The ideas of globalization and capitalism can both be easily connected to video games. Globalization is defined as the way that businesses develop global influence or start working at an international level. Randy Nichols’ chapter called “Pokemon Go: Globalization” explains Pokemon Go largely known mechanic of using world-wide “Pokestops” is “just one example of the game’s reliance on globalization” (250). Pokemon Go has “Pokestops” placed all over the world, making the game possible for almost anyone to play, regardless of their location. One large exception to this is South Korea, because their ban on Google Maps limits the game’s playability there (251). Nichols goes onto explain that Pokemon Go became widely popular because of the Pokemon franchise as a whole. The franchise is known for billions of collective sales of their main series and spin-off console games and various merchandise and memorabilia, as well as the long running cartoon series. The fact that Pokemon is known globally is a big reason for its success.

Capitalism is defined as an economic system where trade and business are controlled by a private owner for profit. Matthew Thomas Payne and Michael Fleisch’s chapter titled “Borderlands: Capitalism” discuss how the “economic system of private ownership predicated on the accumulation of goods and mediated by a marketplace of exchange, all of which is propelled by conditions of scarcity, a desire for profit, and inescapable competition” (165) is implemented in Borderlands through “maximizing one’s return-on-(playtime-)investment through the strategic management of in-game assets” (167), as well as the use of vending machines all over the game world, known as Pandora. These spaces allow players to buy and sell various items, as well as interact and trade with other players, all while being safe from enemies (168). Thus, the game ultimately becomes less about shooting monsters and more about acquiring the best loot, weapons, and the most fortunes, showing how heavily capitalism influences gameplay within Borderlands.

“Feminism” and “social justice” usually go hand-in-hand, and often carry negative connotation, especially in video game communities. Many players, often times male, complain about “feminist social justice warriors” trying to ruin their game play spaces with their ideas, arguing that such people don’t belong. In her article, “Game Studies for Great Justice”, Amanda Phillips defines social justice via quoting Robyn Wiegman: “the phrase “social justice” [can be] a generic figure of the political destination of identity knowledges, knowing that its meaning is precisely what is at stake in the different disciplinary and critical relations that generate identity-based scholarship” (117). Phillips goes on to explain that there are a variety of ways that social justice can be achieved: “[as] a scholar trained in the interpretive humanities, my social justice scholarship on games aims both to recognize the links between real-world structures of power and their diffuse ideological forms in games and to open up new futures through alternative interpretive readings. A sociologist may pursue social justice in game studies by giving voice to marginalized gaming communities. A game designer may pursue social justice by inventing new game mechanics that challenge the dominance of competition and violence in the medium” (117). In broad terms, social justice aims to modify or change certain political fallacies in different forms of media, with video games being the target in this discussion. Those who practice social justice in video games might speak out against offensive portrayals of LGBTQ+ characters, or argue for social equality for female gamers.

This can cause outrage from predominantly straight, cisgendered male player communities that believe that there is nothing wrong with their games, feminist “social justice warriors” are attacking them, and they don’t belong in “their” game play spaces. Such backlash is one of many reasons why feminist hackerspaces have formed globally. Sophie Toupin discusses such spaces in her article titled “Feminist Hackerspaces: The Synthesis of Feminist and Hacker Cultures”, noting that “they do not all identify as women-only — understandings of feminism differ from space to space” (2). While these spaces identify as feminist and made for women to interact with technology and coding in a welcoming space, they do not exclude men or those that don’t identify as women. Feminist and women dominant hackerspaces came about because when public hackerspaces began forming in the early 21st century, “hackerspaces have generally found it difficult to attract and/or retain women, lesbian, gay, trans and queer (LGBTQ) persons, gender non-conformists and people of color, among others” (3), Phillips explains.

In the end, feminism and social justice in games are not outright as bad as some individuals make them out to be, and can hopefully ignite positive change that makes game spaces more open for all types of individuals.

