Tip To Get Girls Interested: Stop Being So Patronising

I was originally going to use a photo of myself from when I was 15-years old and playing videogames at my friend's house. It then occurred to me that I looked like an emaciated sweatshop child who'd been dropped as a baby. So here's a picture of a cute blonde girl trying to clap her hands during some maths game.

I remember the best way to pique my interest as a child was to show me people having fun while they were doing something.

I started writing in primary school because I saw that my friends were having so much fun writing their own little novellas; I took up the violin because the virtuosos I saw on television always looked like they were having a lot of fun while playing, and it’s the same reason why I started playing videogames. One day I saw my older brother playing with our Famicom, he looked like he was having fun, so I wanted to have a go, too. And as I kept playing, the more he kept handing down games to me that he’d exhausted, and the more my friends would start lending me the games that they had enormous amounts of fun playing. So I got to play the games that they loved – the games that were special to them.

Years on from when I played my first game, wrote my first story, and played my first hideously squeaky note on the violin, my interest in anything can still be piqued in the same way. Show me that something is fun and enjoyable and I might just give it a go. And so it came as a surprise to me when IGN AU published this article a few days ago, detailing ways in which a gamer can get his lady friend interested in videogames.

No, scrap that. I wasn’t surprised. I was appalled. I felt like I was reading a guide from the 1940s on how to welcome women into the workforce, and by the end of it I was expecting a dot point suggesting: “Girls like to maintain their appearance, so make sure you encourage your lady to have breaks while she’s gaming so that she can moisturise her hands – she wouldn’t appreciate having her thumbs callused by the D-Pad!” Thankfully, such a dot point did not exist, but the ones that did exist were pretty darn patronising.

I like to think that girls have taste and a brain. I like to think that they can be moved by a story that is told well, engaged by gameplay that is mesmerising, laugh at humour within a game that is well constructed and executed, and become attached to vast virtual worlds that intrigue and offer the possibilities of adventure and exploration. And I like to think that any girl – or any person for that matter – can become interested in videogames if they are introduced to a good one.

So maybe if we want to get girls involved, we should show them something fun. Maybe we should start off by sharing the games that we love; the kind of games that stimulate our minds and take our imagination to places we’d normally struggle to dream up. Maybe, instead of coming up with a list of ten ways to patronise women and make them feel as though they’re incapable of understanding the kind of gaming that doesn’t require waggling, we should just show them how much fun we have playing great games, and then give them a go. They might appreciate it. I know I did.

WORK: Hyper – Pokémon Platinum Version

I looked at the photos of the Big Sisters and thought to myself: "Hey, leg braces are pretty hot." BUT LEG BRACES ARE NOT HOT. They make you walk like you sharted yourself. Oh, videogames -- you are so deceptive.

Hey, it’s June! This means issue 189 of Hyper goes on sale on Wednesday, and it also means I have another thing appearing in print!

This month I reviewed Pokémon Platinum Version (ah, my Nintendo DS adventures continue!) and I’ll admit that when it was first given to me to review, I was a bit apprehensive. You see, I associate Pokémon with my childhood, and I’ve always found that when I revisit the things I liked as a kid, I realise what a stupid child I was. I mean, I used to buy Spice Girls photos. In the 90s, when they were all the rage, I’d fork out all my coins to buy those collectible photographs, and it wasn’t like they were particularly interesting or scandalous images, either. “Oh, here is a photograph from a photoshoot they did for an album cover”, “This photo is of Baby Spice eating a bagel”, etc. Honestly, what a retard.

So I was apprehensive about revisiting Pokémon because I had such fond memories of spending hours and hours playing Red and Blue on my computer (my brother managed to download them from somewhere — I think there may have been a Gameboy emulator involved), and I didn’t want to come to the possible realisation that the videogame of my childhood was actually a piece of shit.

