So I’m reading this book called Finite and Infinite Play by James P. Carse, a religion professor. His take on play has inspired some interesting possibilities that I can see being very useful in the current debate about gaming and education. First, and he makes this very clear, “whoever […]
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Episode 11: Sex and Misogyny in Games (“Save As” to download or head over to iTunes to subscribe) The episode where we talk more about L.A. Noire (and sex!). It’s our read of L.A. Noire, new Facebook and iOS games, and much much more! Links of Note: Videogames: An untapped […]
Things have been super quiet around here lately and I think that much of it can be contributed to the fact that L.A. Noire really has eaten our brains. I have personally been playing the game in every free moment that I have (and lots of them are moments that […]
Episode 10: The Big 1-0: L.A. Noire Ate Our Brains! (“Save As” to download or head over to iTunes to subscribe) The episode where we talk mostly about L.A. Noire. It’s our 10th episode and we’re just going for it! Links of Note: Call of Duty: MW3 Trailer Sissy’s Magical […]
I learned about the role of women in a much different era. Women were burning bras, demanding for an Equal Rights Amendment, and bossing around gunfighters and Wookies on the big screen. Princess Leia was my first glimpse at what it meant to be a woman (besides my mother and […]
(“Save As” to download or head over to iTunes to subscribe) The episode where we talk about games and sexuality. This week we focus on representations of sexual orientation in video games. Links of Note: Brink has zillions of character variations and no women Call of Duty: Black Ops Commercial […]
(“Save As” to download or head over to iTunes to subscribe) The episode where we talk about women and technology. dr. b. drops a few f-bombs while drinking tea for the royal wedding, Alex goes mad-eyed dog crazy, and Sarah…she’s a friggin’ cow in the west. Links of Note: Android […]
Sheri Graner Ray, author (Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding The Market) and game designer, has written a new post over at Fem IRL on hiring folks based on whether or not they fit in and how that leads to companies hiring people who are just like their current employee base. […]
Below is an edited and (hopefully contextualized) version of the talk that I did at CCCC 2011 in Atlanta, GA. I have added some images and video but not the entire PowerPoint presentation from the talk. Ian Bogost defines procedural rhetoric as “a technique for making arguments with computational systems […]
I’m writing this post to clear up a few things that were confusing in my last post. What I worry about is not those who work to integrate games into their pedagogy, or even ‘gamify’ their classrooms by embedding things like competition, progress bars/reports, HUDs, quests etc. That has been […]
Episode 7 is here! Gamification; It’s More than Just Playing Games (“Save As” to download or head over to iTunes to subscribe) The episode where we talk about gamification and education and clear up some of the mis-conceptions. dr. b. rants a bit and drops an f-bomb, Alex drinks like […]
The reserve army of the bored zombie the earth, fiddling with their cell phones, checking their watches. Boredom is the meter of history. –McKenzie Wark I love games. My friends love games. My students love games. We are a society in love with games: game-shows, reality games, board games, online […]
With the recent news that L.A. Noire will be the first video game featured at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival, it seems like a good time to stop and consider what makes a video game unique from other mediums. More and more the lines between films and video games are […]
Ok, so with new tech flying in the family today I decided to buy Peanut a new game for her Leapster Explorer. It was the Mr. Pencil game that let’s her do 2 of her favorite things in all of the world, write and draw. I figured that this had […]
I’ve been thinking about why so many technical fields are dominated by men. Here is a great chart about the percentage of men and women in various jobs in the gaming industry in 2010 (for more from this study click here):
The idea that fields of technology such as open source programming is a meritocracy is very, very dangerous. It leads to all sorts of discrimination, sexism, and racism. It also leads pretty smart people to say some pretty dumb things. For example, Michael Arrington wrote a piece called “Too Few […]