Video game industry still doesn't understand women
Posted: May 29, 2010 Filed under: video games, Women | Tags: Bastila, Carth, Carth Hate, consumerism, consumerism is dead, feminism, feminism in video games, G4tv.com, Game, great recession, Kalypso Media, Knights of the Old Republic, KOTOR, Lara Croft, Nintendo DS, puzzle games, Red Dead Redemption, Sex in the City, Tomb Raider, Tropico 3, Video game, Wii, Xbox 8 Comments
Image via Wikipedia
I just read this article over on G4tv.com by Kevin Kelly titled “Sex in the City 2: Gaming with the Girls“. I think the article was aiming to be a list of games you can get your girlfriend, who is a Sex in the City fanatic (hence the title). The games listed in the article aren’t half bad, except for the “soulless” Imagine: Fashion Designer, and Kelly wrote the article in an attempt to be humorous but happened to fail miserably. I know I shouldn’t get offended at Kelly’s attempt at humor, but Kelly wrote in exactly the way the gaming industry views women, a view that is insanely offensive considering we now make up more than 40% of the gaming population.
Any female I know that happens to like Sex in the City already plays video games. What video games do they play? At least some sort of web- based puzzle game when they are at work, and another normal game on their Wii, Xbox, DS or PC. The rest of the women I know that like Sex in the City are 40 and above, and are already playing some Bejeweled-type game online, which is, surprise, also A PUZZLE GAME.
Are female exclusive gaming clans anti-women?
Posted: May 24, 2010 Filed under: video games, Women | Tags: Clan, feminism, feminism in video games, Frag Dolls, Game, Gamer, Gender, gender in video games, girl gamer, PMS clan, team foxy, Video game, Video game industry, Women 3 Comments
All female gaming clans are the reason they make games like this one: Image by gruntzooki via Flickr
I have long puzzled over the validity of “all female” gaming clans… and as more young ladies get involved in the competitive gaming industry, more and more all female gaming clans are popping up. The following is a rant of ideas that have been around since 2006.
I understand women feel the need to band together as the video game industry is male dominated and women can feel marginalized, and granted, some male gamers are still shocked to find a girl gamer online, but that novelty is disappearing as more and more women play video games. There is no need to segregate competitive clans based on gender, and exclusively female clans hurts the female gamer in the long run. It is already hard enough to be a female gamer, from the cracks at my voice sounding like a 12 year old, to all the close-up porn sprays I am subjected to, that the idea of me asking for special attention because of the genitalia between my legs is just mind-blowing. I just want some R-E-S-P-E-C-T, nothing more, nothing less. I just want to be a person that plays games. I don’t want to be a novelty.
By having the female gamers separate from the males in competitive gaming clans, you are asking that the females in the gaming world be treated differently. By asking that females be treated differently, you are perpetuating the myth that women in gaming is a novelty, and is something special. By having an all female gaming clan, you identify yourself as the other, as the outsider, and how can you ever be fully integrated into the gaming community if you wish to remain in your gender-based group? It doesn’t happen. All female gaming clans, while sounding good initially, just make it worse, especially when you never hear of them winning a single tournament (or maybe that is the gaming media’s fault?).
(Side note: why does it matter how good these ladies look, any way? Shouldn’t their skills matter more than their appearance? These gaming clans are marketing themselves to women, not men, so why all the revealing pictures? I’d rather join a clan where everyone was dressed like a classy lady, thank you very much. Is this why females have yet to win any major titles? I don’t see competitive male gamers being judged on both their appearance and gaming skills, so why do women need to prove that they are hot AND a good gamer? Hot women who play video games are not a novelty any more, sorry. If over 50% of us play games now, chances are, many of us are attractive.)
I can’t think of a clan that claims to be all male (it happens by default), so why are there all-female clans? It’s not like the competitive gaming community has different categories for male and female gamers, right? Competitive gaming is not the Olympics in the physical sense, so we ladies don’t need separate teams…the sooner we are integrated the sooner we will gain respect in the community. If women ever want to be treated like normal human beings in the gaming community, they have to start acting like it. Female gamers need to get into the habit of viewing themselves as plain ol’ ordinary gamers, not OMG “girl gamers” in need of their own special “girl gamer” clan.
If I see one more profile with the words “I’m a hot girl gamer, deal with it!” or another attention whore-y profile (I get it, you’re insecure!) next time I log on I think I will riot. Somewhere. On the internet. Or maybe I just don’t understand, because I am no longer a teenager and I don’t play with teenagers…..