Whatever. The game has been played, the review has been written, and I’ve come to a whole lot of other realisations, which I shant talk about here because they’re all in the review. So go and buy this month’s Hyper, kids. I think it comes with a free issue of PC Powerplay or something so, depending on how you feel about PCPP, you may or may not be getting a bargain.

And now I’m going to return to my (two) day((s) a week) job and fetch the mail.

WORK: Good Game – Girls In The Industry

When I was asked to work on a story about girls in the games industry, I’ll admit that I was hesitant. Of all the ideas I have ever pitched to Good Game — or any website or print publication for that matter — I have never wanted to focus on women because, a lot of the time, stories on women in gaming end up being really contrived and don’t contribute anything new to the discourse on gender.

For starters, many said stories have focused on the kinds of games that women supposedly like, as well as the the idea that developers should be making games specifically for women. Some will even go as far as to suggest that we need affirmative action so that we have an equal number of men and women working in the industry. I personally think this is bollocks. If a game is made well and plays well, then it will attract all kinds of people — regardless of their gender. Furthermore, I have always believed that people should be hired on their own merits and gender should not be a determining factor (unless, of course, we’re talking about jobs where a specific gender is needed, like…surrogate mothering — your balls might be big but they ain’t gonna hold no baby!).

In the end, I was happy with the story that the team and I produced for the show. The focus wasn’t so much on “HEY, IT ARE WOMANGZ AMIRIGHT!?”, but on how these women got into the games industry and what their thoughts are, because let’s face –  it can be harder for a woman to get into what is still a very male-dominated field, and if gender discrimination is still an issue then it’s something worth looking into.

It was great hearing from Siobhan Reddy — the executive producer of LittleBigPlanet — that gender wasn’t an issue in game development and that she found everyone incredibly supportive. On the other end of the spectrum, Vanessa Morgan — former editor of Official PlayStation Magazine in Australia — provided us with some shocking stories about how she was discriminated against in the games journalism industry because of her gender. I thought everything the women we interviewed said was worth considering.

I’ll let you watch the segment and be the judge.

WORK: Good Game – Mandatory Internet Filter

This is my "I just had a stroke" face.

There’s been a heated debate surrounding the Australian government’s proposed mandatory internet filter, which, if implemented, would make Australia the first western democracy to restrict access to the internet in such a way.

I did a story on the issue for Good Game, which you can watch here. Being the ABC, we had to remain as impartial as possible, and I do hope that we managed to do that. We gave both sides a chance to voice their opinions and I can’t think of much else we could have done. Well, we could have gotten Senator Conroy himself in the interview chair, but the man hasn’t granted anyone an interview in more than six months and our attempts to get through to him were futile. We did try. Really.

For me, this was a really frustrating story to do. It was hard sitting opposite my interviwees and hearing their arguments without being able to jump in and point out how flawed their reasoning was.  I mean, think about it: an overwhelming amount of illegal material that is shared over the internet is done through P2P networks, not through websites. Yet, the proposed filter will only be restricting website access. On top of that, shouldn’t problems like the exchange of child pornography be a matter for the federal police to handle? Surely they can do better than an ISP-level filter that can be easily circumvented, right? If not, then that is a concern.

Are Game Mods Fan-fiction?

God of Carbs. Om nom nom nom.

When it comes to game modifications (mods), I’m a fence sitter. On the one hand, I think it’s great that people can take existing games and push them to newer and better heights. But on the other hand, I don’t entirely agree with tampering with what’s already there, especially when said tampering can completely alter a person’s experience with a game.

I suppose that’s the whole point of mods, though. You wouldn’t download a mod unless you wanted a different experience. But I’m trying to get at a few things here. First, should a person who has never played the original version of a game before play the modified version? Second, if the people behind the mods – presumably hardcore fans – love the game they’re modifying so much, why would they want to change it in any shape or form? And finally, where do these mods stand in the bigger picture? Are they to games what fan-fiction is to literature and, essentially, bastardisations of the original? Or should they be accepted as legitimate additions to the game, even when they are developed by people unaffiliated with the original title?

