Expertise, Comics, and Geekdom

The writers of this blog read/discussed comics last week, so I wanted to write something about them. I mulled it over for awhile. What should I talk about it? I’ve read a few things, like the new Batwoman and New X-Men. I’ve liked most of the things I’ve read so far but I wouldn’t consider myself an avid comic fan. I quickly decided to drop the comic book idea. It’s not that I dislike comics, I just didn’t feel like I was qualified to talk about them.

I explained this to a fellow blogger and they asked, “Why don’t you feel qualified to talk about comics? I think a man with the same amount of exposure to comics as you would not question his authority to speak on the topic.”  Touché. There’s my topic!

If I don’t feel like I know enough about comics to write about them, how many would I have to read to be an expert? Personally, I’d want to have a firm grasp on all the major superhero comics like Batman, Spider-Man, and the Avengers. I’d want to be up to date on their on all of their current plots and know their past histories. Essentially, I’d want to be an expert before I said anything.

Of course, I don’t have to be an expert to give my opinion about something but in the realm of comics I feel like my knowledge, as a woman, would be called into question. It’s not enough to generally like something. In order to be taken seriously, I need to know absolutely everything. If I don’t know everything, well, that would just make me a “faker.”  

There are others who have written about how women must qualify their background and display their credentials before talking about comics or games. Noah Berlatsky phrases it well in the article “‘Fake Geek Girls’ Paranoia is About Male Insecurity, Not Female Duplicity”, “Geekdom is built on cultural knowledge; on how much you've consumed; on what you've consumed; and on how long before everyone else you were able to consume it. That knowledge is—deliberately, essentially, intentionally—used, and meant to be used, as an identity, and, therefore, as power.” Unless I can field all types questions, my knowledge would potentially be challenged. This isn’t limited to geekdom but happens in other realms outside of housekeeping and child rearing (academia, sports, politics, to name a few). Women are just held under tighter scrutiny.

I wanted to bring this up because this fear of being challenged/not knowing enough actively dissuaded me from making a post about comics today. It dissuaded me from writing about something I like. For any girls or women who might find this post, I’d like to encourage you talk about the things you’re interested in. Anyone should be able to engage in a discussion about something they like regardless of if they’re new to it or a long-time fan.

- J. 

On the Margins - Visual Novel Games

Cinders: A thoughtful visual novel game by MoaCube.

After reading “What Games Made By Girls Can Tell Us” by Jill Denner and Shannon Campe, I started thinking about games I’ve played that have similar qualities to the games the girls in the Girls Creating Games (GCG) program came up with. The girls were limited to a choose-your-own-adventure type game that relied on text and still images. While there was a lot of variation among the games they made they generally took place in realistic settings, focused on fears and social issues that girls face, had multiple endings, chances to win (but not necessarily at the expense of others), and a chance to pick the gender of your character.

Cinders (2012) a PC game developed and published by MoaCube, a small collective of indie game developers, is a visual novel game and retelling of the fairytale Cinderella. Displeased with the Cinderella story most people are familiar with (aka the Disney version), MoaCube set out to create a story where the protagonist, Cinders, plays an active role and the player feels like they are in control of the story. The story starts out familiar with Cinders at home with her “evil” stepsisters and stepmother but it doesn’t take long for the story to take unexpected twists and turns. The story is delivered through text dialogue and the player, when prompted, can choose what actions Cinders takes. Different decisions shape Cinders’s personality and can lead to four different endings with variations within each of them. More importantly, the decisions you make have enormous weight. I often found myself sitting at my computer, mulling over the options, worried that I’d make the wrong choice.

Similar to the GCG games, players are confronted with social issues such as deciding to disobey an authority figure, taking up a romantic interest (or not, the option is there), and navigating the strained relationship between Cinders and her stepsisters. Many games reinforce traditional gender roles, but Cinders allows you to experiment and find the path that best fits you.

Decision Time: What will you do?

Overall, Cinders is a high quality game with great characters, story, art, and music. I believe that there’s a huge market for visual novel games but as of now, they don’t get much press for the same reason that games “for girls” (like Imagine: Fashion Designer) don’t get attention within gamer culture. Their feminine elements and nontraditional style make people question whether or not they’re real games. Does Cinders count as a game when all you have to do is click through dialogue and make decisions? Is it just a visual novel or a visual novel game? I believe it’s as much a game as Halo or Dragon Age. Sure, the presentation is different but you’re still making decisions and roleplaying a character. Leaving visual novels out of the category of game just limits the medium and those who would potentially enjoy them. There’s a lot to like about visual novel games, and I have a feeling that in the future they’ll be a massive part of the casual/mobile game market.
- J.

