A Very WoW Valentine

I’m back on track with the blog, and it all kicks off (again) with Valentines day … on-line.
World of Warcraft has had some big events on – besides the release of The Burning Crusade – namely Valentines day (and I’m looking forward to the up-and-coming Lunar Festival).

Just a quick run down of the special event: As a player you could buy valentines day items such as “love tokens”, perfume and cologne. When wearing a perfume or cologne, one could interact with NPC’s (Non Playing Characters) – however, the majority of the NPC’s have a gender attached to the “sex” of the character – so what happened was that a player wearing perfume could only get interactions from male NPC’s and likewise: cologne got interactions from female characters. However – as a player you could wear either the cologne or the perfume – regardless of the “sex” of your character.

There were a couple of interesting things that some guild mates took note of:

• The Undercity ghouls (City belonging to the race of the Undead) were non gendered/without a sex.
  Which leads to the question of whether this is a deliberate move by Blizzard to have an androgynous space in the game?
• There was a wandering Alliance male Night Elf who was programmed (or not programmed/a glitch) to interact with cologne instead of the traditional “male + perfume” interaction.
• That the hetero-normativity of the programming was highly visible – but non hetero interactions could take place – i.e. someone playing a female character could wear cologne and interact with female NPC characters

I found all of Blizzards programming decisions extremely interesting – and it made for some alternative role playing – as the odd (but not quite queer – as the male NPC characters I approached (Orcs of course) would not “flirt” with female characters wearing cologne) programming was certainly something to work with.

The major Valentine day Quest (handing in love tokens) was, in itself, pretty horrible – but that quest also opened up for public humiliation (in my case it was a nasty little female orc who kept on breakin’ my characters heart by laughing manically at her love token offerings); this humiliation was very visible and rather demeaning, but it was also followed up by mate-ship (A guild mate (playing a female character) who gave me several “friendship bracelets”, which removed the curse of heartbreak so I could continue on this quest). Interestingly enough, all of the meaningful Valentines day experiences ended up being an affair that was “women only”.

Perhaps the frustration of not having the full choice of who I wanted to interact with made the “loopholes” even more memorable.

I’m looking forward to the next festival – and will be sure to keep my eye out for more loopholes!!

Emma.

Or check out the official WoW fan art Valentines day competition here

Girls on Board

I have just returned from a quick hiatus down south, and noticed that many of the girls (9-12 years) that were on board for the 12+ hour flight had their own little device – namely a Nintendo.

The product of choice seemed to be the Game Boy Advance (none of them in lollypop pink), and on the flights that I was on, most of the girls were from the Netherlands. Note: these observations were just after x-mas – so perhaps these devices were the main x-mas gift. Nonetheless, I was thrilled to see so many focused girls playing their way through mazes and dungeons, and ripping the Nintendo out of their brothers hands with a gurgle of words that in my mind could only have said “It’s mine”.

- from Malaysia to Amsterdam

Women Board Game Designers

Whilst parked inside Kuala Lumpur airpoirt, the light sound of energy tapping on something in my brain activated whilst perusing the toy shop for wacky merchandise … the question came – Which women have been working/pioneering in the world of board game/traditional game design?

This was a question to be followed up upon at a later date due to my limited 20 minute access time on the net, but lo and behold, there is a highly visible game designer out there who is just starting a career in board games … Who is this you ask – none other than the coolest screen villain Elle Driver, aka Daryl Hannah .

Apparently Daryl has been moon-lighting on the side of her actressing career, having produced two games. The most recent game, Liebrary, uses Balderdash-esque game-play, and revolves around knowledge of literature and player creativity. The players listen to the synopsis of a book and have to guess what the first lines of that book might be, trying to convince the other players’ that your lines are indeed true.

Well done Daryl Hannah – A new role model for women and games!!

Computer Game receives Cultural Award

Games can be serious – right?

CEO of Serious Games Simon Egenfeld-Nielsen is making a good case and point with his Serious Games game “Global Conflicts: Palestine”. The game is the first of an intended series of games which focus on global conflicts. The experience is generated by the student players’ taking on the role of a freelance journalist that must cover the conflict in a neutral manner – something which is programmed to be extremely difficult to do.

