My Grandpa

Now, I have an excuse for not posting in a few days. My grandfather's been diagnosed with terminal cancer and I'm a bit down over it. I've got ideas for posts and the like, I just need some time to focus on other things for a bit. But, Not everything is bad! I've finally gotten the photos from a shoot of my LARP character Claire from my photographer friend Karla. I'm editing them now, but you can see them either on my Facebook page or my Deviantart.

I'll be back soon with a suggestion from my friend Gina (RikkuGrape) to do a blog post about "Fake" girl gamers! Yaaaaay! /sarcasm.

Rolling a D6,
Scarlet

Sexism and Harassment in the Gaming Community

In the wake of the Anita Sarkeesian incident and her Tropes vs. Women in Video Gaming Kickstarter, I've seen people really thinking about the harassment women face in the gaming community. There are people like Miranda Pakozdi who are harassed to the point they quit a tournament, would are groped in gaming venues, leered at, or having sexist jokes and names called on Xbox Live. There are facts that need to be faced. Women are not a tiny minority of gaming anymore. Just read these stats by the Entertainment Software Association. 47% of gamers are women, and women over 18 are the fastest growing demographic in gaming. Adult women make up 30% of the gaming population, while boys 17 and younger make up 18%. We girls are not a small minority anymore, and we DO exist.

That being said, there is no excuse for the way we are treated. Yes, trash talk is a part of this industry. A few "Your Mom" jokes and throwing around of derogatory names like "Asshole" and such is common on online venues like Xbox Live, regardless of gender. That is not going away. But what is NOT okay is this:

Or this:

This is not okay. Is disgraceful, and it's not little kids playing M-rated games doing it. The man in that video? Not a boy, from the sound of it. Messages like that are sent to woman they haven't even met. Then there's incidents like the Cross Assault tournament. Miranda Pakozdi was interrogated about her bra size, told to take her shirt off, and sexually harassed not only in public at the tournament, but it was caught on video for the world to see. Not only that, but the man who perpetrated the majority of the assaults against her defended sexual harassment on video as part of the gaming community.

The common attitude seems to be that we as women should learn to deal with it or shut up and GTFO. That gaming, especially competitive or online gaming like Xbox Live, is man's territory that we dare not tread. And that, my dears, is wrong. While we make up just under half of the gaming community, the vast majority of programmers and designers are still men. Until THAT changes, we;ll just have to shout the loudest to make our voices heard. 

Also, to those who try to flip the coin and go "what about the MENZ?!" I'm not saying it doesn't happen. There are unreasonable expectations of men as well as women in video games. But I'm not talking about the games themselves, which is a whole other post. I'm talking about the players. Players who perpetrate misogyny and spew hate for all to hear. Degrading women, thinking we are rare and don't exist in their community of FPS's or online gaming. We are here. We are here to stay.

Sexism is wrong. Harassment is wrong. And about that picture and video above? I'd be willing to bet you could never say that to a woman's face in real life. Hell, if you did, chances are you could be facing a sexual harassment lawsuit. 

I've got a lot of links on this subject that cover it better than my little rant here, so here you go:

The New York Times - Sexual Harassment in Online Gaming

Anita Sarkeesian - Image Based Harassment and Visual Misogyny
Tropes vs. Women in Video Games
Giant Bomb - When Passions Flare, Lines are Crossed

See you all later!
Scarlet

Photorealistic Graphics

Now, everyone take a look at this article here: Link

Alright, let's get started. I'll get my stance out of the way immediately; video games do not need real-life, photorealistic graphics in order to to expand into new genres and explore human emotions. I have been gaming the vast majority of my life and have seen the good, the bad, and ugly. I can't remember the first game I ever played, but I do remember the moments I truly felt something. The first time I cried for sadness, happiness, just dropped the controller and stared.

Final Fantasy VII: When the game first came out, I watched my sister play through Aerith's death scene. That was the first, and one of two times, that I cried at a video game.

Final Fantasy IX: The second game I cried for. All the emotions I felt from finishing such a beautiful game, I cried tears of happiness at the end credits.

Fatal Frame: All of them, but especially the ending of the second game. I sat in silence, feeling all kinds of emotions.

Shadows of the Colossus: Similar to Fatal Frame. The beauty of the game had me speechless.

Journey: Made me feel things I hadn't felt in a while, and took my breath away.

