:: Netwoman ::

:: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 ::

Booth Babes

From New Game Plus, some comments on Booth Babes at E3 coming up. Joystiq talks about "Girl gaming clans as next-gen booth babes" and how being a booth babe is one way to get into E3.

There's also an article by Yvonne Lynn called "E3 Through the Eyes of a Booth Babe", and she talks about the different kinds of booth babes - Specialty babes, like the Starcraft: Ghost chick; Scantily clad babes; Decently dressed babes and then just 'regular' booth babes (who by the way are also cute and skinny - but at least they have clothes on!).

You may recall the IGN article that talked about "E3 Booth Babes Banned" in January 2006 - 'Companies may have to rely on actual games to grab our attention.' who knew. Booth Babes just seem to reinforce the stereotype that only men are gamers - they are spectacles, objects of desire for consumption. The BBs at E3 have not only raised concerns about objectifying women and the prevalence of sexism in the gaming industry, but really this is also rooted in heterosexist assumptions about the male gamer as well. There is an assumption that the male gamer is straight and that he will - by the very nature of his biological drive - be aroused and 'titillated' by large breasted scantily clad women (both in the game and at gaming functions). Both assumptions are problematic, as are the constructions of the young male gamer as a hormonally driven sex-machine who gets off by Lara Croft's grunts and growns as she's powering through her adventure. What we need to realize is that not only are there problematics surrounding women and gaming, but social constructions of masculinity also need to be contested and challenged.

:: Netwoman 11:08 AM [+] ::
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Link Round Up

-Women In Cyberspace conference paper:

I want today to provide a more general, feminist, and future- oriented perspective on my website. To understand why academic women's websites take the forms they do and what the future for academic women's etexts and uses of cyberspace might be, we need to look at the general experience of women trying to build lives and identities, and communicate with one another in cyberspace; to compare academic women's websites to academic men's websites; and to look at the changes in scholarly communications that the existence of a world wide web is causing. Studies of cyberspace behavior and websites have repeatedly shown that gender affects what people do and how they feel about and use cyberspace; that people who involve themselves in cyberspace culture, specifically, those who build websites, seek to create or establish a desired identity through performance in cyberspace; and that cyberspace communities and relationships affect peoples lives in their physical or local space. I seek to present material to help us think about what are the obstacles to women using cyberspace effectively, and what can be done to construct cyberspace experience so as to make it more appealing, hospitable and usable for women.

- Professional Video Gaming Set for TV Debut by May Wong:

Professional video gaming is set to debut on cable television later this year, potentially paving the way for the kings and queens of game controllers to become as familiar to American households as the faces of Johnny Chan or Annie Duke in televised poker.
Major League Gaming, the world's largest organized video gaming league, on Monday will announce a programming deal in which USA Network will air seven one-hour episodes in the fall, featuring the pro circuit and its players.

-Live Journal Users have a Feminist Gamers Group/Community. You can look at some of their recent posts HERE

-Also from LJ - a useful post about 'specific things to do to better include women in gaming'. Here is a recap of some suggestions:

Stuff everyone can do:
-Eschew gendered language, harassing language, sexist art, and stereotypical gender roles.
-Keep an eye out to see that you're mentioning women game designers and theorists when you can.
-Seek out and recruit women specifically to GMing, theorizing, and the hobby in general.
-Support childcare at cons.

Make your board/con a welcoming place:
-Make sure the rules and the explanation of the purpose and general social "feel" of the board are easily found.
-Explain what will happen to those who break the rules, who determines whether someone has broken a rule, and how those decisions can be appealed.
-Make sure the actual process of finding new mods, or enforcing the rules, is crystal-clear to all.
-List the current mods, with a 1- or 2-line blurb so they can tout their feminism or Audobon Society membership or whathaveyou. The idea is to make it clear what the balance of moderation is, and let people know who they might want to approach if they're concerned.

Add to the rules/practices post:
-Specific mention of welcome for women.
-Explanation of any in-jokes or commonly-used jargon.
-Mention of any hazing newbies might expect.
-Specific mention of ways to encourage people with words to make the board more welcoming.
-A ban on posting to a thread just to say it's stupid and shouldn't be discussed.
-Fill in your mods on the problem of female exclusion.
-When there's an opening for a mod or other important person, see if you can find a female to fill it.
-Don't have post counts.
-Provide a social space so people on your board or at your con can talk about random things and become friends with each other.
-Make it as easy as possible for people to find each other's blogs, and make sure people can talk to each other privately one-on-one, be it by e-mail or private message.
-Sticky all the gender-related statistics you can get your hands on for your board/con. Actively seek out gender-related statistics. Knowing is half the battle.

:: Netwoman 10:12 AM [+] ::
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Lara Croft: Legend
Originally uploaded by Netwoman.

Lara Croft - Final Girl?

Wired News has an article called "How Lara Croft Steals Hearts" by Clive Thomas:

Lara Croft's back and she's as bodacious as ever. In the new Tomb Raider: Legend, Eidos has crafted its heroine using its usual blend of Indiana Jones and Victoria's Secret. As she runs through the catacombs, Croft's spectacular chest heaves and her behind wiggles. In quiet moments between action sequences, she stretches up on tiptoes and arches her back, to get the kinks out. Ahem.

