Month: February 2015

Introduction

 

Hi everyone! My name is Christina. My twitter username is @C_Kay_P. In my free time I like to practice Tae Kwon Do and play the flute. Currently I am trying to get into the business school and pursue a degree in international business with a minor in German.

 

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Currently, there has been a lot of hype surrounding the 50 Shades of Grey novels because the movie comes out this week. The movie/novel is very controversial because some people argue that it glamorizes violence towards women. They even started a hashtag (#50ShadesIsAbuse) because they think this movie should be boycotted. Others say that 50 Shades encourages women to explore their sexuality in a healthy way. Domestic violence, against women or men, is a serious issue, which is why some people argue that this movie will go too far. Personally, I enjoyed the novels and never viewed them as seriously as some people have. I do think that it has awakened a very touchy subject.

I am most looking forward to learning about how the internet has changed the way that people view issues regarding race and gender. I think it’s a really interesting topic and I’m ready to learn more about it.

Response to #GamerGate

Todd VanDerWerff writes a piece on #GamerGate, a movement that took Twitter by storm this past summer. He writes this article to the general audience, trying to inform people not as immersed or not immersed at all in the video-gaming world what #GamerGate really means. He works on providing the source of the #GamerGate, the goals of supporters of #GamerGate, and the bigger issues that this movement brings up.

#GamerGate is derived from the backlash of a public break up between video game creator Zoe Quinn and her now programmer ex-boyfriend Eron Gjoni. Gjoni wrote several pieces about Quinn, released her public information, and ultimately accused her of cheating on him with video game journalist Nathan Grayson. It was the latter that really sparked the cause of #GamerGate.

After this very public ordeal occurred, many #GamerGate supporters began to challenge the ethics of videogame journalism. VanDerWerff highlights this as one of the main topics of #GamerGate. He expresses that Gamer Gaters feel as though journalists are letting their relationships with video game creators influence their work causing them to report on games that are not worth it as well as reporting on things that are not video games but pertain to the gaming world. However, VanDerWerff brought up a good point that there is disconnect between “what those who read gaming media believe journalism to be and what it actually is.” Gamer Gaters want video game journalism to solely focus on the games and specifically games at are relevant to the masses while in journalism, the reporters are meant to report on that as well as issues pertaining to their broader field such as the bigger issues in the gaming world.

VanDerWerff brings forth these issues that #GamerGate supporters have, mainly about video game journalism. However, he also shows the inconsistencies. These supporters want video games to be seen as an art and want them to be solely reported on. On the other hand, evolution is necessary for video games to reach their full artistic prime which means the that the journalism has to evolve as well as the type of games that are created. The supporters are angered by “social justice warriors” who are advocating for more diversity in games in a field that becoming more diverse but that also hinders any evolutionary progress. VanDerWerff goals were to share these inconsistencies of #GamerGate movement and why is won’t really succeed as well as point the overarching question that has been brought up by all of this which is “what games should be and who they should be for”?

I thoroughly enjoyed this article although at times I was lost as to what Gamer Gaters were fighting for and wanted to achieve as well as why this led to the harassment of women in the gaming industry. I really appreciated the author’s highlighting of the inconsistencies in the movement. I felt as though it showed that not many of the supporters of #GamerGate even know what they were fighting against or for because for many of the things they wanted, they were fighting against the things that would inherently get them that such as more diversity and representation in video games.

It surprised me that those who advocate for more diversity and representation in video games anger #GamerGate supporters. I do not know much about video games. I do not really play them, but in a field that is growing in the number of female gamers and game creators, it would only seem right to evolve with the times and appeal to everyone. However, by pushing against this, it is like they are trying to exclude a whole group from the gaming world and identify them as not “real” gamers. They cannot achieve games of more artistic credibility if they want the same types of games that appeal to the same type of people to be made. The games have to change with the demographics – all the demographics. It just puzzles me, because what do they have to lose if more games were made with female representation or LGBT representation?

Imposter Syndrome/Depression Quest Response

The games Imposter Syndrome and Depression quest are both text based games designed to put the player in the position of someone who’s problems they haven’t thought about before.  They were both made relatively recently, though neither seem to see a need to give exact dates of publication, they both address topics that don’t have a date on them. Imposter Syndrome, being set int the near future argues that it’s subject, gender discrimination, will be a problem for some time.  Depression Quest doesn’t need to argue that depression will be around, it is a result of pain, frustration, and fear, and those will not be going away any time soon.  Both games tries to express the pain, frustration and anguish that the creators feel or felt and translate it into something someone who doesn’t face their problem can hopefully understand.

Both games were interesting and definitely showcased their problems fairly well.  I can’t really speak to the validity of Imposter Syndrome since I’ve never really been in that kind of environment, from either side of Georgianna’s podium, though I can that Depression Quest fits my understanding of depression fairly accurately.  It didn’t emphasize certain specifics in the way that I have understood depression but the general experience was definitely accurate.  As a note, I describe an understanding of depression that was based on someone’s personal experience but I cannot and will not identify that person.  One thing Depression quest described accurately is the fear and embarrassment of being or having been severely depressed.

There were a couple things in the games, though, that I thought  weren’t quite explained well enough.  In Imposter Quest, I was wondering throughout why Georgianna was so filled with doubt, so lacking in self-confidence.  I suspect that the creators wanted to imply that prior experience made her doubt herself, but it is somewhat ambiguous how she came to doubt herself as much as she appears to in the game.  Which brings me directly to the other thing that seems off:  these are not games.  I have been referring to them that way because the creators were but these a walkthroughs of painful personal experience.  I don’t know what they should be called but they are not games, at least by my definition.  I personally think of games as something fun, possibly something children do.  To call these games,  I think, risks trivializing the subject matter.  The creators do counter that fairly well, but I do wonder why they call these games in the first place.

Response to Queer Female of Color: The Highest Difficulty Setting

As Nakamura’s article made many references to John Scalzi’s post, the audience of this piece is likely the entire gaming community, especially white male gamers.  However, since she makes a call to action towards feminist scholars, teachers, writers, and gamers at the end, this article is also directed towards them.

This article mainly argues that someone of color, female, and/or queer in the gaming community tends to be harassed and discredited whereas someone who is white, straight, and male will inherently be given more positive attention.  She also states that while people recognize there is prejudice in gaming culture, they generally don’t care enough to take action against it.

Nakamura wants the gaming community to be aware of the imbalance of power and prejudices there, and she also wants people to actively analyze and try to change these trends for the better.  As she acknowledges, awareness itself isn’t enough.

What I liked about this article is that it does a good job of analyzing Scalzi’s post as a whole, going from the message itself to the positions of the writer and audience.  Nakamura takes into account how race, gender, and authority in the gaming community played a role in Scalzi’s argument, and she brought up an example on the other end of the difficulty scale with Aisha Tyler.  Looking at the evidence, the logic is pretty sound.  She also makes the main arguments and use of gaming rhetoric clear, so I feel like I understand Scalzi’s post without even reading it.

When I was looking up gaming-related news and videos on the internet, I noticed that female gamers usually aren’t taken seriously.  Also, those who speak up about the issue are often the targets of excessive threats and harassment.  The main reason I stay away from online games, especially competitive ones, is that parts of the general community are volatile even to strangers without context.  Given the information from this article, I’d imagine the situation is much worse for those who don’t fall within today’s “white spatial imaginary.”

My question is this: why have both science fiction and gaming communities become, or at least started out as, dominated by straight, white, males?  I feel like an answer is already there, or maybe I’m missing some detail.