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Multiple Medias Never Hurt; How Hawken Utilizes Graphic Novels to Push their Game Further

Video games are becoming a more apparent part of our culture every day; it used to be that society viewed gamers as overweight guys who still lived in their parents’ basements. Now, we know that gamers come in all shapes, sizes, genders, and ethnicities, but there is still a large part of society that doesn’t claim “gamer” status. Video game studios have to come up with creative ways to try and engage this demographic of people; they’re stuck in the television age and refuse to move out of that comfort zone.

Enter the game Defiance. I’m sure you’ve heard of it by now, it’s a massively multiplayer shooter made for console that ties in with a TV series of the same name on the SYFY network. So far it has received mixed reviews, but mostly because of the number of bugs that the game has been plagued with thus far. Despite the bugs, most people seem to enjoy the gameplay quite a bit; Kevin VanOrd from Gamespot reviewed the game and said: “Defiance is a difficult game to wrap your head around. That’s not because it’s all that complicated, but rather because it’s just so much fun, even though none of the elements are done particularly well.” The TV series seems to be a hit among sci-fi fans, giving the game an even higher presence in the world of “non-gamers.” Read more »

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White Male Privilege, It’s So Great to Have*: Guacamelee and Race in Games

We’ve all heard the old saying, “If you can’t ask, then you can’t afford it”, but I want us to consider for a moment a slightly modified version that might say “If you have to ask, it might be true for you”. In the last couple of days I have experienced a couple of situations that were clearly racist and found myself facing the questions that oppressed people often find themselves faced with when they report such occurrences…Are you sure? Aren’t you just overreacting? And my usual response to this is, “If you have to ask then you must have it.” And in this case the it is white male privilege.

If you have to, choose to, or feel that you have the right to question the legitimacy of the oppression of an(Other) then you are probably the beneficiary of white male privilege. It seems like common sense, right? But we hear it all of the time when dealing with real world situations like mine and with video games. It’s something that Mike Hoye mentioned in our interview with him several weeks ago. He said that when he mentioned to people that he had received death threats from internet rolls for hacking Zelda for his little girls that men were disbelieving…white male privilege, while women responded knowingly and commiserated.  Read more »

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5 Video Game Companies: Textual Analysis of Workplace Policies pt. 2

Change is inherently a discursive project.

This means that change is restricted by the

structures of language and by the conventions

of language use. Change will be a product of

what can be legitimately said (or written)

in a specific context at a specific moment in time.

(For those of you who haven’t been following my posts, this is the sixth post in a series that analyzes the company policies of five video game companies: Blizzard, EA, Zynga, Riot, and Valve. These posts are all part of my dissertation and are somewhat taken out of context so that they are appropriate for the audience of NYMG. Rest assured, my actual chapter has far more of the boring academic stuff that makes it credible. For more detail on the policies, please see my previous posts. I have written this with the assumption that the readers are familiar with the policies of each company, as it comes on page 44 of my analysis chapter. However, I have attempted to repeat crucial details where necessary.)

Gender at Work, an organization dedicated to equality in the workplace, discusses their approach to workplace change in their report, “What is Gender at Work’s Approach to Gender Equality and Institutional Change.” They use a holistic approach to creating gender equality in the workplace, and they use a holistic approach when both analyzing extant workplaces and when actively pursuing change. For them, change is laid on two continuums that feature informal v. formal changes and individual change v. systemic change. The quadrant between formal and systemic change is workplace policies. In order to create change in this quadrant, Gender at Work reports that companies must at the very least have three things:

  1. “Mission includes gender equality”
  2. “Policies for antiharassment, work family arrangements, fair employment, etc”
  3. “Accountability mechanisms that hold the organization accountable to women clients” (3)

First, companies need to explicitly address gender equality. If there is no mention of gender equality in the formal documents, the possibility for equality in the other quadrants (access, consciousness, and internal culture) is severely limited.  Then policies that represent issues that particularly affect women like maternity leave and harassment need to be explicit. Finally, formal systems of accountability need to be in place for when employee or customer rights are violated.

