Teddy Pozo’s article Queer Games After Empathy talks about how the rise of VR as an ultra-realistic medium between player and the in game world, and how it has become mistaken for an ‘empathy machine’, the mistaken idea that experiencing something in VR will lead to a genuine, real life understanding. Although VR does heighten the immersion and reality of video games, it is not a genuine stand in for any human experience. Although these VR experiences and even narrative-driven ‘walking simulators’ may have a goal of putting an individual into an immersive narrative, often with a queer theme, it is not a substitute for real human encounters, but they can be sympathetic in nature, and are representative of a want for change and representation in the titles being released.

My Roommate Sonic is part of the Sonic Dreams Collection, a series of games parodying the Sonic series made by indie developer Arcane Kids, portraying itself as long lost prototypes originally meant for the Sega Dreamcast. In this portion you interact with the world around you via VR as Sonic’s roommate. You are given a stationary first person view of the environment, as well as a genderless body. Throughout the game you receive text messages from Dr. Robotnik, encouraging you to ‘seize the day’ and confess your attraction to Sonic, performing actions such as attempting to tickle him before having your hand slapped away, and then gazing into Sonic’s eyes before you are sucked into a void, becoming Sonic yourself. Obviously it would be questionable to think that the statement of this game is to give you the experience of being attracted to video game character Sonic the hedgehog. Even in the game itself, this attraction is depicted with exceedingly surreal humor, such as your arm rag dolling when Sonic slaps it away. My Roommate Sonic is very clearly a parody, not meant to give an individual the experience of having a queer attraction to Sonic the hedgehog. It is a game that plays on the supposedly empathetic nature of VR experiences to create a surrealist comedy of a beloved fictional character. Even though the set up for My Roommate Sonic is clearly absurd, it does play off of many of the aspects of VR, indie, and walking simulator games that are geared towards making you feel empathy, using its limited interactivity to guide you through a set narrative whilst soft, ambient music plays in the background, lit dimly with the TV.

Even though the softness used in My Roommate Sonic can be off-putting due to the surrealist nature of the game, it does indicate that there is a consistent framework for indie games with queer narratives. My Roommate Sonic is significant in that an indie developer has used a big name, trademarked character in a parody that uses the framework and aesthetics of a genre that is most commonly used for queer narrative. Most big name developers don’t use the conventions of these narrative based indie games, especially not with the idea of radical softness. So while representation in the games industry as a whole leaves much to be desired, the fact that a parody indie game made use of both a franchised character along with the aesthetics of queer indie games not used in big name titles indicates a desire for more queer narratives in gaming.

Works Cited

Pozo, Teddy. “Queer Games After Empathy: Feminism and Haptic Game Design Aesthetics from Consent to Cuteness to the Radically Soft.” Game Studies, vol. 18, no. 3, Dec. 2018.

My Roommate Sonic, Sonic Dreams Collection, Arcane Kids, 2015

I think controllers are, without a doubt, the most instrumental tool for those who play video games. They are where the action takes place—where the gameplay decisions and button inputs are made on behalf of the player. In the How to Play Video Games chapter NES D-pad: Interface, David O’Grady talks about the important establishment of the D-pad and its influences on gaming interfaces moving forward, writing, “The interface or controller serves as a metonym of the video game’s fundamental aesthetic quality—player action—and it presents a fascinating locus for examination; it is the site where the physical and digital come together—where screen-based audiovisual actions and biomechanical agency are mutually translated.” (O’Grady, 270) The introduction of the D-pad and subsequent implementation of other key features on different kinds of controllers has become a defining trait of gaming. The typical structure of most game controllers today—movement on the left, action on the right, pause/menu buttons in the center—is an immediately recognizable image to most people who play games. It’s about as recognizable as a t.v. remote or iPhone. Whether minimal or drastic, the changes made to these controllers is usually a topic of discussion. This is understandable given that many people get used to one interface as kids and are used to it years down the line. As mentioned by O’Grady, the controller is the place where the digital and physical come together. It’s also one of the main reasons, I think, that games are so immersive. As interactive pieces of media where one truly controls what is happening on the t.v. screen, they are able to pull people into digital places to the point that they are deeply invested. The controller is what makes this possible. As tacky as it sounds, it is a bridge between worlds. 

