Yet Another Castle

What’s the point in trying?

I know I cannot win

Someday I’ll find the princess

But I can’t wait ‘til then!

 

I’ve toppled every Goomba

Done everything I could

Jumped higher than I ever have

Ran harder than I know I should.

 

Now I can’t get much farther

This is where my road must end

At least ‘til I beat Bowser

And start all over again

 

“She’s in another castle”

Toad keeps telling me

So I continue on and on

But the princess I don’t see

 

I know there are more levels

But now I need some time

To stop, relax, and rest a while

Maybe see that brother of mine

 

For what’s the point in trying

When I know I cannot win?

The only way to beat this game

is to go back to start again

Jessie Stephenson – Undergraduate – Communication Studies

April 25, 2013 – 12:46 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

Gaming Chick: Poetry – Author’s Note

Ed. note: This post is an author’s note to a series of poems we are posting that explore the intersection of gaming and female identity construction(s).

In today’s American society, immediate entertainment is becoming more prominent and a larger part of the average person’s life. In fact, one of the fastest-growing entertainment industries in the world is computer and video gaming. In 2001, this industry made over $6 billion in the US alone and continues growing year after year (ISDA). With this industry becoming so important, it is starting to become a more major article of discourse in academia, with one topic in particular: girls in the gaming industry. Surprisingly enough, I am one of these so-called “gamer girls” who enjoy playing video games just as much as the male populace. However, it is difficult to find equality within the virtual realm. Whether it be online or individually, whenever female gamers play video games, they are discriminated against. It is this constant struggle that I want to capture in my poetry: Narrative of the Gamer-Girl.

There are many reasons for this bigotry towards women in the gaming world, starting back even before video gaming. Decades ago, it was the social norm for men to go out into public leisure spaces, like pubs and bars, to play games like chess, cards, and dominos (Bryce & Rutter 8). It was not usually normal for women to be openly welcome into these places, as they were usually at home tending to their houses and children. This kind of culture was adopted in as arcades and, eventually, online gaming grew popular. Originally, there were few to no female characters at all in video games. Now, while the possibilities for choosing a female character in a video game have certainly increased, females are still highly underrepresented in digital games and tend to be more sexualized than male characters (Mitchell & Reid-Walsh 103). Because their original target-consumers are adolescent males, gaming corporations produce games that targeted that group’s interests. Therefore, the female characters in games are created with “revealing clothing [and] in poses conventionalized in “soft core” pornographic magazines such as Mazim and Playboy” (Soukoup 161). This kind of marketing is overtly aimed at adolescent, heterosexual males, and very efficiently alienates most women. One study even broke down exactly to what extent these characters are being sexualized, and how often. Beasley and Standley found that approximately 40% of female characters are shown with unrealistically sized breasts and nearly half of them were wearing halter tops, tank tops, or bathing suits (287). This amount of obscene over-sexualization makes it very difficult for girl-gamers to become an equal part of the video gaming community.

The other main issue is the roles that the female characters usually play in games. Usually, female characters do not have strong roles. Generally they are not the strong hero/heroine that saves the day. Instead, they are portrayed as “helpless [damsels] in distress awaiting rescue, or the ‘[prizes]’ for completing the game” (Bryce and Rutter 6). This is disheartening for girl gamers because we are not able to become as absorbed in gameplay as males are. We do not have the option to play a strong protagonist, but rather are portrayed as weak, ignorant, and helpless, and that is a very discouraging paradigm. This not only damages the gaming community’s opinions of us, but also makes it difficult to become accepted as a gamer, particularly as the gamer you want to be. Many gaming companies are trying to come out with games that “girls” would like: Barbie dress-up, caring for virtual babies or pets, and even play-house games. It is difficult, though for companies to make us feel more welcome in this masculine community, because it is difficult for them to discern what “real” gamer-girls want in a game, instead of the societal stereotype (Dickey 789). Do not misinterpret my opinion of these gaming companies; there are some girls who do like to play those “girly” games. However, some girl gamers, like myself, prefer to be able to play the ones that are more “masculine,” like shooters or war games. Most of my poetry is based off of this aspect of the oppression of girl gamers.