I’m looking forward to seeing the final product early next year, and even more so, reading about which schools’ embrace the product (including which type of schools can handle the demands of a 3D generated game), which teachers are able to take on this alternative form of learning, and how the students’ engage in this form of learning. Very exciting times ahead indeed!

In any case, we can already celebrate the break-through of (serious) computer games as cultural products; “Global Conflicts:Palestine” has recently received the KEK award (The Danish Culture and Business awards) in the category of best Creative Product – congratulations.

- Emma

A little extra about Serious Games:

Game philosophy at serious games:

“…to create computer games that include well-proven game features found in most computer games like action, death and violence but adding an agenda beyond entertainment … We do not merely wish people to play the game but really engage with it – feeling, thinking, and discussing it – they may be shocked, appalled, and disgusted seeing the inside of conflict not just the surface so often portrayed in current stereotypical computer games. This is not the glossy game universes you know.”

My very first Very Big Cheque

Well, that special day has arrived. I was handed over my first over-sized cheque this week — Glorious glorious times, another thing to cross of the “to accomplish before I die” list.

Here is the footage of Tina and I receiving the cardboard mock-up from the Danish Bank (Den Danske Bank) who is sponsoring our initiative LetzPlay with the funds for computers to the LetzPlay-Lab, which will be opening its doors to young women in Copenhagen in February 2007 from the location of the Vesterbro culture house.

Wii’ve come along way baby!

It’s a while after the D3’s came to town (Danish Electronic Entertainment Expo) and I have been meaning to do a big write up, but winter preperations seem to have overtaken, and this space has suffered

However, I have mustered up the energy to do a tiny spot on the Wii experience from the D3’s, followed up by a little anecdote on the power of marketing (excited or what!) …

Whilst the D3´s themselves were fairly tame in terms of event size and wow-factor, the Wii zone was dressed to impress: minimalist style. The very 2001: A Space Odyssey white layout played the perfect background to all the physical movement going on by the anxious Wii players.

Wii Sports was the game of choice on the 10+ machines, and it was an attraction in itself to watch people happily make utter fools of themselves. My personal favourite was Wii Boxing, and it must be said that I was laughing at the pair of “air boxers” in front of us — right up until I got into the make-shift ring. I haven’t sweated so much in 2 minutes, since, ever! Needless to say that I think I pulled several muscles in my forearms from swinging wildly at the air. D3´s I could have left behind, but the Wii experience coloured me happy, 100% … (moving towards the anecdote) …

I was sold on buying the Wii, without having even thought about the PS3 (which was presented at the D3’s in a locked off area, protected by a lonely security guard). Nintendo had been doing everything right in my books – marketing towards women as players, innovative game-play, and easy on the wallet. But then, the terrible happened – a guild mate spoiled my Nintendo dream by sending me a rather provocative ad that set PS3 vs. Wii in the fine metaphor of “Serious overweight woman Vs. Silly skinny girlie”. Interestingly, after seeing this ad (real or not real – you tell me?), I found myself googling PS3 and all its doo-dads & games.

Whilst the PS3 is still out of my league in terms of cost – I am definately writing up a for and against list for “What I really want from a console”: frivilous and cheap or serious and engaging … hmmm … what kind of gamer am I?

LetzPlay & the Danish Night of Culture

Last Friday was the annual “Danish night of culture“, where my project “LetzPlay” held a multiplayer computer gaming event for women at Boomtown netcafé. As always, Boomtown was brimming with groups of blokes having a night out together, playing World of Warcraft, Counter-Strike, Battlefield and the like, so our little event turned a few heads.

Of the O-so-many Danish Night of Culture participants (65.497 with a culture-pass), 25 turned up to our little soiree. And before you turn on your calculator (we have around a 0.04% participation rate - or 0.08% if considering that the event was only available to half of the participants),  I/LetzPlay still consider the event a success. Several of the women have joined the LetzPlay gaming group, as they noted that they haven’t got anyone else already within their network that they feel that they can play with.

There was a mother and daughter who came to have a new, joint experience. A group of six friends came in to play as their Danish Night of Culture theme was “something that we never would consider doing” (and to put that in perspective, this group of women had just come from a viewing of a cadaver). 95% of the participants were “newbies” (in this case – new to modern computer gaming, never had played a multiplayer game, and had never played in a netcafé before).