[TRIGGER WARNING: R*PE] Yes, We’re Still Talking About This Game

In 2006, Japanese erotic game developer Illusion released RapeLay in Japan to little fanfare. In the game you play as a male character who stalks and rapes a mother and her two daughters.

I wish this was a joke.

Sex is an active mechanic in the game meaning that you, the player, can control the sexual acts you force on the female characters. You can choose between a variety of sexual positions and unlock different game modes, each equally as disturbing as the next. You might be wondering, “Well is there a story? Is there a point to all this?” Sure I guess there’s a story, if one could call it that. The main character is arrested for groping one of the female characters on a train. He is bailed out of jail by his father, who is an important politician. After the incident, the main character seeks revenge on the girl and her family.

Three years after the game’s initial release, gamers in the United States caught wind of the title and the media outlets exploded in debate. What is interesting about the RapeLay fiasco is the gamer response to it. A casual review of the game was first featured on SomethingAwful where the reviewer nostalgically recalled (in a tongue-in-cheek manner) the video game days of yesteryear where rape was simple pixels in Custer’s Revenge. He finds RapeLay disturbing but does not outwardly condemn it or any other erotic game featuring rape.

When CNN covered the game, erotic manga artist Nogami Takeshi took offense. He believed that because the game was created for rational adults, the game would not encourage people to become rapists. He says that rational adults are capable of distinguishing from real life and a fictional game so the content of the game isn’t an issue. Many gamers nodded in agreement.

Unfortunately, games are so over saturated with sexualized depictions of women that gamers don’t even blink when a game like RapeLay comes along. Games like this don’t exist in a cultural vacuum, they are reflections of the society in which we live. This isn’t an issue of fiction vs. reality. You can’t just say “It’s just a game so it’s okay.” The game glorifies the systems in place that keep victims of sexual harassment and assault from reporting their experience. The game also plays into rape fantasy and normalizes sexual violence against women. According to the study “Effects of Exposure to Sex-Stereotyped Video Game Characters on Tolerance of Sexual Harassment,” men subjected to hypersexualized images of women in games were disproportionately more likely to tolerate sexual harassment than those who were exposed to non-sexualized images of women. Even if its not immediately obvious, games like RapeLay do have an effect on players’ perceptions.

I find it disturbing that many people did not even question the existence of a game like this or why there are people willing to play it.

- J.

League of Legends and the Gamification of Politeness

League of Legends, an online action real-time strategy game, has a lackluster player community known for its harassment and bullying. I was hesitant to start playing for this reason. It didn’t help that II was unfamiliar with team-based strategy games. Once I got started, however, I found myself having a lot of fun defending team towers and reading up on the best strategies for my favorite characters. Even though I was having fun and trying my best, I was not good at the game. I was bullied for my poor skills and even reported by another player for “feeding”, intentionally dying to throw the game and spite your teammates. People called me a “noob”, people told me “u suck”, and people told me to “stop playing.” So I did.

Two players defend their team's tower against enemy minions.

That was two years ago and since then Riot Games, the developers behind LoL, have implemented strategies to reduce harassment and bullying. To foster a friendlier gaming community, Riot Games encourages players to abide by the "Summoner’s Code":

I. Support Your Team
II. Drive Constructive Feedback
III. Facilitate Civil Discussion
IV. Enjoy Yourself, But Not At Anyone Else’s Expense
V. Build Relationships
VI. Show Humility in Victory, and Grace in Defeat
VII. Be Resolute, Not Indignant
VIII. Leave No Newbie Behind!
IX. Lead By Example

To promote the tenants of the Summoner’s Code, Riot introduced the The Tribunal System. It enables the wider community to determine what kind of behavior is and isn’t appropriate. It “...identifies players who have been consistently reported by the community over a large number of games and builds a Tribunal case for them. These cases are presented to random community members who use the Tribunal who then review the case files and render a judgment—pardon or punish. Player Support then uses this information to help assign the right penalties to the right players.” The Summoner’s Code is suggested as a guideline to use when deciding cases.I recently tossed around the idea of playing LoL again but still worried about the player community. Voicing these concerns to my brother, a frequent player, he stated “Oh, the community is much better now. It’s like they gamified being polite.” In addition to reporting abusive players, people can now rank others for being a good team player, being helpful, and a variety of other positive characteristics. Players receive in-game awards for having a positive reputation. At the end of the game season all players with a certain reputation level receive a limited edition item, further incentivizing good behavior.