My first poem, “Think of Me,” addresses the stereotype of video gamers in general. The way the media portrays “geeks” usually is the same as how most of society sees us. Yes, we stay up all night long playing video games and sometimes pretend to be made-up characters, but not everybody is the suspendered and inhaler-dependent “nerd.” In fact, most people do not even consider the fact that many girls are also gamers. I like to think of myself as a very un-stereotypical kind of “geek.” First of all, I wear regular make-up and dress in dresses and like to keep up with the latest fashion trends. But I also like to sit around with an Xbox controller in my hand and play Halo into the wee hours of the morning! Society needs to rethink their stereotypes of gamers, especially to include other girls and “normal” people like me.

My second poem, “Yet Another Castle,” is a metaphor using one of the most popular video games throughout the years: Super Mario Brothers. In this poem, the hero character, Mario, is a metaphor for all of the girls in gaming society. We keep searching for equality by practicing until we are really good at a game, or by trying to act like the guy gamers to fit in. However, each time we think we have found equality, we are told “No, keep looking. Either accept your ‘role’ as a girl, or don’t tell us you’re a girl in the first place.” It is very tiresome, and no matter what we do, we will never fit in. At least, we will not until we “go back to start” and find a way to change the mindset of gaming companies and other male gamers. This is easily explained with the Spiral of Silence theory. This theory is very useful for explaining this phenomenon in gaming culture. It was originally proposed by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann in 1993, and states:

It can be proven that even when people see plainly that something is wrong, they will keep quiet if public opinion (opinions and behavior that can be exhibited in public without fear of isolation) and, hence, the consensus as to what constitutes good taste and the morally correct opinion speaks against them. (Noelle-Neumann x)

Basically, what this means is that since females are not a majority of the video gaming population, they will not speak out against ridicule and sexualization, because if they do, they fear they will be ridiculed even more. Because they are not sharing their opinions, the dominant (or in this case masculine) opinion will grow stronger until the minority opinion is completely silent. The only way to break this endless spiral of silence is to restructure the majority opinion or, as I put in my poem, “go back to start again.”

“Konami Code” is structured in a slightly more playful way than my other poems. In video gaming culture, the Konami Code is a cheat code used in many video games since the 1980s. In order to use this code, the player presses these buttons in this order: up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start. It is used for many different purposes: extra lives, speed boosts, etc. (Cunningham 29). This poem uses this code to explain what the typical girl gamer goes through in her gaming experience. Instead of using the entire code as a tool to get bonuses, I decided to break it up into smaller segments and show how this code ‘unlocks’ a very negative experience for us females. It also reflects, in a way, how this society can be such a positive tool for men, whereas women are being suppressed because of it.

I have always been intrigued by the idea of Rapunzel trapped in her castle. Even as a young girl, her situation never made sense to me. Why didn’t she even try to escape? Doesn’t she get bored just sitting there all day? This poem has a more positive tone than my other poetry, and I chose to do that intentionally. I wanted to show that even though girl gamers are repressed and treated unfairly, we still do what we do simply because we love it. It is part of our personalities, not just something we want to do in our free time. We do not think like the princess trapped in her castle. We think like warriors. We do not sit and wait to be rescued; we want to do the rescuing, want to go on an adventure. This poem is meant to be empowering for other girls who may want to get involved in the gaming community, but are too intimidated by the masculinity-dominated culture. Even though it is tough, it is worth it to be more than just a pretty girl waiting for their knight in shining armor. We can be the pretty girls who get off our behinds and search for a life full of adventure and fun. Who knows? Maybe someday the odds will be in our favor and w will finally get to rescue Prince Charming for a change!