Indeed, she is a wiggler & a giggler, but wait there's more - there are some assertions in regards to how male gamers might relate to Lara's character:

"I feel like I'm sort of in charge of protecting her -- which is to say, protecting me," as one gamer told me back then. "Both at once. It's really unusual." I've noticed it myself. When I control my avatar in almost any game, I'm pretty engaged. But when I play as Croft, the game is an order of magnitude more intense: I find myself sucking in my breath, involuntarily ducking at virtual obstacles.

There's some interesting tid-bits in this article, but Clive's journalistic creative writing does nothing to challenge gaming stereotypes - for men and women:

I'm not suggesting a good part of Croft's allure is not, in fact, straightforward titillation. (Even more sexually charged than her bouncy pixels is her voice acting: If you're wearing headphones, those soft grunts as she hauls herself onto a ledge practically qualify as phone sex.) And it's also true that being Lara -- or any other impossibly curvy avatar -- is undoubtedly a whole different experience for women gamers.

Indeed it is, and nice word choice. It seems that every aspect of Lara can be sexualized - even when she's just grappling for ledges.

:: Netwoman 12:04 AM [+] ::
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Don't Believe the Hype...

This is an interesting article from Wired - I sent this to my students in my Peer (Cyber) Cultures, as we talked a lot about the social cosntruction of moral panics and young people - especially in relation to ICTs. As I've said before, the hype around Video games is just that - media hype and moral panics....Here's a snip-it from Public Enemy's 'Don't Believe the Hype' to set the stage:

Some say I never heard of 'ya
A rap burgler, false media
We don't need it do we?
It's fake that's what it be to 'ya, dig me?
Don't believe the hype...

Some media is the whack
You believe it's true, it blows me through the roof
Suckers, liars get me a shovel
Some writers I know are damn devils
For them I say don't believe the hype...

Rock the hard jams - treat it like a seminar
Teach the bourgeoise, and rock the boulevard
Some say I'm negative
But they're not positive
But what I got to give...
The media says this...

Indeed...don't believe the hype...

The Culture War
How new media keeps corrupting our children.
By Tom Standage

My Favorite Games
US senator Charles Schumer says some videogames aimed at kids "desensitize them to death and destruction." But dire pronouncements about new forms of entertainment are old hat. It goes like this: Young people embrace an activity. Adults condemn it. The kids grow up, no better or worse than their elders, and the moral panic subsides. Then the whole cycle starts over. Here's how the establishment has greeted past scourges.

Novels
"The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth; and prevented others from improving their minds in useful knowledge. Parents take care to feed their children with wholesome diet; and yet how unconcerned about the provision for the mind, whether they are furnished with salutary food, or with trash, chaff, or poison?"
- Reverend Enos Hitchcock, Memoirs of the Bloomsgrove Family, 1790

The Waltz
"The indecent foreign dance called the Waltz was introduced ... at the English Court on Friday last ... It is quite sufficient to cast one's eyes on the voluptuous inter­twining of the limbs, and close com­pressure of the bodies ... to see that it is far indeed removed from the modest reserve which has hitherto been considered distinctive of English females. So long as this obscene display was con­fined to prostitutes and adulteresses, we did not think it deserving of notice; but now that it is ... forced on the respectable classes of society by the evil example of their superiors, we feel it a duty to warn every parent against exposing his daughter to so fatal a contagion."
- The Times of London, 1816

Movies
"This new form of entertainment has gone far to blast maidenhood ... Depraved adults with candies and pennies beguile children with the inevitable result. The Society has prosecuted many for leading girls astray through these picture shows, but GOD alone knows how many are leading dissolute lives begun at the 'moving pictures.'"
- The Annual Report of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 1909

The Telephone
"Does the telephone make men more active or more lazy? Does [it] break up home life and the old practice of visiting friends?"
- Survey conducted by the Knights of Columbus Adult Education Committee, San Francisco Bay Area, 1926

Comic Books
"Many adults think that the crimes described in comic books are so far removed from the child's life that for children they are merely something imaginative or fantastic. But we have found this to be a great error. Comic books and life are connected. A bank robbery is easily translated into the rifling of a candy store. Delinquencies formerly restricted to adults are increasingly committed by young people and children ... All child drug addicts, and all children drawn into the narcotics traffic as messengers, with whom we have had contact, were inveterate comic-book readers This kind of thing is not good mental nourishment for children!"
- Fredric Wertham, Seduction of the Innocent, 1954

Rock and Roll
"The effect of rock and roll on young people, is to turn them into devil worshippers; to stimulate self-expression through sex; to provoke lawlessness; impair nervous stability and destroy the sanctity of marriage. It is an evil influence on the youth of our country."
- Minister Albert Carter, 1956

Videogames
"The disturbing material in Grand Theft Auto and other games like it is stealing the innocence of our children and it's making the difficult job of being a parent even harder ... I believe that the ability of our children to access pornographic and outrageously violent material on video games rated for adults is spiraling out of control."
- US senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, 2005

:: Netwoman 11:47 AM [+] ::
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Women Gamers Outnumber Men in 25-34 Age Group

From Guilded Lilies Blog, some information on demographics of gamers.

