo.com.

Finally, I know many of you may have had a hard time finding your Wii and I thank you for your patience and diligence. Once you have experienced the joy of Wii we know you’ll agree that it was worth the wait.

MTV Multiplayer caught up with Nintendo VP Cammie Dunaway to inquire about the program, still planned to launch before the end of the year. The good news? Expect to get tangible rewards a la the Japanese Club Nintendo for your virtual "gold coins."

Hopefully, that means desk cluttering collectibles like the Mario moustache towels and Club Nintendo-only software like Tingle's Balloon Fight. HOPEFULLY!

New Details About U.S. Version Of ‘Club Nintendo’, Will Include American And Japanese Items [MTV Multiplayer]

“Almost half the Nintendo DS systems sold in the United States last year belong to women,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “With From Bags to Riches, we can help the growing population of female gamers test drive some great Nintendo DS games – and look good while they’re doing it.”

She's right! Come on girls, let's show em what we got! *snaps his fingers and struts*

Nintendo DS Becomes the Hot Tech-Cessory for Fashion-Conscious Women
‘From Bags to Riches’ Includes DS Systems with Fashion Handbag Rentals

REDMOND, Wash.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Women who prefer the hottest designer handbags draped over their arms will now be able to have the hottest portable video game system at their fingertips as well. Nintendo has partnered with From Bags to Riches, a popular online handbag-rental service, to include stylish and colorful Nintendo DS™ systems and games with some rentals through the end of 2008.

From Bags to Riches subscribers will have the chance to borrow a Nintendo DS and games, free of charge, with a 30-day rental of one of From Bags to Riches’ featured handbags from such coveted designers as Prada, Tory Burch, Gucci and Juicy Couture. Consumers can choose the handbag and Nintendo DS that best suit their taste on FromBagstoRiches.com. After the conclusion of the rental period, consumers simply return the Nintendo DS along with the bag.

The designer handbags will be accompanied by a variety of chic Nintendo DS colors, including Metallic Silver, Metallic Rose, Onyx, Crimson/Black or Cobalt/Black. Subscribers will also be able to select from a collection of popular games such as Mystery Case Files™: MillionHeir™, Brain Age™: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day and Nintendogs™.

“In today’s fashion world, carrying customized accessories means everything,” said Kara Richter, CEO and founder of From Bags to Riches. “With the addition of the stylish Nintendo DS, Nintendo brings to fashion accessories what Prada brought to stylish messenger bags.”

“Almost half the Nintendo DS systems sold in the United States last year belong to women,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “With From Bags to Riches, we can help the growing population of female gamers test drive some great Nintendo DS games – and look good while they’re doing it.”

More information about the promotion can be found at www.frombagstoriches.com. For more information about Nintendo DS, visit www.NintendoDS.com.

I would say the message is we were disappointed with our performance at E3. There were titles like Wario which we think will be really fun titles that we should have showcased. We were excited that Mr. Miyamoto made the commitment that Pikmin is coming. It would have been nice if we could have said that on stage. But, we think it was a good recognition for us that we care for our core fans, and not just the new people who are now discovering Nintendo.

Oh. Okay. Well, want to learn more about Cammie Dunaway? That, after the jump.

My position as head of sales and marketing is that I’m listening to the fans. I’m championing the things they care about. I’m helping to make sure we bring great games to the market place. I’m genuine, I’m new to gaming I’m not pretending to be more than I am. I’m having a blast. I feel similar to people who are just discovering games for the first time. I think for us as an industry, its good that we’re growing. That brings more money to the industry. That makes it attractive for more people to develop more games. We have to embrace the fact that new gamers can be good for everybody. Core gamers should help new gamers to discover their passion for gaming.

...When I came to work for Nintendo, we [her family] had a Wii, we had 3 or 4 DSs, a PSP, an Xbox, a PS2. We were an active gaming household, but it was only six months prior to joining Nintendo that I had ever played games at all. I started by playing Wii Sports and then by playing Big Brain Academy and Brain Age on my DS, and then I started playing a little bit of Zelda with my son, and then Pokemon. Sometimes it’s hard to jump into games like Zelda if you don’t have the experience.

...You can't be successful if you don’t enjoy every day at work. I’ve worked on Doritios, Cheetos, Yahoo, and Nintendo, these are all brands I feel really excited about. The second thing is always to try to give more than what is expected of you. Always speak up and share your ideas. Be courageous. That’s how you get the job done and make a difference.

Gabriel Franco Interviews Cammie Dunaway on Latin America, VGC, Piracy, etc [VG Chartz Thanks, Stephen!]

Interview: Cammie Dunaway [IGN]

If that sounds like you, here comes Cammie Dunaway to crash your party.

"You have seen the extent of Nintendo's 2008 holiday lineup," she told Wired recently, in the same interview wherein she also said she's really as jaw-crackingly smiley in real life as she appears to be during press conferences.

