What kind of "Gamer Girl" I'm NOT

Which Type of Gamer Girl are You?
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Apparently supposed to be me.
Sports Gamer.
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.


Delay, delay, arrive. [My Voodoo, Part 2]

Rouge: My Voodoo LaptopAfter over two months, I’m finally sitting here typing on my brand new laptop. I’ve been spending the past few days migrating my stuff over from my old laptop and desktop and I’m not quite done yet. Am I happy it’s here? Hell yeah. Do I like it so far? Sure. Would I recommend this company to someone else? Probably not.

The main reason why I don’t think I would recommend this company again is because of the sheer aggravation I went through to get this thing. Another is that you can get a comparable machines for a lower price, although VoodooPC offers some peripherals that Sager does not (including the paint job and tatoo, which I rather like). If this machine turns out to be the best thing since baked bread, however, I may give people a qualified endorsement. But, onto my retelling of the Delay Saga and the first impressions of Rouge (my computer, named after the Sonic Adventure 2 character, of course) when I first got her.

I. The Dreaded Delays

Rewind, if you will, to January 2, 2006 (22 days after I placed my order). Jess Williamson, a member of VoodooPC’s Web Team, sends out a (presumably form) e-mail to update me on my computer.

I just wanted to let you know your computer has been gathered and in about 10-15 days it should be complete. Let me know if you need anything.

Jess

46 days after that (68 days after I placed my order), I get another (presumably form) e-mail from VoodooPC. This time it’s from Jodie Salvador:

Hi Andrea,

I was just emailing you to let you know that your computer has finished testing and will be sent out to you in the next few days. Thank you again for your order.

Jodie

I was not pleased to learn that they hadn’t even sent it yet, so I fired off this e-mail in return:

Jodie,

First of all, I would like to thank you and VoodooPC for keeping me up to date on the progress of my laptop. I must say, though, that I am highly disappointed in the turnaround time.

When I purchased the machine back in December (68 days ago), my confirmation page told me that my laptop would be ready and shipped in approximately 30 days. The previous e-mail, from Jess Williamson, I received 46 days ago said that my laptop would be complete in 10-15 days.

I had expected that the 30 days would be give or take a week or two, but this is bordering on ridiculous.

I didn’t receive a reply after that, but an hour later I got an e-mail informing me that my order had been shipped. I checked my tracking number and discovered that the shipping had been expedited, and therefore would arrive at my dad’s house in Miami in two business days. I’m not sure if the shipping I paid for was expedited shipping, or if they expedited it because I complained. Neither my invoice nor my website specifies what “North America” shipping entails.

The arrival date, mind you, was right in time for me to be up in West Palm Beach in preparation for my returning to Washington with my mom. Long story short, much aggravation led to my dad bringing it up to Boca (where my grandpa lives) and us having dinner, me getting the package, then flying up with two laptops. Quite an experience, let me tell you.

II. First Impressions

My very first impression of Rouge was a mixed one. I was impressed that I was given all relevant discs, including the Windows XP install (which, if I remember correctly, Toshiba did not give me). I was interested to see that I had to go through the final part of the installation myself. I was not, however, happy that the laptop lacked a hardware volume control. The one that it uses is dependent on Windows being fully booted, so the only way I could stop from waking up my nieces sleeping next door was to put my earphones into the plug. I’ve had a few other embarassing experiences with the volume being up too high since then.

My only other complaint is that the software that I have discs for requires that I enter the CD key the first time I use them, which isn’t bad except that I haven’t done it for everything yet and I don’t have the discs on me when I travel. The fans can be noisy sometimes, but they keep the laptop nice and cool. The bottom has little grates for the air to come out, which seems like a stroke of genius to me given the bad design of other laptops I’ve seen.

Other than that, I have been pretty happy so far. I’ve been having a lot of fun exploring the different features, and playing with my webcam (I think I need to install better software for it). There’s a bar on the bottom with (among other things) controls for a CD player. I doubt I’ll ever use it for that function, but it works with all of my AV programs so I can go to the previous/next tracks, stop, and play my files without having to use my mouse. That is totally cool in my book.

