Players, Pt. 1 GENDER COM 427 September 17

QUIZ!

1. Bryce & Rutter: “Although the well-worn, and empirically unsustained, stereotype of _________ gamers continues to be prevalent, available figures on gamer demographics do not support this stereotypical view.” A) female B) solitary, male C) acne-covered D) immature

2. Bryce & Rutter:“Though there is a high level of invisibility of female gamers at __________, it is our contention that this does not truly reflect females’ domestic participation in computer gaming.” A) public gaming events B) all levels of government C) post-secondary schools D) industry trade shows

3. According to Carr, the gaming preferences of the young female students participating in her study were shaped by: A) their previous familiarity with the game/s B) hormones C) the physical location & availability of gaming systems during play sessions D) A & C

4. Carr: “The association of masculinity with computer games is ________, the result of a series of inventions, trends, practices, and commercial decisions that have settled into a particular pattern.” A) only natural B) a construct C) a mystery wrapped in an enigma D) phony baloney

BONUS. Carr uses Salen & Zimmerman’s three “conceptual frames” for her analysis of gender and video game preference: these are rules, play, and ________. A) more rules B) production C) culture D) design

Exploration of a Toolset 1.Send copy electronically by 11:59 PM tonight, Eastern Standard Time 2.We will assemble all the SUMMARIES into one Google document by noon tomorrow and share the document with you 3.READ THE GOOGLE DOCUMENT FOR THURSDAY. Get a sense of what you would like to use for a project. For the assignment itself: -Use section headings -We want to see evidence that you looked through several different i) games and ii) tutorial sites relating to your toolset

What is gender? 1.There is more variability WITHIN “male” and WITHIN “female” than BETWEEN them 2.There is nothing natural about gender. 1.We “do” gender. Every day, all the time. Games are part of this performance. 2.There are multiple masculinities” and multiple “femininities”

Group work Groups of 4 Each person shares the following about their gaming history: – When did you start playing? – On what system? Which games? – Did your household own system(s)? If yes, where was it? If no, where did you go to play? – Who did you play with? – How many of your friends played? – What are your current gaming preferences? Write down commonalities & differences between group members “preferences are not static, nor do they emerge in a vacuum, nor can they be directly or solely ascribed to any one aspect of a player’s identity. Preferences reflect previous access, and they alter” (Carr, p. 2005).

Gender & gaming culture: What’s changed since 2003/2005?

Game production: 2005 “produced by males, for a male audience, and incorporate themes recognisably ‘male’”

Game production: 2013 Game Developer Magazine, April 2013 Producers: 77% m 23% f Programmers: 96% m 4% f Artists: 84% m 16% f Audio engineers: 96% m 4% f

Online gaming Bryce & Rutter: “There is evidence that online gaming is becoming particularly popular with female gamers as the anonymity of online gaming provides a context for competitive gaming against male opponents free from the constraints of stereotypical attitudes and assessments of the abilities of female gamers which are often reported in face to face gaming contexts”

fatuglyorslutty.com Online gaming

Games made by teams involving female design leads: Assassin’s Creed (Jade Raymond, Lead Producer) Portal (Kim Swift, Lead Designer) Bioshock (Alyssa Finley, Producer) Journey (Kellee Santiago, founder)

Representation Resident Evil 4 (2005)

More game characters are female…

For every non-sexualized female character, there are dozens of other hyper-sexualized ones “Quiet”, the mute female sniper from Metal Gear Solid V Hideo Kajima: “The initial target is to make u want to do cosplay or its figurine to sell well… …this one may not be cosplayable”

Male & female characters are sexualized in different ways

What if male characters were sexualized the same ways (some) female characters are?

How a character is represented doesn’t determine how they’ll be ‘read’ or played Are we playing with? Or playing as? Is this someone we want to be? Someone we want to be with? A means to an end? A pleasure to play? “Perhaps it was because the pleasures of “identification” are overrated. Or, perhaps such pleasures are dependent on the contexts of play: the girls were playing in public, and as a result, they orientated toward functional rather than fantastical relationships with their avatars”