Depending on the game, each button has its unique purpose. Outside of the basic idea that left is for movement and right is for action, there tend to be things like shoulder buttons, touch pads, and motion controls with their own delegated features to further immerse the player in whatever world they’re engaging with. In a ton of the games that I play, the shoulder buttons are imperative—they’re the trigger buttons and occasionally the dodge buttons. In the digital worlds of these games, they’re the difference between life and death. This adds to the sense of tension in that the inputs you as the player make are truly the deciding factor in the protagonist’s fate. While other forms of media like t.v. definitely possess degrees of tension, immersion, and terror at the idea of dying, you are not the one making the decisions. Different people will inevitably be impacted by the pieces of media they interact with to different degrees, but due to the use of controllers as interfaces, games particularly possess the ability to influence experiences that might otherwise be difficult to identify with/dive into. To think that this all began with the invention of a directional pad with the basic idea of being able to move protagonists in different directions is insane. The influences the D-pad has had on gaming have become increasingly obvious as time passes and more distinct features are included on player interfaces. 

Works Cited

Huntmann, Nina B. and Payne, Matthew Thomas. How to Play Video Games. New York, NY, New York University Press, 2019.

Earlier this week, we talked about video game controllers and how they have influenced the player experience throughout gaming history. The controller is probably the most important aspect to a game since it is the device that allows players to interact with and play the game. In David O’Grady’s NES D-Pad essay, he states that “video game controllers are the tactile, in-hand hardware component of an interface, which in computing combines hardware and software with audiovisual representations to establish an interactive relationship between humans and machines” (HTPVG, 270). Controllers give you the ability to control a character on the screen which in turn, also helps develop a connection between the character and player. O’Grady gives the example of playing Mario in Super Mario Bros (1985) where he talks about player investment in Mario’s quest to save Princess Toadstool. Player input directly controls everything that Mario does whether it be running, jumping, or shooting fireballs. In this sense the player isn’t playing as Mario but they are Mario. When you fall into a pit or run into a goomba, you don’t go “Mario died”, you say “I just died and lost a life”. The player directly controls every action so every shortcoming or victory is because of the player’s input. “The controller, then, not only has the potential to recede experientially into screen objects and actions during video gameplay but also to forge a level of identification that turns the avatar into a heightened, even superpowered, extension of the self.” (HTPVG, 274) This is one reason why people play video games: to see the player character get stronger and succeed because the character is an extension of the self. 

A good controller is one that makes sense for a lack of a better term. The controller shape should be ergonomic and button inputs should all be easily within reach of your thumbs or index fingers. You should be able to access all of them without having to reposition your hands. An example of a poorly designed controller would be Nintendo’s N64 controller. With it’s forked design, players have to change hand positioning entirely in order to get access to the analog stick and d-pad. O’Grady referenced graphical user interface pioneers Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg in his essay when talking about good design where they said controllers and interfaces should be akin to playing a musical instrument; “with practice and mastery, the keys and strings of an instrument “disappear” and become an expressive, artistic extension of the brain and body of the musician” (HTPVG, 270). Good video game controllers should be designed in such a way that the player could easily operate it without having to give it too much thought. Once mastered, the player can fully experience the video game for what it is without having to struggle with learning the buttons and disrupting the flow of gameplay just to check where a certain button or trigger is. Nowadays, modern controllers mostly consist of a streamlined button layout with directional input on the left side of the controller and action input on the right side. 

Souley Coulibaly

DMS 448

3/4/20

            Based on an observation of multi player shooting games during class I was able to notice the gender wars amongst users. Most of the online game play consisted of a large amount of woman slander that wasn’t initiated by the female user. Throughout her online gameplay experience she was constantly verbally abused with taunts revolving around her being a woman. Personally, I found what I saw to be quite harsh and unnecessary because of the toxic environment that slander was causing. As a gamer I strongly believe gender wars are instigated by games developers at times unconsciously and consciously.