Will A PS2 Keep You Warm At Night?

I was going to use a photo of Sophie and I from our last winter holiday, but then I found this in my album. It features two of my friends playing Twister. So I'm using it.

My dear friend Sophie is currently on exchange in Europe, learning all sorts of crazy things like Swedish, or something.  At the time of writing, she was learning Swedish in-jokes. She recently sent a message to my circle of friends — all of whom have significant others; I being an exception — telling us about all the wonderful things she’s been getting up to.  The final paragraph of her long message read like this:

In summary: everything is beautiful. Hey, how would you chooks like to go on a short holiday this winter? We could bring the boyfriends and girlfriends and so on. Tracey, you could bring a PS2. Oh and board games, of course. Thoughts?

FML.

WORK: Don King Boxing Preview

His shirt looks like it's covered in the nuts they make Nutella out of.

I realise that, with the game now on sale, a preview seems a bit redundant. But I also realise that a lot of people aren’t going to buy or play Don King Boxing on DS. So here is a preview I wrote that appeared in issue #186 of Hyper magazine. Now you’ll know what you may or may not be missing out on! Clickety click for more words on a page!

A Month Of Exciting Events! (Sort Of.)

Image courtesy of Fat Chicks In Party Hats.

I didn’t look forward to March for about a bajillion reasons. One such reason was that my calendar was awfully blank — no exciting game launches, no big industry nights, no fun dates, and no truly mind-blowing game releases that I could actually afford. You see, I get paid in beans and, while they’re a fantastic source of folate and fibre, I’ve been told that they’re not a valid form of currency in Australia. Anyway, as it turns out, my calendar lied. While there were indeed no fun dates or game releases I could afford, I did find myself in the company of a brand-spanking new, white DSi…

When Bad Journalism Gets Really Bad

I carry a copy of the Media and Entertainment Arts Alliance Code of Ethics in my wallet at all times. It’s been with me since I started my journalism degree, and I have it with me partly out of habit, partly because it reminds me that — as inexperienced as I may be — I am a journalist and there are rules I need to follow, and also because having a fat wallet makes me feel wealthier than I actually am.

It serves as a constant reminder that no matter what I write about, my work – and I’m referring to things I do in a journalistic capacity as opposed to my rants on this blog — will be read and it will be judged, so I owe it to my audience to write as well and as fairly as I can.

One of the first things I was taught when I started my journalism degree was what not to do. My peers and I would spend hours upon hours talking to our lecturers – all of whom were practicing journalists – about what constituted good journalism and how we needed to conduct ourselves when we finally became reporters in The Real World. We were each given a copy of the Code of Ethics on our first day of university and, so seriously did my lecturers take ethical reporting that some classes were made to recite the code aloud.

I like to think that it was an effective method because my friends and I have turned out alright, even though we still have a bit to go before we get the piece of paper that certifies us as being pretentious, self-righteous know-it-alls who are supposedly more employable than those without the piece of paper.

That said, there may be another method of teaching students about what not to do that doesn’t require reciting codes or years of study. If it were left to me, I’d write a course document that reads:

“HAI KIDS, YOU KNOW TEH JOURNALISMS? DON’T DO IT LIKE DIS!”

Don’t Hate The Game, It’s You That Sucks.

Photo from Ozhadou website, taken on the night of tournament.

My first encounter with the idea of ‘e-sports’ was in mid-2008 when I covered the Australian finals of the World Cyber Games for PC Powerplay. At the time, the concept amused me because I’d never considered gaming to be a sport, no matter how competitive it got. My idea of ’sport’ was shaped by years of getting footballs to the face and tripping over myself during games of primary school cricket. I supported the conventional definition of ’sport’: an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition.