11 reasons why you should download Portal today
Posted: May 24, 2010 Filed under: Science, video games | Tags: ellen McLain, Game, PC GAMing, Personal computer, Portal, Puzzle, Puzzle video game, Steam, Uploading and downloading, Video game 3 Comments
Image via Wikipedia
Hey all you PC gamers! Today is the last day to download Portal for free! Portal’s freeness is the MAIN reason you should download the game today, but if “free” isn’t enough to entice you, I’ve comprised my own list for why Portal rocks, in no particular order.
10. It is the most unconventional puzzle game you will ever play (well, until the rumored Portal 2).
9. How many puzzle games have you played where inertia was a key feature in solving puzzles? None! Because Portal is one of the most original games you will ever play.
8. The two main characters in the game are female; both you and the robot who guides you.
7. The writing is insanely witty… from the dialogue to the story line. How can a puzzle game have such good writing? Play it, and find out.
6. The game is about portals!!!…. you make portals, you walk through them, you end up in a different location. It is mind blowing.
5. Want to know where the origin of “The cake is a lie” meme came from? Portal! What other game is good enough to have a meme?
4. This ending song: [youtubevid id=”Y6ljFaKRTrI”]
3. The game only takes you a couple hours to beat, but replay value (radio transmission achievement) is high.
2. The controls are easy to figure out, even if you are not used to the first person perspective in video games.
1. Portal has won numerous awards (ahem, 70!) and received more praise than my beloved Team Fortress 2.
Surprise! Size matters in a porno video game
Posted: May 22, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized, video games | Tags: beating up tourists, Bonetown, Cartoons, Facial hair, Game, Games, gender stereotypes, grand theft auto, Guitar, Orgasm, penis, Personal computer, Population, porn, porn video game, Pornographic film, racism, sexism, Sexual intercourse, Video game 3 Comments
Image via Wikipedia
I would first like to clarify that I did not play the entire game, just the demo (I am not about to pay for a porn video game, thank you very much). I would also like to mention that I have never played a porn video game, or an “action adventure porno game” before in my life. We live in a world where a good chunk of our population plays video games, or watches porn, so it is only a matter of time before someone combined the two: hence, Bonetown.
Even though the game came out in 2008, I found the cartoony ‘Bonetown’ the other day when this article was on the front page of digg. Other outlets have written about how “morally depraved” Bonetown is, or how offensive the game is on a variety of different levels, so I am not going to go there in this post. Writes Jessica Wakeman over on The Frisky:
“Bonetown” touts itself as “the world’s first action adventure porno video game,” but it’s more like thoughts from the internet’s most ignorant trolls set to animation. You know, the trolls who think racism and sexism have been “solved” so it’s really hilarious to perpetuate stereotypes about minorities and women.
via ‘Bonetown: “The World’s First Action Adventure Porno Game“
Bonetown is supposed to take place in some GTA universe, where everyone is running around drunk, stoned, or both, and you have sex right on the street. Because I was playing the demo, I was confined to this small area around a beach (here is some very NSFW gameplay in a trailer park that I did not have access to), and I quickly learned the world map. (The only building I was allowed to enter in the demo kept crashing my PC.) I spent my time running around beating up Asian tourists or stoners and sexing up fat ladies.
Indie Fallout 3-inspired movie in the works
Posted: May 18, 2010 Filed under: Film, video games | Tags: Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, Black Velvet, desert story, Fallout, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, feminism in video games, Games, hookers, law abiding engineer, porn, Princess Bride, prostitutes, Prostitution, roger ebert, sex slaves, team fortress 2, the princess bride, video games, zelda 1 CommentI have long been saying that Fallout 3 was an amazing game, if not one of the best ever made. From the story line, to the creatures, to the post-apocalyptic environment, the game play to the music (I cannot decide if “Mighty Mighty Man” is my favorite song, or if “I don’t want to set the world on fire” is ), to showing women have hair above their lip too… oh my lord, just talking about Fallout 3 gets me excited in a variety of ways. It’s not just me though, that adores this game in a borderline fanatical way. Check out this fan movie inspired by Fallout 3 titled “Desert Story”:
[youtubevid id=”dw1Vh9Yzryo”]
You may be wondering why at the end of the film the two females didn’t go with the male hero, off into the wilderness. The Fallout 3 universe includes people who are not cookie – cutter good or bad, or who think logically- these two females decide to stay in their home. Most likely they were raped, mistrust all people except for themselves (because how could you get by in that world looking like they do without becoming prostitutes or sex slaves?) , and figure they’d be better off without the male hero.