Study: Women Gamers Outnumber Men in 25-34 Age Group

A new study from the Consumer Electronics Association indicates that there are many more women gamers in the 25-34 demographic than males, largely because of the popularity of the casual games market, with card games like solitaire (pictured) and puzzle games like Tetris.

One of the common statistics often cited by video game industry trade groups is that the average age of a gamer nowadays is around 30 years old. What you might not know, however, is that among game players between the ages of 25 and 34, women far outnumber men, according to a new study by the Consumer Electronics Association (as reported in The New York Times).

The CEA study found that 65 percent of women in the 25-34 age bracket play video games, while only 35 percent of men in that group said that they play video games. Apparently, the key factor involved with these findings is the increasing popularity of casual games, especially among women.

Women were found to be slightly less likely than men in the 25-34 bracket to play traditional console games on systems like the PlayStation 2 or Xbox, while they gravitated more heavily towards simple types of games like Tetris or other puzzle games and card games like solitaire. These casual titles are typically found on web portals like Yahoo!, AOL Games, PopCap Games, EA's Pogo.com and elsewhere.

Steve Koenig, a senior analyst at the Consumer Electronics Association, said that the CEA study did not specifically ask women why they preferred casual games, but he explained that unlike traditional console video games, casual titles are generally "nonviolent, and are not necessarily supercompetitive against other players."

Although most casual games are played online on the PC, the console hardware makers realize that there's much opportunity in catering to the casual market. Xbox Live Arcade already offers a number of simpler titles that may appeal to the casual crowd and Arcade's library is expected to grow throughout the year. When Sony launches its PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Network Platform service, there's a good chance that they will offer casual titles for download as well.

And not only will Nintendo offer classic titles for download through the Revolution's virtual console, but they will also have original games and it wouldn't be surprising to see a number of casual offerings, especially from Nintendo. Of the three hardware makers Nintendo is the only company that has gone out of its way to create unique titles for "non-gamers" and gamers outside of the typical core market—e.g. Nintendogs and Brain Age. With games like these and the simple, intuitive Revolution control scheme, it's clear that Nintendo is looking to leverage the casual market.

I think what these folks are missing is context. First, the wording of these 'simple' games is a bit problematic and insinuates lack of skill (in whatever respect). Are puzzle games simple? hmm. So yes the context; what they need to ask is where these women are playing the games - games found on Yahoo or MSN can be played anywhere - are they playing them at work? Would this explain why these games are chosen (they're usually quick and can be left for a few minutes if they are playing between the cracks and crevices of daily routines). There are many questions - instead of answers really, but it's good to know.

:: Netwoman 2:28 PM [+] ::
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How do Stereotypes Empower Women?

I stumbled across Popular Culture Gaming blog and also Wonderland blog that pointed me to the GirlsofCS or The Girls of Counter Strike. At first I was excited. Then I was confused.

Have a look at the CirlsofCS MySpace - this is what they say:

This is my (Hillary) personal MySpace account. I help run GirlsofCS, which is a place for female gamers of Counter-Strike to show themselves, their art/creativity and music off while helping to eliminate negative stereotypes towards female gamers. If you're interested in playing CS with me or being notified when GirlsofCS.com launches, add me as a friend!

In theory, this sounds great. Then I have a look at the pics of these girls, and what they are trying to promote:

Who I'd like to meet:
Attractive girls who play Counter-Strike
Models wanted

So how are we challenging stereotypes about women gamers if they are actively seeking Barbie meets Xbox360? I'm confused. But oh wait, it gets better...

Girlsofcs.com is a nude pinup gallery for female gamers interested in playing and becoming active in a mature gaming environment. The site's purpose is to help rid negative stereo types people often have about females who play internet games. This is also a great opportunity for you to get recognition for your creative talents such as artwork, music, writing or photography. Photos for the site are taken either by a friend of yours or (if you can get to New Jersey to see him) our professional photographer.

As a model you have the opportunity to administer the community, meaning you can have administrator privileges on the game servers and the VoIP (voice over ip) server as well as moderator status on the forums. If you are interested in becoming a model and would like more information you can contact me directly...

Aha! Ack! I mean, are you kidding me? People's money making schemes never cease to amaze me. clever.

:: Netwoman 7:47 PM [+] ::
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Game Industry Gender Gap

From Gamasutra.com
Game Developer magazine's 5th Annual Salary Survey, published up to date details about the current gender make-up of the video game industry:

The survey revealed overall average game professional make-up and salary by gender was 90% male, with an average salary of $74,518, compared to 10% female, with an average salary of $69,704. This compares interestingly to two years ago, when the Game Developer Salary Survey had women in only 7% of game industry jobs, showing that the female quotient is increasingly somewhat rapidly.