The reports that women make up over half of online gamers  (this would include free games like chickstop.com, MMOG’s and the like) which I heard broadcast the day after the event seem to be an illusion to the voiced opinions that I hear from manywomen, and from gaming experiences like LetzPlay, where we time after time see literally no women in the public gaming arena (netcafés). Of course, public gaming is a whole other context, yet I wonder about the transition from being a casual or “domestic” gamer to being a highly visible gamer.  Is this new wave of women gaming on-line done with, or through, existing social networks? Do these gamers need to establish new connections to “fit in”? Women do game – undoubtedly – but what is really at stake in gaming in the public space? This is why I/LetzPlay considers the huge 0.04% turnout a success story.

It was great to see

1) so many women gaming in the public and visible space of the netcafé,

2) newbies to gaming throwing themselves into something that is still stigmatized as something “nerdy”, or “not for them”,

3) existing social groups coming together to play an active social activity.

I certainly hope to see more of those 50+% of women gamers on-line coming out into the public arena: if the public face of gaming was more of a mish-mash of gamers: girls, men, women and boys, perhaps it would make it easier for others to step into this social, fun and skillful leisure activity … I will, for one, be keeping my eyes peeled for new events for women and computer gaming, “sightings” of women and girls gaming in public and online, and so forth.

      

PS3 for dummies …

The release of the new giant in gaming – the PS3 – is on its way … although the release date has once again been shifted – now for a Danish release in March 2007! So, we get a little more time to ask ourselves “is the PS3 worth waiting for?”  Do we the consumers have the economy to support such a dear little thing?

I for one do not.

“The most sophisticated entertainment machine for consumers worldwide” … hmm. It is definitely sophisticated, but as an entertainment machine – I don’t think I can keep up with its golden (*Mac white) glean. For economically strong users perhaps, or for those who really get “their money’s worth” for networking with friends, family entertainment and so on – but what about us single women with a gaming poor network? The console costs the same as a round trip to Guam and a single game is 600 Danish crowns – that’s a lot of dineros to shell out.

Problem is – I’m stuck with PS … whilst I have very few friends to share games with, at least there are a few. If I shifted over to the Nintendo Wii (the console I find most tempting) I would narrow that down to zero contacts to share games with.

Perhaps within our small gaming networks we should be arranging meetings for group investment, and ask – “what do we want to play”… I for one would get more “sophisticated entertainment” out of my console if I could access more than the game that I bought it with (and that offer will probably first start in 2010!)

So, 9pm – my place, let’s hear about community console preferences

Young Women and Computer Technology report — out now!!

I have finally put the finishing touches on my report on young women and computer technology (here in Denmark), and for those interested, the full paper will be up shortly.

>> The paper is now available at: http://www.edu-art.dk/html/research.htm 

Here’s a link little teaser …

 …. We stand inside the gates of the 21st century, almost a decade after “getting connected[i]”, nonetheless, a panoptic view of girls and young women in Denmark reveals that this significant group of diverse individuals remain situated as society’s “second-class citizens” when it comes to computer technology, as those who are least “connected” (PISA 2003).

Connectivity in this regard refers not to physical access to computers or access to the Internet, but rather, in terms of being able to access IT-Literacy, IT-Networks, and IT-Imagery, which communicates positively to the diverse population of girls and young women.

Seen in a larger perspective, the paucity of women in IT-related educations and careers affects Denmark’s accessible knowledge pool. Having access to an IT-workforce reservoir filled with competitive, talented and creative individuals with diverse lives and life experiences is key for Denmark’s position in the global technological marketplace. The shortage of women in both IT-educations and IT-careers directly affects diversity within this marketplace; it affects the content and culture of spaces and products created with computer technology.

The creators of computer technologies are in the process of renovating jobs and creating new ways of interacting. In Denmark, those of us who are not affected by this technology are in the minority – government services are electronic, E-mail addresses have become required fields for correspondence and various fields of occupation require more complex IT-competencies than ever before.

How are women to be a part of the information age if they are not there to define it in terms of content, culture and criticism?   As reported in the Danish government’s 2002 IT for All report,

“It can be said quite simply: Denmark’s future depends on our ability to create and use knowledge and technology.” – IT for All report, Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

It can be said very simply: women are not fully represented in areas of technology that will play a part in defining this future.

