ATLAS Speaker Series: Digital Media Design, Gender & Games

Digital Media Design, Gender & Games

This presentation was about women in the gaming and technology fields and showing how they are (under)represented. That was interesting to me because our MIT class is split pretty evenly between the genders, but the field as a whole is definitely male dominated. Yasmin Kafai, the speaker, posed the question, “do we need to design different technologies and games for girls?” She said that the reason girls aren’t playing video games as often as boys are is because lack of interest or lack of experience. Girls assume video games are a boys game, and therefore do not play. It was very eye opening to see a woman in the information technology sector explaining how girls are stereotyped against as video game consumers. She said that most video games are designed by men for men and that the only women characters are either passive (princess) or oversexualized. The typical video game directed at girls is “Barbie” where you get to dress her up and do her hair.  How are children ever supposed to challenge gender roles when this industry is feeding stereotypes into their hands? We need to move away from gender as difference to gender as performance. Even when they are young, girls are supposed to play with dolls and boys are supposed to play with cars. I loved the SNL skit about “Chess for Girls” mocking that the only way girls would play chess is if the pieces had cute outfits are hair. If a girl doesn’t feel the way a “typical” girl does with these feminine inclinations, she is instantly shunned. This goes beyond the technology field, but to socialization in our culture itself. Yasmin also talks about girls as video game developers, where females created wonderful, thought provoking games that encourage learning for either gender of children, not catered specifically to either. The speaker encourages everyone of all ages to be a video game creator! She even talks about kids who can do it, so I know I definitely could. I never considered it before because I also assume the stereotypical gaming industry as a place for boys and their toys where I am not welcome.

Simulation and Gaming Questions (Group 13)

Timeline: The Future of Videogames

1.) What will become of society when/if the line between reality and augmented reality become blurred?

2.) How much of this article can we actually believe? I understand the points that are made and that there are facts to support their guesses for the future, but that's all they are: guesses. I remember when 2000 was the year we were "supposed" to have flying cars... So how much can we rely on these predictions?

3.) How will the way humans socialize with one another change? With the blending of reality and video games becoming the norm, will the human race still value social interactions as much?


Does Game Violence Make Teams Aggressive?

1.) Why is there so much focus on computer games instead of other platforms such as the internet, music or television in which kids are exposed to the same amount of violence?

2.) From my limited video game knowledge, I know there are other types of video games that are still "violent" (such as World of Warcraft) while the article focuses on more extreme games like Call of Duty... Can researchers really make the distinction or could it just be that ALL video games create this similar arousal in the brain?

3.) Just because certain areas in the brain are more active or aroused than others at times, does that necessarily mean that the gamer will have violent tendencies? Are these arousals merely temporary?