Works Cited

Beasley, Berrin, and Standley, Tracey C.. “Shirts vs. Skins: Clothing as an Indicator of Gender Role Stereotyping in Video Games.” Mass Communication & Society. 5.3 (2002): 279-293. Web.

Bryce, J. O., and Rutter, Jason. “Gender dynamics and the social and spatial organization of computer gaming.” Leisure Studies 22.1 (2003): 1-15.

Cunningham, Thomas. “The Konami Code: An Experiment in Dialect Pedagogy.” (2011)

Dickey, Michele D. “Girl gamers: the controversy of girl games and the relevance of female‐oriented game design for instructional design.” British journal of educational technology 37.5 (2006): 785-793.

IDSA (2001) State of the industry report 2000–2001, Interactive Digital Software Association, Washington, DC.

Mitchell, Claudia, and Reid-Walsh, Jaqueline. “Girl Gamers.”Girl Culture. 1. Westport, Conneticut: 2007.

Noelle-Neumann, Elisabeth. The spiral of silence: Public opinion–Our social skin. University of Chicago Press, 1993.

Soukup, Charles. “Mastering the Game: Gender and the Entelechial Motivational System of Video Games.”Women’s Studies in Communication. 30.2 (2007): 157-178. Web.

Jessie Stephenson – Undergraduate – Communication Studies

April 25, 2013 – 12:43 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

Gaming Chick: Caught in a Downward Spiral of Suppression

Online MMOs, or Massively Multiplayer Online games, are becoming more and more popular amongst not only teenage boys, the stereotypical population for these games, but also people of all ages and gender. In fact, 56 million people between the ages of 35 and 50 are playing videogames. Around one-third of console-game players and 40 percent of computer-game players are female (Sidener, 2005). Videogames are also creating more and more ways to cooperative play with other people, both friends and strangers. Amidst this growth in videogaming popularity, one thing is becoming apparent: these gaming avenues are making it more and more difficult for women to play online, or with people they do not know, without being harassed. The gaming industry today is structured in an inadvertently power-rich manner that empowers male gamers by excluding and discouraging women through the sexualization of female characters and an overreliance on overtly-gendered stereotypes. Utilizing my personal experiences, as well as experiences of “gamer chicks” as a whole, I will explore this phenomenon as it exists in the online gaming venue. With a focus on the Spiral of Silence theory, I will look to understand why this is happening, as well as how it can be reversed.

At the turn of the century, videogames heighten their profile, not only as a means of entertainment, but also a way of socializing. It was, quite readily, marketable to the male populace due to the skill sets required. Most often, games contained some sort of “hunt and destroy” theme, an evolutionary trait commonly prescribed to men. However, as the gaming industry grew larger, one marketable population was mostly forgotten about: women. Today, as the variety of game types increases, female gamers are growing in numbers at very quick rates.

It has been suggested that women are drawn to MMORPGs because they enjoy gaming within social communities that encourage exploration of an environment with others as a team, allowing for the opportunity to play out different aspects of self-identity in a safe setting and supporting the pleasure associated with success. (Cole & Griffiths, 2007, p. 581)

This interest in using the “gaming world” as a tool for socialization and team-building is not unique to women, but it is what pulls us into this world of gaming. However, it is also part of what prevents us from feeling welcome in this new, developing community. Gaming companies are starting to realize that women have an interest in videogames, too, but they are mostly unsuccessful at maintaining or constructing a gaming world that is more welcoming to women. Through my own past experiences, I can identify two main aspects of the gaming community that hinders openness to women in gaming: the sexualization of in-game female characters, and overtly-gendered stereotypes.

