Which Type of Gamer Girl are You?
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Sports Gamer.
Football, basketball, baseball… No matter what the sport, you’ll dominate when you bring your best game.
Football, basketball, baseball… No matter what the sport, you’ll dominate when you bring your best game.
Leave it to someone who thinks it’s appropriate to represent “kinds” of female gamers with large-breasted and scantily clad avatars (“girl power”, anyone?) to create a quiz that would tell me I’m a sports gamer. Not just a sports gamer, though, but one who walks around in a cutoff longsleeved tee and panties! Hut-hut, indeed.
Via New Game Plus.
well, since I figure its just as valid (and vapid) for me to take this quiz, I have since found out that I am a hack and slash gamer girl. Out of curiosity, do you have professional interest in games (ie current employment in, or intent to become employed in the games industry)? not that you need to, more is your engagement with gender issues in gaming going to be more theoretical or practical. As is obvious, part of the difficulty in the gaming industry today is not just marketing, and the audience (as exemplified by this particular quiz) but also a lack of effort and understanding on the part of the people creating games in regards to gender issues, limiting the scope of the audience, and while not forgiving them entirely, backing the marketing departments into well defined corners.
Why yes, yes I do. Intention at the moment, seeing as my burning need to learn Japanese comes first (one would think University would have been the place to learn, but alas it is not so). Once I’m done with language school, however, I fully intend to seek employment with a gaming company in Japan.
You’ve touched on one of the reasons I decided to focus on the gaming industry for my career (aside from the obvious – I play way too many games for my own good). And as per backing marketing into corners, I see your point, but I’d like to point out that the companies also like to hide behind marketing when confronted with their folly. The industry could benefit from more people who are into critiquing pop-culture via a lens of oppression.
word, I think i meant that its a negative feedback loop, with each part reinforcing the other; game maker creates a game with sexist undertones, marketing latches onto sexist undertones for the sake of selling the game, gamers who buy into the sexist undertones buy the game in numbers sufficient to make mad bucks, market researchers say that sexist undertones sell games, publisher hires game company to make more of the same (all things obvious on their face to anyone reading this blog in the first place i’d imagine). This is especially not to write off the marketing schemsters involvement as they are often tertiary to the games industry but use the self same techniques in selling all things. So probably well defined corners of their own construction (re-reading exactly what i wrote versus what I meant makes me wish I had time to edit my comments, but since I already write too much as it is, spending precious minutes in the process, I’ll just have to rely on the conversational nature of the medium to help me blaze through to the heart of the matter).
The industry is sorely lacking in theory in all aspects beyond interactivity and its relationship to narrative (and whether that even matters). One can only read “Hamlet on the Holodeck” so many times. It appears to me, as one who enjoys reading cultural critique, that often times videogames are neglected as a small and relatively unimportant sub category of the larger entertainment industry, which subsequently makes any critiques less likely to filter down to the people who need to hear it. Between that and culture warriors screaming as loud as they can that videogames are murdering children, and drowning out most valid discussions, its a difficult road to walk if one hopes to have an impact on the medium. Which is in fact part of what led me here in the first place, in a lucky string of link jumping. Which leads me somewhat to my next inquiry, Why Japan? And feel free to point me in the direction of any past posts that may say all you intend to say on the subject, as I have not managed to peruse the entirety of the archive. That question is not meant in any way to be a critique of the choice, just some proto-professional curiosity (as one who is considering the world of interactive electronic entertainment as a career path, cartoons or videogames, so hard to choose), and subsequently, what aspect of game creation are you aiming for (again don’t waste time saying things you’ve already said, or answering questions you don’t feel like talking about, these are just the things I wonder about when I read your posts). word.
I hear you. I’m actually in the process of writing what turned into an open-ended series on the critique of popular culture, in which I do talk about games a bit (because they tend to be the most polarizing in the culture wars debate).
You mean you haven’t read every single post I have ever written three times now? I’m disappointed. Clearly I deserve better than that. Clearly. ^_-
In all seriousness, though, “why Japan” is as simple as I’ve wanted to learn the language and live over there ever since I learned of such a place (I was like 5 or 6, I think). I’m not exactly sure why. I know I’m drawn to the culture, language, etc. in a way that just doesn’t do it for me with other civilizations (excepting the other East Asian countries, and to a lesser extent the South and Southeast Asian ones). There are things I don’t like about the country – things important enough for me to be realistic and say I’m not going to live there forever – but there are things I don’t like abou this country, too.