As for percentages in individual disciplines, business and legal, with 27% female, 72% male (marketing, PR, sales, other administrative staff, executives) saw the largest female quotient, with production (producers and executive producers) also comparatively high, at 21% female, 79% male.

On the other end of the spectrum, game design saw just 7% female and 93% male, and the programming discipline saw the lowest female percentages altogether, with 4% female respondents and 96% male. Art was the development discipline most staffed by women, with 10% female artists and 90% male across the Audience Insights survey, which is the only major survey of game professional salary and location information conducted each year.

~grumbles~

:: Netwoman 7:41 PM [+] ::
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More Women Playing Video Games - No Duh!

GIRL GAMERS: More women are glued to video games, from playing to developing

Jennifer Mirisciotti -- and her custom-painted pink-and-white Xbox -- represents the growing number of women who are hard-core gamers.

"I'm not a big fan of the color pink," said Mirisciotti, 24, of Eastpointe. "But when I kick some guy's butt, it hurts their ego even more to get their butt kicked by a chick with a pink Xbox!"

Women make up 43% of all video game players, according to the 2005 survey by the Entertainment Software Association. That's up from 38% in a similar survey in 2003. Though women aren't quite yet the majority among game players, they're involved in 55% of all game-buying decisions, according to the association of the video game makers.

Local gamers say that women have come a long, long way.

"I have found that 90% of the women I play against/with are better than average players or downright awesome," said Lora Day, 40, of Melvindale, aka "Daygirl."

You probably wouldn't want to take on 15-year-old Tanisha Walton of Detroit in football. She commonly cleans the clocks of many guys in "Madden NFL."

Not too surprising, considering that both her mother and her younger sister also play.

"People are very surprised to hear I'm a gamer. And the reason is because I'm a young lady," Tanisha said. "I guess people think women are only on this earth to cook, clean, shop, talk on the phone and talk to guys. I'm sorry to say it, but women are taking over some things now."

Oh yes, we are taking over da world...

:: Netwoman 7:32 PM [+] ::
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Lara's Gown
Originally uploaded by Netwoman.

Spending the day with Lara!

My body decided it had enough and I had to actually take a day off (I only answered a handful of emails even) - after all it's supposed to be a holiday.

I spent the day on my favourite chair,played Tomb Raider Legend, drank coffee and ate pizza pops all day. I've now played about 8 hours it....I played Bolivia - Tiwanaku - twice, Peru - Return to Paraiso and then Japan - Meeting with Takamoto. I should be further ahead in the game - probably almost done...but I'm a Lara-Novice...

I played Peru twice for a couple of reasons. First, I had only ever spent a small amount of time playing Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft, but wasn't in the right gaming head space and I thought the graphics were cheesy...so my experience with the game was limited. I putzed about a lot, spent too much time on swinging from beams and moving crates - but it was time well spent. Second, I wanted to redo the level with all the knowledge I had learned the first time around...having a sense of what to look for and when...I got a good sense of how Lara moves and how the game operates. Lara & I got to know each other...

I'll comment on the game itself briefly first, and another day I'll talk more about Lara herself (it's way too late). The game is adventure of course - not surprising - with shooting here and there. While I like the adventure aspect of it; the exploring, collecting and solving puzzles underwater...what I really enjoy is the gun action - and I almost think there should be more of it. Granted, I love riding my motorcycle on the roof of a skyscraper (how cool is that? and how sweet is Lara in her evening gown on the bike!!), but the swinging platforms (damn grapple hooks), and constant tarzan swinging on anything that protrudes from a wall is sometimes tiring - especially when I have to redo a section over and over and over again (cause I miss!). Japan has been the hardest for me so far - I was happy and relieved when it was completed.

The graphics in this game are excellent - lots of detail and beautiful scenery. The view from the skyscrapers in Japan are fabulous! As Lara and I shared many unfortunate deaths, she has some interesting death positions - I managed to face plant her face (and her motorcycle) against a wall, I also folded her body in half after her grappling hook released accidentially (oops!) - what a visual! Thankfully, the new Lara isn't a screamer or squealer (we just wouldn't get along if that was the case)....but more on Lara later...

There are some glitches in the game - sometimes Lara is hovering in the air over the ground...sometimes she's off a ledge in mid-air, heck i've even seen her walk through a filing cabinet! So these are rather comical when you see them. The game is relatively user friendly even for novice users, especially if you're playing the easy - adventurer level; there's hints throughout. However, there are many areas where the obvious solution is not so obvious and I had to check the online walkthrough (EBGames was sold out) to help me through a couple of areas. Apparently I don't always have those (James Bond 007) creative thinking skills - who knew the wonders of the grappling hook...who knew what thin wires I could climb...but on the other hand, I was surprised at some of the things I did think about and how I improvised.

I'm quite pleased with the game itself - there seems to be a lot of action dispersed throughout (like the timed motorcycle pursuit in Peru), and it keeps me interested and persistent to complete the level. I'll have to get back to work, and save my game time for night time.

more to come...

:: Netwoman 1:12 AM [+] ::
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Lara Legends
Originally uploaded by Netwoman.