If you want to be good in Fallout 3, you have to accept that sometimes you will save bad people from bad people, or saving people doesn’t necessarily influence their decisions in any way. Even if you saved two females, that doesn’t mean they’d join your party. By staying with each other, the freed “prostitutes” are unintentionally feminist, as opposed to the hero who is intentionally feminist by treating the hookers as people.
I now have a small writer crush on Tim Pape (why didn’t I think of this, dammit!). Wild Gunmen has an interview with the Papes here, where it is revealed there will be 2 more episodes in the same vein, and a feature length movie that is already “partially funded” titled Black Velvet. (oh, what would I do to be cast in this?!) For another interview with the Papes, check out Co-Optimus.com, where the Papes mention the next two short installments are inspired by Zelda and The Princess Bride (<3!!!!!).
Another fan movie worth checking out is Law Abiding Engineer. Suck on that, Ebert!
Hate crimes against Muslims, or just trolls?
Posted: May 16, 2010 Filed under: Chicago, Techology, Uncategorized | Tags: 4chan, Chicago, Chicago Art Magazine, Crime, Hate crime, hate crime against muslims, Judaism, Lolcat, lulz, misunderstanding the internet, Muslim, Race-Ethnic-Religious Relations, Wall Street Journal, why so serious 12 CommentsRecently in the Chicago art world, a Muslim artist had her exhibit on Muslim hate crimes defaced with a robot and a speech bubble. The Chicago media is abuzz with the words “hate crime”, and the Muslim community is even asking the FBI to get involved in the investigation. I write over on Chicago Art Magazine:
The most common comment on the internet about this incident has dealt with the irony of the defacement ( “doing it for the lulz” explained here). The same people leaving these comments are the very same disrespectful teenage to twenty-something males that run around saying “Why So Serious” (even a Wall Street Journal blogger has used this phrase) or making those funny cat pictures everyone loves. I hesitate to call this a “hate crime” because the drawing of robots and speech bubbles on a piece of art don’t fit the definition of a hate crime: a criminal offense committed against a person or property that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, age or religion.
A robot does not strike me as anti-Muslim, in so much as “anti-human”. A robot is not a swastika or a white hooded “KKK” member. What if this wasn’t about hatred at all, but just some jerk move by another artist? What if the vandal wanted to contribute to the work by saying any one who says these things about Muslims is a Fox News robot? Calling this a hate crime without proof of intention reminds me of the “possible hate crime” story about a Jewish man that was mugged. He wasn’t mugged because he was Jewish, he was mugged because he was alone, old, and an easy target. I buy my Fox News Robot theory over the supposed Hate Crime theory. The robots don’t seem like “marks of hate” but ones of arrogance and trolling. Was this troll bothered and angered by her hate wall? I think they were probably bored by its “seriousness” and felt like causing some drama/humor.
And because I couldn’t embed this video over there in my pep talk to the defaced artist, I am going to do it here:
[youtubevid id=”WlBiLNN1NhQ”]
Humans and Neanderthals had sex, now make a video game about it
Posted: May 7, 2010 Filed under: Science, video games | Tags: Africa, bethesda softworks, Biology, DNA, earth's children, Historical fiction, Human, Jean M. Auel, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, medicinal herbs, Neandertal, Neanderthal, Neanderthal genome project, Video game 3 Comments
If you think this is a bad idea for a video game, go watch One Million Years BC
I just heard a story on the radio: NPR’s “Science Friday” about Neanderthals and Humans interbreeding. I have known about this for years…. mainly because traditional history assumed these two species fought each other, and if they did wage war, you know there would have been some raping of women going on. But my firm belief that Neanderthals and Humans had sex also came from the book series “Earth’s Children”, by Jean M. Auel.
I used to sneer at the wikipedia page for calling my favorite series “speculative alternative historical fiction“, but now my cattiness has been justified. Science has proven what Auel knew all along.
Writes the New York Times:
“Seven years ago, I really thought that it would remain impossible in my lifetime to sequence the whole Neanderthal genome,” Dr. Paabo said at a news conference. But the Leipzig team’s second conclusion, that there was probably interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans before Europeans and Asians split, is being met with reserve by some archaeologists.
A degree of interbreeding between modern humans and Neanderthals in Europe would not be greatly surprising given that the species overlapped there from 44,000 years ago when modern humans first entered Europe to 30,000 years ago when the last Neanderthals fell extinct. Archaeologists have been debating for years whether the fossil record shows evidence of individuals with mixed features.
