Culture / Gender

1. Culture / Gender Robin Burke GAM 224

2. Outline • Admin • Culture / Gender

3. Admin • Play papers • Not finished (sorry) • Overall better • more As • Biggest problem • bottom-up description • Design Final Milestone

4. Final Milestone • 5-7 pages (1200-1800 words) • Concept document • sell your game! • make the reader want to play • (Actually considerably shorter than a full concept) • Due 6/10 • last day of finals week • may not be late for any reason • Value • 25% of grade

5. Outline • Introduction • A vivid description of the experience of the player. • Genre • Background in terms of its genre, and relation to other games. • Narrative aspects • Aesthetics • Overall aesthetic and thematic elements of the game. • Mechanics • How your (borrowed) mechanic works. • Any other important mechanics • Key Elements (optional) • A few key elements. • Levels, environments, objects, characters or avatar abilities.

6. Notes • Proposal • I may ask you to modify your proposal • Not a formal academic paper • no footnotes, citations, etc. • creative license (within reason)

7. Peer Evaluation • I will email evaluation form • Fill out and return by email • Do so after your team is done • so you can report on everyone's contribution • If you don't turn it in • you get no vote on the efforts of your team

8. Gender • Sexual identity, especially in relation to society or culture. • Usage note • [The distinction between usage for "sex" and gender"] is supported by the practice of many anthropologists, who reserve sex for reference to biological categories, while using gender to refer to social or cultural categories.

9. Gender • The question of how • biological categories are given cultural meaning • And how • the cultural categories that relate to gender affect our perception of biology • Some facts • biological categories are (mostly) clear-cut • cultural meanings vary widely between cultures and times

10. Gender in games • Games have no biology • there are no biological facts to discover about game characters • Games are cultural products • rich ground for looking at gender • not just appearance but also activity • Some games encourage expression of identity • gender identity necessarily included

11. Questions • Culture • What cultural stereotypes about gender show up in games? • Play • What gendered play activities appear in games?

12. Worst case scenario?

13. Game features • Characters • Texas cowgirl • female ninja • disciplinarian school teacher • naughty school girl • deviant nurse • latex-sporting S&M slave • Features • locker-room cam • Oops • forgot to make it fun to play • Result • total flop

14. Gender stereotypes • Action/adventure video games (typically) draw gender stereotypes from • myths / fairy tales • fantasy fiction • superhero comics • pulp science fiction / horror • action movies

15. Case study • Female Action Hero

16. Example 1 http://www.us.playstation.com/Content/OGS/SCUS-97316/Site/

17. Example 1, cont'd

18. Example 1, cont'd

19. Example 2

20. Example 3

21. Example 4

22. Example 5

23. Example 6

24. Example 7

25. Example 8

26. Example 9

27. Characteristics • Male vs Female

28. Play activities • Simulation • Are the simulated activities strongly gendered ones? • Narrative • How does gender figure in the story?

29. Simulation • What player roles do games simulate?

30. Narrative • Example

31. Does this matter? • Monotony • limiting the space of design possibilities • Appeal • 50% of possible consumers • Harm • promulgation of stereotypes

32. Market opportunity? • Girl games • Barbie • Mary-Kate & Ashley • etc. • Not perceived as an important market • fewer buyers / lower profit • low investment • low production values • This is not progress

33. But • MMORPGs • some titles more than 60% female players • Interestingly • Male players skew younger • Female players skew older (avg. > 30)

34. Meanwhile • What about Korea?

35. Wednesday • Open Culture • Cultural Resistance