4-6th January 2013 I had the pleasure to be a part of the feminist role-playing game convention FemCon, in Umeå Sweden. The event is best described by its tagline: ”By Women, For Everyone”. The goal of FemCon was to create a gaming space where being a woman was normal, especially being a woman in...
Read more →This post is the first of two reviews of Tomb Raider (2013). We chose to review this video game because of the original marketing for the game, as well as the final result. The first review is by Brie, who is a casual video gamer, and the second will be from Melody, who is...
Read more →Obviously, Sexism in games is kind of a deal around here, and we’re always looking to up the signal, broaden the conversation, and keep talking about the issues until they improve. (And they can and DO improve!) So when GaW’s own Professor Jessica Hammer turned me on to GTFO, a documentary in the making...
Read more →In his graphic design manifesto, Frank Chimero throws down some essential design knowledge by saying “Take things away until you cry.” Antoine de Saint Exupéry, known for creating the Little Prince, declares “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”...
Read more →Continuing the feature about my local gaming organization, GASP (Gaming Association of Southwestern Pennsylvania), I took the opportunity to interview one of the GASP founders. Don McCalmon is one of the GASP coordinators who I met at GASPcon. If you would like to see the interviews of some of the women players at GASP,...
Read more →I was lucky enough recently to have the chance to interview women who attend the events at my local gaming organization, GASP (Gaming Association of Southwestern Pennsylvania), as well as organizers of GASP. GASP’s recent convention (Fall 2012) had about 20-25% women in attendance, and that is awesome! It’s a good number to start...
Read more →This is the follow up to the previous article Men wear armour, Women wear sexy-time lingerie. Here I address issues of how men and women are pictured in games, beyond what they are wearing. We will try to answer the this two common questions that often arise in discussion: “What is wrong with pictures...
Read more →I am tired of rape culture in the gaming world. I am tired of having men be the arbiters of who gets to be a “real” gamer. I am tired of sometimes remaining silent because I don’t want to be dismissed as “that feminist who only talks about rape culture”. I am tired of...
Read more →Sometimes, two questions pop up when you discuss women wear when they are pictured in games. ”What is wrong with chainmail bikinis? It’s fantasy, it doesn’t have to be realistic!” ”What is wrong with chainmail bikinis? Sexy doesn’t equal sexist!” Let’s try to answer the two questions in this article. In the end they...
Read more →This post talks about the potential impact flexible work hours could have on women. I couldn’t help but think how this could apply to women in game design too. – Kira “I believe there’s a misconception that if you put a girl or a woman on the cover, the game will sell less....
Read more →