Hahah, for me it was comics or videogames. Since more of my friends were into the latter, and therefore gave me an idea of the industry once they got jobs, I ended up choosing that path. And, predictably, focusing more on video games than comics in my free time.
Ultimately, I’m hoping to run my own company that produces MMOs. In the short run, I’d like to play around with translation, story writing, world creation, maybe being a creative director… Ideally get a sense for several different positions. Not programming, though, because that would require me actually going back to school (didn’t get past 1st year comp sci because I don’t have the math background) or art (same there, but with substituting art class and art background where appropriate). Depending on how I feel after being in the ratrace for a couple years, I may do a 2 year program at a gamer college, or I may see about getting my Masters (especially if I can find a program that will let me focus on feminist readings of video game theory).
Talking about myself is always a fun pastime, though I don’t do too terribly much of it on the blog unless it’s relevant to another issue I want to discuss. And, if you don’t mind my turning your questions back at you, what draws you to cartoons/videogames and which aspects would you be interested in pursuing for a career?
Oh comics too, but I’m approaching that strictly as a hobby and an excersize for refining skills in narrative and general draftsmanship. This topic seemed ripe for inquiry, as illustrating what type of gamer girl you are not certainly implies the question of what type of gamer girl you are, so apologies for inducing you to biography, though hopefully you saw it as conveniently topical (obviously I did). I try to make it a point not to ask questions I am not comfortable answering myself (that just seems rude doesn’t it?) so i shall attempt to expound on my own inclinations industry wise with as effective a combination of brevity and thoroughness as i can muster.
I have a general fascination with narrative, and a more specific inclination towards the exploration of cycles (something I’m drawn almost against my will towards as a structural element), and the space between the moment now, the moment approaching and the moment just passed. That’s a wishy washy set up, but that’s what 4 years of overtly conceptual art school will do to you. So, given that as a foundation for my approach to story telling, I find myself drawn towards animation as a medium due to its absolute freedom of expression, limited by one’s ingenuity and imagination only (and technical skill i guess, but technical skills can be practiced). This brings us to the split of real time interactively created narrative versus megalomaniacal structured narrative poured out of my brain (and those of collaborators) for relatively passive consumption.
To be honest I lean towards making animations (feature or short form) at the moment mostly for aesthetic reasons, I like what rendered cg can look like when done right. The advancements of real time graphics in recent years are narrowing this concern a bit, opening up more extensive possibilities involving my main interest in interactive entertainment, collective narrative, and agency (how a user effects a virtual world, and how that virtual world can be made in turn to effect the user, and whether or not that can be pushed past the emotion “fun” and adrenaline rushes, can a video game make someone cry for any reason other than frustration? etc. etc.)
At the moment I’m in a stepping stone job, building good contacts in both industries (and visual effects, but I have a philosophical problem with “live action” movies that are essentially cartoons, when cartoons are so pigeonholed by American culture, and thus vfx artists and people who make animation are doing the same job, but the former is seen as a more grown up thing to do) and working on improving the technical skills any way i can. Or i’ll buy a banjo and start a bluegrass/metal/ska band and spend life playing opening slot for GWAR. yeah, that sounds about right.
Oh, no worries. If I thought it was off-topic, I woulda said something. Normally, though, I don’t mind if threads go off-topic anyway as long as everyone is nice and polite.
Sounds like what I’m interested in ^_^
I think visual effects are awesome, but I agree that they exist in a double standard of “live action” = “mature” and “cartoon” = “immature”. Ironically*, I think the popularity of anime and manga is starting to narrow that divide, if for no other reason than the divide is practically non-existent in Japan and that mentality getting imported along with all the material.
* Used because Japan is often seen as overly cute and therefore “childish” and “immature”.
I’M IN. I can’t play any instrument (save one or two songs on the piano), or sing, but it’s the thought that counts, right?
this is an encouraging trend being pushed along by cartoon network with toonami and adult swim, and something I am highly encouraging. The real test is if we see a feature length animation release from a major studio that is targeted at an adult audience, (and subsequently if anyone but me goes to see it).
one or two songs on the piano puts you light years ahead of the people I hang out with now, who are unfortunately lacking the musical talent arena.
I think adult swim has had a huge effect on opening up the idea of “mature animation” in North America. It’s still got a long way to go, sadly.
As for gaming and critical analysis of how games are made (story-wise, culture-wise) I`ve heard nothing but nightmares from friends in the industry, and my one brief encounter with it (writing some dialogue for a fighting game) was frightening as the suit in charge had the sense of humour of a 4 year old.