“You must really hate games”. No, not really. I actually love games. I love them so much that I want them to be better. We have this fear of criticizing games that I think are based on various things, but to make a long story short, this is my hypothesis: Games have been criticized for... Continue Reading →
Triple-A Games Are Not Art
So you might think that this statement is very definitive and absolute and you would be kind of right. You might also wonder if I’m actually serious, because damn, look at all those lovely games out there, with their graphics and their narrative and... yes. Maybe I’m wrong about this, but I know I’m right... Continue Reading →
The Ubiquitous “He”
I’m reading books about game design and game development at the moment. The reason I’m reading is because I actually want to read all those books I bought way back in order to see if they’re any good, really. One discovery that shouldn’t suprise me or bother me is the constant gendering of players as... Continue Reading →
Flimsy Excuses
Not too long ago a book about adventures was written here in Sweden, and there’s a quote in that book that I believe encapsulates how women and other marginalized groups are often viewed when it comes to games. It states that really, these adventures only make sense with male protagonists and really it’s hard to... Continue Reading →
I See You
This post is more about putting thoughts on paper than a finished hypothesis. It has to do with the (potential) conflict between identification with the avatar and the limited selection of said avatars, primarily because most of them are written and designed by white, heterosexual cis-men. Many games that deal with identification, call it stepping... Continue Reading →
Red Flags
We have problems in the games industry. Most of the time those problems can be attributed to men. Considering most companies have an 80/20 split between men and women, maybe it is not that weird. As a developer, if you find yourself in an interview and come across any of these situations, it might be... Continue Reading →