II. Conclusion

I’m allowing myself to hope that the worst of this experience is over. It was a pain in the butt waiting so long for my laptop, especially given what I paid for it, but the machine itself seems to be pretty quality. I haven’t played any games on it yet, and I don’t know how it will hold up against the rough handling I tend to put my electronics through, but I suppose that’s a blog post for another day.

The saga of Rogue is far from over.


All we want for the holidays…

December tis the season to be consuming. We all love gifts but, more than that, companies love selling them to us. There is likely a gift guide for everyone, their families, and even their pets of choice out there. Enter HUB magazine’s “Holiday Gift Guide” edition.

Cover for HUB's Dec 2005 EditionWhy, you may ask, do I have a HUB on me? Do I subscribe to their magazine? Well, no. I was at an electronic’s store with my cousin, picking up some stuff to mod my GC with, and the cover caught my eye. One look at it should tell you why. At first it was just that I wanted to explore the image itself: What was the significance of putting a woman on the magazine’s cover? What about the use of glasses, a white collared shirt, and bound hair to make her a non-sexual nerd? How does this representation compare to the oversexualization of geek women that is becoming a part of the status quo?

When I began examining the text surrounding her (it was definitely a good idea to have the “Stocking stuffers” text on the top and far from her breasts), however, I saw “Gifts for her” and my heart began to sink. Please, I thought to myself, please don’t be another fru-fru, tech-lite, Nintendogs-touting POS. If wishes were horses I’d own a very sucessful stable.

But, before I go into the breakdown of the list itself, let’s take a look at the other gift guides offered: Flash drive MP3 players, Portable PCs, Gifts for kids, and a Console gaming gift guide. No, “gifts for him” or “gifts for teenagers” or whatever. Just kids, women, and guides for everyone else (read: teenage boys and adult men). I’d also like to point out that running gifts for “her” with gifts for “kids” sets the stage for the infantalization of women by putting them on the same level as children in the tech arena. In that light, the little girl depicted on the “Gifts for kids” page isn’t as cool as it might be otherwise.

Now that the introduction is out of the way, ket’s delve into the 7 “great gift ideas for the girl geeks on your holiday shopping list.” The list is written and compiled by Erin Bell, proving that internalized sexism is alive and kicking.

Kodak EasyShare Picture Viewer

If the card sleeve of your giftee’s wallet is in danger of breaking loose because it’s crammed full of photos of assorted family, friends and pets, the Picture Viewer can provide a digital solution for storing and showing – and these pictures won’t get dog-eared. Simply import pictures to the device via USB (it has 32MB of internal memory), or insert an SD or MMC card and use the navigational buttons to cycle through images on the Picture Viewer’s 64 mm (2.5 inch) colour screen. The credit card-sized device comes with a tan leather carrying case.

What immediately strikes me is the “easy” part in this. It assumes that the woman you’re buying for either wouldn’t want or wouldn’t be able to handle a more complex model, but isn’t the point of being a “geek” (as the introduction text implies these women are) not being scared of more technical pieces? Especially since any camera that has the word “easy” in it is definitely sacrificing quality for ease of use. Not bad for casual users, but I’d take professional over easy any day.

Targust Kaleidoscope Mouse

In addition to being a functional USB optical mouse, the clear plastic portion of the Kaleidoscope lights up in a cycle of seven rotating colours as long as the computer it’s attached to is powered on. The Kaleidoscope also comes in a smaller version with a retractable uSB cable for notebooks, which retails for $29.99.

A mouse that “lights up in a cycle of seven rotating colours” sounds cute, but not exactly on the top of the list of geeky toys. I must say I’m suspicious of it, especially since it buys into the idea that all women love pretty/bright colours to the exclusion of usability and form. Only tangentially related, but why is it that only mini-mice for laptops have retractable cables? There are times when having one in a large mouse would be completely useful.

Belkin iPod cases

As part of its extensive line-up of iPod accessories, Belkin offers a range of leather cases to fit iPods of all shapes and sizes. Standouts include the Sports Leather Case for iPod Mini, which comes with an armband, hand band and removable blet clip; the Caribiner Case for iPod nano in white, pink, blue or black; and the Classic Leather Case for iPod shuffle which includes a ring for attaching a lanyard, and comes in two different three-packs – the more reserved red, white and black, or a funkier set of pink, orange, and green.

