IMPress Polly
09-13-2017, 02:00 PM
This year, the Women in Games Conference inducted feminist culture critic Anita Sarkeesian into their Hall of Fame (https://feministfrequency.com/2017/09/12/uk-conference-inducts-anita-into-european-women-in-games-hall-of-fame/), which came as a surprise, as she wasn't even included in their official shortlist of candidates (http://www.womeningamesconference.com/hall-of-fame-awards-2017/)! Anita also delivered the conference's keynote address, alongside Brie Code, who was the lead programmer for the game Child of Light (which you might remember me raving about back in early 2014) and three Assassin's Creed games, as well as, more recently, head of the game development studio Tru Luv Media, which is dedicated to "making games with people who don't like games" because her friends find video games boring and she wants to change that (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2016-11-07-video-games-are-boring). Brie Code, though not selected this year for induction into the Women in Games Hall of Fame, was also on this year's official shortlist of candidates, it's worth adding (and as you can see at the second link). Thus were these two ladies the most prominent at this year's conference. Personally, I've been an admirer of both for some time! I'll provide a quick glance at a couple of their respective works below.
Anita Sarkeesian headed up the recently-concluded, award-winning web video series Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, which is indisputably the most prominent, comprehensive, socially consequential (and therefore also controversial :rollseyes:) feminist critique of the video game industry to date. Game developers from as small and niche as Matt Makes Games (creator of the cult hit Tower Fall) to as large and prominent as Naughty Dog (creators of such easily-recognizable franchises as Uncharted and The Last of Us) have credited the Tropes series with influencing their work. Various installments of the Tropes web series are also frequently mentioned and quoted by prominent publications as authoritative analysis on female representation in video games (here's a recent example (https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/sep/06/fed-up-with-fantasies-for-male-teenagers-fixing-the-depiction-of-women-in-games)). While even I don't agree with every word in every video contained therein, there is no question that the Tropes series has earned its status as the understood go-to analysis on the subject for aspiring reformers and supporters of the advancement of women in general, including for me. Here's one of my favorite entries, which discusses how many video games portray femininity and female sexuality as sources of evil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oXzWzMqarU&t=37s
(I think the best installment in the Tropes series is the three-part Damsel in Distress mini-series, being as it's the most detailed and comprehensive and deals with the single most common female trope out there, but I understand that the average reader of this thread may not have an hour to spare, so I picked a shorter one (11 minutes) for you that I thought was particularly good.)
I also love the concept behind Brie Code's studio because I'm one of those people who, truthfully, doesn't care for a lot of mainstream games myself. I raved about Child of Light when it came out in early 2014 as well because I thought it was really good! Here's a good review of that game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRIJhsWILI4
That's all. I just wanted to highlight that development and hopefully make it a little more known who these women are.
Anita Sarkeesian headed up the recently-concluded, award-winning web video series Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, which is indisputably the most prominent, comprehensive, socially consequential (and therefore also controversial :rollseyes:) feminist critique of the video game industry to date. Game developers from as small and niche as Matt Makes Games (creator of the cult hit Tower Fall) to as large and prominent as Naughty Dog (creators of such easily-recognizable franchises as Uncharted and The Last of Us) have credited the Tropes series with influencing their work. Various installments of the Tropes web series are also frequently mentioned and quoted by prominent publications as authoritative analysis on female representation in video games (here's a recent example (https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/sep/06/fed-up-with-fantasies-for-male-teenagers-fixing-the-depiction-of-women-in-games)). While even I don't agree with every word in every video contained therein, there is no question that the Tropes series has earned its status as the understood go-to analysis on the subject for aspiring reformers and supporters of the advancement of women in general, including for me. Here's one of my favorite entries, which discusses how many video games portray femininity and female sexuality as sources of evil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oXzWzMqarU&t=37s
(I think the best installment in the Tropes series is the three-part Damsel in Distress mini-series, being as it's the most detailed and comprehensive and deals with the single most common female trope out there, but I understand that the average reader of this thread may not have an hour to spare, so I picked a shorter one (11 minutes) for you that I thought was particularly good.)
I also love the concept behind Brie Code's studio because I'm one of those people who, truthfully, doesn't care for a lot of mainstream games myself. I raved about Child of Light when it came out in early 2014 as well because I thought it was really good! Here's a good review of that game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRIJhsWILI4
That's all. I just wanted to highlight that development and hopefully make it a little more known who these women are.