I have always been a huge advocate of ethical reflection and thoughtfulness in the classroom. I believe that regardless of what you teach about or what you teach with, you should be cognizant of the possible ramifications for your students. For example, I gave a talk in 2011 about how […]
alexlayne
211 posts
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt is the third in a series of games based on several books and short stories by Andrzej Sapkowski. Throughout the first two games, you play a “witcher” named Geralt. A witcher is someone with supernatural powers, who is not entirely human, and who is a […]
Sometimes gamers forget that the virtual worlds we participate in, while they often become as much our “real” world as meat space, are not subject to the same laws of freedom of speech as our meat space. When we participate on forums, chat within a game, or send someone a […]
As women, we are taught from a young age to fear the unknown. It is our responsibility to avoid dark alleys, short skirts, abusive men, or any other abnormal and risky behavior. Today people are too savvy about political correctness to say some of these things out loud; ie. you […]
Alison Tieman, face of The Honey Badger Brigade and noted Men’s Rights Activist, was banned along with her #GamerGate-affiliated booth from the Calgary Expo. She subsequently released a seemingly heartfelt video discussing the incident. If you need details, there is a fabulous write up of the story with relevant background that […]
Obviously, all the trigger warnings for this post. “Fag down.” “Transgender kill.” “You killed that faggot.” “Straight pride.” “AIDS carrier eliminated.” These are just some of the gems from the game Kill the F*ggot, which was removed from Steam Greenlight earlier today. This is the short trailer for the game: […]
Perhaps you’ve already decided this is going to be a piece ripping apart the so-called “dudebro.” That’s fair. I’m occasionally brash. I often believe my opponents are delusional, and I have no problem stating so in an argument. There is a long list of behaviors and beliefs I consider irrational […]
The minute I saw that Vice branched out to Vice Gaming, I was thrilled. Vice is a lot of things: Vice Magazine started in Canada in 1994 and quickly gained a reputation for having politically incorrect, provocative content. In 2002, the British edition of Vice was started, and by 2007 […]
Does someone who hates you deserve your pity? Your understanding? You empathy? A friend of mine once said that she feels bad for the men she argues with on sports fan websites, because it’s clear no one has ever loved them. They’ve never been touched by a hand that signified […]
I’m back! After a semester hiatus, I’m thrilled to be back in the mix. Dr. Craig Anderson, a Professor at Iowa State, has made his career on proving the negative effects of video games on youth. He is the figurehead for this movement, and he is the primary source and […]
******pssssst. The Tropico 5 DLC is on sale today on Steam!****** The last couple weeks have been rough, spending most of my time dealing with a personal tragedy. I haven’t been gaming or posting much or following the gaming news, but I have played a few DLCs for Tropico 5 […]
Of course the last couple weeks I’ve been completely distracted by #GamerGate. It has consumed most of my free time, which was spent looking at articles and reading about new horrible things happening to women in the gaming community. Doing the research for my dissertation damn near killed me, not […]
I worry about what #GamerGate has done to the games community. Don’t get me wrong, it needed to happen, it was going to happen sooner or later, and a lot of shit got said that needed to get said. However, I worry about what the long-term repercussions will be because […]
This post is about sex in video games. Not sexISM, but sex. Of course these two things can often not be separated. But in light of me having a shit week and #GamerGate blowing up on national new sources across the country, I thought I would change things up a […]
Civilization, Civilization, Civilization. When I was in middle school I would wait until everyone was sleeping and then sneak into the office and play Civ II all night, going to school the next day with blurry eyes and disoriented speech patterns from a lack of sleep. I would fake sick […]
Before the week is over and you start getting your GamerGate fatigue (or maybe you already have it), I hope you will indulge me in reading this post, even if it’s the last one you ever read about GamerGate. (For GamerGaters) Let me start by saying that I want to […]