When players join or start a new videogame, often times they must choose their avatar, the character they will use to portray them and play in-game. This choice can subconsciously say a lot about who a person is or how they act, as well as many other deeper, less obvious, characteristics of one’s personal nature. Sometimes, these characters can create problems. For example, there is one general theme that I, along with many other gaming scholars, have recognized: many of the female character choices fit an overtly-sexual stereotype: scantily dressed, tall, thin, with large breasts and buttocks. In games where the different character choices have different skills or special talents, female characters generally have weaker skills, or less combative talents. For example, in the recently-released videogame Borderlands 2, all of the male character types are muscular and have talents like dual-wielding weapons or using exclusive higher-powered weaponry. Of the four choices of characters, only one is female. The only female character build, Maya, is able to immobilize enemies for short amounts of time. While Maya’s talent is not a weak or overtly feminine characteristic, it is much less violent and less power-rich than her male counterparts. Maya is also dressed in an acutely sexualized manner, with prominent breasts and erotic clothing. If players wish, they can also purchase a fifth character choice, Gaige, who is also a female. This female character also has a less actively-violent skill than her male counterparts. She is able to conjure a powerful robot that will do all of the fighting for her, as well as regenerate shields for her and her companion players. Without her robot, it is difficult to obtain higher-powered weapons, or to increase her skills. Her robot has to do the fighting for her, especially as the enemies get more difficult. A larger number of NPCs, or non-player characters, in the game are female. These characters, too, are exceedingly sexual in the way they are portrayed. Moxxie, for instance, is an innately sexual character; the game producers made no effort to hide the sexualization of her character, and went over-the-top with embracing it. She is scantily and sexually dressed, has a cartoonishly seductive voice, and all of the dialogue with or quests for Moxxie have a connotatively sexual theme. For instance, one can obtain a gun from Moxxie, called the “Bad touch,” that vibrates excessively when used, a painfully obvious reference to vibrators. These types of gender-biased and overtly sexualized characters are the first hindrance to making gamer chicks feel welcome into this larger gaming world.

The other hindrance to women is the way they are treated in MMO games, especially amongst groups of players they do not know. In my own experience, when playing on an online Minecraft world with a regular populace of approximately 30 unfamiliar players, I was commonly treated in an overtly-sexualized manner myself. When I first joined the server, many players were just as kind to me as they were to any other players. However, once they found out I was a female, at least three of them repeatedly tried to flirt with me, or make me feel uncomfortable by making sexual references. Ironically, my boyfriend also played on the same server, and once the other players found out he was reading their comments, they immediately stopped. However, most female gamers do not have a significant other online with them to keep players from sexualizing them. If they want to continue to enjoy the game as it is meant to be played, many of them are forced to endure and ignore taunting, being flirted with, or sometimes even overtly repressed with comments like “get back to the kitchen and make me a sandwich” or other deleterious and unequal jeers. The only way a woman can play on an MMO and be treated as an equal is if she lies about her gender, or does not share this information with those around her, which is simply unfair and unwelcoming.

In order to understand why this phenomenon is occurring, it helps to view it in light of the Spiral of Silence Theory (Noelle-Neumann, 1974). This theory, originally proposed by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, predicts the tendency of the minority to remain silent when facing an opposing majority position, for fear of ridicule or exclusion. It explains that whenever a majority holds a widely accepted belief system, the smaller minorities become less likely to voice their own opinions. This downward spiral can be seen in numerous areas of study, such as how people use Facebook to share political opinions. In a research article from 2011, it was show that when people on Facebook sensed that their opinion on same-sex marriage was among the minority, they were less likely to share those opinions openly (Chen, 2011).

The Spiral of Silence theory is particularly applicable when looking at how female gamers interact with other male gamers and within the gaming community as a whole. As previously indicated, women comprise only 30-40 percent of the videogaming population. While this is a much higher female-to-male ratio than in the past, this still identifies women as a minority in the gaming community. Because of this stereotype for female gamers, many of these women remain silent or change their natural behaviors when interacting with other players in online and other multiplayer games. Commonly, women will choose to monitor the information they disclose much more closely, sometimes even omitting important information altogether, like the fact that they are female, because of the fear of how that information will be received and utilized by the rest of the gaming population. When women recognize that they are a minority in the realm of online gaming, they enter into that “downward spiral” and keep their protests silent, concerned that by protesting their subjugation, they will be ridiculed and subjugated further. With this in mind, if women are ever to be accepted as equals in online gaming communities, according to the Spiral of Silence theory, their views on equality in gaming must become the majority view.