Riot is also not afraid to punish abusive high-profile, professional players. Recently, two pro players were temporarily banned from competing in competitions. When two people on a professional team are banned from competitions, this means the rest of their team can't compete because their down teammates. It shows that when one person misbehaves, multiple people are negatively impacted. This also serves as a public example to players that harassment and bullying is not tolerated. Hopefully, good sportsmanship amongst pro players will have a trickle down effect on the more casual ones.

While their the system Riot has implemented has its flaws, their efforts demonstrate that even the worst gaming communities can change if developers (and players) take the initiative to build a positive community.

-J.

Representation Matters

In “Doing Gender in Cyberspace: The Performance of Gender by Female World of Warcraft Players” (2011), Lina Eklund examines how gender and sexuality are constructed within the MMORPG World of Warcraft. She found that while female players have agency to explore their gender and sexual identities, they are limited by societal gender expectations and the constraints of the game itself. “The heterosexual matrix sets norms that limit possible sexual expressions and firmly positions gender into the binary system of the heterosexual” (2011:336). World of Warcraft was not made in a cultural vacuum. The developers imposed their gender ideals upon the game world. Heterosexuality is assumed, males are masculine, and females are feminine. But what if there was a game that did not make these assumptions?

Arkh prominently features people of color.

Enter Arkh, a planned single player action-RPG designed around subverting the usually unquestioned character assumptions made in games. Tired of seeing the same white, male, hyper masculine characters, the developers of Arkh set out to create a game where the main cast primarily consists of queer people and people of color. As much as I’d like to say that this isn’t revolutionary, it is. Few games have characters of color, let alone characters that openly identify as anything other than heterosexual.

In Arkh you take on the role of a deity who has become bored with life amongst the gods. Your character, Aina, leaves paradise to find purpose in life and find their lost love. Gameplay focuses on the idea of reincarnation. As you are reincarnated into different worlds your deity changes appearance and you, the player, experience what its like to live through the lives of a variety of people. Aina’s gender identity is not set in stone and changes as you progress through different worlds. One of the developers explained, “In the story, what Ain will be called depends on who is talking to them, much like real life.” This change in identity is indicated by pronoun usage. Various non-player characters will refer to Aina as “he”, “she”, or “they” depending on Aina’s physical presentation. When talking about the character in general, however, the developers go with “they”.

While the game is still in the works and rumors are floating around that it will never be completed, the initial response to the game’s concept was positively received. Here are a few comments:

“I'm extremely glad that there is a game in development that defies the gaming norms. As an avid gamer myself (mostly of jrpgs because I like getting involved in the story), I'm very excited for this game to come out. As a queer person, I'm glad that I'm finally getting some representation in games!”

“Okay so I am pretty sure you get asks like this all the time. But I wanted to let you know that your project really puts a smile on my face and makes me excited for the future of videogames. As a supernerd an African American woman and a member of the LGBT community, I get so excited when I see characters like me in comics and videogames. I can't wait to see more from this project, and I really hope to support you in every way that I can.”

“Whooaaa This is like the best thing ever really can't wait for this to come out I'll anticipate every single update you have.”

“As someone who's genderqueer and pansexual, I have nearly cried in joy several times while reading through this story. Anytime you get a queer character in a game, they're always the same, token character. So thank you, so much, for this game. I want to hug each and every person working on this! :')”

“Putting aside how awesome it is that you're making a game for POC and the GLBT community, I think it's great that your female characters wear real armor.”

Aina and Haruka, two character concepts from Arkh.

Many non-gamers who identify as persons of color or queer who have never played a videogame in their life, were ecstatic about Arkh. Even though they aren’t familiar with the medium, they were excited by the mere plans to have a diverse group of people represented in the game. They were excited about having character they could relate to on a personal level and who looked like them. Once again, it seems like a small thing. But the fact remains

that videogames are dominated by the same white, male types. These games are a reflection of the mostly white, male industry they were created by. An entire population of people who were never interested in games before reconsidered once Arkh was announced. This illustrates the power of representation. I think that this instance could be applied to games in general. For example, if women were better represented in mainstream, big budget games perhaps they would be more likely to play them. If you’re more of the pragmatic type, the untapped market potential is huge.

- J.

