Tag Archives: The Bacon Party

Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation

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Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation is a game released in 2012 for the Playstation Vita portable handheld device. The game features Aveline de Grandpre as its protagonist, a young woman of French and African descent, and is set in New Orleans in the years leading up to the American Revolutionary War. Aveline is a unique protagonist as few games feature a singular female or black protagonist. Upon release, AC:L received mixed to positive reviews, currently holding a 70 on Metacritic (http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-vita/assassins-creed-iii-liberation). The game was praised for its portrayal of race relations in the time period and Aveline was a well-received character. Unfortunately, the game mechanics, while praised as well made, proved to be a hindrance more often than not, with reviewers complaining that too much time was spent in the restrictive “Lady” persona.

The game mechanics are a very important element of the game’s portrayal of race and gender in the time period. The game lets Aveline “adopt personas that give her varying abilities and constraints. The ‘lady’, who dresses and acts like the wealthy free woman that Aveline is, can fool men by charming them… but she can’t climb building and is weak in a fight… The slave can infiltrate areas under cover of labor. And the assassin persona is, well, less concerned with the historical basis of double consciousness.” (Suellentrop)

Works referenced:

     Chris Suellentrop, “Slavery as New Focus for a Game: Assassin’s Creed Liberation”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/28/arts/video-games/assassins-creed-liberation-examines-colonial-blacks.html?_r=0

Feminization

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The process by which feminine attributes or association with the female is linked to an object or concept that in reality has nothing to do with one’s gender. An example of this is outlined in Casual Threats: The Feminization of Casual Video Games, the study which describes the phenomenon by which ‘casual games’ are given a female, derogatory designation in relation to the larger field of games. As is the case with casual games, feminization often occurs in a larger, male-dominated structure as a means to marginalize the subject of the feminization, but also to place certain things in a strong, ‘masculine’ position to contrast.

In this case ‘Hardcore Games’ are made the masculine counterpart to the female ‘Casual Games’.

Vanderhoef, J. (2013) Casual Threats: The Feminization of Casual Video Games. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, No.2. doi:10.7264/N3V40S4D

 

Key Term: Linguistic Profiling

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Linguistic Profiling

Linguistic profiling is a VOICE based assessment. It is similar to racial profiling in that it uses cues to determine ethnicity and gender (and sometimes sexual orientation). Unlike racial profiling, linguistic profiling uses vocal cues rather than physical cues. It brings a race division through hegemonic principals in the virtual world, creating the “us” versus “them” mentality. For example, in telephone conversations with financial institutions, if a caller sounds Black or Mexican, these institutions may refuse to extend services to the caller. In the virtual gaming world, where many gamers may want their personal information to stay private, linguistic profiling discloses our gender, race, and other information through our voice and vocal mannerisms. Moreover, during LIVE GAMING, racial and gender inequality are common based on how a gamer sounds, determining the atmosphere of the game space:

For example, we see this with Conscious Daughters’ gaming:

MissUnique: Hey BizzyBoy, what do you think of girl gamers?

BizzyBoy: Hate em! They suck.

(Other male gamers in session begin laughing)

BigState88: Your score proves it. Look at your K/D.

(KD refers to the kill to death ratio within a game. MissUnique’s KD was 0 kills and 8 deaths)

MissUnique: Well I’m not playing for a purpose. I want guys like you to pay more attention to women and…

(BizzyBoy cuts MissUnique off and begins talking)

BizzyBoy: Oh shut the fuck up.

BigState88: Mute her ass. Like I’m getting ready to.

BizzyBoy: Yeah I’m about to…

(Collective Organizing, Individual Resistance, or Asshole Griefers? An Ethnographic Analysis of Women of Color In Xbox Live)

John Scalzi stated that “‘dudes’ as the intended audience [for gaming] as a metaphor for explaining how race and gender confer automatic, un-asked for, MECHANICAL advantages of players who are lucky enough to be born white and male.” The key word here is mechanical. In live gaming, hegemony and misogyny come to surface through vocalization. Race and gender separation become virtual and auditory entities as opposed to the physical manifestation. When female or other minority voices appear on live gaming: it’s no longer “us” because “them” has interrupted our white, male, and heterosexual world. The virtual world becomes a space unwelcome to female and minority gamers. The hegemonic principals of the virtual world are solely dependent on linguistic profiling.

