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The Border House is a blog for gamers. It's a blog for those who are feminist, queer, disabled, people of color, transgender, poor, gay, lesbian, and others who belong to marginalized groups, as well as allies. Our goal is to bring thoughtful analysis to gaming with a feminist viewpoint and up-to-date news on games, virtual worlds, and social media.Discussion Policy
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Author Archives: Brinstar
Native Americans in Videogames: Stereotypes, Racism, and Misogyny
Project COE has an extensive post discussing the portrayal of Native Americans in videogames, stereotypes, and racism by taking a closer look at memorable Native American characters in videogames: We tend to glance over these highly stereotypical portrayals as fun … Continue reading
Brink: 102 QUADRILLION Unique Male Character Variants, 0 Female Characters
Critical Kate at CriticalHit! blog has an interesting post covering Bethesda’s post regarding the huge number of options on offer to players with regard to character customisation. Apparently a player can create 102,247,681,536,000,000 unique characters if you include minor … Continue reading
Posted in Console Games, PC Games
Tagged brink, character design, female characters, FPS
62 Comments
Gerald Lawson, Inventor of First Cartridge-Based Games Console, Dies at 70
This month, the videogame industry lost a pioneer. Gerald “Jerry” Lawson, who invented the Fairchild, or Channel F, console, died earlier this month from complications stemming from diabetes. The Fairchild Channel F console, launched in 1976, pre-dated the Atari 2600 … Continue reading
In the Plants vs. Zombies World, There Are Only Men
I started playing Plants vs. Zombies several months ago. This is a tower defense game in which you must defend your house against endless hordes of zombies. To do this, you have a variety of plants which you can plant … Continue reading
Posted in Casual Games, Console Games, Mobile Games, PC Games
Tagged gender, Plants vs. Zombies, Popcap Games, sexism
38 Comments
Female Protagonists: A “Risk” Worth Taking
Doc at Inner Child Gamer wrote a post about the case for creating more games with female protagonists. Unfortunately, the antiquated and limited state of the industry is still such that some designers and writers need to fight for and are required … Continue reading
Posted in General Gaming, Mobile Games
Tagged character design, female protagonists, game design, games industry, Monster Tale, sexism
31 Comments
The Border House Group on Steam
It can be hard finding like-minded people to game with online. Many of us have to put up with the usual amount of bigotry, discrimination, lack of awareness, and insensitivity in many gaming groups. Calling people out on this irritating … Continue reading
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Marie in a Refrigerator?
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was released last week, and I’d like to share some first impressions about the story from roughly the first 30 minutes of play. Specifically, I want to discuss the only female character introduced in the game … Continue reading
Posted in Console Games
Tagged Castlevania, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, PS3, women in games, women in refrigerators
14 Comments
Sexual Harassment for Female Players in Forum Thread for StarCraft II
At The Hathor Legacy, Jennifer Kesler deconstructs a forum thread in which a self-identified female StarCraft II player is subject to sexual harassment for asking whether there are any other women interested in forming a women-only clan. Kesler’s analysis of … Continue reading
Posted in PC Games
Tagged blizzard, clans, competitive gaming, forums, misogyny, sexism, sexual harassment, StarCraft II, women gamers
8 Comments
Undead Labs Child’s Play Charity Beat Down: Interview with Frag Doll Valkyrie
Recently I attended the Undead Labs Frag Doll Beat Down Event in Seattle, Washington. This was a charity Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 tournament at Undead Labs. This was no ordinary tournament, however. This tournament was held to raise … Continue reading
Posted in Console Games
Tagged Call of Duty, community, FPS, Frag Dolls, sexism, Undead Labs, women gamers
6 Comments
Interview with SOE GIRL Scholarship Winner, Sylvia Liu
Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) announced today that Sylvia Liu of Milpitas, CA won the 2010 GIRL Scholarship (Gamers In Real Life Scholarship). The scholarship encourages students toward career paths in the creative and applied arts, with the goal of … Continue reading
Posted in MMORPGs
Tagged art, concept art, education, EverQuest II, game development, GIRL Scholarship, SOE, women in game development
5 Comments