Read more »

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Episode 55: Mommy Dearest: A Mother’s Day Tribute to Mamas Who Game With Their Kids

Episode 55: Mommy Dearest: A Mother’s Day Tribute to Mamas Who Game With Their Kids (“Save As” to download or head over to iTunes to subscribe)

The episode where we hear from mothers who game with their children (in myriad ways). We are joined this week by Jennifer, the mother of our own Alex Layne. We also have a couple of other special guest testimonials for you to check out. It’s a fun way to spend Mother’s Day and to work on convincing your own mother to game with you.

We also want to say congratulations to the winner of our latest contest. Sarah is now the proud owner of her very own copy of Forza for the Xbox 360. Enjoy and see if you can get your mother to join you for a few laps around the track. (A t-shirt is coming to Alexander B. for giving it one hell of a try!)

Links of Note:

Microsoft appoints first female CFO

[RUMOR] New Xbox to be named “Xbox Infinity”

EA exec Andrew Wilson sells entire stake in company

WoW loses 1.3 million in 3 months

Full video from this episode (thanks again to Christine, Lukasz, and Kasia)

 

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Killing Time at the DMV; Can Certain Praise Turn into Harm?

The other day I had to go spend the afternoon at the Secretary of State (or as you may know it, the Department of Motor Vehicles). I know it’s an old and overused joke to talk about how much time you can spend in this god forsaken place, but the reason the joke is successful is because of the truth behind it. Luckily I wasn’t doing anything crazy, just renewing my license, but I had to wait in excess of an hour just to be seen by the person who gives you a number so that you can wait again for a representative to get to your claim. Needless to say I had some time to kill! I’ve recently discovered that I enjoy Instagram quite a bit; there’s very little personal information on there, people who enjoy your photos can follow you without you feeling obligated to follow them… it has a good flow. Read more »

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The Monster Within: Papo & Yo As A Meaningful Experience

So Papo & Yo (Minority Media, 2012) is a game that I have been interested in playing for a while. When the indie title appeared on PS3 about a year ago I did a bit of research to see what other folks were saying about the title. I was simultaneously intrigued and disturbed.

If you don’t know this game on the surface it is about a little boy, Quico, who escapes his real world life with an abusive father for a puzzle based imaginary one where he is aided in his puzzle solving adventures by a a robot backpack who helps him jump farther and a monster friend who serves to trigger pressure plates and as a trampoline of sorts to jump onto/into/through otherwise unreachable places. Quinco feeds the monster coconuts to lure him from place to place and to lull him to sleep, but we soon learn that our friend the monster truly does have some monstrous tendencies. He has a jones for little red footed frogs. Now these frogs are kind of cute. They remind me a lot of little cartoon red-eyed tree frogs, but in Papo & Yo these little buggers are poisonous. And Monster wants them bad. Unfortunately, when Monster eats the frogs he he becomes a fiery fiend, goes berserk, and no one is safe…not even Quico.  Read more »

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5 Video Game Companies: Textual Analysis of Workplace Policies pt 1

Businesses restrict their own growth potential

when women are unintentionally excluded from

key training and advancement opportunities.

Whether the economy is up or down, who

gets promoted — and who gets left behind —

has substantial consequences for business success.

Ilene H. Lang, President & Chief Executive Officer, Catalyst

(For those of you who haven’t been following my posts, this is the sixth post in a series that analyzes the company policies of five video game companies: Blizzard, EA, Zynga, Riot, and Valve. These posts are all part of my dissertation and are somewhat taken out of context so that they are appropriate for the audience of NYMG. Rest assured, my actual chapter has far more of the boring academic stuff that makes it credible. For more detail on the policies, please see my previous posts. I have written this with the assumption that the readers are familiar with the policies of each company, as it comes on page 40 of my analysis chapter. However, I have attempted to repeat crucial details where necessary.)