I am not asking for a complete revolution against the gendered masculine views in the online gaming community. Nor am I asking for a total feminization of these MMO’s. I understand the appeal of this gaming community to men and women alike. I simply wish that women be allowed to share a part of this online community as fellow “geeks” without having the fear of ridicule or exclusion simply because we do not embrace the gender stereotype. The sexualization of female characters and the gendered stereotypes make it impossible for women to be seen as equals in the gaming community, and, as explained in the Spiral of Silence theory, without a reform of the current MMO paradigm, it isn’t going to change anytime soon. However, once gaming companies start developing respectful female characters, other online gamers will find it easier to treat gamer chicks with respect, and we will finally be released from the Spiral of Silence, creating an online community that is equally enjoyable for every geek.

References

Chen, K. J. (2011). A test of the spiral of silence theory on young adults’ use of social networking sites for political purposes. (master’s thesis) Graduate Theses and Dissertations. Paper 12214.

Cole, H., & Griffiths, M. D. (2007). Social interactions in massively multiplayer online role-playing gamers. Cyber Psychology & Behavior, 10(4), 575-583.

Noelle-Neumann, E. (1974). The spiral of silence: A theory of public opinion. Journal of Communication, 24, 43-51.

Sidener, J. (2005). Gadget gap: New gender roles in digital world. The San Diego Union-Tribune.

 Jessie Stephenson – Undergraduate – Communication Studies

March 6, 2013 – 10:16 pm Categories: Gender | Post a comment

Tagged , |

Realism & Licensing

One way to thinking about gaming is that it provides an escape from material reality. In this substitution, there is a growing demand to make gameplay more realistic, and has created pressure on developers to oblige the consumer. This quest for realism, however, has led to a rise in lawsuits from companies and athletes over the unauthorized use of their products and likenesses, respectively, in videogames. There has been a movement in videogame development to push for a more authentic gaming experience, and, as a result, companies are engaged in these suits pitting free speech rights versus authorized brand licensing (Roberts, 2012). These lawsuits between developers and corporations will certainly have an influence on future game design. The future changes in game development will be shaped by gamers’ demands to increase the authenticity of gameplay. These demands will be appeased by additional product placement in game development. Simulation style gaming will become commonplace, deriving from these emerging expectations for one-to-one realism between the in-game and out-of-game worlds. In order to explore this issue, we will first look at a case involving Electronic Arts (EA) and the helicopter manufacturer Textron.

In May of 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that video games are considered protected speech under the First Amendment (Good, 2012). This ruling has given game developers a broad precedent in the way videogame cases will be ruled, effectively allotting electronic games expanded rights. EA has been one of the most high-profile developers to engage in these legal controversies. Recently, EA has engaged Textron in a lawsuit regarding the use of imagery of their “Bell” helicopters. EA has filed the lawsuit after being approached by Textron, who claims EA has used unauthorized imagery of their AH-1Z, UH-1Y, and V-22 “Bell” helicopters (Roberts, 2012). EA is arguing that the usage of the helicopters’ imagery in the game is a form of artistic expression, which is protected by the First Amendment (Curtis, 2012). The precedent EA is attempting to secure from the court would allow video game developers to use imagery that are exact to real life names, symbols and products. This could all be done without securing a prior license to do so. EA is furthering their claim by stating that the helicopters help illustrate a more realistic combat zone for the popular game Battlefield 3 and that these “brands” make the gameplay more authentic for the player (Curtis, 2012).