The Waiting is over.... Lara is here!

At last - it's arrived. I am now holding Lara Croft Tomb Raider Legend. My hands are sweaty.


Off I go to release some dissertation stress...more on the game later!

:: Netwoman 8:19 PM [+] ::
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Domesticating the Internet

By way of getting myself to focus on my dissertation (and not video games!), I am going to try and post some tid-bits related to my research. Others are doing the same and it seems that many of us are in the same writing frenzy. I need to get this thesis done by the end of the summer so that I don't have to pay another year of ridiculous tuition fees!

My research is about the 'domestication of the internet'. What this means is that I am researching how people integrate the internet into their households and their daily routines. In some sense, I am asserting that the internet is becoming so embedded into many people's daily lives that the internet itself is becoming an invisible technology - much like the telephone. People don't think twice about looking up a recipe for pork chops, organizing church events via email or perusing real estate listings - it is part of their daily activities.

What I'm interested in is not only how people utilize the internet within the household, but also what the processes of domestication are all about. Researchers such as Silverstone, Hirsh & Morley (1992) talk extensively about the domestication of the television – looking at four stages in the domestication process of technologies; appropriation - in which the artifact leaves the world of commodity and is owned by an individual or household; Objectification - addresses how the object/artifact is placed, how it is arranged and displayed, and how this space is conceptualized and utilized by household members; Incorporation - how the object/artifact is incorporated into people's routines; Conversion - which goes deeper into how the artifact fits into people's lives, looks at what the connection and relationship is to the outside world.

While I'm using this framework to talk about the domestication of the internet, I'm also framing this discussion within feminist discussions (or a gender analysis) about household technologies - feminists have investigated the impact of household technologies such as the microwave, refrigerator, stove and so forth, arguing for example that these technologies were not labour saving devices that would emancipate women from domestic labour, but instead increased the standards of cleanliness and ultimately increased domestic workloads for women. I think these arguments are important to keep in mind when examining the household internet.

My research takes place in an area of Toronto, where 350 participants completed a survey on their uses of technology, how they communicate, and their social networks (among many other things). 87 participants were then interviewed and about 25 participated in an 'ethnography' where we watched how they searched for information.

So, I've been sitting on this data for many months now. With all the teaching I've been doing (four courses this term plus research work and numerous other things), I haven't had too much opportunity to write up my results. Bummer.

Right now I'm looking at my data concerning 'appropriation' - how people decide to get the internet in the household - what are their reasons? What practices and processes are involved in deciding to adopt the internet into the household?

Having looked at the interview responses to the question - what made you decide to get the internet in your home - I've tallied up the results. Participants could have more then one response (though only a handful mentioned more than one reason), and this is based on 68 interview participants who have internet in the household:

Work - 34
Communication - 23
Children - 8
Information - 7
Education - 3
Keep up - 2
Curiosity - 1
Ease - 1
Gift - 1

I was initially surprised that so many people noted that they got the internet in their home because of work reasons. Many people seem to be bringing work home with them - a new type of flex-work so to speak. While some people noted that their organization prodded them by either installing it/purchasing it, others noted that they wanted to work from home and the internet was the only way this could happen. In other cases, participants noted that because they had to bring work home anyway, they could have easy access to their work files and so forth this way. It seems to me that there is a risk of increased workload with the prevalence of the household internet. I wonder if people are doing more work at home - or doing more work overall - with the presence of the internet.

Communication is also a reason for getting the internet at home. Many participants noted that without the internet, they could not communicate with family members who do not live in the same city or even country. For the demographics in Toronto and the large number of immigrant families, the internet is pivotal in maintaining their familial ties. Others noted that communicating with their social networks is vital; organizing social events such as lunches, dinner parties and so forth is often done via the internet (some people follow up with phone calls but many do not). Also, participants noted their communication with clubs and organizations via email, and how they plan and schedule events.

There's much more to talk about of course. But I suppose my main thrust here is that while there may be some commonalities in regards to the reasons why people get the internet at home, there are still context specific processes at work here; people have their own reasons given their routines, needs and so forth. Processes are complicated.

More details to come.

This information is the intellectual property of Tracy L.M. Kennedy. Please do not cite without my permission. ©2006.

:: Netwoman 1:10 PM [+] ::
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Make your own sex room!

Here's a game that's sure to generate some discussion among women gamers. This seems to be a likely progression for games...

Video games get very, very naughty

NEW YORK (AP) -- Online games have so far mainly revolved around the killing of fantasy monsters. The occasional fight with a Stormtrooper provides some variety.

Companies are now developing a handful of games -- though calling them that is a stretch -- designed to give players a very different option: making love, not war.

In "Naughty America: The Game," set to launch early this summer, players will assume the forms of alluring but cartoonish people who meet, flirt and have sex with other player characters.

Characters will have their own apartment, but the world will have also have "public sex zones" and themed rooms, said Tina Courtney, the game's producer.

"We've got the cowboy room, the make-your-own-porn room ... it doesn't just have to be 'Your place or mine?"' Courtney said.

:: Netwoman 11:12 AM [+] ::
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Waiting for Godot, I mean Lara...

