Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender and GamingYasmin B. Kafai Ten years after the groundbreaking "From Barbie to Mortal Kombat" highlighted the ways gender stereotyping and related social and economic issues permeate digital game play, the number of women and girl gamers has risen considerably. Despite this, gender disparities remain in gaming. Women may be warriors in "World of Warcraft", but they are also scantily clad "booth babes" whose sex appeal is used to promote games at trade shows. Player-generated content has revolutionized gaming, but few games marketed to girls allow "modding" (game modifications made by players). Gender equity, the contributors to "Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat" argue, requires more than increasing the overall numbers of female players. "Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat" brings together new media theorists, game designers, educators, psychologists, and industry professionals, including some of the contributors to the earlier volume, to look at how gender intersects with the broader contexts of digital games today: gaming, game industry and design, and serious games. The contributors discuss the rise of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) and the experience of girl and women players in gaming communities; the still male-dominated gaming industry and the need for different perspectives in game design; and gender concerns related to emerging serious games (games meant not only to entertain but also to educate, persuade, or change behavior). In today's game-packed digital landscape, there is an even greater need for games that offer motivating, challenging, and enriching contexts for play to a more diverse population of players. This book begins with "Pink, Casual, or Mainstream Games: Moving Beyond the Gender Divide," a preface by Yasmin B. Kafai, Carrie Heeter, Jill Denner, and Jennifer Y. Sun. Section I, Reflections on a Decade of Gender and Gaming, contains the following: (1) From "Quake Grrls" to "Desperate Housewives": a Decade of Gender and Computer Games (Henry Jenkins and Justine Cassell); (2) Notes from the Utopian Entrepreneur (Brenda Laurel); and (3) Games and Technological Desire: Another Decade (Cornelia Brunner). Section ii, Gaming Communities: Girls and Women as Players, contains the following: (4) Becoming a Player: Networks, Structure, and Imagined Futures (T.L. Taylor); (5) Body, Space, and Gendered Gaming Experiences: a Cultural Geography of Homes, Cybercafes, and Dormitories (Holin Lin); (6) Maps of Digital Desires: Exploring the Topography of Gender and Play in Online Games (Nick Yee); (7) Gender Dynamics of the Japanese Media Mix (Mizuko Ito); and (8) Gender Play in a Tween Gaming Club (Yasmin B. Kafai). Part iii, Girls and Women as Game Designers, contains the following: (9) What Games Made by Girls Can Tell Us (Jill Denner and Shannon Campe); (10) Gaming in Context: How Young People Construct Their Gendered Identities in Playing and Making Games (Caroline Pelletier); (11) Getting Girls into the Game: Toward a "Virtuous Cycle" (Tracy Fullerton, Janine Fron, Celia Pearce and Jacki Morie); and (12) Crunched by Passion: Women Game Developers and Workplace Challenges (Mia Consalvo). Section iv, Changing Girls, Changing Games, contains the following: (13) Are Boy Games Even Necessary? (Nicole Lazzaro); (14) Girls, Gaming, and Trajectories of it Expertise (Elisabeth Hayes); (15) Design to Promote Girls' Agency through Educational Games: The Click! Urban Adventure (Kristin Hughes); (16) Using Storytelling to Introduce Girls to Computer Programming (Caitlin Kelleher); (17) Design Heuristics for Activist Games (Mary Flanagan and Helen Nissenbaum); and (18) Gender Identity, Play Style, and the Design of Games for Classroom Learning (Carrie Heeter and Brian Winn). Section v, Industry Voices, contains the following: (19) Interview with Megan Gaiser, Her Interactive; (20) Interview with Morgan Romine, Ubisoft's Frag Dolls; (21) Interview with Sheri Graner Ray, Longtime Game Designer; (22) Interview with Nichol Bradford, Vivendi Games; and (23) Interview with Brenda Brathwaite, Savannah College of Art and Design. An index is included. |
Contents
Reflections on a Decade of Gender and Gaming | 1 |
Notes from the Utopian Entrepreneur | 21 |
Contents | 25 |
Copyright | |
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activities animation appeal avatars Barbie to Mortal Brenda Laurel Brunner butch Cassell challenge chapter characters Click competition computer games context create cybercafés demographic Desperate Housewives digital games educational environment example expertise explore female gamers female players femme focused Frag Dolls game culture game design game development game industry game mechanics game play game players game worlds gaming communities Gaming Experiences Gender and Computer gender differences gender identity genres girl games movement girls and boys girls and women Hamtaro interactive interest Interview Justine Cassell Kafai learning male media mix middle-school girls Mizuko Ito MMOs Mortal Kombat Nancy Drew narrative Nick Yee online games participation percent play games play style popular production programming Purple Moon RAPUNSEL reward role Sims social space stereotypes stories Storytelling Alice users values video games volume Whyville women gamers World of Warcraft young