Safe Spaces in Gaming: A Chat with Paula Manrique

The sun may have set but the work day isn't over when Paula ”Fenjima” Manrique bursts into Liquid Swords offices, instantly lighting up our lobby as if she brought her own spotlight with her. We first met her earlier in the year when Liquid Swords sponsored Women in Games at SPACE, an event that Paula organized, hosted, and celebrated by dancing the night away. Now that the dust has settled, we caught up with Paula to talk about her work with Women in Games, how to create safe spaces in a historically male-dominated field, and her love for Call of Duty.

I go by Paula, Fenjima is my gamer tag. When I started to play video games, I was signing up for different community pages, like Game Reactor and FZ here in Sweden and everything. So then I needed a name. And the only thing that wasn't occupied was Fenjima. My middle name is Fernanda, and in Chile, where I come from, everybody called Fernanda is called Fenji. And my last name is Manrique. So that’s where Fenjima comes from! It’s been with me for nine or ten years now.

My favorite game of all time is The Last of Us, it’s what got me into gaming in the first place. Nowadays, I like war games, especially Call of Duty [CoD].

When I first started gaming, I was thrown into the industry right away, and when I was trying to find new people to play with, I realized how toxic it can be for women. You always have to prove yourself by answering a million questions – taking this unofficial test.

An especially toxic online group told me that I couldn’t call myself a gamer if I wasn’t playing CoD. So, I began to play CoD. I figured that if I could master that, I could play anything. I wanted to be able to pick a controller and shut them up. Now, it’s my favorite game. I play it all year long.

Call of Duty, of course, the new Cyberpunk [Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty], and Spider-Man 2, of course. That game is really, really good. I need to play a lot of different games and know what’s out there. When I’m a guest on TV4’s morning news show, Nyhetsmorgon, I talk about games for all audiences – from young children to adults. That’s why you can find me playing everything from Peppa Pig to the latest CoD, which I recently played with my 11-year-old daughter. She loved it, it’s one of her favorites now too, along with Overwatch.

I work at Qruxel Productions as an account manager. Our niche is gaming and esports, and I contact companies about productions in that area. It's really fun to get into contact with companies outside of the gaming industry. For example, I can contact Jelly Bean to see if they want to organize a Fall Guys tournament since that game includes little Jelly Beans, and then organize that event for them.

On top of that, I work as a gaming consultant and have my own clothing line called Gamer Gäris, but it’s on hold for the moment.

It is! Companies hire me to organize events or to help them get into gaming. Basically, I educate anyone who doesn’t game at all or doesn’t understand what it’s about. The City of Stockholm sent me out to schools so I could show teachers how to implement gaming in their classrooms. It helps students pay attention and engage more with the topic they’re teaching.

I’ve also held workshops for parents who don't know anything about gaming. We played games together and I taught them everything that they needed to know and at the end of the day, they realized games aren’t dangerous.

When I was starting to game, I couldn’t find other women to play with. It was really hard. I was surrounded by all these men, and they either hated me or wanted to be my boyfriend. I wasn’t interested in either of those options. I was traveling all over the world, interviewing game directors and producers, and making appearances in the media. I went to Gamescom, and everyone seated around me were men. When I talked to people about their games, it was only to men. I needed to find out where the women were.

So, I started to arrange meetups to find women who wanted to game with me, and other women. We started out as four or five women having lunch and drinks. Over time, more joined, and it kept growing until we were so big that we needed to make it official. This group needed a name, or a label, to give us a sense of power and authenticity that would encourage even more people to join. Especially when we needed sponsors – you won’t get any funding without a name. I did some investigating and found Women in Games, a large organization that shared our values. I had heard of them, but I didn’t know that being an ambassador for them was a possibility. That journey began in March 2023, and I’ve been running at high speed ever since.

An ambassador supports other women by listening and advising them and also organizes events. They can be big or small, from a lunch or dinner to an event with hundreds of people, like the one I just organized at SPACE. These events are open to everyone, including allies. We need everyone to join this movement or we won’t get anywhere. We can’t go off alone to scream in a corner – nobody will hear us! We need everyone to join in.

And at SPACE, they did! It was the biggest ambassador event we’ve ever organized and it really successful, over 350 people attended. There was so much love in the air – you could almost taste it. All of SPACE was filled with love, fun, and the sensation of letting everything go and being your true self.

There were lots of activities, along with a panel and quiz. We were dancing, and glow sticks were everywhere. I even saw some people put them in their bras. At one point on the dance floor, Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby, One More Time” came on and everyone went wild.

Yes! You commit to as much or as little as you have time for. Send in an application at the Women in Games website and tell them about yourself and why you want to be an ambassador. They’re a great organization, they give us a platform and make it possible for everyone to make a difference.

In Sweden, we’re around 40 ambassadors all over the country. And we’re growing. If you look at the event at SPACE, that was the work of just one ambassador. If I could do all of that by myself, imagine what we can do together.