A media juggling act
This kid is seriously connected, but what's he hearing and seeing?
When I read about media multi-tasking, or the act of using multiple screens at once, my mind jumped to a vision: a child watching the images of an advertisement on a muted television screen–“dial this number for weight loss supplements!”—while hearing a commercial between songs on Pandora—“stop by for our new double bacon Hawaiian burger”—while surfing the Internet on her smart phone and coming across the latest sex-driven Skyy Vodka ad.
In an age where the thought process among young people seems to be, “why just watch TV when I can also text my friends AND use my laptop?” this vision isn’t just likely, it’s potentially harmful. Continue reading
Game designer Jane McGonigal shows that gaming can change the world
Jane McGonigal says that games can change the world.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Crowdstar’s new mobile game app for girls, Top Girl. I was disheartened that a game targeted at girls and careers only allowed you to aspire to be a model and have a boyfriend. After reading the article, a friend – no doubt trying to cheer me up – directed me to the work of Jane McGonigal, a game developer and researcher using gaming in real life to change lives and make the world a better place.
I’m really impressed with the work McGonigal is doing to bring gaming into the real world and use it to tackle real-world problems. And even more so, I’m pleased to be able to write a positive story of using gaming to positively affect real life, rather than training girls to become vacuous fashionistas!
McGonigal, who has a PhD in performance studies and works at the Institute for the Future, argues that it’s not enough to forecast the future – we must be actively engaged in creating it. Through research that crosses over from gaming into psychology, she is interested in tapping into gamers as a human resource who have the potential to change the real world, rather than escape from it. Her work contributes to creating the future by imagining an epic win, then empowering people to use gaming to achieve that win. Continue reading
Top Girl: A new way to train girls to be vacuous fashionistas
Crowdstar, a game developer specializing in Facebook games, has just released their first mobile-only title aimed at girls: Top Girl. Top Girl is a social role-playing game wherein players can use real money to purchase in-game money, or earn money through modeling jobs, to make in-app purchases of clothes, hairstyles and more.
The app description reads:
“Are you addicted to shopping? Do you dream of being a Supermodel? Love to date guys? Become the TOP GIRL!
Do gigs, shop, dress, go clubbing, and flirt with HOT guys!
Customize fabulous outfits and maintain a relationship with your new boyfriend! Kiss him, buy him gifts, and take him out on dates! Photos will be saved to your phone capturing the special moment!” Continue reading
Foolish Games: Breaking My Heart
- “Power,” “glory,” and “women” are all objects to seize in R2Games’ “Ceasary.”
I mean a woman gamer, of course.
I grew up playing video games. Zelda for the SNES is one of my happiest childhood memories. I always have my eye open for new ways to while away my downtime.
But what was this I saw, while reading an article on the Super Mario Wiki (this is a real thing) about Bob-ombs?
Did my eyes deceive me?
“Power.Glory.Women. Seize what’s yours.”
In six words (and one picture in case you can’t read), R2Games has managed to convey so many things. The worst part is, this is a literalization of something which is often implicit in advertising. Let’s break it down.
Women are akin to power and glory. Indeed, the picture behind the text is not of “power” or “glory,” but of a scantily clad woman. All of these things you may “seize” because they are “yours;” so, power, glory, and women are property.
But not the property of people like me, for I am a woman. I am the property. R2Games is telling those who view its advertising that women are property. But clearly, I am not the target audience here: men are. So R2Games is telling men that women are property.
Gross. Continue reading
GameCrush turns female video gamers into PlayDate stereotypes
The images on the GameCrush home page don't do much to emphasize the PlayDates' gaming skills, do they?
We’re all familiar with the stereotype of the socially inept geek, unable to communicate with the opposite gender in real life. In the media, this character is often depicted as a video game player reluctant to leave his house.
Fortunately, this is no more truth to this than there is to any other stereotype: geeks and gamers can be shy or outgoing, socially inept or confident, quiet or boisterous.