            One instance where the lack of sensitivity towards woman was ignored was with the game developers of, Dead Island, a survival game. It was reported that a data file for Dead Island consisted a string that was named “FeministWhorePurna”. The term “FeministWhorePurna” was utilized by the developers as a name for a skill power-up for a female character named Purna that would be given an extra damage boost when killing opposition of a different sex. According to Robert Yang “FeministWhorePurna is not just a rogue prank by a sole misogynist commercial game developer: it is a useful lens to articulate wider systemic problems of gender representation in video game culture. Specifically, there is a history of gendered combat “perks” in open-world RPG games similar to Dead Island, and it is very likely that many gamers would interpret the logic of FeministWhorePurna within the context of that history. What is the procedural rhetoric of gendered combat within these games, and how do these game-play systems and simulations enact a specific logic of “gender war” to be performed by players?”

            With that being said, it is becoming too common for video games to pin males and females against each other. The leaders behind the game responded to the matter stating that “To the developer’s credit, the company took substantial responsibility: “This has been inexcusably overlooked and released with the game…This is merely an explanation but by no means an excuse. In the end that code was made a part of the product and signed with our company name. We deeply regret that fact and we apologize to all our customers or anyone who might have been offended by that inappropriate expression.” They’re conveying that this issue has continued for years and has actually been perceived as wrongdoings by game companies themselves. Addressing women in an unfair manner through narratives is a concept that video games developers need to work towards avoiding. For example, assigning Purna with characteristics that align with inferiority, because she possess qualities that are consistent with the stereotypical black women with attitude. Purna in comparison to Xian Mei holds a much more contrasting set of qualities that are depicted through the actions and scripts from the game developers. Many games such as Dead Island may unintentionally reintroduce societal norms in their character’s narratives. Although game creators may not have that goal in mind when developing narratives, it is essential to acknowledge the potential of instigating a divide amongst male and female gamers/people.

Works cited

Yang, R. (n.d.). On “FeministWhorePurna” and the Ludo-material Politics of Gendered Damage Power-ups in Open-World Rpg Video Games.

Following last week’s lectures into a more in depth analyses of game design, we come across a standing point in which we question the “us” we see represented within a game.

Sure we play games for the fun of entertainment and action, but what keeps us motivated apart from the prestige of titles and rankings? A common classification would be the concept of idealistic representation. Goals and achievements can not be boasted on their own; what better way to show your status off than through character customization? Companies benefit on this desire to be different; a craving to be unique even among others of the same class and gender, therefore often prompting players to pay by creating “limited skins and features”. Adrienne Shaw shares “In Fundamentals of Game Design, a widely referenced textbook for game designers, Ernest Adam states that the goal of character design ‘is to create characters that people find appealing…that people can believe in…and that the player can identify with(particularly in the case of avatar characters)”(pg 97).

In answering the question of identification, we now ask ourselves if the socially interactive aspects of a game attempts the same objective. “Many authors assert that identification is stronger in games than in other media because interactivity lessens the distance between players and their on-screen representatives” (pg 99). The assumption that players connect themselves to their role in a game through the freedom to make decisions for their actions is held in strong regard.

However, Shaw disagrees with this assessment in which he later discusses how “…socially interactive aspects result in players identifying as themselves rather than with…” (pg 99). Although Shaw agrees that a character may be a proxy of the player, it does not necessarily contribute to the immersive role of the player him or herself. Shaw writes, “Even if I decide to choose a seemingly random selection of options from a character-customization screen, I must momentarily reflect on how much I care about how I am represented in the game space…”(pg 102). It is less of a focus on immersion and more concentration towards an ongoing identification process in which Shaw explains by continuing to define the distinction between a “character” and a “avatar”.

This interpretation was demonstrated in class when we were given the assignment to download World of Warcraft. One of our tasks was then to build a character of our own where several options for classes were presented to us. After careful selection, we are provided options to recreate the same character with various features available. It was simple, and yet after 20 minutes into class many of us continued to be on the character selection screen. The time spent customizing our characters ultimately reveal that our desire to be portrayed ‘correctly’ is a more accurate argumentation when identifying ourselves in a game. (Though, in my opinion, the art style of World of Warcraft is kinda crummy; I couldn’t customize without feeling bored and distasteful. I understand the main point are battles, but games like Dragon Nest is more enjoyable).

Works Cited:
Shaw, Adrienne. Gaming at the Edge : Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture, University of Minnesota Press, 2015.