This one buys into the stereotype that women, as inherent shopaholics, are in love with anything that might be seen as an “acessory”. Also, and this isn’t to knock the iPod or anything, but it is often seen as a “woman friendly” device. I do, however, have to give points for including a “sports” case as one of the highlighted picks, and not hyping up the stereotypically girly pink in the colours.

Hasboro iDog

This robotic puppy’s favourite food is music, and it can be “fed” tunes by plugging in an MP3 or CD player, or simply setting it in front of any sound source. The iDog’s forehead will light up in an array of pleasing rainbow-coloured patterns based on what genre of music it’s listening to – yellow for hip hop and red for rock, for example. Pet its head and touch its nose to interact with it further, and a personality will start to develop as it barks, growls, plays little musical ditties and lights up in various patterns to communicate its mood. When a sound source is plugged into the iDog, it functions as a speaker – and not a bad one at that, given its price. If you’re giving it as a gift, just make sure to have two AA batteries and a Phillips screwdriver (for installing them) on hand to avoid Christmas morning disappointment.

Do I even need to comment on this one? I think this line says it all: The iDog’s forehead will light up in an array of pleasing rainbow-coloured patterns…

Targus “Jackie” and “Katherine” laptop totes

Resembling oversized purses, the “Jackie” and “Katherine” laptop totes from Targus offer ladies a more elegant and higher-end alternative to the traditional laptop backpacks and shoulder bags. The top-loading bags have long straps designed to be ablet o fit overa winter coat, and stainless steal “feet” to prevent the bottom of the bag from scuffing. The “Jackie” comes in black or red leather, while the “Katherine” comes in black and white tweed pattern. For the budget conscious, there’s also the black nylon “Jayne” model for $59.99.

This suggestion cashes in again on the accessory stereotype, this time outright linking it to women with the cases being described as “oversized purses” that “offer ladies a more elegant” laptop bag. I wonder if they have “not a man-purse!” laptop bags for men that have names like “Butch” and “Spike”.

Nintendo DS Nintendogs Bundle

Nintendo is releasing a few hardware bundles in time for the holidays, one of which pairs the new teal or pink coloured Nintendo DS portable dual-screen system with a special “Best Friends” version of the popular dog owning simulation Nintendogs. Nintendogs “Best Friends” features the six most popular breeds – Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever, German Shepherd, Beagle, Yorkshire Terrier, and Miniature Dachshund. Like the previous three versions of the game, additional breeds (like Pug, Husky and Shiba Inu) can be unlocked.

No “for her” list would be complete without a reference to Nintendogs. Because women (and only women) love the cute widdle dawgies and therefore must own Nintendogs under threat of expulsion from the cult of femininity. It’s lists like these that make me wary to buy the blue DS because of its affiliation with Nintendogs. Sigh.

Philippe Starck digital watch by Fossil

For a digital watch with some flair, check out the Philippe Starck watch from Fossil, which comes in pink or orange with digital display, two alarms, chronography and countdown timers, and a unique rubber strap.

The watch, pictured on the page, is neon orange with a huge display in captial block letters. Picked, I presume, for its cutsey, easy to read design.

If taken on their own, none of these suggestions are heinous. None are items that I’d be interested in, but some women might. However, the harm comes from them being the only suggestions on a list that’s supposedly for “geek” girls. Add that to the fact that most other geek-oriented “for her” lists out there spew the same kind of BS and it is tantamount to gender segregation. Boys get all the “hardcore” geek toys, while girls need to stick to the fluffy, the colourful, the feminine. The truth is, it’s not as easy as saying Nintendogs is for girls (not true) and leaving it at that, because stereotypes like that fall short of reality.

No one’s saying girls can’t like fru-fru things, but we shouldn’t be relegated to them. And, on the same note, men shouldn’t be shamed into avoiding the “feminine” tech toys, either. What geeks, and non-geeks, like has nothing to do with what’s between our legs and everything to do with our individual personalities. So, please, if you’re going to write a “for her” list, don’t rely on stereotypes to compile your list; go out there and find what real girl geeks are into.


