Do you frequently play games online in multiplayer mode? When you play online, do you use a mic to communicate to other players? According to a report entitled “Teens, Technology and Friendships” released by the Pew Research Center, if you’re a teenage girl, the answer to both of these questions […]
Games and Culture
337 posts
We occasionally get pushback from the Internet, whether it’s in the form of people seeking to engage or those seeking nothing more than to harass people they don’t agree with. Unfortunately, it’s pretty much par for the course on the Internet these days. But, last week, Anita Sarkeesian backed Sam […]
I’ve been catching up on some much overdue research this summer, and in the course of my reading, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about critique and immersion. Indeed, it would seem that, often, when people discuss critical thinking and scholarship in relation to video games, they usually work under […]
Ever since Bulimia.com released their re-imagined takes on female video game characters, there has been a great deal of debate as to whether or not the redone bodies actually were more “realistic” as stated. From the original explanation for the project: Some gaming studios boast their hyper-realistic lighting techniques, touting […]
I usually try not to get all emotional in my posts, but I just couldn’t help it with my topic this week. Hopefully you, reader, can enjoy and do a little reflecting on your own. I recently spent two weeks without the Internet. I competed in the 2015 PDGA Amateur […]
Update: Several of our readers have reached out to us about the title of this post, and I wanted to make sure that their voices are heard and that we take the opportunity to begin a conversation about it by addressing their concerns. Here is one such email we received, […]
As we move into August and the anniversary of #GamerGate’s beginnings, I’ve been thinking through a lot of the discussions around gaming, and gaming identity, over the past year. It’s not a new topic for me; I’ve written about what it means to be a gamer often, both recently and […]
Recently I have found myself having lots of heated discussions about racial representation in video games and the importance of paying attention to the history behind these representations (*cough* Cuphead *cough*) and in some cases it has been a bit of an uphill battle, but it’s not new. It’s the […]
“Outspoken women, especially non-white women like Pao, are instant targets if they publicly acknowledge the existence of prejudice, worse still if they purport to do something about it.” –Katherine Cross Ellen Pao, now titled as the *former* CEO of Reddit, has faced it all. Death threats, harassment, abuse– oh wait, […]
This past week, I’ve been catching up on reading Adrienne Shaw’s book Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture, and a series of questions that Shaw asks in the second chapter (entitled “Does Anyone Really Identify with Lara Croft?: Unpacking Identification in Video Games”) […]
In the last month or so there has been lots of discussion going on about and around the confederate flag here in the United States. Ultimately, the flag has been removed from most state government buildings and is no longer being sold in a number of big box and online […]
I spent most of last week at an annual academic games conference and have spent a lot of time processing and digesting what went on there. The thing that I love about these conferences is that I get to sit and talk (and drink beer) with other academics who often […]
No More Heroes, created by the enigmatic Suda51, is arguably one of the most entertaining action-adventure/hack-n-slash franchises to ever hit the Wii. The game follows Travis, an aspiring assassin whose dream is to fight his way through the United Assassins Association until he is number one. Admittedly, I was a […]
At a party a few weeks ago, I ran into a guy who was in UCSD’s undergraduate literature/writing program at the same time I was, and, in the course of our conversation that evening, we found ourselves eventually turning from the typical small talk (Hi! How are you? What are […]
I’ve often wondered about the potential reach of games. If marketing was a little different. If (some) games were. So when Her Story came along, with its straightforward interface, search-based mechanic, and nonlinear mystery narrative, I saw the potential immediately for the game to spread, though the problem with something […]
We’ve been talking a lot about Tauriq Moosa’s recent Twitter hiatus, because of the far-reaching potential. Personally, I’m unable to equate my experience with Moosa’s experience because I’m a white female on the Internet and not a person of color. I can’t possibly understand his experience with blanket negativity and outrage culture, […]