(Queer Female of Color: The Highest Difficulty Setting There Is? Gaming Rhetoric as Gender Capital)

 

Social Role Theory

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Social Role Theory is the theory that different social roles in which both sexes are socialized in contemporary socialized society direct the individual behaviors that are required for these roles. People subconsciously fulfill these roles because they have become ingrained in contemporary social society. We see this in the gaming world, especially, as a reflection of the gender roles of society. For example, Grand Theft Auto–> the males have power and perform sexual violence and are thugs while the females are strippers and helpless pawns.

* Boys will play certain games and in certain ways as girls will too, only they will play less

* It explains gender differences in the gaming world

* However, the Sims attracts female gamers which breaks away from typical gender roles and social role theory

* Since its launch in 2000, the Sims has been the ultimate example of a game which has been able to attract female characters

Motivation

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(Baby, you can be my) Motivation

As game studies is a fairly young field, there are few, if any, established theories that model why people play games. Such a framework of ‘gamer motivation’ may also address why people choose to play a particular game over another, or why men and women might choose to play different games based on gendered lines. Many researchers design their own model of gamer motivation by adapting existing sociological models of use and gratification.

In the study entitled The Sims2, the researchers came  up with six areas that they felt strongly influenced or drove gamers to play the game.

  1.  Fantasy/Escapism – the desire to involve oneself in a world where things that are normally impossible in the real world are possibly experienced by the player.
  2. Control – the ability to have an inordinate amount of control over the experience of the world and, in the case of the Sims in particular, the life of your sims.
  3. Challenge – the oppurtunity to tackle and overcome challenges within the game world.
  4. Diversion – playing games as an act of pure distraction or diversion, to kill time, relax, forget your life.
  5. Enjoyment – a straightforward source of pleasure or enjoyment.
  6. Social Interaction – playing the game as a engine for interacting with other members of the community.

Playing The Sims2: an exploration of gender differences in players’s motivations and patterns of play. Jeroen Jansz, Corinne Avis and Mirjam Vosmeer

 

Anthropomorphism

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Anthropomorphism is name given to the process by which we ascribe human feelings, form and/or motivations to anything that is not human. On the internet, this commonly takes the form of a  meme in which an animal expresses a human emotion. These images are usually a result of a coincidental capturing of the animal in a position that resembles human emotion (a la the badger ‘frowning’ in the included image). Other times, the meme might be playing off of impressions already in place in popular culture (Bachelor Frog is a frog due to its allusion to the ‘Prince Charming’ myth, frogs being generally gross, etc). Perhaps it is easier for the average internet user to empathize with a neutral animal given human emotions, than a human who they can judge and categorize based on any number of physical & social markers.

Consumer and Producer

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According to the ever popular Dictionary.com a consumer is defined as:

con·sum·er

noun

1. a person or thing that consumes.
2. Economics . a person or organization that uses a commodity or service.
3. Ecology . an organism, usually an animal, that feeds on plants or other animals.

And a producer as:

 

pro·duc·er

noun

1. a person who produces.

2. Economics . a person who creates economic value, or produces goods and services.
3. a person responsible for the financial and administrative aspects of a stage, film, television, or radio production; the person who exercises general supervision of a production and is responsible chiefly for raising money, hiring technicians and artists, etc., required to stage a play, make a motion picture, or the like. Compare director (  def 3 ) .
4. British Theater . (formerly) a director of theatrical productions; stage director.
5. an apparatus for making producer gas.

Now what is so interesting about the internet is that a consumer can also be a producer and vice versa. In fact, it would seem that many producers play the role of consumer for inspiration, entertainment and information. The consumer, inspired by a produced work, can easily decide to be a producer themselves. In this way a producer in regards to the internet shouldn’t be concerns with economic value, but with creating. It can be that simple. Producers create. Consumers of the internet can choose the economic route with things such as online shopping and buying music, yet they can be free from those restraints as well. A consumer is like an attendee in an art gallery. They choose to browse, comment, view, listen, interpret, understand, hate and even destroy in some cases. The distinction between consumer and producer is less defined contrary to what Dictionary.com will tell you.