I can't bring myself to care about E3

In the last couple of years I used to do an analysis on the big three conferences.  I would detail good business moves and bad ones, interesting new ideas coming out for the console, and horrible ones.

This year, I honestly am not invested with what's going on with E3.  

Just starting to watch the conferences just makes me depressed.  Sony wasn't super bad, but I'm not convinced that some of their exciting titles will stay nearly as exciting as they were presented.  Beyond is a story that can easily be fucked up, and boat stuff from Assassin's Creed's new installment looks totally staged.  Those are obvious complaints though.  The not so obvious complaint is that it seems Sony took many of the strategies that Nintendo and Microsoft introduced the last few years and just put Sony paint on it.  Also, there's not a lot of genuinely new things to be excited about, but that is a problem with the console industry as a whole.  Really, it's a problem with the video game industry, but that's another post for another day.  Sony is a frequent offender.

I love Nintendo like family.  It is the company that introduced me to gaming and the company will always hold a special place in my heart.  But man, did that conference have too.  much.  talking.  Nintendo is also a great example of focusing way too hard on social networking.  Most social networking that is successful evolves more organically than what they're trying to do.  Also, I have to agree with Cracked.com that there will be phalluses all up on your screen with WiiVerse.  Last year Nintendo won back the hard core gamer, just to lose them again this year with karaoke and online theme parks.  However, I'm sure they'll sell more unit again WiiU is being sold as an all around entertainment system, not just for video games. 

Microsoft had the longest conference, and it had some of the most exciting points.  Too bad those exciting points were not about genuine electronic entertainment.  It also had some of the least exciting points.  I will admit that I'm not a sports fan at all, so devoting a fifth of the presentation to sports game did not inspire me.  And then to add another huge chunk of "look, I can watch movies, and then I can watch them in Spanish!" was not impressive.  Voice control no longer a huge deal, since you've presented it the last three years.  And  no, Usher, despite being an attractive, rich singer, is not going to entice me to play your games.

I think, my fellow gamers, we have to admit to ourselves that we can no longer look to E3 anymore to provide us what we're looking for.  It is now officially covering the broader market of Electronic Entertainment, not just video games anymore.  Sure, there were some relatively smart business moves made this year, but none of them were really for the hardcore gamer, or even a gamer period.  They were for a broad market of consumers, broader than those of us who have lived by the high score and the controller.  

E3 is no longer for us, it's for everyone.  

We should've seen this coming as soon as the Wii became as popular as it did.  I don't want to fault Nintendo for the whole evolutionary change of E3, but it was the beginning of a new era, when it wasn't just for the elite fan who grew up with an Atari or NES in the living room and has had a console ever since.  Sooner or later a company would've have branched out in this way, and it makes sense it's Nintendo, who unlike Sony and Microsoft are, or were rather, wholly invested in video games.  To stay big, they had to branch out, and preferably be the first to do it.  Of course this is the solution.

For those of you feeling abandoned or neglected, do know that there is still a ton of devoted companies hoping to gain your allegiance for their video games, hoping you'll like their new thing.  I'm noticing most of the new things are on the PC, or come out on the PC first before graduating to digital downloads for Microsoft of the PS Network.  But it's definitely no longer going to be about the new video games at E3.  It's only going to be about new entertainment.  

Next year, I think I'm going to be even less invested in it.  I doubt I'm the only one.

Gender Analysis: Half Life 2

Hello everyone.  I apologize for the delay and I will tomorrow be posting about the abysmal showing at E3 (the structure of the critique will be a bit different this time) but I need to keep to a promise I made.  I am introducing my Gender Analysis on Video Games.  I decided to start with a game that has gotten some acclaim for representation of women--Half Life 2.  Specifically, the representation of Alyx has been hailed for being one of the best lead female characters ever in the field of video games.  But how revolutionary is the game itself in regards to gender equality?

We've tackled physics and crab zombies, let's tackle social constructs next.

My standards I discussed in April post introducing the idea can be found here.  For this test I played the first five hours of the game and with the help of Mystic took the necessary notes for the review.

Gender Ratio of Main Characters (female to male)

2:6

The side characters did seem evenly dispersed, but when it came to main characters that affected the plot overall, it was heavily male.  For every 3 main characters that are male, there's only one woman.

Sexualization of Characters (female to male)

0:0

There were no characters whatsoever that were sexualized in this game in the first five hours.  Not even close.  Considering the setting, it makes sense that no one is worried about that.