EA is implying that the usage of the helicopters is purely to authenticity of a combat zone, and has nothing to do profiting from the helicopter imagery. However, the use of authenticity as a marketing ploy is not uncommon for companies to achieve higher profit margins while, simultaneously, appeasing the demands of their audience. As our society has become more reality driven with movies, television, and games, product placement has become essential to establish “realism” (Lang, 2010). Gamers, too, demand a “reality” to play in and, as such, are expecting these “reality-confirming” products in their gaming experience. This desired experience provides a delineation between the person’s material reality and the non-material one in which the play. At some level, a connection between the two different “realities” must be established in order for the non-material reality to be equally appealing. Game developers are happily obliging their consumers. In doing so, they can sell a more believable story line, thereby giving them a valuable edge in the gaming market.

To study the effectiveness of product placement in gameplay, The Journal of Interactive Advertising conducted a study in which participants played a game featuring branded products from Under Amour, Burger King and Dodge. After playing, participates took an associations test to determine what their attitudes were for those brands featured in the game as compared to brands that were not used within the game. The researchers found that “participants put in-game brands in the good category faster than they put those brands in the bad category” (Glass, 2007). The researchers theorized that if a participant was quick to put a brand into the “good” category that it was associated with a positive gaming experience. Allowing positive experiences of gameplay to be connected to products creates a desire within the player for exposure to increased additional product placement, with repeated instances further “enhancing” the realism of the game.

If the Court rules in favor of EA it would set precedence to allow for more realistic gaming in multiple gaming genres, not just first-person shooters. For instance, racing games could feature previously expensive-to-license car brands under these new protections. The exclusive licenses EA has secured from major athletic corporations, such as the NFL and NCAA, could all be called into question if competing developers can, essentially, use the teams’ copyrighted images under these expanded First Amendment protections.

An increase in game development companies not having to pay licensing fees could create increased demand amongst game players expecting to see branded “reality” within their gameplay. Alternatively, if game developers begin losing these suits, we may end up seeing a drastically different gaming landscape. Games are compared on how “realistic” they are in gameplay. In these comparisons, gamers are both examining and communicating their desire for games to more closely mirror reality or, even, supplant it. With these rising demands amongst gamers, along with a potential court decision that would expand fair use of copyright, video games are increasing their quality as a simulation of reality. While this allows for exploration of different avenues of gaming, it also raises the question of whether these games should be “realistic.” Concerning the incorporation of violence, game franchises such as the Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto draw a thin line between reasonable and unreasonable simulation.

The legal system is ever-changing in its attempts to regulate the demands of new, digital mediums, videogames included. The regulation of licensing in response to consumer demands for “realism” is just the latest step in this negotiation. The outcomes of these cases are still in the hands of the courts. Regardless of their outcome, we can be sure to expect increased product placement in videogames. In short, their effectiveness as both a marketing tool and a signifier of “realism” is too beneficial to both producers and consumers to be ignored. The exponential increase of this product imagery depends greatly on the outcome of these current lawsuits.

References

Curtis, T. (2012, January 9). EA Claims Free Speech in Legal Dispute over Helicopter Usage in Battlefield 3. Retrieved from http://gamasutra.com/view/news/39540/EA_claims_free_speech_in_legal_dispute_over_helicopter_usage_in_Battlefield_3.php

Glass, Z. (2007, Fall). The Effectiveness of Product Placement in Video Games. Journal of Interactive Advertisement, 8(1). Retrieved from http://jiad.org/article96

Good, O. (2012, January 21). EA Lawsuit Doesn’t Mean Madden’s Exclusive Is a License to Be Killed. Retrieved from http://kotaku.com/5878160/ea-lawsuit-doesnt-mean-maddens-exclusive-is-a-license-to-be-killed

Lang, Derrik J. (2010). Supreme Court to Hear Violent Video Game Case Tuesday. Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39937124/ns/technology_and_science-games/t/supreme-court-hear-violent-video-game-case-tuesday/