All fascinating stuff, I just hope racists don’t somehow twist this data. From GenomeWeb.com:
Now, their comparison of the Neandertal genomes with the genomes of chimpanzees and contemporary humans from around the world hints at previously unappreciated gene flow from Neandertals to humans outside of Africa: their results suggest one to four percent of non-African human genomes are comprised of Neandertal sequence.
via Neandertal Genome Points to Human- Neandertal Interbreeding
For those unfamiliar with Auel’s novels, she writes about an orphaned girl named Ayla who is raised by Neanderthals. Once Ayla hits puberty, she leaves the Neanderthals to find her people, but not before giving birth to a baby of “mixed spirits”. The series is filled with love, action, death, and has tons of description and really really hot sex scenes (as in, the kind that make you all hot and flustered, so don’t read those parts in public).
I have long waited for a video game based on Ayla and the Earth’s Children series (or movies will do; starting after the 1986 flick “Clan of the Cave Bear” ). I imagine some sort of RPG with a firm storyline where I get skill points for learning to hunt and fight, collecting medicinal plants and treating injuries, engaging in shamanic rituals, and domesticating a range of animals, including horses and wolves. And there can be tons of titties, I won’t complain. Video game execs (I am looking at you Bethesda!), if you need a writer for such a game, hit me up at fruzsina.eordogh (at) gmail.
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- Humans share Neanderthal genes from interbreeding 50,000 years ago (telegraph.co.uk)
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Man wins $1 million playing video game
Posted: May 5, 2010 Filed under: Sports, video games | Tags: Alabama, Associated Press, Baseball, Major League Baseball, Major League Baseball 2K10, perfect game, sport, Sports game, Take-Two Interactive, Video game, Wade McGilberry 1 Comment
Brandon Claussen, pitching for the Cincinnati Reds, delivers the ball to home plate. Image via Wikipedia
I never got into sports games, but Wade McGilberry’s recent win is a good enough reason to start:
The 23-year-old from Mobile, Ala., accomplished the feat in just an hour and a half, becoming the first to pitch a perfect game in Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.’s “Major League Baseball 2K10.” He and his wife, Katy, plan to pay off their mortgage and start a family with the winnings.
via 23-year-old wins $1M playing baseball video game – The Associated Press
(AP article has since been corrected, listing the couple to live in Semmes, and Wade McGilberry has since turned 24…) The Associated Press article goes on to mention it took McGilberry six tries, and he hasn’t been able to duplicate his perfect pitch since. Could you call that luck? Maybe.
My favorite part of this news story though, is how supportive the wife was:
McGilberry said that when he bought the game, his wife suggested that he take the day off work so he could get a head start on the competition.
via 23-year-old wins $1M playing baseball video game – The Associated Press
And a Canadian newspaper got an interview with Wade (instead of duplicating the AP article like every other media outlet):
“It was actually my wife who convinced me to go for it,” Wade McGilberry of Semmes, Ala., said in a statement. “I never thought I’d actually win a million dollars playing a video game. it’s all still sinking in for me.”
via Alabama man throw perfect (virtual) game; wins $1 million – The Globe and Mail
Follow this hyperlink to watch a video and see pictures of Wade, his wife, and his giant check.
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My FarmVille Epiphany
Posted: May 4, 2010 Filed under: Techology, video games | Tags: Agriculture, anxiety, casual gaming, depression, Facebook, FarmVille, gamer cred, Games, hardcore gaming, internet, Recreation and Sports, social gaming, social media, Social Networking, team fortress 2, Television, Video game, Women 2 Comments
That duck looks too happy. Image via Wikipedia
When I first saw FarmVille on Facebook, I immediately shunned it. At one moment in time, it felt like all of my female Facebook friends were doing it, so therefore I wanted to have nothing to do with it. I took the saying “If all your friends are doing it, would you?” to heart. I am a skeptic of the unanimously popular.
I freely admit that as a grown up, this now makes me a jerk. What can I do though? It’s my initial gut reaction. Also, inside my head, there’s a 15 year old male gamer, scoffing at the farm game, and probably questioning my sexuality. Real gamers don’t play FarmVille, right? Even if you’re playing for an hour a day, every day, you could never EVER be a “gamer” because you played Farmville. Those are the facts of gaming life, I am pretty sure.
A couple days ago, I happened to read “Nice Guys, Stressed Ladies, And The Curious Ways They Play Video Games” by Leigh Alexander, and it made me want to play Farmville. It was this quote, in particular:
“It just feels really good to know that I’m on top of things,” she tells me, chewing on her straw a little nervously as she explains why she’s so into FarmVille. “I like to know my farm is in good shape and, like, everyone can see it.”