For many people, watching livestreams is an escape from their modern day routine and allows them to distress. Others use livestreams to interact with others within a certain gaming community and discuss topics related to that community. Personally I’ve watched twitch streams to just have as a distraction on in the background. Other times I’ve engaged directly with the streamer and other viewers in chat. Each chat has will have its own topic that it discusses. From my experience many viewers talk about the game the streamer is playing, talk about their own lives or ask about the streamers life. I tend to be more of a lurker then an active participant of the stream, especially for larger streams. My reasoning is that for larger streams the streamer won’t usually see my comment and create the connection that a smaller streamer would. Over the past couple of months who I have watched on Twitch has changed.

When I was in high school, I would watch a lot of Pokémon shiny hunters. I would keep these streams up as I myself would shiny hunt alongside with the streamer. I wouldn’t go for the same Pokémon as the streamer but I would have my own hunts that I had. It was through watching these live streams and some YouTube videos that got me into shiny hunting in the first place. More recently I’ve been watching my friends content on Twitch and what they stream. While I play games with them when they stream, I’ll keep a tab open with their stream. I moderate for them. For one of them, they fit more into the mythical norm by being a white male. The other on the other hand falls outside of the mythical norm as she is a female streamer.

During the time that I’ve moderated for her I’ve seen a handful of sexists comments that have come her way while she has streamed. Random people will also come in and troll by saying anything to provoke her while she is playing. As Guarriello sates, “When women are game live streamers or in professional gaming tournaments, they are often relegated to sexist comments or reduced to their looks, which exacts an emotional and psychological (and sometimes physical threats) toll that ultimately drives them away from streaming sites like YouTube Gaming or Twitch.” (1760) Due to it being a smaller channel, moderation is left to either her or one of the few mods that may be online during the stream. While she faces these comments here and there, it doesn’t affect her and she will often ignore them and moderate the comments. The rest of the viewers will agree with her.

In addition to moderating comments, interacting with viewers and building a community as a streamer is important part. As I’ve watched and participated in my friends streams I’ve seen her community grow. She has incorporated viewers into the games we played. In Never give up, never surrender: Game live streaming, neoliberal work, and personalized media economies it states “Much like Federici’s provocation, friendship becomes integral to building relational bonds for game live streaming. These temporal fragments of friendship and conversation can serve as small moments of resistance to the neoliberal commodification of one’s emotions, time, and life.” (1758) It has been through these friendships that my friend has created with her viewers that we have grown our group of game friends. While this is a trust in strangers, it has given not only me but my friend new friends.

In class we talked about controllers and how they affect player experience. Every game will have default mapped controls, but a lot of games allow for players to alter controls to their own liking. In its most basic form this is just button mapping, where the player alters which controls give out which inputs often in some settings screen. Though there are more extreme examples where the player will actually change the controller. A pratical example would be Osu! which is a beat game that the default controllers allow the player to use a mouse to move a cursor and click circles with either “z” “x” or clicking. The player will soon realize that it is easier to click using “z” and “x” than using mouse clicks since the player can put less pressure on the mouse and be able to move it faster. Though, a less apparent change that players will make is to use a drawing tablet with a pen to improve their accuracy.

While some people modify the controllers to make their gaming experience easier, there is also those who alter their controllers for… other reasons. For example, here is a guy who maps toasters to play Doom. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI7tWd7B3iI ) This has little value to improving the play experience, though it does put literal meaning to playing on a toaster. Before continuing on with the point, here is another example of someone using bananas to play Overwatch ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GJ55UIyGvw ). This actually is not necessary, I just found it hilarious. This is an interesting modification for the game since it does not necessarily improve the play experience, but instead transforms it into something else. The play becomes less focused on the actual game play and more on how to effectively use the controls to get the same outcome as someone using traditional controls.

