Search Results for:

racism

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May 17th

…how the context in which he originally uttered them – a casual interview – became lost as online readers decided to read Croal’s comments as an accusation of racism on the part of Capcom, which wasn’t exactly the point he was trying to make.

Hit Self-Destruct writes about the confluence of Game and Real Life in ‘Photo Album‘. Duncan tells how he empathised particularly strongly with the protagonist in one particular situation in Mass Effect because it mirrored his own.

The ‘Gameology’ blog has been around for a long time now, but posting had fallen off recently. Being…

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September 27th

…is tempting to celebrate this new ignorance. If a more accepting and less bigoted society is one we want to live in, then there is some sign of cultural success when a racial slur obsolesces. …But on the other hand, this very neglect points to a social ill even worse than racism itself: disavowal. We must strive for more than the destruction of stereotype, slur, and other visible signs of bigotry, as if eliminating the symptoms also cures the cause.

One of my friends In Real Life (don’t make a face: I have friends) has started a blog…

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February 7th

…the issues you may have never had to worry about when using voice chat in online games [mirror], and Alex Horn discusses ‘Racism and Left 4 Dead 2’ [mirror], accusing it of papering over important post-Katrina issues it should have addressed.

In ‘Proust was… a game designer?’ Mitu Khandaker explains some of her PhD research work on games in the context of a discussion of John Lehrer’s book “Proust was a neuroscientist”, addressing relationships between the arts (humanities) and sciences.

Michael Abbott talked about No More Heroes 2 this week, and resolved that sometimes better is worse. I…

June 19th

…Americans in Video Games: Racism, Stereotypes, & The Digitized Indian’.

Zach Alexander at Hailing From The Edge mentions ‘Frozen Synapse and Poker’ in the same breath.

Craig Wilson and his merry band of dashing-do-gooders just one fellow do-gooder at the Split/Screen blog have a metric truckload of data visualisations on videogame metacritic scores. Must see.

Pippin Barr at his personal blog on dead space within L.A. Noire (I totally stole that joke from him).

Doubtless, many readers will already be aware of the treasure trove of cogent and thought-provoking writing that is the Moving Pixels blog…

December 11th

…most excellent critique of male white normativity in the construction of the “gamer” image:

What conclusions are we to draw from the finding that “Latinos, who play more per day than whites and form 12.5 percent of the population, are only 2 percent of characters”? Or, of the fact that low-income families play more games than high-income families? If it is commonly remarked that violence, racism, and sexism sell in games, and people of color, along with the economically disadvantaged, are playing games the most, is this ironic? Tragic? A cultural embarrassment?

On a more positive…

UPDATED: Blogs of the Round Table: January ’12 Roundup

…on the theme of the Blogs of the Round Table itself, as well as raising the point that there are very few games in which he identifies with the protagonist.

Tami Baribeau at The Border House writes that ‘In games, I’m always someone I’m not because I’m fat’, with a particularly illuminating story of a former coworker who encountered online incredulity that they would create a ‘fat’ avatar.

Adam Burch at Thus Spoke Pi writes about the collision between Brave New World’s ‘feelies’ and a story about an acquaintance of his experiencing the effects of racism.

Amanda…

June 10th

…certain Gamespot interview on the new upcoming Medal of Honor game. The developer wanted it both ways, it’s art and just a game. Mr. Bamford calls this out.

And let us not forget my most exotic ware. I traveled beyond the horizon, you might say I had Gone to Strange Country just to bring back this piece, by the man known as Andre Lavigne. He writes about how the level design contributed to the racism and botching of the anti-colonial sentiment of Resident Evil 5. Be careful you read this once in only a thrice quarter green moon.

This Year In Video Game Blogging 2012

Author John Scalzi created the best metaphor of how sexism, racism and all the other -isms affect how one lives in the world. The straight white male is the lowest difficulty setting in life.

W, a solider now working with a PMC, wrote a guest piece on the type of person that exists as a solider in a modern warzone: a sociopath, himself.

Patricia Hernandez, writing for Gameranx, talks about how shooters now perpetuate war as the new normal in our lives. A never ending conflict that happens somewhere else to someone else. “War is routine, war

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April 28th

…themes in games and Cara Ellison made a brilliant game about heterosexual relationships, or in her words:

[…] I wanted to make it about the heart stopping drudgery of being heterosexual in a world where heterosexuals are conditioned not to talk to each other, or listen to each other, or really have any idea what they are doing.

Everything Else

Sydney Fussell wrote about the shortcomings of games when it comes to dealing with race and racism over on Gamasutra, while Samantha Allen chronicled her experiences using Halo to teach about oppression and feminism on The…

August 11th

However! That’s not a great excuse for re-instating something that was taken for granted in the past, when it is more openly recognised as sexist now. It’s not something you see in other works adapted from the past.

For example, there is a lot of media based around the works of Lovecraft, but usually his racism is thankfully absent. Mass media these days doesn’t feature overtly racist characters unless it’s made clear that their stance isn’t approved of.

That’s the factor these Damsel in Distress games often lack.

Elsewhere, on Macrotransactions, Adrian Forest argues that…