The article goes on to mention how games are used as escapism, or control, or a coping mechanism, or some other psychological reason proving we are still so tortured despite our tremendous technology…. (except, I added the weird philosophical wane on technology at the end). What I am trying to say is, I too, want to feel like I have my shit together….and with FarmVille, I can knock out being social, AND get that the fake accomplishment/satisfaction feeling from having an orderly farm. And everyone seeing that I have an orderly farm. I have healthy cows. My chickens lay nice eggs. My crops are fertile. I have accomplished something very important today.
… But then I pull up the FarmVille website, and I am instantly terrified. I can’t click on anything in the page. This is a game…? It doesn’t look like a game. The website tells me nothing… Except… if I want more information, I must sign into Facebook.
Here is the other part of the dilemma: I can’t sign into Facebook, because then everyone will know that I am now playing FarmVille. I am a proud member of the “I dont care about your farm, or your fish, or your park, or your mafia!!!” Facebook group. Or, at least that is what I tell myself, the “myself” that has been influenced by gaming males…. But enough about males: either way, can I go back on my digital word? Do I need to create a fake Facebook account so I can play FarmVille? Why do I even care that much about FarmVille to consider making a fake account!? (Why, FarmVille, why have you eaten at my psyche like so?)
As if on cue, last evening I stumbled upon this NPR story on older female players and “Bejeweled” (…which also happened to mention FarmVille):
“What you find is a lot of women who are both working and raising children just have no time for relationships,” says Misiek Piskorski, who teaches about online social networking at the Harvard Business School. “But it’s not like they wouldn’t want to spend more time having these relationships. It’s just really, really hard. And this allows them to basically sustain these relationships.” Piskorski says the games aren’t taking away from face-to-face interactions. They’re just replacing time these women would’ve spent watching TV or some other media. And for busy King, that’s good enough.
I played Bejeweled (and Mah Jong tiles, JT’s Blocks, Text Twist and many many others) during my free periods all through high school, so I am all Bejeweled out at this point in my life. But NPR, mentioning FarmVille when I am already wrestling with my decision of the game? Are you listening to my thoughts, NPR?
I do like that these social networking games are the new way of “doing lunch”, or “grabbing some coffee”, but should I replace actual face time with digital time? I can reach more of my friends by interacting with them digitally, but do I lose something when sacrificing actual face to face interaction? Is this a trade-off I want to make? As I age, I wonder if I really need to keep up this “gamer cred”. What is the point in impressing the “young male gamers” in my head when I am in my mid-20’s? If I play a game to relax and unwind, does it matter what kind of game it is?
My boyfriend jokes that he will break up with me if I got addicted to FarmVille, so I guess gamer cred still lives on at my age… Maybe I should stick to Team Fortress 2 as my “coping mechanism“…..
Does Steam care more about pirates than its customers?
Posted: May 3, 2010 Filed under: Techology, video games | Tags: Crysis, Digital rights management, Games, Mac, Macintosh, Personal computer game, Sam & Max, Steam, team fortress 2, Ubisoft, Valve Corporation, Video game, video games 4 Comments
I've been watching The Pacific, which made me want to play "Crysis" (Image via Wikipedia)
I don’t want to rain on the good Steam press parade happening right now (Steam recently announced it would start distributing their games on Macs), but while I was moving this weekend, Steam let me down. I did not have internet access from Friday to Monday because I was moving. To someone addicted to Team Fortress 2, four days is a long time. I tried to fill my FPS void with Crysis, thinking it would still play without an internet connection. I don’t need an internet connection to play Crysis, right? Wrong!
Booting up Crysis in Steam’s offline mode couldn’t, and wouldn’t happen, because Steam didn’t believe that I had an authentic copy of Crysis, never mind that I had purchased it through Steam. How is this possible? I’ve played Crysis countless times before, and the game was authenticated when I first got it. How could Steam let me down, now, in my hour of need, when it is supposed to be the savior of PC gaming? At the time, I felt like I was being punished, maybe for not getting Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse. If only that were the truth!
Now that I have internet access, I did some googling, and I’ve come to the conclusion that Steam might be paranoid:
“In general, it seems DRM restrictions in gaming are becoming more intrusive and creating problems for genuine customers, rather than the pirates who happily bypass these measures every time,” Boyd said. “PC gaming should be about portability – what use are games you can’t play at the airport or on a train if you can’t get online?”
But wait, doesn’t Steam have digital technology that makes DRM obsolete? Then why I couldn’t play Crysis?
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