When you think about it, though, the holiday's not that far off. And before you know it, it'll be a brand new year, and time for brand new announcements. Such as?

Dunaway told Wired's Chris Kohler:

Well, you heard [Nintendo President Satoru] Iwata's commitment, that the Zelda and Mario teams are hard at work. And you know us, Chris, we don't talk about things until we are confident that they are in a place where we're going to be able to deliver on them in relatively short order after talking about them. So you have to know that those teams are working hard and there will be stuff that will be delightful coming out.

I'm really a genuinely smiley, nice person. Because people think I'm fake, smiling up there. I'm just not! It's just me! I am who I am.

Which is likely true! Though in the Nintendo acolytes defence, it was probably the content they were most displeased with, not necessarily the delivery.

Nintendo's Cammie Dunaway: I'm Not Faking It [Wired]

I spent the first half of this week hanging out with the likes of Michael Pachter, Peter Moore, Mike Gallagher and Nintendo of America's recently appointed vice president of marketing, Cammie Dunaway at Ziff Davis' Electronic Gaming Summit.

It was the first time I met Dunaway and we ended up chatting quite a bit during a dinner on the last night, hosted at a nearby vineyard, held in a castle of all places.

Dunaway, it turns out, had just flown in from New York where she helped kick off the launch of the Wii Fit in Central Park.

"I'm sure Wii Fit is going to sell very well," I told her, "but I suspect it's going to be like every other piece of exercise equipment people buy for themselves: In a few weeks or a month it's going to have laundry piled on it or be back in its box."

Not so, Dunaway insisted.

"Wii Fit incorporated the magic of video games," she said. "You get ranked, you unlock new levels, you can compete against each other, there's a lot of video game hooks that will help people stay motivated."

The next day, while reiterating our conversation to the summit during her speech, she added that there are also a lot of other exciting things that can be done with the balance board, specifically new games using it as a controller. Games like Namco-Bandai's skiing title or EA's Skate It or Ubi's upcoming Rayman title.

I buy the second argument, I'm not so sure about the first. But it's still a good model: You get people to buy the Balance Board by making people think working out will be fun, even though deep down everyone knows it really isn't, then you start releasing other games using the peripheral, removing the fit from the balance board and emphasizing the fun. It's almost a bait-and-switch, but without the negative connotations.

What I found more fascinating than Dunaway's insistence that Wii Fit, and not just the balance board, would be a game with lasting value, was her explanation of how Shigeru Miyamoto came up with the idea.

The story goes that Miyamoto placed a piece of graph paper on a wall in his house to track his weight and that every day he would plot it. Over time his family started questioning his weight gains and losses. Why did he lose weight on this day? Why did he gain weight on that day? That's when inspiration struck and Miyamoto went into the office and told his developers "Let's create a video game based on weighing yourself."

Can you imagine if anyone other than Miyamoto suggested that?

The average Wii gamer is a hardcore gamer, Nintendo of America's Cammie Dunaway told the Electronic Gaming Summit today.

Seventy-nine percent of Wii gamers are male, most older than 18 with an income of $50,000 or more and more than half game for five or more hours a week, Dunaway said.

While the people who buy Wii tend to be pretty typical for gaming, the other household members who play Wii aren't, she said.

About 45 percent of the other household members who play Wii are female, with 38 percent 25 or older. Sixty-five of these gamers play at least two hours a week, while only 32 percent play five or more a week.

"The real break-through, the real magic of the Wii console is that it brought new consumers into the game," she said. "We in the industry have a choice to make, do we want to appeal to the few or to the masses? Do we want to sell to more people or sell more and more and more to less people? Do we want to be inclusive or do we want to be expansive? At Nintendo we definitely believe in the power of the expanded audience.

"We hope everyone will join us in showing everyone just how much fun video games can be."

About 50 million games were sold for the Wii in its first 18 months, compared to about 42 million games in the first 18 months of the Playstation 2's life. The Xbox 360 came in at 30 million or so, the Xbox at roughly 28 million and finally the Playstation 3 at about 20 million.

Speaking to a gathering at the Electronic Gaming Summit, Cammie Dunaway, executive video president of sales and marketing for Nintendo of America, Dunaway used the numbers to launch into a talk about Nintendo's strategy for expanding the market.

Dunaway also showed a chart plotting out the first 18 months of each console's life. According to the chart, about 9.5 million Wii were sold in the first 18 months, 8.5 million PS2, 5.4 million Xbox 360, 5.2 million Xbox and 4.2 Playstation 3.

"While we appreciate the impact the Playstation 2 had on sales and the industry, perhaps we are even more impactful," Dunaway said, adding that there wasn't a single month in the Wii's first year and a half when Nintendo could meet demand.

Update: I just clarified with Nintendo: Those software sales numbers only include boxed games sold at retail and not virtual console or Wii Sports.