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GDC 2015: Still Waiting For Change For Women In Games. Check out all our GDC 2015 coverage!

GDC 2015: Still Waiting For Change For Women In Games

The Very Best Games; A Sign That Gaming Is Moving In The Right Direction; The #IReasonToBe Panel. Slut Shaming and Concern Trolling in Geek Culture. The Great Geek Sexism Debate. The Creepy Side Of E3. Albeit that some of the critical response is rational, i.e. beyond logical, I think that they are (without malicious insult), at least textually, ignoring the requisite notion of normality.

The Creepy Side Of E3

An article like this is necessary for the sense of pointing out the abnormality of the abhorrence of the actions and circumstances depicted. If security personnel are part of the culture of fear and constant protection that women must face, then they are not providing security in a complete sense. But, their role and their actions are the norm, they are considered normal. They become abhorrent only upon reflection and discussion, but the women (as sexually engendered or self-/externally-identified) are experiencing these threats and terrifying circumstances are not considered in that norm, and that is the crux of this article, this universal discussion, and the motivation behind having such articles published.

We must reject stereotypes in games - Manveer Heir. You ever listen to someone talk at a live event and feel like you're a part of something greater, that there's a real movement underway?

We must reject stereotypes in games - Manveer Heir

That's what it felt like to sit in on a presentation from BioWare Montreal's Manveer Heir at GDC earlier today. The talk - titled Misogyny, Racism and Homophobia: Where do video games stand? « Si on mettait des meufs dans nos jeux vidéos ? » Where Are All the Hacked Pics of Men? Non-Analog Gaming: Bastion and men as automatic protagonists. [SPOILER WARNING: This post deals with Bastion, an excellent action-RPG PC game available through Steam.

Non-Analog Gaming: Bastion and men as automatic protagonists

Be warned that some pretty serious spoilers lie within; if you haven't played and are a fan of action-RPGs, I'd recommend picking up a copy and playing before coming back to this post. Bastion is easily the best action-RPG I've played since Kingdom Hearts.] Sexual Dimorphism in World of Warcraft. Game designer-in-training Andrea Rubenstein has just published a great article about fantasy bodies in MMOs, focusing in particular on sexual dimorphism in World of Warcraft.

Sexual Dimorphism in World of Warcraft

She points out the bizarre differences between male and females of nonhuman races, asking whether it makes any kind of sense that female Draenei would be so small in comparison to their male counterparts: The race with perhaps the starkest contrast between the sexes would be the Draenei. What stands out first about the sexes is that the male is massive: tall with unnaturally large muscles and equally large hooves. Why the fedora grosses out geekdom. The fedora draws increasing controversy in internet circles.

Why the fedora grosses out geekdom

In just one hour I found no less than three Tumblrs related to shaming people who wear the creased, curve-brimmed hat—formal with a touch of classic dandy—and the censure is interestingly specific. The targets are usually men. The fedora draws increasing controversy in internet circles. "RapeLay" Ahhhh yesteryear!

"RapeLay"

When I fire up a modern game on a modern console or PC I am often struck with nostalgia. I recall the joys I once experienced, hunched over my Atari 2600, entranced by the vaguely human shapes moving around the screen and throwing dots at each other. Esjxzaij Shared by. 'WTF is with empowered women in video games now?' Nerds and Male Privilege. Lost Humanity 15: Booth Babes. I was disappointed not to make it to the Eurogamer Expo at the weekend there.

Lost Humanity 15: Booth Babes

By all accounts it was a great event, and it managed to distract people from the inevitability of death for a few days. I was having to enjoy the event vicariously, by stalking those people who did attend on Twitter and Facebook. Here's the thing, though. Something kept coming up. The Border House. Squidy Girl: "Fake" Nerd Girls, "Whores", and Sexism. (Note: This is an open letter to Newsarama columnist and writer Dirk Manning, who earlier today posted this meme on his Facebook.

Squidy Girl: "Fake" Nerd Girls, "Whores", and Sexism

I'm responding to that and the comments that followed.) Dear Dirk Manning, I'm a fellow comic book writer and editor, for about 10 years now. I’ve read your posts at Newsarama and while I don’t know you personally, I generally found them helpful for those looking to write and create work in comics. Which is I why I have to say, I'm disappointed to see you perpetuating the “Fake Geek/Nerd Girl” meme. I’m sure it seems harmless and “fun” on the surface, but memes like this are indicative of a much larger and much more problematic attitude within geek culture. This meme unfortunately perpetuates an attitude that is exclusionary and unnecessary. The thing about sexism, even when it seems “minor” or playful, is that it has real world consequences. Fanboy Rampage: Jennifer de Guzman Vs Dirk Manning.