I'm anxiously awaiting Lara Croft Legends, and apparently it did quite well in the UK last week:
Lara defeats Godfather - Keith Stuart

The new all-format UK charts have been released and Tomb Raider: Legend has leapt acrobatically to the top of the pile, leaving the Godfather mumbling in its wake. According to Gamesindustry.biz, Lara's comeback shifted three times as many copies as EA's big retro movie license, proving the public has forgiven her for past indiscretions - or to be more specific, Angel of Darkness and Tomb Raider Chronicles.

Gamasutra says:

Always likely to perform well on the home turf of publisher Eidos, the latest entry in the Tomb Raider franchise has debuted with the largest sales week across all formats for any game in the series. Sales for the PlayStation 2 alone, though, were less than that for the much criticized last incarnation, Angel of Darkness. The game sold more than three times that of second place rival The Godfather, in a top ten that is otherwise most notable for the performance of film licensed titles.

oh where oh where is my copy?

:: Netwoman 11:02 AM [+] ::
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Gaming tid-bits

New game Oblivion is generating some interesting (and heated discussion). Adam LaMosca talks about gender bias concerns over here. Some of the comments are typical - particularly this one:

"Yes, the default gender is male (but there has to be a default, right, and with only two choices I think male is as fair as anything)".

Yikes - what does he really know about 'fairness' especially since he is the default! Imagine a world where you aren't the 'default' and you are the 'other'. This is precisely the problem...the world of defaults that are situated in a male & masculine framework. sheesh! Why are we still having this conversation?

New Game Plus talks about the characters as well over here:

"We’re immediately identified as female gamers for identified sexism in games. Not only are we set apart as a deviation from gamers being male by default, but this suggests that women are the only ones who have a problem with sexism in games."

Guilded Lilies talks about it as well, and so does The Geeky Feminist:

"The assumption being, of course, that the players will be men. How is a woman playing a female character going to compare and decide which race to be? She has to start the game, change the gender from male to female, and click through the races to know what her character might look like. The manual doesn’t help her at all. If anything, the mysteriously absent women in the manual make her feel like she doesn’t exist, that women don’t play this game".

Really, feminists are not complaining because they have nothing better to do. Trust me, our schedules are full and we (collectively speaking as feminists - whatever tenet we may be) have many other things we'd rather be doing. For many of us, the conversations are endless; the justifications for analyses are endless....The bottom line is that women and girls are just as interested in gaming then men and teen boys - and many women are playing games. It's not too much to ask to level the playing field - expand and enhance what's already out there in games, and create new genres of games that appeal to everyone. But then we're left with the question, what WILL appeal to everyone? Is that even possible?

Granted, I am one of the gamers who enjoys romping in male discourses of the virtual world. But when I do so (and it can be oh-so-fun), I'm celebrating (and reproducing) masculinity - not femininity. In many ways there is nothing inherently 'feminine' about the way I play, and I'm not sure what it would take to converge and blur gender constructions in the gaming world - is it about changing body types & images? Is it about expanding character choice? Is it about transgressing traditional game play to encompass all different sorts (which can be deemed gendered?). I sense that I am not the typical female gamer, but the point is that my needs and expectations differ from men and women...so where do I go from here? many thoughts and questions...few answers...

:: Netwoman 12:46 PM [+] ::
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The third wave - at a computer near you

Feminist blogs are booming. But are they globalising emancipation - or just playthings for the rich and well educated? By Kira Cochrane - Friday March 31, 2006
The Guardian

Young women are apathetic. They're not feminists. They don't call themselves feminists. They don't know what feminism is all about.
"That," says Jessica Valenti, "was all we ever seemed to hear - from colleagues, from the media. And we just thought, who are they talking about?
I know young women all over the place who do feminist work. We wanted to show that young feminists aren't crazy or mean, but cool. A lot of feminism has this academic basis that can be very off-putting. And so we thought, let's put something out there that's not dry and academic, but lively and fun."

So Valenti became one of the founders of Feministing.com, a highly popular blog website that attracts 100,000 visitors a month. Each day it features between five and 10 women's stories, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. An article on incoming Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, for example, is followed by a wisecrack on a dubious skin-tightening product called Virgin Cream.

And it's not alone. In the two years since feministing started, there has been an explosion of feminist blogs, including many that have a highly professional edge, and a large, loyal readership. The feminist movement has always produced plenty of meaty writing and lively debate: witness Sylvia Pankhurst's newspaper, the Woman's Dreadnought, in the 1910s, through the pamphleteering of the 1970s second-wave, and the vibrant 'zine culture of the 1990s' "riot grrrl" movement. Prior to the blogosphere though, distribution remained local for all but a few major publications, such as Spare Rib, Ms, or, latterly, Bust and Bitch magazines.

Now though, the third wave (a movement often dismissed as a myth) has gone online. At feminist blogs you can find women writing on a bewildering range of topics, be it the perilously high caesarean rate in India, the dearth of abortion clinics in South Dakota, or the human rights record of the Philippines' president, Gloria Arroyo.