No, sir, that's not made for me

Over at New Game Plus, Lake Desire shares her feelings on the disconnect between what she, a woman, wants in a game and what male players think she wants:

Final Fantasy X-2 wasn’t my first disappointment in the series (particularly my first time in Spira), but it was the first time that I felt this game is for someone other than me. I didn’t even have a chance to get excited about a role-playing game with an all female party; I remembered just how “strong” a character Yuna was from the last game. When the screenshots and production art made the forums, and I saw pictures like this (a declaration of the game’s intended audience), I thought they were a joke. A Final Fantasy game about collecting outfits? Although many thought the upcoming game looked cheap and insulting, others seemed to be missing the point. I recall reading articles and forum posts written by male gamers who were excited that more games like FFX-2 and Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball were coming out with things women like, shopping and clothes, so girls can have fun gaming, too. Like they thought the game was for women.

[From Alienating Audiences by Lake Desire]

It’s a whole lot easier to think that having a female character, or dressing up feminine stereotypes in new, more sexist ways are appealing to women than actually taking the time to, you know, think of your female audience as people who would like to be represented equally. Women make up almost half of the gaming audience and yet, despite our growing outrage, we still have to put up with games that objectify and demean us, and people who just don’t get it.


Top "Geek Girl"-Friendly Rules!

Do you want to get your girlfriend or wife into technology, but you’re afraid she’s too feeble minded to be able to appreciate your magnanimous gift? Have you run out of gift guides to scour, but still need a gift for the girl “geek” in your life? Well, fear not, friend! You’ve come to the right place. This list will give you the skills that you need to decide what pieces of technology are and are not appropriate for the little women in your life!

  1. Easy is Key!
  2. Although they may appear to be adult-sized, a real man knows that women have the mental capacity of a child. With that in mind, you don’t want to get them confusing technologies where they have to use more than one or two buttons.

    There are some exceptions to this rule. For instance, console controllers come these days with many buttons, which can be intimidating to your delicate flower. Most consoles have “female friendly” games that utilize a minority of the buttons. Those are best, especially when coupled with simplistic “point and click” style gameplay that doesn’t require thought.

  3. It’s a Cutsey-wootsy Widdle Toy
  4. It’s a well-known fact that all women have the “cute” gene. They melt like butter whenever a picture of a puppy is shown to them, and plaster their rooms with posters of baby animals. This is because they have the sole responsibility of raising the children for their men. Use their biology to your advantage! If you see a game that features animals, or an MP3 player that is described as “cute”, then it may just be the gift you’re looking for.

  5. Oooh, Pretty Colours!
  6. When in doubt, look for something colourful. Preferably in pastels, but for a younger woman neon colours are all the rage. Bright colours soothe the feminine mind and can go a long way to making technology less scary. Pink, especially, is a colour to look for because it is instrinsically feminine and will trigger comforting thoughts about being back in the cradle with their mother cooing happily at them.

  7. Encourage her Chatter
  8. Women love to talk. And talk. And talk. And talk. So bring out her inner socialite and get her a gift that allows her to indulge in her chit-chat (preferably when you’re not around)! Cell phones are increasingly gal-friendly, or you can get her hooked on online games (all women love puzzle games; it has something to do with snakes and evolution).

  9. Stop Being a Fatty, Fat, Fat, Fatty!
  10. Tired of your cupcake being the size of one? Fear not, technology has made it so that your tech-savvy woman can be as slim as a super model! Pick from one of the many weight loss appliances, or go the video game route and buy her DDR plus a game pad. You can be the first man on the block to prove your virility by showing off the newer, better, more svelte version of your wife/girlfriend.

  11. Accessorize to Feminize
  12. If there’s one thing women love, it’s shopping for purses and other accessories! So, when in doubt, go for an item to spruce up her boring old toys. Does she have one of those dull black laptops? Buy her a pretty little case for it. A case for her iPod, or a new skin for it is a great idea, too. For even more brownie points, make sure the case models are named after women. If you bought a console for her (you brave, brave man!), you can even buy skins for those! And you can even buy games like Final Fantasy X-2 that involve collecting new outfits. She might not be able to play them herself, but watching you unlock new outfits will give her hours of fun.

If you follow these simple rules, you’re guaranteed to pick a gift this year for your sweetie that she wouldn’t dare dislike.

Last Updated: January 02, 2006.