Gender Assumptive Dialogue

0 counts

Although there was an old doctor hitting on Alyx that kind of gave me the creeps, there was never anything spoken that had to be qualified with gender.  Getting hit on isn't a gender thing, even if it's creepy.  Also would like to note that the two female main characters I met were possibly breaking a couple stereotypes by being scientist and engineers, meaning they're well educated and savvy with math.  Not something that gets recognized a lot in the real world, let alone in fiction.

The Bechdel Test

Did Not Pass

Alyx speaks with Judith Morrison for 20 seconds about something other than a man.  May I also add that they're bickering about something.  Not only are there only women you see in the first 5 hours, they're not allowed to like each other.

CONCLUSION 

The main character line up unfortunately falls short.  You also don't have women have a decent conversation amongst each other.  The trope of women being against each other because women can "never get along" is overdone.  But women are obviously equals, not sex objects or people to be rescued.  They are equals when they are given a chance to shine, and they can look out for themselves and be intelligent allies.  I can see where Alyx has received the praise she did, and I honestly wish there were more female characters like her--strong-willed, smart, and not an object to be won. 

I would rate this game above average for a video game.  It's a step in the right direction to making women equal and not other.  If more video games took this step we'd be on the right track to better representation.  But there is still work to be done.

I said I wouldn't do a number rating because you can't necessarily put a quantitative conclusion with all the numbers we will be looking at.  They just help show why the quality of a games gender quality is better or worse than average.  For this spectrum of quality we'll be looking at, I would definitely put Half-Life 2 closer to true equality than not even though it could take wider strides to have women better represented.

I'm going to go through what I have in my gaming library first and then branching out to other games, we'll look at past and present games to see how things have changed and how they've stayed the same.  Feel free to recommend a game or two.  Remember, the analysis isn't to seek out what games are most women friendly per se, it's to see how the industry as a whole is in it's mindset toward women.

I did a video review on Terraria

Mystic wanted to make sure Terraria was a review done for his Indie Shot series, but initially never got into the game as much as Minecraft.  I love Terraria and was happy to oblige:

Coming Back to Terraria

I while ago I got Terraria and took a dive in, and totally got into it for a while.  I amazed Mystical because he couldn't understand how at the time I was definitely not a fan of minecraft but I was totally enamored in Terraria.  Something about the 16-bit adorable world along with the already integrated parts of adventuring was more addictive.

As with many games I haven't played it in a while but then yesterday I went back to it... not realizing that is had been updated to the nines with a new crafting system and other cool stuff.  GAH!  My old world wasn't ready for this.

I started a new world with a new character and was finally able to get a friend to join my game.  And fun times were had!  We built a ton of stuff, fought some zombies, fell to our deaths here and there.  We got some essential building done, and got some of the new crafting tools out of the way (like the saw mill and the loom).  Also, seeing our little sprites with the copper helmets is hilarious.  Have you seen those?  Ridiculous!

I had first played the game by myself, which even on the easy setting is a bit of a struggle.  It's a game with a lot of searching and avoiding baddies early on.  It's kind of nice to have two people looking for iron or to have a friend who'll help slice zombies in half while you catch fallen stars.

I will be doing a guest Indie Shot for Mystic sometime in the next couple of weeks for Terraria.  I still have to delve into the new system a bit more so don't expect this to be what I say in my review, but I'm definitely having a fun time with the new mechanics so far.

Finally, a little off topic, be on the lookout for my first video game gender analysis in the next week!

I missed tabletop

In a way, video games are one of the easiest nerdoms to get into, along with TV shows and some books, in the sense that it's something you can easily find and get into.  I think that's part of the reason I devote a lot of time to video games in this blog.  It's something that easiest for me to enjoy after a long day of work.  But I really became a full fledged nerd with tabletop, and now I'm finally getting back to that.

You all got a peak of my character in a friend's Obsidian game Amy Valencia.  I had never really played a truly carefree character before so I decided in this universe I would play one.  She is kind of a ditz following the easiest path of a high power, a high demonic power.  She's not entirely stupid, just entirely honest about her love of drugs, parties and the occasional visit to the masseuse.  It's been very liberating playing her because she is not one to give two shits about most dramatic stuff.  I think the most concerned she got was when a bomb was about to kill her and her group in a tiny office.  Having traditionally played characters that have stressed out very easily, it's great to play one that is not.