Dirk Manning is a writer for Newsarama and he has also written for Bleeding Cool as well as having work published by Image Comics.

Fanboy Rampage: Jennifer de Guzman Vs Dirk Manning

And yesterday he shared the above meme on his Facebook page. Can you guess what happened next? He added the following in comments. Games with exclusively female heroes don’t sell (because publishers don’t support them) Geek Girl Performance Anxiety. How to Win Customers and Alienate Women: On Videogame Box Art. There's a big reason everyone talks about sexism in games culture: it's a big deal. More recently, the discussion has turned its attention towards videogame box art. Irrational Games' upcoming title BioShock Infinite is set to feature the game's main character holstering a shotgun, with minimal reference to the game's important social themes of jingoism, American Exceptionalism, and social inequality. The box art gives little indication that it's anything other than a run-of-the-mill shooter, making little reference to the game's more serious topics.

The game's designer Ken Levine explained in an interview with Wired that the artwork was for the "uninformed" masses who would buy the game with little to no knowledge of its content. According to Levine, the team at Irrational visited some fraternity houses to poll the college students about their knowledge of the original BioShock, and to the team's dismay, none of them had even heard of the game. Women’s Voices: Special Guest Blogger Hannah Elstrom. Part 2 in our Women’s Voices blogs, where we turn things over to female gamers for their point of view. This month’s blog is from Hannah Elstrom: A while back I was having dinner with my family, and my little brother, age 8, casually expressed his belief that playing video games was an activity for boys. He might have forgotten all the times he’d seen me engrossed with a new game I had just picked up, or playing multiplayer games with my friends, or taking over the controller for him whenever he had to go up against a difficult boss in his own games, the ones he had inherited from myself.

Or, maybe he had forgotten that the person sitting across the table from him, the person he called his sister, was actually a girl. A girl who plays games. Say hello to The Old Republic's gay planet - Star Wars: The Old Republic. This is Makeb. It's a gay planet. When I say it's a gay planet I don't mean that the planet itself is innately homosexual. Makeb itself is just a genderless, oblate spheroid of rock surrounding a sexy molten iron core, shuffled away in some dark corner of a far away galaxy. When I say that Makeb is a gay planet I mean that it is the only location in Star Wars: The Old Republic in which you can be gay. You don’t like breasts? You must like men: The disappointing conversation and art of Dragon’s Crown.

It all started, as these things often do, with Kotaku. Jason Schreier criticized the art in the upcoming game Dragon’s Crown, and the artist who created that art didn’t seem to enjoy the negative thoughts on the large-breasted, small-headed women in his game. So he posted an image on Facebook of a series of burly men. “It seems that Mr. Jason Schreier of Kotaku is pleased also with neither sorceress nor amazon. The art of the direction which he likes was prepared,” artist and Vanillaware founder George Kamitani wrote on his Facebook page.

#1ReasonWhy We Are All Responsible. By Nathan Grayson on November 29th, 2012 at 10:00 am. Over the past couple days, a certain hashtag’s been dominating the gaming industry’s sector of Twitter, and with good reason. #1ReasonWhy has given people a place to voice – often using their personal experiences as a megaphone – reasons why there aren’t more women in the gaming industry. Naturally, it’s sparked all kinds of debate, but as always, the point is clear: sexism in the gaming industry is a serious problem, and we need to clean up our act. Why It Sucks to Be a Woman in the Video Game Industry. Really? IGDA Party At GDC Brings On The Female Dancers. IGDA draws backlash, member resignations over female dancers at GDC party (update: IGDA responds) The International Game Developers Association is under fire for its GDC 2013 party, which featured scantily clad female dancers, leading game designer Brenda Romero and other members of the organization to resign today.

"I went home last night to work on my Friday GDC talk feeling super uplifted by the turnout and support for the #1ReasonToBe panel," Romero told Polygon in a statement today. "I woke up to DMs, texts and links to news of the IGDA party. It really saddens me. GDC 13: Standing ovation as women devs let loose on sexism in games. Emotionally-charged session encourages women to chase success and inspire the next generation A number of leading women developers have let loose on sexism in the game industry, resulting in a standing ovation for the panel at GDC 2013. Game Blog & Lara Croft. Ce lundi 25 mars 2013, le site internet GameBlog a publié un article intitulé "Tomb Raider : le bug qui déshabille Lara » ( Aujourd’hui hors ligne, cet article montrait quelques images d’un bug graphique du jeu Tomb Raider permettant de voir le personnage de Lara Croft presque nu avec des sortes de tâches de brûlure sur le corps.

L’article commençait par "Amis voyeurs, bonjour" et se terminait par l’utilisation de l’expression "petits coquinous" dans la dernière phrase. The Science Behind Shaping Player Behavior in Online Games. Misogyny, Sexism, And Why RPS Isn’t Shutting Up. Study of Box Art Reveals Games That Feature Non-Sexualized Women on the Box Don't Sell Well.

For most gamers, the academic study of video games seems a bit ridiculous. “Common sense” is what I often hear when people talk about the results of studies. La fabrique des corps gratuits - Sexisme et Jeux en Ligne. A l’espace numérique, ce sont toujours les mêmes qui viennent squatter les ordis : des élèves du collège d’à coté qui profitent d’un trou entre deux heures de cours, des ados du quartier, des qui n’ont pas d’ordinateurs chez eux, d’autres qui en ont mais qui préfèrent l’espace numérique parce qu’on y est « ensemble ». Je m’occupe de cet espace depuis septembre. Un jour deux garçons que je connais bien viennent prendre des ordis : ils jouent à un jeu dément, hyper graphique, hyper beau, un jeu de stratégie en ligne, juste à coté il y a une petite fille du même âge, elle joue avec un tourniquet de perruques et une poupée chauve en 2D. J’ai envie de discuter un peu avec elle parce que je suis choqué par ce que je vois :

I Don't Want My OKCupid Dates To Know I Like Video Games. "Being unable to hold myself to normal human waking hours, for example, means I might find myself cruising OKCupid at 4am. Feministfrequency - YouTube-Mozilla Firefox. Striking a Pose (Women and Fantasy Covers) Right Through His Pants. 'The Avengers' sequel: Should another female join the superhero squad? Why I Write "Strong Female Characters" Escher Girls. m0spv91NQy1qgnfmgo1_1280.jpg (Image JPEG, 1265x1920 pixels) A 7-year-old girl responds to DC Comics' sexed-up reboot of Starfire.

No More Mutants: 52 Problems by Andrew Wheeler. The Big Sexy Problem with Superheroines and Their 'Liberated Sexuality' Overthinking-It-Female-Character-Flowchart.png (PNG Image, 2147×1926 pixels) Nerds and Male Privilege. Why Talking About Character Gender Still Matters (Even Though It Shouldn’t) Sexism in Video Games [Study]: There Is Sexism in Gaming. Booth Babes and the Expo. Opinion: In the sexism discussion, let's look at game culture. It's a man's (virtual) world.

Extra Credits – Harassment. Video Galleries : The Big Picture : Not Okay. Sexual Harassment in Videogame Culture. Not in the Kitchen Anymore. Fat, Ugly or Slutty. FatUglyorSlutty.com Presents: A Lady's Guide to Playing Video Games Online. Sexual harassment in the world of video gaming. Tomb Raider throws rape, assault, and a hostile environment at Lara Croft to make her a hero. Addressing Tomb Raider and the Problematic Marketing of Lara Croft. Tomb Raider – La bande-annonce polémique.

Lara Croft and rape stories: breaking down the bitch. Hey, let's "evolve" Lara Croft by having people try to rape her! Lara Croft : de l'amazone à la jeune fille soumise (Tomb Raider. Lara Croft Will Be Threatened With Rape In the Next Tomb Raider—But Don't Worry, Guys, You Can Rescue Her. De la misogynie dans Tomb Raider ? - 14/06/2012. Castrating the Straight Male Gaze on Bayonetta (or at least making room for other ones!) [French] Genre et Jeu vidéo (1) : Pour le plaisir des yeux masculins.

The 6 Ways Women are Written in Video Games (For Better and Worse) - Blistered Thumbs. Video Games and the Female Audience. Borderlands 2: Gearbox reveals the Mechromancer's "girlfriend mode" Borderlands 2 Lead Designer Confirms: Your Girlfriend Sucks at Shooters - Rant GamingRant Gaming. When Life Gives You Lemons, Smash the Patriarchy. Feminism 101: Offensive Language and Dismissal of Responsibility. Top Girl, The Game Where Makeovers Are Mandatory and Being Hot Is Everything-Mozilla Firefox. Homo/Transphobia in Gaming. Women In Magic, The 2012 Edition, by Jackie Lee - a Magic: the Gathering Miscellaneous Article-Mozilla Firefox. E3 - Aisha Tyler se défend dans une lettre ouverte aux haters.

Cross Assault Case (February 2012)

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