Build, Order, Whine [My Voodoo, Part 1]

So, I ordered myself a Voodoo laptop today. After a frustrating website experience, I decided to write up a series on how my Voodoo weathers the next few years. Seeing as I just ordered it, and therefore cannot write about the machine itself, I decided to make this an introduction/rant about the website.

As soon as I get it (which, given that I’m going to be in Miami for the next two months, better be a month after it arrives), I’m going to write a First Impressions post on it, and then I’ll update things whenever a new problem crops up. Because you know problems are gonna come up.

I. Why Voodoo?

Ringing in at a whopping 4186.96 USD, my Voodoo Envy 732 qualifies as the most expensive computer I’ve ever bought. It’s a few hundred dollars shy of being more expensive than my current desktop (hand built, mid-line for its time) and laptop (light weight, best bang for buck) combined. I knew there was a reason why I never told Dad what I wanted for a birthday present last July. Happy birthday to me. If I didn’t have to rely on it for my computing and gaming needs for the next 3-5 years, there’s no way I would have spent that much, so the darn thing better be worth it.

Let me give some of a back story: I had known I needed a new laptop to be my desktop replacement when I go to Japan in April for over a year, but I had decided to put it off until the last possible moment so as to get the best hardware I could. I was still annoyed about what happened with my Toshiba laptop – three months after I bought mine my sister got the same model with significantly better hardware. Although her software is even more screwy than mine, which has caused a bunch of problems for her.

I chose Voodoo not because I think that they’re the bestest laptop makers ever, but because my research didn’t turn up any major problems (except that they’re spotty with customer service, which I tend not to make use of anyway) and because I know from experience that whatever laptop I get will have problems that no one on the internet seemed to talk about. Like Toshiba with their massive overheating problems (mine is small, so it’s not terrible, but the larger model that my cousin and friend have get really hot really fast) and their odd software problems (both my and my sister have issues with our internet connections that have no discernible reason that I can find).

I also chose the company, I admit, because I liked the idea of having a decent degree of customization that they offered. My laptop style probably won’t be the only one like it in the world, but my guess is that it’ll be the only one like it at my school. And that’s cool. What’s not cool, however, is gendered designs.

Yes, you heard me, there are “boy” styles (read: tribal) and “girl” styles (read: animals). To their credit, the cost is the same for both. Some people may think it’s cool to do things this way, but I find it 1) annoying and 2) limiting. Annoying because what if a guy wanted the Phoenix design? I know some guys who would avoid it simply because it was labelled as a “girl” design, even if they liked it. Even if the phoenix had a special meaning to them. Limiting because breaking it into descriptive sections would make it easier to branch out into several other kinds of designs. I’d like to see celtic, or logos, etc. I ended up going with the Wheel of Time because I didn’t like any of the other tribals and I liked it better than the Phoenix animal.

They don’t gender their colours, which I like. I ended up with pink because it was the only colour I really liked. The red wasn’t awful, but it just didn’t look right for some reason. The green was a nasty shade. They call it “monza OLIVE” but it’s more of a forest olive. And an unattractive one at that. My ideal colour would have been a lime green, like my car. Oh well.

II. Have You People Even Heard of W3C?

Now, I had enlisted my mother’s partner as my sounding board for the purchase because something as significant as my only computer for the next 3-5 years of my life is not a purchase to make alone. He knows pretty much what I do about the hardware (which was not much about the specific devices, but a decent amount of the companies involved) and, aside from a fateful Gateway purchase back in the 90s, he has been pretty sensible about what computer he buys. My mom relies on him to do the initial footwork because she’s too lazy – I mean “busy” – to look stuff up on her own.

I went to the website and logged into my account. It was loading a lot slower on this connection than it had for me when I had been on my laptop in Vancouver, which was an annoyance but not necessarily the fault of Voodoo. I went to the laptop page and the first thing he said was that he wanted to see a comparison of the Middleweights (the style of laptop I wanted). Yeah, me too, buddy, me too.

There is no option to do a one-click comparison of all laptops in a given section. We tried clicking on a link called ‘See The Difference’ and the header picture, which was apparently Flash, went blank. Loading it in IE produced a Flash menu about their company, almost exactly the same as the navigation at the top of the page. Thanks, Voodoo. Thanks. I just love it when companies 1) don’t program for multiple browsers, and 2) abuse Flash, javascript, or any other potentially bandwith intensive goodies. Goodies should be used sparingly and with purpose, not for things that can be done better with straight up HTML.