I think my experiences with Amy have colored my choices in playing a new character in another game.  I got invited to play in a Apocalypse World game that has been going for some time but had some people playing new characters due to old characters dying off or becoming unplayable.  I came in with Iris, the classiest brainer in the tree town.  Brainers actually can manipulate people with their psychic powers and find out personal things just by touching people.  Usually people go for the mystic in rags look for brainers.  I went a little more fabulous.  She has her kinky hair in an up do and wears a shiny pants suit with a corset.  Still weird, but a bit more approachable.  Like Amy she is a social creature who looks for the fun in life.  Unlike Amy, she strategizes more in the long run.  She's not really book smart but she is definitely world-smart.  If someone has recently become very powerful, you damn well make sure that you are their friend.  Things like that.

On top of those two games I am also running my 3.5 D&D campaign again!  I'm super excited about it.  The last two times I ran the game we had a ton of characters who were honored, privileged and eager to serve a king to the 2nd largest kingdom in the world.  This time I have a lot of hesitant characters who decided to go along merely because is somewhat fulfills their alternative goals, which include siring a messiah and selling potables to whoever will buy them.  The first session happened last week and even though it ran so late I was working on low brain power, we all had fun.  Next session will immediately start with combat!

It's so great to go back to my roots.  I really became a nerd when a friend of mine in high school invited me to play a game of Dungeons and Dragons that her father was running.  I'm not sure how nerdy I really was before then, but after that there was no turning back.  It now feels like I'm really a nerd again, spending a significant amount of time rolling dice and playing make believe with friends.

Happy Birthday Mystic!

I would like to wish a happy birthday to Mystic, the boyfriend.  I won't give away his age, that's up to him.

As one of his many presents, I am asking that you help me help him.  Season Two of Super Minecraft Adventure has started, and Mystic and another friend are now suffering through one of the most difficult fan maps on minecraft.

Mystic is doing this for charity.  Laugh at his countless fumbles and acts of nerd awesome, and then donate to Free the Children.  The goal is $5000 to help build a well in a developing nation.  Please donate!

Here is the first episode of Season Two for your viewing pleasure:

This is how not to discuss representation of women in RPGs

As a nerd woman I'm used to being in the minority and having to fight a couple of battles here and there about how I'm represented (if at all) in my nerd spheres.  The only nerd circle I knew to not have such a disparity is Anime, but let's not touch the plethora of gender issues in the genre.

So when someone wants to discuss the complicated issue of gender representation in RPG art, there is a lot you can actually say and a lot of opinions you can have.  That's the kind of article I expect to read, an article that expresses a concrete opinion.  Not some drivel that merely states I'll draw it because I'll get paid.

Jon Schindehette's article had an opportunity to truly engage with a point of view with someone who had industry experience.  Instead, we got someone who affirmed that he draws what they're given and asking several times for a reader's opinion without asserting his own.  The reason that this is excruciatingly frustrating is that this totes itself about addressing gender in RPG art and then discusses nothing.  Not the history, not the depictions, not even a personal opinion developed from years of experience drawing for the industry (specifically the most well known series that started the hobby).

If we continue to pretend we're having a discussion, there is no resolution.  We're not even sure what the resolution is because the industry has barely ever talked about the problem.  And yes, it can be a serious problem.  I do know at least with my experience, DnD has tried to be somewhat equal, but at the same time there are plenty of other RPG publishers who have gone out of their way to not be because they "know" that they have to cater to a male audience.

What's my opinion?  I personally don't like that the usual archetype for a chick who kicks ass either has to become male in her mannerisms or becomes the incredible eye candy with a gun.  I'm tired of it.  Not all gunslinging women have their tits out, just like not all gunslinging men eat raw meat and smoke 2 foot long cigars.  I want characters to be complex, no matter what setting I'm in and what gender or color or size or whatever the heck physical aspects they are.  That would show some maturity in the industry.  It's getting there, but we do have a long way to go.

The next time that someone wants to write an article, please, for the love of the written word, actually SAY something.

Beware of CISPA

I don't want to ramble on and on about the rights to privacy we as citizens in the United States should appreciate (especially because it's boring to readers not in the U.S.)  but for those of you affected, check out what's happening with this CISPA bill that has passed in the house and is now going to the Senate.  Essentially, the way the law is written now you will not be allowed any privacy to your doings on the internet as long as the government deems you a risk to the internal structure of a site or other net function.

I just want to make sure people are aware so that way if you want to take action, you can.  Things like this easily slip through the cracks.  The time to react is before it's law, not after.