Tag Archives: women in gaming

Jun
4

Remember Me

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When I’m stressed I tend to buy or play a lot of computer games. Usually it’s because I’m looking for an escape from whatever I’m supposed to be doing. (Hello, edits? *ahem*) Anyway, I’ve lamented several times about the lack of female protagonists in games. (And quite frankly, after the massive amount of wtfkery going on with women in gaming/writing/comics this past week – I’ve been trying to avoid the internet for a bit because it’s been depressing me rather badly.) For additional details see this…or this or this or this. It’s just been “crap all over women creators” week.  I haven’t really bothered writing up a post about any of it – there have been so many fabulous write ups and responses (to the SFWA issue, in particular – and the powers that be have agreed there is an issue and they’re investigating it). I don’t think there’s much more I… Read more
Jan
18

Moving Right Along…

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The last few days have been a bit crazy at home – we’ve been checking out potential private schools for the kids, so that’s taken some time. Not sure if we’re going to send them or not, for a number of reasons, but both the DH and I agree that what the kids are currently learning in the public school is pretty awful. I get that teachers have very little control over the curriculum – they have to teach to the SOL tests so that the schools continue to retain funding, but it’s a shit system. Basic stuff like grammar and spelling have completely fallen by the wayside. For kids who pick writing/reading up naturally that may not be such a big deal, but I’m getting a first-hand look at how much of a disservice this is when I read some of essays that are coming home. To complicate matters,… Read more
Nov
28

1 Reason Why

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If you’re a gamer, you’re probably aware that the Twitterverse exploded over the last few days about sexism in gaming. Which, if you’re a female gamer, you’re probably going, “Well, duh.” There’s actually three different Twitter hashtags – #1ReasonWhy (as in 1 reason why it sucks to be a woman in the gaming industry. Sad stuff here, and some of the usual trolls, so be warned.) On the brighter side, two happy hashtags resulted – the #1ReasonMentors, which is people looking for and volunteering to be gaming industry mentors. If you’re looking to get more info and you’ve been intimidated in the past, this might be a good place to start. Also check out #1ReasonToBe for reasons WHY women are a part of the gaming industry. The thing is, I sort of take issue with people saying how this hashtag is exposing the dark underbelly of sexism in gaming. It’s always… Read more
Jun
12

More Gaming WTFkery

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Just a few updates on some of things I ranted blogged about the other day. (Women in VG tropes and the violent portrayals of women posts…) And I apologize to my readers if you couldn’t care less about these things, but they are fairly important topics to me, so I’m going to continue talking about them. So first up is the Lara Croft thing – another interview with the creators came out on Kotaku the other day – some of it was rehashed from the Penny Arcade interview where they noted how they were turning Lara into a cornered animal, breaking her down etc. But in this latest interview, something really irritated me: And executive producer Ron Rosenberg says you’ll want to keep her safe. “When people play Lara, they don’t really project themselves into the character,” Rosenberg told me at E3 last week when I asked if it was difficult… Read more
Jun
8

Making the Point for Us: Tropes vs Women In Video Games WTFKery

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I almost didn’t get around to posting today – after all, copy edits needed to be handed in and the Guild Wars 2 Beta is live and that’s what I’ll be running off to do in a bit. However, I did want to mention the Kickstarter project by Anita Sarkeesian: Tropes vs Women in Video Games. The idea is fairly broad and fascinating – but simply put, she plans on doing a series of videos based on the way women are portrayed in video games. (Which I ranted about a bit earlier this week.) I love playing video games but I’m regularly disappointed in the limited and limiting ways women are represented.  This video project will explore, analyze and deconstruct some of the most common tropes and stereotypes of female characters in games.  The series will highlight the larger reoccurring patterns and conventions used within the gaming industry rather than just… Read more