Thursday, October 14, 2010

Sexism in Gaming: A list of links

At GenCon this year, Simon Rogers asked if I was interested in writing an article about sexism in gaming for a new issue of See Page XX. Sexism in gaming is a pretty huge topic, and I wound up taking a pretty narrow focus for the article. Initially, however, while I was trying to determine what direction to take the article, I amassed a pretty impressive list of links that I wanted to organize and make public.

So! Keep your eyes peeled for the new issue of See Page XX. But in the mean time, here's some food for thought:

Detailed Analysis of 300ish Covers of Dragon Magazine

Part One of Seven (links to subsequent posts)

Response from Editor of Dragon Magazine


The Infamous Quote By Jonathan Tweet About Evolutionary Psychology and Gaming


John Kim's LiveJournal entry with the offending paragraph (the original post has been removed)

A scientifically-minded response to Tweet that blows him out of the water: Gaming is Not a Genetic Trait, Part 1 and Part 2


Holy Shit, What the F*ck is Gamecrush.com??

GameCrush.com: Find a play date

Explanation of GameCrush.com's business model

Gallery of Porn-tacular GameCrush profile pics (now with horrid comments!)


Sexual Harassment in Gaming (I can't believe this needs sub-headings)

Jade Raymond (Assassin's Creed) v. Something Awful

Detailed explanation of chronology of harassment of Jade Raymond

Ubisoft's legal response and SA's response

Horrific "she had it coming" response

Another awful "she had it coming"

Another "she had it coming" with actual comic excerpt (NSFW)

The full comic (NSFW. Warning: It's pretty horrific.)

Completely remorseless response by the comic's creator

"Where's Jade?" forum thread afterward


StarCraft II forum harassment

Summary of harassment incident on Team Liquid's StarCraft II forum

The actual thread (you have to be logged in to view)


EA Fail: Sexual harassment as a promotion

EA puts a sexual bounty on its booth babes' heads

Good critique of dangers of this promotion

"She had it coming" and rebuttal

Guy who won a prize and declined it

EA's "apology" - since retracted

EA Fail link roundup


Sexism in World of Warcraft

Awesome, awesome, awesome article about sexism in WoW

WoW Lore breakdown

Claims of "reverse sexism" and forum comments by female anti-feminist

"Deal with it or don't play WoW"

Trying (and failing) to have a conversation about sexism in gaming


Sexism in Game Ads

Video games as women that beat you

Discover the luscious hills and valleys of Rappelz (and here, and here)(Maybe NSFW)

Awesome chronology of Evony ads

Evony sues blogger for defamation over criticism of ads

Amazing Evony ad spoofs

Most sexist game ads


Relevant Forum Threads

StoryGames: Is Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress sexist or not?

StoryGames: Sex with chainsaws? Not sexist? Really? (start with post #4)

StoryGames: Racism (and sexism to a lesser extent) in the 4E PHB (turns into a bit of a shoutfest)

StoryGames: Gender and gaming

StoryGames: Why don't women play roleplaying games? (actually quite positive)

StoryGames: What do you want to know about minorities in roleplaying games? (not all that useful)

StoryGames: Maid RPG (quickly devolves into uselessness)

D&D: Gender violence in gaming (absolutely horrific)


Statistics

Nick Yee: WoW demographics - 2005

Men v. women in app gaming

Women outnumber men in online games

EQII demographics

Numbers of women in gaming


Women in game development

Sexism in game development

Facebook gets women into game development

100 most influential women in game development


Miscellaneous Articles

BBC: Female Everquest avatars sell for less than male avatars

Female characters in video games are designed to appeal to men

Sexism at E3

Excellent Breakdown of the fiasco at the PAX East Women in Gaming panel

Collectible porn cards in The Witcher

Frag Dolls

How D&D started a forum FOR women in gaming, closed it, and started another one to talk ABOUT women in gaming.

Female apologist for sexism and rebuttal

Derailing for Dummies

The One Girl in RPG comics

Are D&D encounters sexist?

Sex scenes in games

Terrible article, but good photoset

Converting chainmail bikinis to fully-clothed avatars that are still sexy

Careers for girls

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Anna,

Thanks for the wonderful collection of links, including my BNet column on GameCrush. I spent some time discussing the treatment of (virtual) women in my 2008 book "Porn & Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and Other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture". I'm happy to see the conversation is still flourishing.

Unknown said...

Thanks for links. They're excellent.

I don't agree that Gaming Is Not A Genetic Trait is as well-argued or scientific as you think.

It's a shame, because Jonathan Tweet's views could really do with some good criticism.

Unknown said...

Hi Anna--

Thank you for the link collection.

I think your "Are D&D Encounters Sexist?" link is mistargeted, tho.

Unknown said...

Adding the whole Penny Arcade rape culture profiteering on a t-shirt