In the last few decades, there has been a large surge of casual games on the market. These types of games are usually simple to play and usually deal with tasks and softer topics, such as farming or collecting critters in trees. The majority of these games appear on mobile platforms, such as smartphones and tablets, and are therefore easily accessible. In her article, “Who are the Casual Gamers”, Linda Eklund explains that women usually play casual games because “casual genres demand less time investment and are easier to pick up and play, thereby making them more accessible to women who still take on the majority of unpaid labour in the West, resulting in more fragmented leisure time”. Women usually juggle jobs, housework, cooking, and taking care of families, so casual games, especially mobile ones, are easier for them to play when they have a few minutes between tasks. Casual games are sometimes seen in a bad light because those who play more difficult, or “hard-core”, games (usually males) see them as too easy or simple to be considered “real” games.

However, some casual games can be seen very positively in the public eye. One such example is the very popular Pokemon Go, a mobile game that persuades its players to go outside and explore their surroundings in search of various creatures, inspiring physical activity and group play. While there have been various reports of players being too absorbed in the game and causing accidents or disturbing certain locations in search of Pokemon or items, the game has a large fanbase and overall positive ratings. Frans Mäyrä discusses the popular mobile game in his essay, “Pokemon GO: Entering the Ludic Society”, saying that “Pokémon GO has encouraged not only physical exercise, but also public discussion about the role of games; it has also promoted the formation of informal knowledge communities to negotiate and create solutions for the associated multiple challenges”. Pokemon Go, as well as other casual games, has shown how easily games can become part of our everyday lives and routines and recreate how we can play games overall, so they shouldn’t be written out by the gaming community all together.

When it comes to gender identity and sexual identity in video games, straight males get a large portion of representation. This can leave players who don’t identify as straight and/or male feel left out or unwelcome. In their article, “‘theyre all trans sharon’: Authoring Gender in Video Game Fan Fiction”, Brianna Dym, Jed Brubaker, and Casey Fiesler explain that many fan communities will write fanfiction about a game series, character, or scene that better represents them, such as writing that a certain character is gay, saying that “[u]nderrepresented fans of media, such as women, members of the LGBTQIA community, and other marginalized people use fan fiction (new narratives constructed from elements of existing media) to critique and recraft their representation in media such as television, movies, books and video games”. These groups of people feel that they don’t receive the necessary representation, so they make their own.

Similarly, Merrit Kopas talks about their experiences while playing Gone Home in their article “On Gone Home“, and how “this is a game that feels like it was made for [them]” . They also mention that they bring in a lot of their own experiences into the discussion, which can be related to writing fanfiction. The game’s premise on a secret lesbian relationship that has a good ending, not one that ends in death or trauma, really speaks to Kopas and gives them “hope”, in a way, when it comes to storytelling and representation in games. Games like Gone Home can hopefully inspire other developers to add more positive representation in video games.

Starting in the 1980s, video games have been heavily marketed towards and associated with men. This gender shift eventually brought about what is typically known as the “girl games movement” where game developers and companies began making games targeted more towards women and girls with themes of dress up, make-up, shopping, and other hobbies that were deemed more feminine. In her novel, Ready Player Two, Shira Chess goes into detail on these types of games and what it means to play them and others as a female player. Chess specifically focuses on the idea of mania in girl games in her chapter “Playing with Time”, writing that timed games with levels designed to have quick play times often have the word “mania” in them, such as Cooking Mania or Shopmania. This notion of relating mania to feminine games comes from the stereotype that femininity is extreme and irrational; Chess explains that “[b]y tapping into this notion of “crazy” within the designed identities of Player Two, thee is an implication that the play is guided by and toward hysteria. For hundreds of years hysteria was primarily defined via femininity…” (86). Many of these games targeted towards females use words like “mania” or “fever” because the idea of hysteria is associated with women, not men. Games targeted towards men don’t usually feature such hysterical language.