So, then we were like, “Ok, there’s a little button named ‘Technical’ that might have it.” I clicked it. A blank javascript window appeared on the page, obscuring the description of the computer model, and Firefox went into its “Loading” animation and……………………………….did nothing for like a minute. At this point my mom’s partner was like, “Are you sure you want to buy from these people?” He was annoyed, rightly, that their website was a slow loading, Flash & JS intensive, obtuse POS. Me, too, but I just wanted my damn computer at this point and I didn’t want to go through the hassle of researching other sites and dealing with their BS, etc.

Eventually I got fed up, clicked the back button, then the forward button, then tried the Technical button again and it worked. Thankfully. So, yes, indeed there was a comparison chart that we then clicked.

A javascript window popped up. I’d just like to take the time to say just how much I hate pop up windows. I specifically have Firefox open them in new tabs because I hate them so much. Except that javascript doesn’t work that way. So much hatred. But, my annoyance aside, the window let us compare the Middleweights against the Heavyweights and I confirmed in my mind that yes, the Middleweights are for me. Most of the Heavyweights didn’t have as good of a video card as my 732, which is one of the biggest bottlenecks for gaming. My poor little Toshiba has like 32 megs at most. Maybe less. My 732 has a NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX GTX 256MB. Mm, tasty.

Fast forward through talking about pros and cons of weight, performance, battery, etc. I finally went to the build page and did a couple of upgrades: I got 2 GIGs of RAM instead of 1, a Seagate 100 gig 5400 instead of a Hitachi 60 gig 7200, an Intel M 750 instead of 740, and got MS Office Small Business Ed. I read through their TOS as specified, and got slightly annoyed that they referenced an Online Privacy Policy that was not defined anywhere, but not annoyed enough to wait until they open tomorrow to call and complain. Oh, just looked at a sheet I printed out. Apparently there was a link at the bottom of the previous page to it. Not that a Google search turned it up. Argh. Anyway, after another eternity of waiting for things to load, I finished placing my order.

III. My Journey Has Just Begun

“Your customized Voodoopc Machine has a 30 day ETA,” they say. We’ll see, Voodoo. We’ll see.


Divs to make tables obsolete? Hardly.

First things first:

  1. Is everything working for everyone? No weird spacing issues, two content spaces running into each other, etc?
  2. Would you prefer the permalink pages to have more space by not having the right link bar there?
  3. Please give me suggestions on how the comments should formatted. I’m not really happy with the way they are right now.
  4. Don’t be shy in speaking up about any other issues you have with the design; I may not take your suggestion but then again, I just might.

I have to say, creating a WP theme has given me a new insight into divs. And a renewed love for my tabular design style.

You see, I got into webdesign right around the time when NetObjects was a hot program. Not that I used it, mind. Horror of horrors, I went from hand coding to using FrontPage. I know, I was young and lazy. But my mom’s partner was writing the new version of the NetObjects manual, and he was the one who had taught me code, so I was infulenced by his design style. In other words, tables were my method of control; through them I made sure the content was exactly where I wanted it, how I wanted it.

When I got back into hand coding and learned to use CSS, you can imagine my inner control-freak’s glee. Tables + CSS positioning = wickedly cool overlapping content. Look at this theme. Or Shrub’s main one. Tables are what makes my designs go round. So, as you can imagine, working off of strictly div-based themes as templates threw me for a loop. I procrastinated for months, having a few false starts that never worked out. And then the lovely Monkey over at Sudden Nothing showed me the design she was working on (it’s coming out quite welll; I can’t wait until she unveils it) and wham I got the design bug.

A night in Photoshop, a day in temporary-page development, and a few more in porting it to WP code (real content doesn’t exactly measure up the same as the fake placeholders) and I had my theme up and, mostly, running. “Divs are great!” I was thinking to myself. “Best used with tables, not instead of them, though.” Oh, if only I had known how prophetic my thought had been.

I go to bed, wake up and fix a commenting issue, and then am greeted with no less than 3 people (Buffy e-mailed me) telling me that my carefully coded right navigation bar was overlapping the content in IE!* I was annoyed, but not too much so because I didn’t want the div to be outside the main content box anyway, and my one attempt to put them inside of it brought on a nasty disaster in the form of my width constraints not working. I also noticed that half the time the padding on my left bar would work just fine and the other half it would screw up and be ugly. Divs can do many things, but provide adequate spacing for complex designs is not one of them.