Some of the most popular blogs include Bitch PhD, the F-word, Pandagon, AngryBlackBitch, MindtheGapCardiff and Gendergeek. A recent estimate put the number of feminist blogs at 240,000, but, given that this posited the number of "active" worldwide blogs at 4m (some figures put it as high as 27.2m), and the proportion of women who are self-described feminists at 10% (a British survey this month produced a figure of 29%) the true figure could be much higher.

Comparative levels of computer literacy and interest mean that younger women do dominate. As Valenti says, "There's always been this sense among second-wave feminists that young women just aren't interested. That's never been true though: they just didn't know how to reach us."

There has also typically been a suspicion that if younger women are interested in feminism it's of a specific variety: what's sometimes called "girlie" feminism. The mainstream media tends to highlight young feminists whose outlook is "sexy". Those, for instance, who frame pole dancing as a feminist act.

Go online, though, and you are immediately struck by the huge variety of outlook and opinions. This is most evident at the twice-monthly Carnival of Feminists, set up by British blogger Natalie Bennett, who also runs Philobiblion, a women's history blog. Each carnival (usually on the first and third Wednesday of the month) is hosted by a different blogger, who invites people to contribute articles on current events or a general theme:
"radical feminism", for instance, or "1970s feminism and what it means today". The host then chooses the best pieces, putting links to between 50 to 100 articles up on their site and providing a short commentary on each.
This effectively creates a major new anthology of feminist thought every two weeks.

"People are always saying the feminist movement is dead, but I've never believed that," says Rebecca Traister, a feature writer for Salon.com, and one of the founders of Salon's own women's blog, Broadsheet, which launched last year. "What I think is that it's taking a modern, technological form, and that, from now on, feminism will be about a multiplicity of voices, growing louder and louder online."

But is it all just sound and fury? The blogs reflect second-wave ideas of consciousness raising and the personal as political (many women write about their experiences of rape and sexual assault), but there's a question mark over how this feeds into grass-roots activism.

Nina Wakeford, a sociologist at the University of Surrey, is cautious about blogging's influence. "I think the way blogs can provoke debate is useful,"
she concedes, "but it isn't clear how much they feed into activism. In the past, there was a clear role for women's organisations as regards representations to government, but I'm not sure whether women can affect public policy through blogging. Just who are they representing?"

This last question is interesting. As with second-wave feminism, this online movement is open to the accusation that it simply represents privileged white women. "Blogging is still somewhat limited, of course," says Georgia Gaden, a postgraduate researcher who has studied feminist blogs, "because although we take our access for granted, many women, globally, don't have that luxury."

That said, these blogs do redress the balance by highlighting global stories. And the Carnival of Feminists is trying to reach as many women as possible, with the most recent carnival held on the Indian blog, Indianwriting. "That was our fourth continent," says Bennett, "and I'm looking for an African blogger, so that we can reach our fifth."

The links between feminist blogs and activism are nascent - in January there was a "blog for choice" on abortion, and earlier this month saw mass blogs on street harassment and sexism - but they look set to grow. And for now, the sites provide both an insight into the strength of feeling among young feminists, and a much-needed alternative to mainstream women's magazines. If a young woman asked her about feminism, says Gaden, a blogosphere is the first place she'd direct her to. Traister agrees. "There are so many authentic voices out there that it's really invigorating. It just goes to prove that the internet isn't just for accessing porn!"

This is a timely little piece. I'm currently working on a paper about feminism and blogging, and the use of blogs for Virtual Consciousness Raising. If you have any thoughts to share about this, please feel free to post comments. I'll be blogging more about it this month....

:: Netwoman 11:28 AM [+] ::
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Gaming & Masculinity

Geeks at Play: Doing Masculinity in an Online Gaming Site / Natasha Chen Christensen

Abstract: This paper uses data taken from chat logs within a first person shooter game, Quake Online, in order to explore the performance of gender online. Previous research has shown how physicality is given a position of importance in institutions where masculinity is developed and reproduced such as sports and war; cyberspace offers the opportunity of divorcing the performance of masculinity from the body. Researchers of gender in cyberspace are divided into two perspectives about the effect of the absence of a physical body on the performance of gender: One camp believes that without the constraints of the body, gender in cyberspace becomes fluid (evidenced in the work of Sherry Turkle, Sandy Stone and Cleo Odzer) while the other believes that gender is reproduced mimetically in cyberspace. This chapter examines the chatting in an online gaming site and provides evidence that the performance of masculinity in a bodiless realm reproduces gender roles rather than transcending them. In fact, the reproduction of masculinity online as aggressive, violent, misogynist and homophobic may be more stereotypical and rigid than in "real life." Discourse in the chat logs of an online interactive gaming site demonstrates an overt show of masculinity through language. The chat function of the game is utilized in order to both dramatize superiority as well as manage defeat. Exaggerating wins and justifying losses most frequently take the forms of using sexuality as a threat both by homophobic and homoerotic references and using excessive violence. As such, this paper furthers the discussion of gender online, raising important questions about the limitations of our imaginations.