In her chapter, “Playing with Emotions”, Chess adds on to this idea by explaining that “the designed identity of Player Two is inextricably linked to an anticipation of women’s emotional state, which often seems to bounce between the unstable (the manic) and the nurturing (the necessitated emotional)” (92). Here, Chess brings up the point that feminine games try to show female emotions as either irrational or caring, depending on the context. Chess goes on to explain how emotional labor, such as careers of waitressing, nursing, or care giving, also factor into Player Two’s identity and is used in emotional play to describe how women play video games (95-96). Thus, games developed with these types of emotions and emotional labors in mind are marketed towards women because there is an assumption on how they will play these games. This assumption, among a long list of others, can easily be used to explain why there are “masculine” games and “feminine” games, instead of all games being marketed towards everyone as a whole, regardless of gender.

Video games have been around for decades, providing entertainment for millions of people, from children to adults alike. However, there are tons of people that have seen video games as a “moral panic” through the various decades for gore, violence, sexual themes, or other themes or scenes that are considered “immoral”. An example from today’s games is that many adults worry that first person shooting games are too violent for children and are the primary cause for school shootings and other violent behaviors. In her article, Coin-Operated Americans : Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade, Carly Kocurek briefly mentions that there was “worries about youth access to the [game] machines” (1) and that the game Death Race caused “the first video game moral panic” (1) because of its highly violent content. When video game cabinets were introduced in arcades in the 70’s and 80’s, adults were worried that the kids would become “corrupt” from video games. In another article by Kocurek called Night Trap: Moral Panic, Kocurek explains that the moral panic behind Death Race was specifically due to the violent nature of how the player controlled “pixelated cars striking pedestrians” (309). She also mentions that the game Night Trap brought about a moral panic because of its overall violence, as well as its “sexualized violence against women” (311). The game’s story and violence are based off thriller movies from that time period, such as Prom Night and The Slumber Party Massacre (312), which were quite popular at that time. Some people theorize that video games are often sources for moral panic because they were (and still are) relatively new technology with new content that is relatively accessible to children. Kocurek mentions that at the time that Night Trap was cited at a hearing, retailers such as Toys “R” Us and KB Toys regularly sold other games that were cited, such as Mortal Combat (314). Many adults are still worried today over the accessibility of violent video games for children. The debate over whether or not video games are too violent for kids started when they were first introduced about fifty years ago, and still continues on today.

When I was growing up, I always just played whatever games that my sister played. I was never concerned that most of the protagonists were male and therefore not a representation of myself. The thought of a certain group being left out in games wasn’t something I really thought about until recently because I was raised in a straight, white, cisgender, and very religious background; I wasn’t really aware of any LGBTQ+ discrimination in society, let alone video games, as a kid simply because they were never really discussed around me. Representation of these various groups of people in video games is very important because the inclusion can help various players immerse themselves into the game when they see characters that represent who they are. However, the importance of representation lessens when such representation is simply incorrect or even harmful. Adrienne Shaw gives us a prime example of this poor representation in her chapter on the Leisure Suit Larry series in How to Play Video Games by Matthew Thomas Payne and Nina B. Huntemann. Shaw describes how the game series makes fun of the LGBTQ+ community and is riddled with jokes that are varying degrees of homophobia and transphobia, explaining that “the core message that male homosexuality is undesirable, female homosexuality is only important to the extent that it is titillating to men, gender nonconformity is a mark of deviance, and transgender people are a joke are consistent” (115). These negative depictions of LGBTQ+ people through LSL’s various characters can be very off-putting to some players, especially those from that community. Personally, as someone with a handful of friends in that community, I wouldn’t feel comfortable playing a game that stereotypes and makes fun of them.