This report helps us to gain an understanding of young women’s awareness and affiliation with computer technology in Denmark, and exposes the variety of motivations and deterrents that play a part in many young women’s movements into or disassociation with educations and careers in fields of computer technology.

The key themes and recommendations of this research are put forth for inspiration or critical consideration for those who wish to see a global technological society as one representative of its constituents.

These themes emerged; from interviews with young women between the ages of 13 to 19 years, who attend or have previously attended a suburban Danish school, from teachers of these various schools, from observations within the schools’ IT-Labs and from interviews with group leaders from IBM’s Girls and Technology (an external action) program.

——————————————————————————–

[i] The World Wide Web connection gained worldwide use in the mid 1990’s after its creator Tim Berners-Lee founded the idea at CERN in 1989.

 A link will be put out sooner than later …

Women in Games Conference 2006

Here’s some highlights from the Women in Games Conference - held at the University of Teeside on the 10th-11th July 2006:

Quality of Life:

“WiG” kicked off with a presentation on “Quality of Life” by Breakaway President Deborah Tillett (BreakAway Ltd. is an independent developer of serious and entertainment software) – on

“the importance of creating and maintaining a family-friendly environment for her employees including, family play dates, throwing company parties to celebrate employee’s special occasions and hiring baby sitters to reward employees for their hard work among many other innovative benefits catering to the both employees and their families.”

Her talk painted a slightly alternative image of computer gaming companies – Breakaway’s employees are generally over 30 – and that was nearly that. The company was mostly men  (which we discussed as being an issue of the shallow pool of 30+ year-old women who were experienced in the gaming industry), and other differences in their company included company picnics, pedicures, dinners for employees and their families, and all sorts of other food-based rewards 

 … hmmm, my question – is access to food the best way ensure a happy (male) employee and retain them? I’d like to have heard that there were actions to support paternity leave, or hear a bit more about family insurance plans (a lot of stay at home mothers were mentioned). Which, in turn, makes me wonder – whose or what kind of quality of life is being endorsed?

Gender “Differences” in computer gaming …

Several other presentation that highlighted “gender differences” were brought to the conference – And thankfully, T.L. Taylor’s keynote on the “A future for gender and computer games” put these studies in place – raising issues of research methodology when studying gender and computer games.

As an example of watching one’s methodology, in one particular talk “Gender differences” in terms of “Fun” were revealed. There were results pointing out “gender differences” in percieved fun whilst gaming, revelaing that women enjoyed “other” things than men. However, after the presentation of the results, it was revealed that the test persons actual gaming experience (What they had played, how much etc.) had not been defined. Without having the particpants gaming experiences or gaming history, the public is presented with shaky results that reify women as naturally, generally, and wholly ”different” gamers.

Personally, I am concerned that women and girls are continually slotted into “traditional femininity” – let us consider how we ask questions, how the particpiants think that they are “expected” to answer, and remember that gender never stands alone, that class, ethnicity, identity, age, sexuality and context (+ all the others) are at all times important.

Pro Women Gamers

“Kitt”, also known as Kirsten Kearney of the UK Frag Dolls discussed Ubisoft’s vision in having the Frag Dolls. This will only be a little snippet and more of a provocation. For when Kitt notes that Ubisoft says somethiing along the lines of “At least we’re (Ubisoft) doing something” in terms of getting women/girls to game – I really wonder Why don’t you market to girls – plain and simple? The Ubisoft Frag Dolls have now got 15 young women working for them (7 in USA, 4 in UK, 4 in France), 3 web sites, they do events & fly Internationally (at least around USA, Cananda, and UK) that’s gotta be a little bit of money, and I agree, they are doing something, but why not do just a little more and put some of that money into marketing a game such as, I don’t know, Prince of Persia, to women, or support the development of a few more games with strong female characters? I just get dissapointed when I see these women being marketed not so much as active gamers, but as … well, you judge for yourself.

 

Kirsten is a piece of gold for Ubisoft – she’s a great spokesperson for gaming for everyone. I’m sure that we’ll be hearing more from her in the future of gaming.

- Emma WiG 2006