:: Netwoman 1:14 PM [+] ::
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Switching on the Tech Gene

Wired News - Rachel Metz - Apr, 03, 2006

A new web-based show encourages young women to tune in and associate DIY less with bread making and more with breadboard wiring.

Created by Alison Lewis, a web designer and instructor at Parsons School of Design, Switch is a free online show connects young women with technology by guiding them through fashion and design projects.

Lewis said she hopes "to inspire people with design and to get young girls thinking about how electronics are approachable and not so scary."

Diana Eng of Project Runway fame co-hosted the first episode, which is now available at the Switch site. She instructs viewers on how to make a recordable talking picture frame. Future episodes -- Lewis hopes to post two a month -- will feature design-slash-tech projects such as electronic pillows.

"(I do as) much as I can do, whenever I can do it," she said. "It's a really a side project right now until I can get it off the ground."

Required tools for the first episode include a soldering iron, drill and wire stripper, dental floss and nail polish. She plans to keep the show lively by featuring talented artists and designers. An online library will collect how-to snippets on tasks like soldering and reading ports on a microcontroller.

The Switch site isn't fully functional yet, but its layout mixes notebook doodles, measuring tape and LEDs -- with just enough pink in the background to give a girly feel.

Eng, who became famous for her fashion sense and interest in technology on Project Runway, thinks lots of girls would be interested in technology if they could see how it applies to them.

"Technology is going to be a big part of our lives and you don't want a generation of girls wandering around being clueless about it," she said.

So how do you snag girls and keep them interested in technology? The projects could impart understanding of the everyday importance of technology, and parents and teachers could use it with their kids or students, Lewis said.

Having parents engage in tech projects with their daughters can help, said Linda Kekelis, project director for Oakland, California, Techbridge. Boys often work on electronics projects at home, and parents just don't realize their daughters might be interested too, she said.

"If they just provided the opportunities," she said, "they'd find the girls like them as much as the boys like them."

While I like the idea of the project, I have concerns about this 'gendered' presentation of technology. Are all girls interested in fashion? I understand the need to connect the use of technology with everyday life - but I get the sense that young people have a lot more to show and tell us (adults) about how they might want (or how they can) to utilize technology in their everyday lives. I'll have to look into the show/project a bit more...

:: Netwoman 9:39 AM [+] ::
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Gaming Tid-bits...

The fine art of video games: Creative minds put on a show of mashing up game images
By IAN DAFFERN

Two very different exhibits presenting video games as art launched recently in the same week.

Play: The Art Of Xbox 360 at the Blue Dot Gallery in the Distillery District had what looked like a typical gallery opening, complete with boozy freeloaders and a fine spread of hors d'oeuvres. But the colourful pop works on the walls were actually original game concept art hung alongside actual screen shots.

Just to remind you that this was an Xbox marketing event as exhibit, patrons could try out the games on kiosks, and a couple of star artists flew in from the UK.

Chris Davie, one of the artists behind Project Gotham Racing 3, was just as surprised to see his work in this forum as anybody else.

"I actually started out as an illustrator. I was really about drawing and painting, and I think part of the reason I was asked to participate was because I've worked in both digital and real media."

Project Gotham's allure comes from burning rubber on photorealistically rendered city streets, and Davie's team was in charge of recreating New York City. The exhibition showed different aspects of this reconstruction, allowing you to appreciate easily overlooked details like water towers and Chinese restaurant signs. The prints looked stunning.

Gaming for scholarships: It sounds counterintuitive, bu Campus Cup competitors vied for tuition
By IAN DAFFERN

Kyle Patrick is a speed demon. He's one of nearly a dozen university students who have won a chance to compete for their schools in a gaming competition set up by PlayStation called the Campus Cup.

They're here at the Drake Underground, now transformed into a gamers' paradise, complete with leather couches and three giant projection screens. The set-up is fairly simple. Give two guys (it's all guys here tonight) the same virtual car, the racing version of the Nissan 300ZX, and let them go at it. The winner will go onto the next round the loser will lick his wounds at the bar.

But while Patrick may be burning rubber onscreen, when he puts down the controller it's a different story.

"Uh... I don't have insurance. So I drive very rarely," says Patrick, a second-year graphic design student at York University. "I'm mostly worried about paying for school. I can't afford a car."

Of course that could soon change. The winner today receives a $6,000 check for tuition, deposited directly to their school.

:: Netwoman 12:10 PM [+] ::
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Gaming Characters

I recently purchased Resident Evil Outbreak File #2, as I've seen it played and I can play it online with friends. This is the character I would've chosen, so not surprising that this is the character I'm most like...


What Resident Evil: Outbreak character are you most like?

Alyssa Ashcroft
Alyssa is a newspaper journalist working for the local paper. With a vigorous sense of curiousity, she has an insatiable appetite for collecting various bits of information. This is the source of her power. With a pushy and strong personality, she is a sore loser who often clashes with others. But even though she is stuck on herself she does take care of her fellow man.

Quizzes by myYearbook.com -- the World's Biggest Yearbook!

:: Netwoman 5:00 PM [+] ::
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