The visual analysis is key to this project because it allows viewers to see things that can be obscured. The textual analysis that follows approaches the policies from a different angle. I gather together components from several studies that have been conducted on gender equity in the workplace, particularly in relation to company policy, and use these components to see whether the codes of conduct and employee handbooks comply with the principles of an equitable workplace. The visual analysis allows us to see meaning that is embedded. As a textual analysis, this section should focus on what is said. However, as will be seen shortly, there is such a shocking lack of policies that ensure an equitable workplace, that this analysis really focuses on what is not said. The AAUW argues that the single most important factor in improving the retention and recruitment of women is (programmatic and cultural) environmental improvements (62). Brenton Faber argues that companies can improve, change, and even shape the culture of their organization through their programmatic policies. Policies, then, are a critical place to examine and improve in order to improve the representation of women in the video game industry.

Read more »

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Bioshock Infinite, Pushing the Boundaries of a Female Character?

By now you’ve played through at least some of Bioshock Infinite, I mean c’mon it’s amazing, and you’ve probably read some articles on how everyone is praising the main female character, Elizabeth, as having been one of the most amazing A.I. companions in video game history. Some people have even gone so far to say that Elizabeth is one of the most empowering females in video games. Most people claiming she’s a great A.I. are basing it off their experiences with escort missions from past games that have been horrible. And we’ve all been there, you’re going through amazing missions in the game and suddenly you have to escort some feeble NPC across battlegrounds ensuring their survival in the biggest warlike moments of the game. It’s always a hassle and the NPC does absolutely nothing to help you along the way, instead they usually end up wandering right into the line of fire and die, thus ending your mission and causing you to start over.

Here in lies why Elizabeth is a phenomenal AI. She never really gets in your way, when you’re low on items she throws them to you (including health, ammunition for the weapon you are using, Silver Eagles, and Salts), and she doesn’t need to be protected. All of this combined makes her a joy to have around, furthering the argument that she is the best companion and an exemplary female character in a video games.  Read more »

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Write Here, Right Now?: On (Your) Writing for NYMG

Alex, Nicole, and I get great pleasure out of the work that we do here at NYMG and we really love it when we hear that others get some joy out of the work that we do as well. Not Your Mama’s Gamer gives us the opportunity to share our passion with all of those who are willing to hear and/or read.

I am constantly surprised by the number of people that email us asking if they can do a guest blog on a certain topic or game. It’s flattering that people want to share their passion with us as well. So after some long and hard consideration we have decided to open ourselves up (or at least the blog) to another writer or two. We are looking for people critically minded feminists who love games. We are not replacing any of the great women who already write here at NYMG, but we are interested in offering more content on a regular bases and perhaps some new perspectives. Read more »

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Analysis of Valve’s Employee Handbook and Code of Conduct

For those who haven’t been following, this is the second to last installment in a series of posts where I analyze 5 different video game company policies or codes of conduct. In this series, I examine the connections between the company’s public perception, noted problems with harassment, and the company policies. My final post will include a wrap up of all of these analyses and a more extended discussion of how they fit into my argument. Essentially, my contention is that companies (partly) create their identity through company policies, public policies in particular, and thus we should look to these documents to try at get at the problem of a lack of women in the video game industry. These policies tell stories that manifest symbolically in their employee’s behavior. Thus, change the story, change the behavior (of course it is not nearly that simple, but now you have the gist it).

Unlike many of the companies I’ve discussed so far, Valve has a fairly positive reputation in the gaming community. They have been celebrated for making groundbreaking games like Portal and Portal 2, and have nearly zero bad press for abuse against women or minorities. In fact, one of Valve’s female game developers became known for an article she wrote defending the game industry against claims of sexism based on her positive experience at Valve. She writes, “I have never, however, been treated as anything but a team member and an equal by my coworkers, and it’s a major disservice to them that folks automatically assume they will treat me differently because I am a woman.” [1] Further, their games are not known for depicting women in a sexually demeaning way.

Read more »