Brendan Downey

#50190372

DMS 448

Week 4 BLOG

In week four of class, we discussed feminism and LGBTQ representation. More specifically, we focused on finding the “queerness” within games and were given some examples. One game example that we looked at in class was Leisure Suit Larry. In this class, the player plays as the character Larry Laffer, as you attempt to sleep with a variety of women and live a lavish life. Prior to this class, I was completely unaware of Leisure Suit Larry and would never think of this to be a “franchise” worthy game. However, there is without a doubt a large section of creepy individuals who enjoy being Larry Laffer. In many ways, I am unsure how to feel about the game. On one hand, I found it offensive that it was even created and sold. On the other hand, “it’s just a game.”

This week, we were assigned to screen the popular video game show, “The Guild.” After watching the entire library of episodes on Netflix, I found myself relating to these very foreign characters. In episode one, I found lot of the writing humorous, which kept my intrigue. However, as the series progressed, each character has development arc which carries meaning.

Another game we played as a class this week was “Dream Daddy.” In this dating simulator, the player creates a fantasy dad which they play as. Overall as a class, this game was very entertaining to stream. It was amusing to create a dad from scratch. However, the game was very strange and uncomfortable to me personally. I do not quite understand its audience but I did have fun in the limited class time. If it were free, I would consider downloading it.