So, fast forward to today. I get home, take a shower, then roll up my sleeves to fix the problem. Having had lots of experience with table spacing, it didn’t take me all that long to get the design working like it was supposed to. Tables have saved the day yet again.

I don’t think I’m going to give up my tabular design for a div one; it’s just not practical for the crazy stuff I like to do with my layouts. Still, this experience has given me a new appreciation for divs and what they can be used for. They’ll be making a comeback in future designs, but within the confines of tables, that’s for sure.

* A perfect example of why I hate IE. By not using W3C standards it makes coding for multiple browser compatibility a nightmare. Microsoft, please die. Or, better, yet, stop letting IE suck so bad. Also, people who use IE: get Firefox it r0x0rz browser b0x0rz.


Games Even Your Girlfriend Can Play!

GGA brought my attention to an article called Top Ten Girlfriend-Friendly Games on 1up.com (a site that seems to have a significant female membership). Marginalization in the gaming industry is nothing new to me. I mean, having boobs and a vagina and identifying as female is obviously enough to exclude me from that Good Ol’ Boys Club™. If I do venture in, it must only be through a boyfriend (since all good boys and girls are heterosexual) who will introduce me to fluffy games, like Bejeweled and Nintendogs, which are not too hardcore for my weak constitution. Do I sound bitter? Well, after spending most of my twenty-two years seeing mainstream magazines, websites, and other gaming publications catering to guys, and only guys, I think I’ve earned a bit of bitterness. I don’t think it’s too much to ask for me to not have to go to a female-oriented gaming site in order to be included.

Oh, to be fair, sandwiched between the large fonts of the title and the first of the top 10 is this disclaimer:

These days, gamers come in both genders — yet our numbers are few, and like the cavemen of days past we must seek outside of the clan to mate. Yet it is possible to bring non-gaming significant others over to the dark side, through a number of games designed to grab those who couldn’t care less how many frags you got in Counter-Strike last week. We present to you the top ten girlfriend-friendly games. (These can apply to boyfriends as well, since the love of gaming knows no gender boundaries.)

But, truth be told, I didn’t even notice that until I actually wanted to dissect the post. Why? I’m versed enough in layout design to know that our eyes are drawn to big, bright, different objects. The title and the top ten are large, much larger than the descriptive text. Not only that, but the main text is a light grey that is visible but visually blends into the page when put next to the dark black of the title, the vivid blue of the top number, and the bright red of the game title. So, yeah, gender neutral language is applied as a disclaimer/afterthought, but it does not make the kind of impact the title does.

I’m versed enough in layout design to know that our eyes are drawn to big, bright, different objects.

When making “top ten” lists, there is going to be a large element of personal choice and opinion. If I were to make a list of good introductory games for non-gamers, I would choose some similar ones and some different ones. Here again, however, the article engages in some gender assumptions:

#9, Centipede:

It wasn’t until Centipede, with its soft pastels and calming garden theme, that the arcades finally had a game you could bring a date to.

If this was a “Top Ten Boyfriend-Friendly Games,” do you really think that “soft pastels” and “calming garden theme” would be bandied about? Instead of Centipede, I expect it would have been a Space Invaders game. Because, you know, girls like pretty gardens and boys like to shoot things.

#6, Suikoden:

Combining the feel of an epic romantic fantasy with an easy-to-learn interface, Suikoden made RPGs accessible to girls who weren’t otherwise interested in the tedium of roleplaying games in the vein of Dragon Warrior.

You know, I found Suikoden-style controls to be more complicated than all of the Dragon Warrior games (and, believe me, I’ve played them all), although it could be that the first Suikoden was simpler than its two sequels. Regardless, I wonder if the blurb would be the same if pitching it to guys, even non-gamer guys? It’s no surprise that buzzwords like “romantic fantasy” and “easy-to-learn” are used in contrast with a “manly” title such as Dragon Warrior that girls just wouldn’t be interested in. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard those kind of excuses for why more girls aren’t gamers, I would be a rich woman.

