gender

Study Shows MMO-Playing Women Overwhelmingly Bisexual

1:20AM Mike Fahey | The infamous Everquest 2 lying survey continues to make waves, as newly uncovered results reveal that the MMO has five times more bisexual women than the general populace. More »

Gendering Game Violence

4:30AM Maggie Greene | There’s another great post at Vorpal Bunny Ranch, this one looking at the issue of female game protagonists and game violence — there seem to be different expectations placed on the reaction of female protagonists to violence that is par for the course for male characters. Oh, sure, violence may still be there, but it takes on a different tone. Is this societal expectations playing out on our consoles and PCs?: More »

Pretty Boys: The Male Dandy in Games

2:30AM Maggie Greene | There’s an interesting essay over at the Vorpal Bunny Ranch (a blog worth visiting for the name alone) on the issue of the dandy in video games, a character known for a few different things: ‘his impeccable sense of fashion, his wit, and his distaste for rough physical activity.’ They’re also exceedingly untrustworthy, giving rise to an interesting stereotype of ‘the dandy’ as crafty (and with suspect morals) or an outright villain (e.g., Kefka): More »

On Gynophobia and Misogyny in Games and Gaming

6:30AM Maggie Greene | Over at Acid for Blood and Feminist Gamers, there are two interesting essays on the shooter/action game Cunt, which involves dastardly female genitalia (looking, as the FG article pointed out, “for all the world like a wizened creature out of the H.R. Giger convalescent home for aging genital monsters”) and a player tasked with causing ‘bloody cunt damage.’ And it’s not just a hack job from an amateur, being published by Newgrounds (of Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers). As pointed out in both spots, this game is a rather graphic representation of a fear of women that goes back a very, very long time, and, as pointed out at Feminist Gamers: More »