Bringing Parents Up to Date

In 2008 Fox News aired this segment entitled “‘SE’XBOX? New Video Game Shows Full Digital Nudity and Sex”.  Newscaster Martha MacCallum, states that a new game enables players to engage in graphic sex. Cooper Lawrence, a good intentioned psychology specialist, discusses the damaging effects sexual content in games can have on their players. Lawrence states, ““Here is how they’re seeing women. They’re seeing them as these objects of desire, as these hot bodies. They don’t show women as being valued for anything other than their sexuality and it’s a man in this game deciding how many women he wants to be with.”

It’s true that many games depict women in an overtly sexualized manner. After seeing this occur repeatedly in games, it does give the impression that a woman’s most important attribute is her sexuality. But out of all the games that are guilty of treating female characters like sex objects (and there are a lot), the one they decided to grab their torches and pitchforks for was Mass Effect, one of the few games that provide not just one but multiple examples of strong, competent female characters.

"Mass Effect? Is that what kids are calling it these days?"

The folks over at Fox News assumed that the game is a sex simulator in which sex is an active mechanic. Brenda Brathwaite explained in Sex in Video Games (2007), that “an active sex mechanic allows the players to directly control the action” (2007:3). In Mass Effect, players have no control over the “action”, making the situation passive for the player. The scene is brief, only shows partial nudity, and implies sex rather than graphically depicts it. It’s nothing more than what one would see on an evening television drama. For those interested, one of the scenes and the lead up to it can be found here.

But enough about that. Many people online have already addressed how ill-informed the people in the segment were. What I’d like to talk about today is the context in which the discussion of the game took place. The people in the news segment make two assumptions in the video. The first assumption is that video games are for children.

The entire discussion about Mass Effect revolved around a “think of the children” mentality used to instill moral panic in parents at home. It focused on the negative repercussions sexuality and violence can have on kids. Sure, the game is rated for mature audiences but the assumption is that children will ultimately be the ones who get their hands on it. This is an assumption widely held by people who have not played games since the original Pac-Man (at least one panelist in the segment admits to this). Games have evolved far past winning and losing. They have branched off into complex narratives with set plots and characters. Arcade-style games still exist but that is in addition to a huge variety of other game types.

Super Mario is enjoyed by fans of all ages.

Video games are seen as toys for children and I can see how the mistake would be made. Many parents are probably familiar with getting their child a Game Boy as a gift. They might also be familiar with child friendly game titles such as Super Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog. But historically video games were not created with the explicit intention of being toys for children. As a new artistic medium, one cannot expect every video game title to be child friendly just as one would not expect every film to be for children.

The second assumption being made is that only males play video games. They were not concerned with children in general but impressionable adolescent boys. They cite studies that only take males into consideration and discuss them as the only group “at risk." According to this article by Jamie Frevele over at The Mary Sue, the Entertainment Software Association reported that as of 2010, 42% of gamers are female. Despite this, the assumption that only males play video games still pervades.

In the Fox News segment, the speakers operate under these two assumptions while readily citing examples to the contrary. As one woman states only adolescent males play video games, another admits (perhaps with a hint of judgement) that “there’s a lot of grown men that love video games, lets be honest here.” As Lawrence rhetorically asks, “Who is playing video games but adolescent males?”, one of the men in the panel discussion talks about playing a princess video game with his daughter. The contradictions are readily apparent but go unacknowledged.

Why does this matter? This matters because when the mass media discusses games it is almost always in a negative context. They are written off as being too violent or being too sexual without many people even taking the time to play them. This matters because news segments like this shape how games are perceived by those who don’t play them. They inform legal decisions about censoring or banning video games. This matters because it reduces the issue of sexism in games to “all sex is bad and therefore should not exist in games” (a blog post for another day). The way the conversation is currently framed within the mass media makes it impossible for a truly critical and informed discussion about video games to occur.

So to bring everyone up to speed...
1) Video games were not explicitly created as children’s toys. To think of them only as such ignored their depth and limits the medium.
2) Contrary to popular belief, females play video games. As a matter of fact, “women 18 and older make up more of the gaming audience than boys 17 and younger” (Frevele 2011).
3) There are many types of video games today. Not all games are like Pac-Man nor are all games bloody and violent like Mortal Kombat.
4) Playing video games is a valid form of entertainment. View it as watching a favorite movie or tv show instead of treating unproductive, waste of time for nerds, slackers, and shut-ins. 72 percent of the American population plays video games and that number will only increase as time goes by (Frevele 2011).

- J.

Brathwaite, Brenda. 2007. “Chapter 1.” In Sex in Video Games. Class River Media.
Frevele, Jamie. 2011. “New Round of Gaming Statistics: Gaming Audience Getting Older, Slightly More Female.” The Mary Sue. http://www.themarysue.com/gaming-statistics/.