Not a single one of these games had 'photorealistic' graphics. In fact, especially in the case of FFVII, FFIX, and Journey, the graphics were downright cartoonish. Yet the beauty of the games and the story itself was what got to me. Also, not a single game on that list is an action or shooter title. The first two are RPGs, Fatal Frame is horror, Shadows is Adventure, and Journey is... something (another adventure?).

Nowadays video game graphics are capable of this:

And this:

But we are also capable of these:

Both have the capability for doing great things. For invoking emotions in us. This is the power of games, but that power lies not in the graphics. The power to invoke a response, to explore genres and emotions, is not limited to whether or not a game is photorealistic or not. Action and shooters are NOT the only genres we can have, nor are they the only ones we've ever had. I think that Notch, the creator of Minecraft, said it best in that article:

"No, Christoph, you LIMIT the number of new genres if you focus on photorealism. I had way more emotions playing Proteus than I ever did playing any 2K game. Also, Futurama has made me feel sad more than most sad movies can. The Sting, Jurrasic Bark, Luck of the Fryish. Photorealistic? No."

Do we need photorealism to explore genres and emotions in video gaming? Absolutely not. Can it be helpful, and are there games suited for it? Of course. But never presume that a game has to be photorealistic in order to be a beautiful game we love to play.

For further discussion, though it's mostly on the difference between graphics and aesthetics, have a look at this video by Extra Credits.

Thanks everyone! 
Scarlet

My Favorite Game of All Time

SPOILER ALERT!

Final Fantasy IX. No, really. Not Legend of Zelda, not Final Fantasy X, not any of the pretty next-gen games, not even the horror titles I love so much. My favorite game in existence is Final Fantasy IX and I don't see that changing any time soon.

The atmosphere is amazing. You aren't in this world that's so oppressive as to be unrealistic, nor is it so open and light-hearted as to be so either.

The music is superb, and definitely one of my favorite video game OSTs (No one OST holds the top spot; it's shared by FFIX, FFX, Silent Hill, Xenosaga, and others). You're Not Alone is particularly well-done, especially when coupled with the scene it plays during. Absolutely amazing.

The graphics. Now, I've seen a common criticism of FFIX being it's cartoonish graphics, especially compared to its predecessor FFVIII. The creators had a reason for that. FFIX went back to the roots of Final Fantasy, back into the days of bit graphics and chibified characters. The graphics are perfect for the style of the game. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have loved the game as much if it HAD more realistic graphics. There is something so inherently beautiful about the style that I wouldn't change a thing.

The story. Oh, don't even get me started. Just look at the character progression of Zidane. He is a happy-go-lucky character, and that's always a part of his character. He genuinely cares about people. Then look at the You're Not Alone scene. Hell, go play the damn game! It was one of the most well-written stories in a Final Fantasy game, in my opinion. You actually feel for Kuja, the villain, by the end of the game. He's not some evil that is and always was evil. He's not even evil, really. Just a sad man driven insane and refusing to accept the fate thrust onto him by his creator.

The ending. Now, FFIX has an open ending. Whether or not Vivi 'stops' is left up in the air, you see the resolution of most of the character arcs, even though not all are completely happy (Fratley never regains his memories of Freya, for instance). But people go on living, and miracles happen. Zidane returns to Alexandria, though why it took so long is never explained, unless you assume he needed quite a long time (long enough for Garnet's hair to grow out again) to heal his injuries in the final battle.

Now, onto the only real criticism I have: Necron. If you pay attention to the game, there are theories and hints about him, depending on your point of view. However, he did come a bit out of left-field to most people who played the game. Would the game have been better if it ended with Kuja's Ultima? No, because if you look, that blast killed the entire party. Killed them. They fall in the field of battle and legitimately die. The entire fight with Necron was in purgatory, hell, the afterlife, what have you. By fighting Death itself and showing their will to live, they were allowed to do so, and Necron let them survive. Sure, it could have been done differently and I'm sure people would have preferred the game to have ended with the Kuja battle, but I agree with what the creators did with Necron. They could have handled it better, but the battle and ending in and of itself was just.

All in all, great game and if you haven't played it yet PLAY IT DAMMIT WHY AREN'T YOU PLAYING IT NOW PLAY EEEEEEET!

Thanks for listening to my ramblings:
Scarlet