In a sense, the player is redefining the rules of the game by altering their controls. Controls, in games are set up as a means to an end and are supposed to feel fluid so that the player can easily perform actions without putting much thought into the interaction. This can been seen through how similar games have similar control sets and there is a “meta” for how many console controllers are designed. As well as games such as Maplestory, that before creating a new character, the game will ask the player if they are more used to playing Maplestory (which is interesting since it is a platformer that does not use a mouse, so the player would traditionally move with the arrow keys) or other games (where the player would most likely have played using WASD to move). The player is not meant to be thinking about what keys they are pressing they are more meant to be thinking of the actions that need to be performed and what is going on in the game world. By altering the controls though, the player must now focus more on how their controller impacts the game, and playing becomes less about mastering the strategy of the game and more about mastering the controls of the game.

Last week we discussed the importance of character creation and how we choose to represent ourselves in games. Specifically, the Shaw article, “He Could Be a Bunny Rabbit For All I Care”, and our time playing World of Warcraft had piqued my interest. Character creation is important in that it allows us to create a custom or personalized avatar; however, each person’s choices and the reasons behind them vary greatly. Shaw explores the varying ways of how we identify ourselves with the fictional characters and how it is much different than reading a novel or watching a film. During our World of Warcraft demo, we found that some people liked to create characters that were similar or best represented who they are in real life. Some liked to be characters that are contrary to their personal appearances while others enjoyed the aesthetic of how some races and armors looked. I believe this ties in well with the Shaw article, where narrative-based games seem to correlate with player identity. Narrative games provide a basis for players to connect and empathize with the characters in-game. When a customizable avatar is added to the mix, people are better able to immerse themselves in the game using a caricature of themselves or their interests if they wish.

Looking back at my personal experience with gaming, I feel that it is quite rare for me to fully identify with a character. When a main character is presented and I have little choice over their narrative decisions, like in The Last of Us, I tend to feel like a third person watching these events unfold. Although I may control Joel’s actions, I feel like I’m exploring and empathizing with the individual character himself rather than feeling like I am Joel. Even in narrative heavy games with ample character creation, I don’t like calling my character an “avatar” since most of the time they don’t represent who I am. I’m not exactly sure where the lines are drawn either. When I played open world games like Skyrim or MMORPGs like Tera Online, I created female characters but not because I identify as them. Aesthetics became quite important in these cases as I cared about the female armors and looks more whereas the male equipment I was pretty uncaring towards. However, this isn’t exactly consistent across each genre for me. When I played Borderlands 2, I loved playing as Zero, who I tended to characterize as myself in many ways. Also, in the MMORPG, Maplestory, I primarily played a male assassin which I heavily customized to my liking. It actually just occurred to me that I didn’t really care much for the narrative in the world of Maplestory. The game primarily became a social hangout for my friends and I with the added benefits of questing and dungeon running. One thing that does seem to remain fairly consistent is the naming of your avatar. Personally, I hate using my own name in nearly every game I play. I much prefer to come up with a name for my creation as it becomes incredibly jarring if my name is spoken in game. The only exception would be Maplestory, where most of my friends knew me in-person and would use my name rather than my character’s name. I suppose my character creation choices heavily depend on what aspects of the game pique my interest.

Citations:

Shaw, Adrienne. Gaming at the Edge : Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture, University of Minnesota Press, 2015.

In the fifth week of this course, we focused on genders in online gaming and the action of live streaming. For this week’s blog, I wanted to talk about the impact racism has had on online gaming. Kishonna Gray’s, “Deviant bodies, stigmatized identities, and racist acts: Examining the experiences of African-American gamers in Xbox Live” article does a great job of narrowing the scope of online gaming issues down to just voices. Based solely off of voices, it is amazing to see how far forms of racism could actually go.

In the article, Gray focuses on deviance. In class this week, we defined this term as being abnormal or not fitting towards the “mythical norm”. Gray connects this to how voices over online gaming on Xbox Live can lead to potential instances of racism. In her work, she actually takes the role of a participant observer during the study. I think this is pivotal because Gray is actually reporting her findings here. She is not making judgements and conclusions based off of the interpretations of others. Instead, it is all down to what she witnessed herself, and what she takes away from it. This is what makes this study/article so powerful.

According to the article, the following is an actual excerpt from a conversation that took place while Gray was conducting her study (269):

Silentassassin321: If I could find this EXPLICIT I would whoop his EXPLICIT. On some real EXPLICIT. But they do this behind they TV screen. Tough guys. Internet tough guys. You know how many times I’ve been called EXPLICIT to my face?