Gender is something that is also discriminated against in video games with many games portraying men to be dominant and powerful when compared to lesser female characters. In another chapter of How to Play Video Games, Soraya Murray writes about how many video games have a hyper-masculine hero as the protagonist with great mastery of skills and weapons, as well as his surroundings, that he uses to protect a side female character that is much weaker. Murray cites The Last of Us as breaking that norm in a way because the protagonist, Joel, is shown to not always have the right answer or the necessary tools needed to do something; Joel has to scrounge around for food and makeshift tools while learning to survive. He still plays the part of the protector when it comes to Ellie, the girl he is tasked with smuggling to another surviving zone, but the two often work together or rely on each other when completing certain tasks (103-106). Joel’s character and his relationship with Ellie go against, in a way, that hyper-masculine protagonist trope in video games because while Joel is still protecting Ellie, she helps him out on multiple occasions, meaning that Ellie is not completely helpless like other female characters in other games. Ellie’s character can also be seen as a positive representation of girls in video games because while she is not a playable character and rarely engages in combat, there are a few times where she briefly fights alongside Joel, which shows that girls are also capable of defending themselves.

All in all, representation is a seemingly integral part of video games that makes them much more enjoyable to the player when they are included.

My experience with video games has been one of ranging narratives. While I have played games with little to no narrative, such as Tetris, I usually prefer those with some sort of story to them. Even before I could fully read what the game was literally telling me, I loved the Pokemon game franchise for the story plot, adventure, and diverse characters. While the main plot of traveling through various regions, completing the professor’s Pokedex, earning gym badges while battling your rival(s) in order to challenge the Pokemon League, and stopping the nefarious deeds of the various evil organizations along the way, is roughly the same in every main installment of the series, it is in each region’s differences that set each story apart. For example, in the first generation of games, Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue, the player simply stops Team Rocket from stealing Pokemon and causing trouble throughout the region during their journey. However, the newest installment, Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield, the player unlocks the secrets behind the Galar region’s past while discovering the true motives of certain shady characters. While the region does have Team Yell, a group of fanboys and fangirls of the player’s rival Marnie, they are more of a minor inconvenience than an evil team that needs thwarting. These differences between stories in a single game series makes each game worth playing.

But, what is it about narratives that makes them enjoyable or worth playing? Why do they matter? In their article, “A Dream of Embodied Experience”, Bianca Batti and Alisha Karabinus explain, using Janet Murray’s novel, Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, that the “magic of games” lies in the player’s “agency (control), immersion, and transformation”, meaning that it is how the player puts them self into the game’s narrative that makes it exciting and interesting. A personal example of this is that when I was playing Pokemon Shield, I actually felt like the hero that the story makes the player character out to be, and it was a wonderful feeling. Batti and Karabinus also note that narratives are about the player’s own experiences and how they are represented in the game: “intersectional issues of race, gender, sexuality, ability, etc. are bound up in the concept of narrative… It’s about bodies and experiences and whose stories get to be told”. Dr. Cody Mejeur also presents the notion of a narrative’s representation in his paper, “Too Narrative, Too Queer: The Border Wars of Game Studies”, saying that “narratives are always connected to identity, personality, and power, which means they are always tied to race, gender, sexuality, and other systems of power”.

Both articles argue that player representation also makes narratives important. No player wants to feel left out of certain stories because of their race, gender, sexuality, age, etc; some players even refuse to play certain games if they cannot find their own personal representation in games. One of my favorite things about the Danganronpa game series is that all of the characters are diverse enough to represent very different backgrounds, genders and gender identities, and sexuality. For example, in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, the player has the option to spend “Free Time” with almost every character present in the various chapters of the game. During these periods, the player can learn interesting and/or valuable information about certain characters that do not come up during the game’s regular set story. This idea of “Free Time” continues further into the game’s post game, where the player can choose to spend time with and even romance any character that the player chooses. This dynamic does not limit the game’s protagonist, Hajime Hinata, to a heterosexual sexuality or identity, allowing the player to choose who to date for themselves instead of the game forcing a set romance upon the player, which can further add to representation for players that don’t identify as straight. Ultimately, narratives in games serve the purpose of representing and immersing the player into the game’s world, making playing the game a more enjoyable and interactive experience.

Sources:

“A Dream of Embodied Experience” by Bianca Batti and Alisha Karabinus

“Too Narrative, Too Queer: The Border Wars of Game Studies” by Dr. Cody Mejeur