Game critic Anita Sarkeesian and her family were driven from their house earlier this week after she received a series of extremely violent sexual threats towards her and her parents. The week before that, game developer Zoe Quinn (creator of Depression Quest) had her personal life (both real and imaginary) […]
Monthly Archives: August 2014
19 posts
So I have to make a confession to make, I tend to taunt casual gamers relentlessly. Not because their not gamers, but because it’s just fun. Especially since I go through periods where all of my gaming happens on my phone or tablet. But I have to admit that I […]
Episode 84: Standing Around With Your %#@& In Your Hand: On Terrorism, Zoe Quinn, and Anita Sarkeesian (“Save As” to download or head over to iTunes to subscribe) In this episode we talk about the difference between harassment and terrorism on the Internet and the goings on of the last two weeks.
Check out our live podcast happening right now at https://plus.google.com/events/comaa6q49d8d3vkeans03nrn03o
We’re all busy. And, since I entered the dissertation stage of my academic career, I feel busier than ever. Or, at least, I feel more internal pressure to be busier than ever. At the same time, I recognize that I need balance. All-dissertation-all-the-time may sound like a good idea in […]
Hey folks, You may or may not know that last week marked my first week as a professor (yay!). This week classes have begun, and with it my stress meter is off the chart. I haven’t had time to do much gaming. Primarily I’m playing online Settlers of Catan (iPad), […]
Have you ever thought of what animatronics do after closing time? How do they preoccupy the midnight hours between the rounds of screaming children? Do they need some release after being poked, prodded, and pulled by greasy fingers? Do the smiles of those kitschy mascots stay innocently cheesy even in […]
It’s been a rough week. As I started trying to compose this week’s post, I knew wanted to talk about comments. I wanted to use this story as a lead-in to my conversation: The Real Problem with Sex Workers in Video Games. I wanted to talk about women’s voices and […]
Always Sometimes Monsters is an interactive narrative-style game that attempts to tackle several very serious issues through its focus on player choice and the consequences of those choices. Indeed, the game carries a content warning on its Steam page that says “Always Sometimes Monsters has content dealing with racism, sexism, […]
In the same way that medical research on breast cancer, uterine cancer, and heart disease (see Leslie Laurence’s book Outrageous Practice for some history of gender bias in medical research) have done a disservice to women as a whole by focusing medical studies solely on men and then attempting to […]
*Trigger Warning: brief discussions of suicide follow as well as discussions of depression below.* The news of actor and comedian Robin Williams’ death by suicide came to my attention from all sides this week. My family was talking about it in person as it buzzed across the daily news. Across […]
This month, LEGO introduced the LEGO Ideas Research Institute set. The set includes an all female cast: a paleontologist, chemist, and an astronomer. When I ordered the set last week, the site listed a 30-day wait, but now the set is completely out of stock on LEGO’s site. I’m encouraged […]
I’ve played World of Warcraft on and off since 2007. My total played time on my main alone is 162 days, 7 hours, 35 minutes, and 7 seconds (thanks for the seconds, Blizz!). And, though I’ve quit several times in the past, I’m back again. Of course, no one game […]
Naxxaramas is the first expansion for Hearthstone, a free, online, digital collectable card game. Hearthstone is made by Blizzard, who is famous for games like World of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo. (For those who have been living under a rock.) Anywho, on July 22nd, Blizzard released Curse of Naxxramas as […]
Episode 83: Absent Mental Defect: HBO’s Documentary, Love Child, and the Games Addiction Defense (“Save As” to download or head over to iTunes to subscribe) In this episode HBO’s documentary, Love Child, and video game addiction scapegoating (again).
Earlier this week, I got into a Facebook “discussion” over this video. Great video, you should watch it, if you haven’t already. But, I knew as soon as I first saw it that sooner or later someone was going to make a comment about how the woman is dressed. When […]