Even after attending the WCG and seeing how heated the CS battles were and the seriousness in which people took their Halo 3, I was still skeptical. After all, these tournaments didn’t even involve real sports; it was just videogames. Surely these people knew that they were playing games and that the idea was to have fun, right? There was no way that, upon being defeated, they would feel the same levels of humiliation and soul-crushing disappointment that real athletes experienced, yeah?

I held onto that view for quite some time, refusing to accept that competitive gaming could be or should be taken seriously. That was, of course, until I took part in a Street Fighter IV tournament this week.

Fear Of Closure

When I recently played Closure, I couldn’t help but wonder how much thought the developers put into how players would respond to it.

It must come as a huge surprise to game devs when they hear about all the different experiences people have with their games and all the readings people walk away with. As someone who used to paint a lot, I’d always be amazed at the way people would read into my artworks and see things that I felt weren’t there. “Your landscapes have gotten darker and muddier – were you going through a darker patch in your life?” Ummm, no? “I love the way you painted the prostitutes in that scene!” Err…they’re ballerinas. *Beat*

Game developers and creators of texts can shape our experience with their creations by playing on common feelings and perceptions that most people hold; there are things they can expect from the audience. They can anticipate that having a swarm of zombies charge out of the darkness and straight at the player will induce a sense of panic, or that a dark, dilapidated corridor stained with blood is more likely to create suspense for a player than a camp fun-land with rainbow floorboards (although that in itself can be quite suspenseful and leave me shit-scared). There are elements that a developer can control that will guide the player in the direction that they want the game to be played. But then there are the elements that can’t be controlled. Developers can throw in all the zombies, stained corridors, rainbow flooring and camp fun-lands as they like, but the one thing that determines how a game is experienced lies in the hands of someone else – the player.

I’m not talking about a player’s particular style of gaming. Rather, I’m referring to the specific things that we pick up from our interaction with other texts that come to shape our experiences with games.

This wasn’t something I’d thought about until I played Closure a few weeks ago. I kept associating elements of the game to artworks by Alberto Giacometti – an artist who has always made me feel uneasy – and that unease found its way into the game.

Closure required me to move orbs of light around, illuminating my surroundings so that I could see where I was going. But I also had to use darkness to my advantage. If an area was lit and visible, it existed and was tangible to my character. If it was hidden in darkness, it did not exist. There were elements of the game that reminded me of Echochrome inasmuch that what was there was only there if I could see it. Walls and entire surfaces would cease to exist the moment they were cast out of the light. If I took a step into what I couldn’t see, I’d fall into the chasm of darkness and, presumably, die.

Piñatas Are For Hitting

I’ve been gaming since I was three or four, or whenever it was my family got the NES, so I’ve become accustomed to seeing things in games that generally can’t be explained. A plumber gaining extra life or increasing in size when he eats mushrooms? Fine. Corporations developing zombie viruses for the military? Okay. I can handle all that because as bizarre as those concepts may be, they make sense in their own stupid way, and I love them all the more for it. But I can’t get my head around Viva Piñata.

The premise of the game is that you’re some dude with a garden and you need to maintain your patch of grass so as to attract piñatas. Once you’ve attracted them, you have to keep them there so that they will populate your garden with even more piñatas. If you do a good job, all kinds of piñatas will visit and ‘romance’ with each other, and then you’ll have a …wait, what the fuck?

Ten Trends That Are What What What?!?

IGN Australia recently published a list of ten trends that are destroying videogames. I didn’t agree with many things the author wrote, but I could see where he was coming from with each of his points, so I didn’t mind. However, there was one trend he wrote about that just didn’t make any sense and, no matter how many times I read and re-read the three paragraphs he wrote about said trend, things didn’t become any clearer.

The trend in question was “Strong Female Lead Character[s] = Edgy, Clever and Desirable”. This, according to author, Patrick Kolan, was one of the things destroying videogames. Umm…what?

The Art of Lumines

“All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist alone… the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.” - Marcel Duchamp