(no subject)

[sophiaserpentia]

In light of Activision-Blizzard's RealIDFail, it's dawned on me that there is a sizable void.

There are lots of women who play games. There are no developers catering to them.

Gaming has been historically extremely male-centered. The stereotypical gamer is a teen boy in his parents' basement hunched over an XBox or a Nintendo. The stereotypical game designer is a man who, ten years ago, was that boy. Game designers target boys' and men's idea of fun. Game advertisers target the interests of boys and men. And, as RealIDFail demonstrates quite clearly, game developers have little interest in the specific concerns of women online, where those concerns differ from men's, or in the specific ways in which women use social networks differently from men.

I'm cherry-picking my examples here for emphasis, but as anyone in the wide world of woman-gamer blogging can tell you, dealing with misogyny -- as well as racism, homophobia, and transphobia -- in the gamer universe or in game advertising or content is an everyday thing.

So... why should we? Make that trade-off to play games we enjoy, I mean?

If there are any development studios with an anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-'phobic perspective, I want to find out who and where they are. A very cursory google search does not reveal the names of any studios developing from this perspective.

If there aren't... I want to play a role in founding one. Anyone else interested?

Comments

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

Because we're all uncreative blobs without a shred of the cool spirituality or all the neat, busy making things you have to do. We should bow before your awesomeness, and feel ashamed.

[alobar.livejournal.com]

I ask a question, clearly stating that I do not understand and I get jumped on. If I did not know you better I would think you were being insecure and defensive. But that is not like the you I used to know.

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

You didn't ask a question.

[alobar.livejournal.com]

Me writing that I never figured out why... sure seems like a question to me. I comprehend why teens pay the games, but not others. Yet lots of people play the games and have played them since video games were not yet online. Gazillions of hours plus costs for the games. They must get something out of it. It is obviously not a passing fad. But I sure do not understand.

I work 7 days a week, but they are short days, and my commuting time is less than 5 minutes. I know people who work 70 or 80 hours a week, and spend an additional 5-10 hours a week commuting. And they play on-line games.

I asked them why they told me, and I I still do not understand. Perhaps I just am wired differently than gamers. Fuck if I know.

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

You never asked a question. If you really wanted to know why S., or I, or any of us who have actual interest in this issue, play online games, you could have asked an actual question, like,: "I'm confused. Why do you spend so much time playing online games?" You did not do this. You made a statement about how you never understood why people play, and followed it with a judgmental statement about how you think it's only acceptable for juvenile, uncreative people. Someone stood up for themselves politely, and you followed up with yet another assumptive statement about gamers, namely that they must have less important things to do with their time than you do. That still wasn't a question. If nothing else, it might help you to know that in the English language, questions have question marks at the end of the sentence. Perhaps in the future you could try to remember this rule to avoid further misunderstandings.

[alobar.livejournal.com]

Sorry I did not express myself more clearly.

Not saying kids are uncreative, but they lack control in their lives and they lack opportunity to be creative. Schooling can be creative, but not in my experience of schools.

I did not mean to imply that only uncreative people gravitate to game playing. I made a slap-dash comment. Not edited, not contemplated before posting. Sorry if my wording did not convey the intent of my comment.

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

*nods* Accepted.

As to a reason why *I* play so much, or have been - because different people have different reasons - well I always was a fan of the RPG style of games, but being a mother and working full time had difficulty getting involved in any of the tabletop style get togethers, which is largely comprised of younger, responsibility-free people who have disposable income for the books (or at least the GM does). Online gaming is cheaper than cable television and more engaging, and meant I could have many of the elements of RPGs, but on my own time table, when it was convenient for me. The social isolation and relative immobility I've experienced here in Boston encouraged me to choose online gaming as a main source of my recreational free time. Social/creative aspects of the game were very valuable to me, in fact, and often I would log on merely to talk/roleplay to people without actually "playing" the game at all. The creative and interactive aspects of the game led me to most of my creative writing endeavors over the last five years.

[alobar.livejournal.com]

So the social networking in online games is like social networking on FB or LJ? I can relate to that.

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

Sort of, except you choose an avatar as a representation of yourself, as how you want to relate, or appear. The choices in a fantasy game are generally limited to the setting of the game, so people play games based on their own personal - preference? Archetypes?
For a long time I played mainly female trolls in Wow. They are tall, oversexed, practice voodoo, and have Jamaican accents.

[alobar.livejournal.com]

This is drifting way off topic from the original post, but I am learning things about my quirks which have irritated many people over the years, but left me bewildered as to why they were irritated at me.

Years ago, you suggested I might have Asperger's syndrome. You got me looking in that direction. No official diagnosis, but Asperger's sure seems to match many of my quirks.

I almost never use a question mark. I tend to ask questions by making statements. Instead of asking someone, "Are you OK?" I write "I hope you are doing OK."

I can see from this thread that I still have a ways to go in taming this quirk.

Let me think more about this. I'll getack to this thread in a day or two.