Women may be gaining ground in a male dominated society in the real world (see Hillary Clinton), but what about in the virtual world? Well, they’re getting there. Sony’s new spy themed console MMO is even concerned with “technical” details such as the difference between A-line and pencil skirts. It’s a brace new world for traditionally sexist game design, indeed.
Tale of Sony’s attention to detail comes from MTV’s Multiplayer blog and their interview with Sherry Floyd of SOE Seattle. Floyd works on the art content for The Agency. It’s all part of a bigger piece on Sony’s initiative to get more women into game design through the G.I.R.L. (Gamers In Real Life) scholarship program for women wanting to study game design in college. Floyd noted about the game she is working on (more…)
Not that there is anything wrong with it, but over half of men and nearly three quarters of women play MMOs as the opposite sex. That’s right, that cute elf warlock you’ve had your eye on the past few weeks might actually be a dude. It’s not quite The Crying Game, but more like the ending of the first Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
The findings come from a study at Nottingham Trent University. T hey found that 54% of men liked to play as women, while 70% of women liked to play as men. Chief researcher Zaheer Hussain explains, “It seems that women gender swap for a variety of reasons, such as to avoid unsolicited male approaches on their female characters, or because they felt male characters were treated better by other males during the course of the game.” You mean, female gamers are tired of being treated poorly by male gamers? Sadly, that probably does come as a shock to many.
As for the bigger news of cyber-cross-dressing, how in the world will Halo players deal with such news? Anyone who has played that game has dealt with the rampant homophobia and racism spouted over Xbox Live. Perhaps they are simply women pretending to be ignorant 13-year-old boys? Probably not. (more…)
The recent hubbub over Mass Effect has been the focus of some attention on this site, as well as just about every other site devoted to gaming. Some of that attention has been well deserved-the inaccurate statements should be publicly corrected, as should any untruths. Electronic Arts Vice President of Communications Jeff Brown has come out asking for a correction of the record by Fox News, and he is completely right to do so. The actions of gamers, on the other hand, are a bit off.
Dennis McCauley, Political Editor for the Entertainment Consumers Association, recently published a Joystiq blog entry on the whole ordeal. In his post, he praises the acts of gamers for their emails and calls to the radio show of conservative author Kevin McCullough, who pretty much got this whole mess started when he picked up a story from the Cybercast News Service. McCauley then goes on the slyly praise the cyber vandalism acts of gamers for their comments posted to Cooper Lawrence’s Amazon book listings. In fairness, he does state he cannot condone their acts while with a sly wink praising the gaming community to have the guts to do what game companies will not. His analysis is that such acts “represent a new kind of guerilla activism that says gamers don’t intend to be societal punching bags any longer.” Great, just what gamers need-more bad press. (more…)
It wasn’t that long ago that this whole mess started due to an appearance by Cooper Lawrence on Fox News. In the clip that has made its rounds on the Internet, Ms. Lawrence complains about the sexuality in game such as Mass Effect, and yes, does apparently get her facts wrong on what exactly does appear in the game. And then, came the backlash.
Kotaku reported on a mass surge in negative postings about Lawrence’s newest book on Amazon (the one promoted in the piece), as well as two others. In a sort of virtual-civil disobedience, Internet folk have been giving all of her books one star reviews (the lowest you can receive on Amazon). But it doesn’t end there, as Amazon allows shoppers to upload images of their own of a selected product, and from that we’ve received the ever classy Faux News pictures and cover art of Mass Effect uploaded alongside the cover of Lawrence’s books. (more…)
Sex in video games is not really that big an issue. In truth, very few games ever address sex in the most rudimentary of ways. So, what is the problem then? Well, generally, it’s the way games handle sex.
The above posted video is one of those weird meetings of the mainstream media with the gaming media. These never tend to go well, as the mainstream media is hopelessly ignorant of games and the gaming media is hopelessly ignorant of everything mainstream. We end up with arguments such as, “Games are evil!” countered with, “No game is ever wrong!” Both arguments have some merit, but both are far too simplistic. (more…)
Women may be gaining ground in a male dominated society in the real world (see Hillary Clinton), but what about in the virtual world? Well, they’re getting there. Sony’s new spy themed console MMO is even concerned with “technical” details such as the difference between A-line and pencil skirts. It’s a brace new world for traditionally sexist game design, indeed.
Not that there is anything wrong with it, but 
The recent 
It wasn’t that long ago that this whole mess started 
(the one promoted in the piece), as well as two others. In a sort of virtual-civil disobedience, Internet folk have been giving all of her books one star reviews (the lowest you can receive on Amazon). But it doesn’t end there, as Amazon allows shoppers to upload images of their own of a selected product, and from that we’ve received the ever classy Faux News pictures and cover art of 
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