Linda Santiago: How a Non-Gamer Wins in the Gaming Industry
Written by Linda Santiago
The story of Linda Santiago, Women Who Code Executive Assistant, and her journey in the gaming industry as the Manager of Entertainment Products for the NHL.
How did you get into the video game industry?
As the Manager of Entertainment Products, National Hockey League, in partnership with the NHL Players Association, I worked with over eight licensees during each NHL season, and I have worked on over 25 video games. I was a little apprehensive about working on video games since I was not a player. I did own trading cards and collectibles, so I knew what to look out for.
What did your job entail?
As the Manager representing the NHL, it was imperative that there was confidentiality between the NHL and each licensee. Trust was a large part of this business as each game was trying to outdo the other when it came to special effects, features, etc. Each game was in development for 10 months to a year. I worked on quality control for the NHL trademarks, logos, and songs in each game. You had to make sure a swear word didn’t sneak into the game or no blood was shown on an animated player. For the record, they would try and it became a game for me to find them. I did love receiving all the latest music from record companies. During that time, the Xbox was in the final hardware design phase and in direct competition with the Sony Playstation and Nintendo Gamer Cube. It was an exciting time for the industry as a whole. I also worked on trading cards and collectibles. My favorite part was cracking a pack of cards and sharing them with kids. I would teach them about stats and it became a math lesson. It was a win-win!
What was your favorite part about being in the gaming industry at that time?
E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) was the conference to go to if you were in the industry. It was a time to meet face to face with licensees and test drive the latest NHL games in production. The expo would have all the latest versions of video games. It was a great time to meet other Leagues and attend an amazing after party with the latest performer, i.e. Janet Jackson.
What was it like being the only Latina woman in management?
Back then, I never noticed I was any different from other members of the management team. I was a woman in a male-dominated sports industry whose fan base was predominantly white. The NHL’s tagline is Hockey is for Everyone. My family played the sport so I was all too familiar with hockey. Actually, I disliked going to games as a child and laughed when I went for the interview and they wanted to know which team I was a fan of. Who knew I would work in the industry and sports in general for over 15 years?
Now that you're working at WWCode, can you speak to the role you feel WWCode plays in having more women join and stay in the gaming industry?
During my visits to Sony, Electronic Arts and Microsoft, I did not see any women on the design team, which was disappointing. There were women on the administrative side. As a Latin woman, I was a novelty to the male-dominated video game industry. I used that to my advantage as I started as an Assistant and worked my way up to management. Now at Women Who Code, it’s amazing to see women in the gaming industry but there is still more work to be done. According to an article on Statista, by J. Clement, a game developer survey in 2021 found that 61percent of responding game developers were men, while 30 percent were women. The share of female game developers is up from 21 percent in 2017. Approximately eight percent of game developers did not identify as either men or women.
Fun Fact – I never played any of the video games I worked on.
Favorite collectibles to work on – NHL Monopoly and Snoopy collectibles.