Back in April I posted a thought piece on whether or not systems themselves can be the cause of harassment, hate, and toxicity. My post was inspired by a research study that found a strong correlation between systematic behaviors and human ones: when systems informed a player they were being […]
Search Results for : systems create hate
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It’s no surprise that people generally think the internet has made our society more violent and toxic. Perhaps it’s not the internet as much as the anonymity it provides, but either way. Hate, misogyny, racism, homophobia, and all kinds of fear-based/difference-based abuse has always existed, of course. We didn’t need […]
Abstract A business game is a participatory communication activity in which businesses use play to achieve a meaningful workplace purpose, including knowledge/skill development and teambuilding. This article assesses how tabletop business games in professional contexts communicate in ableist ways. These games promote the idea that the ideal skills of an […]
Vampires do not appear to hold the same appeal in media as they once did, but why? Portraying and playing with our deepest fears, not least of which is death—or worse, becoming the monster ourselves—some of these creatures spent the ‘90s, the aughts, and the first half of the 20-teens struggling with what they are, striving to reconcile their monstrosity with the human they long to still be, and, typically, falling in love with human women.
After reading a fabulous article on ADA: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, by Marie Hicks, a lot of interesting ideas started flowing about the nature of social control and technology. Hicks writes of online dating, “rather than revolutionizing how people met and married, this article shows how […]
I have been a feminist since I could talk. For better or worse, I have always seen injustice, prejudice, racism, sexism, and unfairness in the world, and it always deeply disturbed me. Of course, I have grown and changed as a feminist. I’ve had to confront ways my privilege has […]
Last Friday, Alex Layne explored legal definitions of terrorism, stalking, and cyberbullying to draw some conclusions about cyberterrorist acts, specifically in terms of online harassment against women tagged as “social justice warriors” by the GamerGate movement. Alex’s piece ignited a firestorm on Twitter, with responses ranging from mockery and downplay […]
Last night I found myself browsing Steam demos, as I often do. Every couple of months I’ll find one or two that catch my eye, but more often than not, I scroll through the list and discover there’s nothing that particularly sparks my interest. More exciting is the occasional demo I get […]
This week, I came across an article by E. McNeill called “History and Games” in which McNeill makes connections between the subject of history and the subject of video games. Indeed, McNeill engages in such a discussion even though, as he says, many “people seem to view history as dry […]
Social media has been employed as a significant site of mobilizing for Black Lives Matter especially with the power of Black Twitter. This form of “social public” as Andre Brock outlines allows users to generate culturally relevant content and disseminate it to their audience. And that scope is beyond the […]
It seems strange that Shadowrun is only just over twenty-five years old; for me, Shadowrun, that dour, gritty marriage of cyberpunk and fantasy that so made William Gibson roll his eyes, feels eternal. I feel like the landscape has been littered with books and games in the Shadowrun universe for […]
Recently there has been a lot of discussion in the games community about criticism and objectivity. Questions have arisen such as: What is criticism, and what does it mean for the gaming sphere? What are the bounds of criticism, and what purpose does it serve? Is critique censorship? What is […]
After years of clamoring and hoping, fans finally got confirmation of dreams come true: Square Enix is remaking the classic, fan-favorite 1997 RPG Final Fantasy VII. Such a possibility was teased as far back as E3 2005, with the PlayStation 3 tech demo, and it’s captured the fanbase’s imagination since. […]
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 […]
So, I know that Facebook doesn’t really have a whole lot to do with video games (yes you can play games on it, but the sole purpose is not intended for that!), but while browsing through the daily news I found an article that I had to write about. Soraya Chemaly of Feminism […]
Let me start out by saying that I have the cutest kid in the world (and while the little girl with the test tubes is cute, she is not mine but the rest of the images are of my Peanut). If you have kids I am sure that you think […]