Roberts, Jeff. (2012, January 9). Use of Brands In Video Games Is Free Speech—EA Lawsuit. Retrieved from http://paidcontent.org/article/419-use-of-brands-in-video-games-is-free-speech-ea-lawsuit/

Camille Neemann – Undergraduate – Political Science

February 29, 2012 – 11:34 pm Categories: Licensing | Post a comment

Tagged , , |

The Gaming Research Group – Cross-posted from the Departmental Newsletter

In academia, we are significantly behind the curve in incorporating videogame studies into our curriculum. Part of the problem is simply finding a home for this area of study. Communication Studies is the answer to this problem. Our existing body of rhetorical, cultural, organization and interpersonal research is a natural fit for the complex social and symbolic interactions that are inherent to gameplay.

With this in mind, we started the Communication Studies Gaming Research Group in order to gauge student interest in this area of study while, simultaneously, promoting its fit in our department. The group’s focus includes all manners and modes of gaming, not just videogames. In framing the group in this fashion, it allows us to focus less on the technical aspects of a specific medium and more on the communicative and cultural aspects of gameplay.

Our pilot semester produced a dedicated group of highly motivated students. With their help, we have grown to a rotating base of 15-20 students. The additional peer feedback provided by this growth has greatly aided our students’ collective productivity. In order to provide a suitable showcase for work, we have started a blog, The Gaming Research Report. Our departmental website links to this blog.

Student response to this area of research has been overwhelmingly positive. We have a dedicated, class-sized group that produces high-level work for fun, not credit. In promoting Communication Studies as a department concerned with issues of gaming and gameplay, we have seen a number of our group members switch their majors to ours. This is extremely encouraging and we look forward to seeing this area of research develop in our department.

The day we outgrew our original space.

“A little too gamey in here?” A picture from the night we outgrew our original space. From L-R: Russle Troxel (seated), Brett Yoshioka, Max Gade, Carrie Wencel, Rachael Schmidt, David Dropinski (seated), Eddie Ryan, Sam Carey, Noah Smith (seated), Seth Kutikoff, Camille Neemann, Leslie Kravitz (seated), Jessie Stephenson, Richard Ingraham. Not pictured: The photographer.

February 28, 2012 – 10:46 pm Categories: Introduction | Post a comment

Plight of the Gaming Chick – Part One

“Hey guys, I’m back!”  Although all four of my male friends are sitting just across the room from where I’m standing, not one of them acknowledges my arrival…

“Sorry I’m a little late, my car slid on the ice and just about crashed into the ditch on the way here.” Still, no response.

“I brought food…” Now every one of them hits pause and lunges off the couch to ‘help’ me carry the three bags of chips, pop, and homemade cookies and cake I had been holding.

My boyfriend, Matt, and his three best friends Cody, Darian, and Lance are gamers. It isn’t an unusual occurrence to find them on a couch in my living room on any given day of the week. This particular “get-together” happened to be on a Friday night, which meant only one thing: nobody was going home anytime soon. Within twenty minutes of their arrival, the four young “men” had seriously depleted my kitchen full of snacks, and I knew they would eat every last Spaghetti-O if I didn’t get them more junk food… and fast.  I had left the guys alone for half an hour while I ran to the nearby grocery store, after, of course, already pulling some home-made cookies and a cake out of the oven and setting them out to cool. I knew there would be no problems with leaving them alone in my house. Only two things could pry their attention from their Modern Warfare 3 orgy: food or an EXTREME need for a bathroom break. Even the latter only happened under the most dire of circumstances.

So, when I arrived back home, it wasn’t much of a surprise to me that the word “food” and the smell of freshly baked cookies were the only signals able to break through their hypnotic state. After all, I knew how much concentration it took to slaughter twenty-six waves of enemies. I was a gamer gal too, you know. But, on these specific occasions, all my time was spent catering to the guys as they played. In essence, they demoted me from “gaming chick” to “gaming broad.”

