Gender....oh sweet gender.

In the first article I read “Perils of a Princess” by Sharon R Sherman, it mainly talks about the differences between what type of games males and females are most likely to play. For example, in the article it states that most male would go for violent games such as Quake or Doom. While females would go for more of the puzzle games such as Tetris. I, for one do not agree with this statement at all. I have met many girls online that say that they would much prefer chain sawing locust(Gears of War1 & 2 picture on top) than be playing a game that requires putting blocks together(very ironic when compared to the article). However, later on in the article It talks about how in Super Mario bros 2, males and females picked their characters based on the gender of the character( ex guys picking Luigi and girls picking peach). I must say that I have actually seen this happen quite many times. One example of this is when I went to a Super Smash Bros melee ( a very fun game cube game in which it is a 4 player fighting game having some of Nintendo’s most popular characters) tournament at a friends house. As it came time to pick the characters, Most of the guys would pick the “masculine” characters such as Fox(yes he is considered male),Link, Mario, Bowser etc. While some of the girls that were present were choosing characters like Peach, Samus, and Zelda. To me it was very interesting as how this came up on this article because I never realized that gender in characters were so important in games.


Up till today, I have never really noticed the sexism in video games. Wait let me rephrase that. I have noticed the sexism in video games, but I just never really thought of it as a problem. Yet when I read the article “Playing with Fire: Trouble in Super Macho World?” by Gonzalo Frasca, it made me see things a little differently. In the article it talks about a Nintendo DS game which involves peach trying to save Mario instead of the other way around. Yet the catch to the game is that instead of jumping, throwing fireballs, and flying using a raccoon tail(like Mario), peach gets to use her…emotions? WTF!! I don’t know if Nintendo knew this but this literally shouts out “Sexist!”. I mean not only is this stereotypical, but it is dumb how Peach is not able to do the same thing as Mario because she is a girl. I mean even though I am a male, it still shocks me to see how Nintendo uses this to their advantage. Although this is not “fair” to many female gamers, they must realize that this is not the first time sexism has been used. It is basically everywhere especially in the media( movies, tv etc.). Perhaps is the reason why even though this article brought out some awareness, it will probably still not be composed to a be a big problem to me. I have become adapted to this as well as other factors in life(racism, sexism). This means that I will still play games that have a lot of sexism( such as GTA IV) since I have become accustomed to it.

Week 3 post

For this post I have decide to do the following article http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/wright/ by Talmadge Wright, Eric Boria and Paul Breidenbach. This article mostly talks about how "FPS" (First person shooters) such as Counter Strike show a unique way their players socialise with other players. Mainly they focus on they way they communicate in the game. For those who dont know what Counter Strike is, it is a very popular PC fps that you to play on a team as either a terrorist or counter-terrorist. From there you can buy weapons and grenades to kill the opposing team.

Communicating in these type of games is extremely important especially if you want to win. However, in the article, they break it down into 4 caterogies on how players actually communicated. The first category is the creative game talk. This is mostly where players words for humor and joking around with other players. I personally have experience this while playing CS(counter strike). Most players would input "ROFL" or "LOL" whenever someone would fail at shooting the other player. Also they would jump off the level while screaming "terrorists are falling down"(dont know why haha). The second category is the game conflict talk. This is where if someone gets a really good headshot in the game, the other player will call him out by calling him a cheater or someone that broke the rules would get banned from an administrator. This will happen a lot since there is always someone who cant take defeat and will start saying that they are hacking or what not. If they dont stop there they go into further arguing which leads to the third category. Insulting/Distancing talk happens frequently not only in counter strike but in a lot of games. It involves the use of taunting talk/trash talk/ritual insult , racist comments and bad humor comments. I know this for a fact since i have been a victim of this type of comments. I have been called a m*****f****** to an a**h****. There are more on the list but i would take up a lot of space. The last category on the list is the performance talk. This is where players actually strategize in the game by using in game symbols, teach secrets to newbies( novice players), and encourage each other to do well. To me this last category is the most important because it can also tie into real life. For example in a sport where it requires a lot of teamwork, strategization is important because without it there would be no chance in winning a game. To summarize communication is important in a game as it is in real life whether it be negative or positive.

Reading articles

In the article The Influence of Literature and Myth in Videogames by Douglass C. Perry, it gives a good perspective on how Mythical creatures tie into videogames. I mean for some of the video games such as God of War and Resident Evil 5, if it wasn’t for the mythical and fantasy creatures in the game, I know for sure I wouldn’t be playing them. The fact that developers actually create the creatures based off old Greek mythology is to me simply amazing. I mean from my personal experience, every time I play this type of games it feels like I am actually in a movie/book. I am in control on how and what the outcome of the “story” will be. Its also good to know that many of the best games out in the market today have these traits that many gamers are looking for. In a way it has now become a standard for games to not only have decent game play, but to have an easy to follow story. Because of this, I can see why many developers would go and take some ideas of books such as the famous Lord of The Rings trilogy. Video games with mythology and fantasy creatures also show the creativity and effort to draw in more of a general audience(not just gamers necessarily). I say this because my sister was one of those people who really thought games were just mindless killing and violence. So one day I sat her down and told her to try out Bioshock( A really good xbox 360 game). At first she was skeptical and didn’t even want to play the game. However as she further played and saw the storyline and mythical characters, she become more intrigued as to what would happen next. After only playing two levels did she realize that Bioshock was in some ways similar to the books she reads(she likes reading Twilight type books). So after reading this article it really made me think on how without mythical or fantasy creatures have made modern games very fascinating and intriguing. As to the mini games that we had to play that explain the basic guidelines to a video game, I found each fact to be very important. I mean without rules in a game how can one even win or lose? I am also glad that they mentioned the difficulty has to be according to the skill of the player( Imagine just having veteran on Call Of Duty 4! Ahhh!). With out controls or features to a game how would we even play! Last but not least is the variety of characters that are one can choose on a game( think Street fighter IV, Mario Kart).Without any of these important guidelines, a game can not be very successful.

The King Of Kong

The King of Kong movie was actually pretty good(it was even better than the new street fighter movie!). I mean when i first saw the title of the movie i thought to myself " well this is just another nerdy documentary about people that take gaming way too seriously". However i was taken by surprise on how this was not all about gaming competition but actually had a simple moral along the way. To me it was that perseverance will eventually pay off. I mean here we have Steve Weibe trying to beat the all time record for Donkey Kong arcade set by the most disliked person in the documentary(Billy Mitchell). The thing I like about Steve Weibe was that no matter what hit him( First score not been recorded, unfairness..etc) he would persevere to the point we he would travel across the country just to get a legit score. I mean this is just to show you that like everything else(sports and academics) video games also need practice, more practice,and above all perseverance.

Test blog

Well i guess this is my first blog for literature 220 class! Just wanted to make sure i got down the blog posting stuff since this is my first time using blogger.