This is not your usual NYMG post. I’ve been talking about the Good Game Autoblocker a lot lately. Everyone has; it’s a hot point right now, with talk of blocks as censorship, as people shutting off lines of discourse. I talk about it, I defend it, but I don’t use […]
Games and Culture
337 posts
About two weeks ago, I had the privilege to attend the 2015 Game Developers Conference (GDC) through an opportunity at work. For those who may not be familiar with the annual gaming conference, GDC is the largest gathering of professional game developers. But rather than the industry trade show feel […]
Last week, as Offworld was launching, we created a partial list of sites, podcasts, and resources that feature women and/or gamers of color, or that explore cultural issues of interest to those groups. We’ve since updated the list, through our own efforts and some help from friends and fans, and have […]
Social media hubs around GamerGate — both sides — have been in rare form this week, with much discussion ignited anew. It’s not surprising, really; a lot’s happened lately, with controversies around Reddit and GamerGate-related subs, GDC and PAX East and the relaunch of Offworld. Yesterday, however, things took a […]
This week at GDC’s #1ReasonToBe panel, as we excitedly discussed on our podcast, Leigh Alexander and Laura Hudson announced the relaunch of BoingBoing’s Offworld as a site focused on women’s and minority voices in gaming. Longtime critic and author Alexander will serve as Offworld’s new editor-in-chief, and Laura Hudson, Senior […]
What exactly marks a good writer? I don’t know that there’s a real answer, even with two creative writing degrees under my belt. I can break down a story and analyze the elements, the way everything fits together, the way it might weigh in on various scales of quality, both […]
I hadn’t heard of the episode until the night that it aired. Even then I only noticed it whilst browsing Wednesday’s TV Guide: an episode of Law & Order SVU involving gaming, and, more specifically, violence against women in the gaming industry. My eyebrow was metaphorically raised in interest, but […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about the continued impacts of GamerGate lately, though not perhaps in the larger sense of wondering what it all means, but how it jibes with my experience with and in gaming media. While it’s been several years since I did any writing about games outside […]
A recent post on the Feminist Frequency tumblr titled “One Week of Harassment on Twitter” detailed just that — a week’s worth of tweets directed at Feminist Frequency, at Anita Sarkeesian, and at feminists in general, especially those associated in any way with gaming critique. Some are wildly ridiculous, almost […]
A few weeks ago I made the mistake (as I often do) of getting into a debate about feminism on Facebook. I’m not sure why I do this. By now, I surely should have learned. But when it starts, I’m like a moth drawn to flame. I just can’t stay […]
In this series we’ll be looking at some principles of game design, particularly as they relate to analysis and criticism. Check out the first part, about genre in gaming, here. While calls for objectivity in games reviewing have been with the media for quite some time, Gamergate seems to have […]
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 […]
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 […]
Why Games? I have a soft spot in my heart for slam poetry. I love words and I love music, and slam seems to find the balance between them. I’m also a huge nerd, so I was particularly happy when I found this gem by Rachel Rostad: The thing about […]
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 […]
“If you have any kids, they’re going to die too. I don’t give a fuck. They’ll grow up to be feminists anyway.” [All quotes used can be found here. They are tweets shared by feminist game designer Brianna Wu that she received before fleeing her home] Saying you’re going to […]