After running up and down the stairs countless times to retrieve plates and paper towels and utensils and napkins and batteries for the controllers and more paper towels, the guys had finally settled back down, soda cans in hand, to reabsorb themselves in the world of virtual battle. Once my services were no longer presently needed, I returned to the kitchen to clean up the cookie sheets and cake pans before the mess spread farther.

I was elbow-deep in cookie crumbs and dish detergent when I heard a crash and “umm…oops” from the other room. I dropped the soapy mess back into the sink to dart into the other room. Darian and Cody had gotten a little rambunctious when Matt had shot them in the back when they weren’t looking (in-game, of course). In the ensuing friendly brawl, Cody had accidentally pulled the bowl of chips down on the floor and Darian kicked over Lance’s strawberry soda (no, nothing “manly” like beer or even iced tea… strawberry soda). Lance, being the gracious guest he usually was, had tried to sop up some of the staining soda from my white carpet with a bright green towel he found in the bathroom. The resulting mess was enough to make me dizzy. I grabbed the carpet cleaner from the shelf in the next room and set to work on the white carpet. While the cleaner was settling, I took the towel from Lance and threw it in the laundry room to soak in a bucket of stain-remover that I always have ready for occasions like these. They wisely decided it was about time for a bathroom break, so I set to work vacuuming up the chip shards that had now been ground into the carpet. I finished the last corner of the room and turned off the vacuum just as they returned from their short bathroom break and sat back down to resume waging their cyber-warfare. I went back to the kitchen to get them a new bowl full of chips and to finish cleaning up the pans I had dropped mid-scrub.

When the disaster in the living room and the dish-mountain in the kitchen were finally clean, I plopped down on the couch next to my boyfriend to watch them play. When I’m home without company, I love to relieve some stress by hunting down enemies in my own campaign. Even when I’m with Matt at his house, we can game together for hours. However, when any of his friends join us, I am more than content to simply sit back and watch. I’m not afraid of embarrassing myself; I can hold my own against the masses. They make a point to not exclude me when I hang out with them, but, at the same time, nobody readily offers to give up their controller to me for a round or two either. Simply put, it is just my ‘place,’ as the only gal in the group, to cook/bring the food and then to sit back and watch them play. I have grown quite used to my role in our close-knit group of friends, and it stopped bothering me a long time ago. But I do have to wonder how different our get-togethers would be if it was a bunch of my lady friends gaming and just one male companion in the group. Would he be the one running to the store for another case of Mountain Dew while we girls stay glued to the television? For some reason, I doubt it.

As two in the morning drew ever-nearer, Matt and the rest of our friends started to doze off. When they started attacking inanimate objects for absolutely no reason, I knew it was about time to turn off the X-Box. I made sure they all had enough sanity to drive home safely, and sent them on their way. After saying goodbye, I turned back to the mess in my living room. My night was far from over. I picked up bowls and plates still half-full of miscellaneous snack foods, a few handfuls of pretzels that had been thrown across the room and a pile of soda cans that never made it the extra ten inches to the wastebasket. Finally, with the room back in a presentable condition, I picked up an abandoned controller from the floor and thought to myself, “It’s only two in the morning… I still have a few hours to spend working on my new quests in Skyrim!” And that’s exactly what I did until I drifted off to sleep, dreaming of the chance to beat every one of my guy-friends’ high scores.

Jessie Stephenson – Undergraduate – Communication Studies

February 28, 2012 – 10:09 pm Categories: Gender | Post a comment

Tagged , |

Welcome!

This is a place for the members of the Communication Studies Gaming Research Group at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to post their work on the subject of gaming. Our focus is deliberately broad and incorporates both electronic and non-electronic games. These posts represent critical inquires into gaming as it relates to rhetorical, organization and interpersonal communication concerns. The essays posted are peer reviewed, with some being expanded for potential conference submission. We have high hopes for this project and hope you enjoy it.

February 28, 2012 – 9:42 pm Categories: Introduction | Post a comment

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

%d bloggers like this: