Even in the Games for Change movement, the understanding is that games need to be specifically designed for tease out the positive effects. However, this argument never seems to be made. Games ought to convey stories in an even more griping way. Games ought to makes us more virtuous by portraying morally positive themes. If the argument was true, the opposite should also be true. To begin with, the argument is used almost exclusively to argue AGAINST videogames – to justify harsher restrictions, a more scrutinous treatment. Here is why I find this argument debatable. The idea being that detrimental aspects of media are especially harmful in videogames because of their interactive nature. Variations of the above argument are also common in the criticism of violence or racism in videogames. Because of its essential interactive nature, gaming occupies a unique and potentially more detrimental position vis-a-vis the portrayal and treatment of female characters.
Sexual objectification is, of course, ubiquitous in mass media of all forms but since video games are an interactive medium, players are allowed to move beyond the traditional role of voyeur or spectator. However, I noticed that throughout the episode, the show makes a common argument which continues to struck me as questionable. As always, the critical perspective is welcome and the accumulation of examples is seriously disturbing. This time, they discuss Women as Background Decoration, especially the prevalence of female Sex Workers in Videogames.
#Unpacking octgn image packs series
Posted in Game Design Scrapbook 3 ResponsesįeministFrequency recently released a new Episode of their Series “Tropes vs Women”. But most of all, it is the most crushing betrayal. To all of us who have dedicated their lives and hearts to this medium this is a tragedy and a humiliation. You may not care about what other think about games, but we did. The bright future we were constructing with so much effort and against such resistance is being pillaged by its own inhabitants. We haven’t been pushing the boundaries of what games can express for gamers to scoff at or efforts and calling them “not even a game”. We haven’t established game studies courses and academic conferences for gamers to denounce them as “SJW Bootcamps”. We haven’t been laboriously moving games journalism away from being glorified PR-megaphones only to be accused of bias by our own readers. We haven’t fought against the Jack Thompsons of this world only to have gamers issue threats of mass shootings. Here were gamers hell-bent at being exactly the thing we fought so hard to prove they never were. It is an attack on exactly the same people that were sacrificing careers, families and years of work for. Gamergate comes in and it is a stab in the back from the very crowd we were working so hard to defend all this time. It seemed like games were not for some alleged low life nerds after all. It took us 5 years to pull it off since the university board was so hard to convince that this was a reasonable thing to spend money on. I was personally involved in establishing a games studies course at a local university. I applied for tax benefits as an independent artist. Games were discussed in mainstream newspapers in a thoughtful and appreciative manner. That evening it seemed like we were finally getting somewhere. Decades of journalists, academics and game developers doing their best to demonstrate the value in games and challenging stereotypes and misconceptions. It took us a long time to get there and it was a group effort. This is a big deal since by the German constitution, one is mandatory while the other is illegal. The head of the commission to decide age ratings also gave a speech how for the first time in history of the commission there was a lengthy debate among them if they were doing youth protection or actually censoring art. When I received the German Developer Award, a journalist I’ve never met before gave a heartwarming speech on how TRAUMA shows even to the most jaded skeptics that game can be art. Games here are under harsher restrictions.
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