Episode 237: It’s Beginning to Look Like Giftmas! Click to download, or find us on iTunes, Spreaker, Stitcher, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Spotify, and just about anywhere podcasts are found). This week we are talking about things that you might pick up for folks on your Winter Holidays gift list (or anytime really). What We’re Playing:Dying […]
video games
27 posts
Abstract Representation is a complex issue that some contemporary video games attempt to actively grapple with in-game. This paper focuses on Bioware’s Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017). The non-player character (NPC) of Hainly Abrams is examined as an example of transgender representation in the broader marketplace of major studio gaming. The […]
As I’ve talked about before, I’m currently on a board game kick. Of course, considering the 20% per year growth projected over the next ten years, I’m certainly not the only one on a board game kick. Will board games ever surpass video games in popularity and sales? I’m not […]
I’m taking a course right now in which we’re examining the dominant affects of modernist and postmodern literature, and as a result, I’ve been thinking a lot about the dominant affects of alienation and paranoia and how such ideas might be made manifest in the realm of video games. The […]
In my last post, I talked about the fact that my own liminal position as someone working concurrently within several fields—namely, literary studies, game studies, and women’s studies—has caused me to think a lot about how it is I might make use of these fields’ overlapping and similar concerns to […]
I took a feminist methodologies class this past semester, and, as a result, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make use of feminist methodologies in my own work and my own research on games and literature. What seems important when conceptualizing of such thinking and practice is that there […]
We often, or at least I, think of constructing and sharing stories in the form of talking over dinner and a glass of wine, or on the front porch during a fall sunset just as the fireflies begin sprinkling out; stories are generally thought to be read in books where […]
The fall semester began last week at Purdue, and I’ve been spending some time this past week catching up with other members of my cohort and meeting with professors to discuss my research goals. And I’ve been thinking about a few things as a result of these conversations—conversations that, of […]
Patience is an essential component of farming and, as it turns out, is a value I wish I had used when I decided to purchase the most recent “official” Harvest Moon release, Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley. As you might remember from my previous review on the title, I had […]
I recently read a great article from FemHype that focused on the problematic, one dimensional representation of mentally ill characters in video games. Lindsay Goto, author of the article, analyzed the insanity trope in depth, writing about the portrayal of mentally ill characters as either crazed antagonists with a violent agenda […]
In an interview published last week on Game Informer, Rhianna Pratchett, writer for the 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider and the upcoming game Rise of the Tomb Raider, was questioned about how Lara Croft’s long history of overt over-sexualization and persistent objectification was handled with these latest reboots. For most […]
I hadn’t heard of the episode until the night that it aired. Even then I only noticed it whilst browsing Wednesday’s TV Guide: an episode of Law & Order SVU involving gaming, and, more specifically, violence against women in the gaming industry. My eyebrow was metaphorically raised in interest, but […]
I admit it, sometimes I feel like I’m being a little bit hard on Nintendo and of the various studios they direct and/or publish for when I critique the way they present gender in their games. After all, in comparison to some of the other big name game studios, they […]
The end of the year is drawing upon us and in the first of two posts reviewing this year of gaming, I thought I’d analyze the cover or box art of some of this year’s new console releases. For the sake of simplicity I will be focusing only on some […]
I know that it’s a bit early for sweeping comments 2014 seems to be the year of a lack of female character creation options. Or, more specifically, the removal of female character creation options for the sake of the game’s “quality.” This not so pleasant instance in this year’s list […]