#5, Ms. Pac-Man:

But for those gamers who developed lives outside of the musty confines of the arcade, Ms. Pac-Man proved a great boon, for it showed their girlfriends that gaming could be non-violent, cute, and utterly fun.

Oh, yes, us little “girlfriends” can only handle something that’s “non-violent, cute, and utterly fun.” Although I’m not so sure that eating and possibly being killed by ghosts qualifies as “non-violent,” but regardless the idea that games need to fit into the proper gender roles in order to interest girls is offensive if not outright sexist. What next, Pre-Teen Girlfriend Top Ten with the top game being Barbie Makeover?

#3, Katamari Damacy:

Incredibly simple game play with incredibly catchy music coupled with a laughable storyline and beautiful pastel graphics created a game which was both fun to watch and to play.

Again, we have the idea of “simple game play” and “pastel graphics” that was seen above.

#2, Dance Dance Revolution:

In Japan, DDR was designed as a game for women, with catchy pop songs, bright colors, cute artwork, and a fitness angle thrown in for good measure. And once she learns that you aren’t nearly as good as she thought, the game is on. The relative ease with which someone can learn DDR and the versus mode mean that a gamer couple can play together at their own levels of skill.

I can’t fault the author for the purported sexism of the DDR designers, but sticking it in the blurb does continue to reinforce that women need games that fit into strict gender roles: bright/cute things and that we need to work out to be thin. Once again, we have the whole “easy learning” angle. Speaking as a recovering DDR addict, though, I disagree with the author. If one has a decent sense of rhythm to begin with then yeah, it’s easy, but if not… Well, be thankful that you’ve never seen people screw up horribly on the basic steps to the same song over, and over, and over again.

#1, The Sims:

The infinite customizability, the large community, and the simplistic gameplay all combine to make The Sims into the greatest girlfriend game around.

Last, but unfortunately not least, we have that whole “simplistic gameplay” argument rearing its ugly head yet again. Frankly, I’m not so sure I would rate it the greatest game for an SO, girlfriend or otherwise, simply because there are no goals, quests, or storylines. I like playing God for a week, but then it gets old fast. Some people, female/male gamers/non-gamers, like it, some don’t.

GGA linked to a rebuttal in his LJ about criticism, where he harped about Girl Gamers being a different breed, how their critiques ignored how hard it was for new blood to find games they enjoy, etc. Normally I try to avoid that kind of wank, but I felt compelled to reply to this one.

My beef with your article was that, as some posters pointed out above, you were playing on the tired old stereotype of “girls don’t play games, so here are some fluffy ones that your girl might like!” Now, there’s nothing wrong with fluffy games (some of the ones on the list are ones I’ve enjoyed in the past), but there is something wrong with the heterosexist, male-normative bent of your article. Frankly, I’ve seen too many “Games you can play with your girlfriend!” that are aimed at guys and I’ve never seen “Games you can play with your boyfriend!” or “Games you can play with your SO!” And, really, there wasn’t one game on that list of yours that couldn’t be applied to either sex.

My feature (as paltry as it was) was about non-gamers.

You said that in your post, but why didn’t you call your list “Top 10 Games To Play with Your Non-Gamer SO” or something to that effect? Why did you feel the need to play on that old, tired, “girlfriend” stereotype? It’s not offensive only to girl gamers because we’re “l33t h4rdc0r3 playaz” or whatever, but because, you know, we can have SO’s who are non-gamers too.

It may seem like a little, stupid point to harp on, but it’s not just the big things that make an impact. By playing into the stereotype all you’re doing is perpetuating the idea that guys are the only gamers that matter.

Even giving the author the benefit of the doubt that he wasn’t intentionally capitalizing on the gender stereotyping language that has kept the image of video games as a Boy’s Club, it still speaks volumes about how easily such terminology can be used to marginalize the female experience. Sure, there are some terms that would be reasonable to apply to non-gamers/casual gamers as a whole, such as games with interfaces that are fun but not so complex that they’ll turn off those without prior experience, are not used with a gender neutral tone, but when used in the context of “girls” and “girlfriends” they play on existing stereotypes about women. Yes, the usage of language in these cases is a relatively small issue. However, because it is so small, it is also easy to fix: be aware of your audience and your language.

Via Game Girl Advance