The folks at GameCrush didn’t get that memo.
The newly launched site provides a “pay-for-play” service where gamers pay $0.60 per minute to game with female players. Although the focus is ostensibly on gaming, the site hints at more.
The female gamers are called “PlayDates” (a nod to Playboy’s Playmates), and most of the profile pictures are overtly sexual (although the GameCrush site states that men may also become PlayDates, the photos are overwhelmingly female.)
While I despise the depiction of gamers as desperate for social interaction, it’s the way the woman on the site are portrayed that really turns my stomach. It doesn’t seem to matter to anyone if the women are highly coordinated, clever strategists, multi-dimensional thinkers, or anything else that makes a good gamer.
No, all that matters as far as GameCrush is concerned is that they are female and own a webcam. The women become little more than purchasable accessories to the game, like action figures or miniature models. Continue reading
Fun for the Whole (Skinny, Female) Family
Anyone can dance on Broadway! Well, "anyone" white, thin and female.
An important lesson in inequality, brought to us by…a video game?
I had never really played console games before my roommate brought home a Nintendo Wii and the game Just Dance. In the blink of an eye, I could transform from a nerdy civil servant into Blondie, a Beach Boy, or even MC Hammer. Evenings at our apartment suddenly got a lot less boring.
But the real excitement came when my roommate told me that a musical theater game called Dance on Broadway was being released. I’m a huge Broadway fan, and as soon as I looked at the song list–which includes songs from Hairspray, Chicago, and The Rocky Horror Show–I knew I had to get it.
Instead of the single, abstracted avatar in Just Dance, Dance on Broadway lets you pick from four pre-determined characters per song, which are supposed to be true to the musicals. Both the box cover and game trailer are filled with pictures of people dressed in musical theater costumes, demonstrating how you can put yourself in the characters’ shoes: Continue reading
What we learn from games for girls
The media pays a lot of attention to violence in kids’ video games. But when we’re looking at messages in games, I’m also concerned about the troubling signals in games designed for tween girls. In an article in WIRED magazine, Tracey John asks whether games that encourage girls to be pretty and liked above all else could be just as damaging as games like Grand Theft Auto.
John mainly deals with console games, but I also looked at a variety of PC games and noticed similar lessons and messages. Mostly I tried time-management games where the player takes on the role of a young woman running a business, including Carrie the Caregiver, Pet Show Craze, Sally’s Salon, and Fix-It-Up: Kate’s Adventure. Continue reading
A Brand New Day: An encouraging new role model for women in Hollywood
Felicia Day
Felicia Day is not your typical female star—and that’s what we love about her.
Day became known to many television viewers during her stint on the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, starred in “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog,” and is the writer, producer, and director of the popular web series The Guild, a show that parodies the culture of online role-playing games. Continue reading
The media does (not really) feel sorry for trivializing violence against women
From Kanye to Serena Williams, it seems like everyone has been apologizing for inappropriate comments recently. But one apology you may have missed was that of Orange County Register columnist Mark Whicker.
Phillip Garrido’s backyard, where Jaycee Dugard was held captive for 18 years.
Whicker wrote a seriously offensive column on September 7th that attempted to use the rescue of Jaycee Dugard as a hook for a story on a series of sports highlights.
Dugard’s rescue earlier this year after being kidnapped at age 11 was big news. She had spent 18 years held captive in her abductor’s backyard, where he repeatedly raped her and forced her to give birth to two children. Continue reading
Fat Princess: PlayStation Abomination
As if the world of gaming wasn’t unfriendly enough for women. Feministing caught wind of the latest steaming pile of circuits from Sony: a game called Fat Princess. The premise is capture-the-flag, except here the flag is a woman. Each team feeds their kidnap victim as much cake as possible in order to render her too heavy to carry back to the other side.
Sometimes I wish I wasn’t bound to family-friendly vocabulary. Continue reading