Mzmygrane: How many?             

                                                                                                       Silentassassin321: None. You know how many times I’ve been called EXPLICIT online?

Mzmygrane: How many?

Silentassassin321: Too many ta’ count… 

Based off of this excerpt, one of the gamers mentions being called the n-word online. The gamer says that they are not called this word during face-to-face interactions. I think that this speaks a lot about the toxicity that occurs in online gaming. The fact that some people carry out racist acts online rather than in-person is very hypocritical. Now, some people may say that racism does not occur as much today as it used to. As we can see, this is not true. Racism may not be shown in-person, but it does exist on online platforms. Personally, the truth is, if someone is racist over an online video game, but does not say anything racist in person, they are still a racist! The gaming world is very toxic, there is racism, there is hate, and there is despair. What makes it worse is that some people turn to online platforms in order to show their true colors. 

On my behalf, I have never been attacked with racism while playing online games. What I have witnessed is the hatred towards someone else based off of the way that they sound. This is another point of focus for Gray. Our voices are a part of us, that being said, they do serve as something that can make us stand out and be distinguished from one another. One time, when I was playing Fortnite with randoms (squads), I overheard a male criticize a female for her building skills in the game. He mentioned things such as, “Right, you’re a girl, of course you can’t build”. Knowing what I know now, I believe that the only reason this gamer said this was because he heard the female’s voice. Had he not heard her voice, he could have still criticized the gamer, but he would not have the chance to bring in gender. At the moment, I did not say anything. What I did do was back out of the game. It was something that I did not want to hear about or be around, so I felt that leaving would be best. I knew that I could take the female’s side, and she probably would have appreciated it, much like any other gamer would, but the truth is, after the game, that same individual could continue to do the same to other gamers. I did not and still do not have the power to stop individuals from being cruel. 

It is really unfortunate that cases of racism and hatred take place. Online, in-person, or whatever. In my point of view, who you are online is still a part of you. For the people in the world who think that they can be a different person online and a different person in real life, you are wrong!

-Andy Kissoon

Mohammad Farraj

DMS 448

Blog Post 5

            The beauty behind video games is that, as the player/consumer we get to decide how we can portray ourselves in these games. We as gamers are able to enter a world or simulation and essentially being anyone or anything we want. Examples include discussions from DMS 448, where the class had to download World of Warcraft and get a feel for the game. In doing so, the class was able to pick and design avatars that they saw fit for themselves. What was interesting and even fascinating about that discussion is that players design/create their avatars in a certain way. The reason supporting this, is because as they enter this alter world/reality their characters are created but their desires are reflected in their avatars. What this means is that players avatars are a reflection of what they want to essentially be in the real world or shows how they are drawn to the game itself. For an example, players who are tired of playing as humans in video games could be drawn to a game because they have the option to becoming a mutant. This shows how they are drawn into the game and how their interests are expressed. Thus having a foundation of understanding of the motives behind why players design their avatars a certain way. In the text, “He Could Be A Bunny For All I Care”, written by Shaw, supports the motive to why players design their avatars in a certain way.

            In the text, Shaw states how the alternate realities in video games attract players and motives them to make their unique avatars. In the text she states, “Some of my interviewees said that digital games’ interactive prop-erties made them feel more connected with their characters” (Shaw 99). What this shows is that, during these interviews, gamers were pulled into by the idea of how items can be apart of their avatar. To analyze this even further, when it came to digital games, gamers felt that the ability to use certain props provided a unique feeling to the game and their avatar. By doing so, this will have a butterfly effect on both the game company and game community. The reason behind this is because ultimately the common factor is success due to the publicity and sales of the game. Also, in doing so, this effect will provide players to expose each other to new avatar ideas. Analyzing this quote from my personal experience, I as a gamer enjoy having as many options given to me. In any game that allows me to do so, I want to stand out in a way that is not only appealing to me but my peers as well. I feel that more game developers should take this into consideration because it will not only inspire creativity within the gaming community but other companies as well. Overall, Shaw did a good job in helping us understand why gamers are attracted to different kinds of avatars.

                                                            WORK CITED PAGE

Shaw, Adrienne. He Could Be A Bunny Rabbit For All I Care!