Breaking down borders in video games.
Brinstar
Brinstar is a feminst, female-sexed, cis gender Asian woman of colour. She is a longtime gamer and works in the videogame industry as a community manager. She has a personal blog at Acid for Blood.
Homepage: http://www.acidforblood.net/
Posts by Brinstar
Undead Labs Child’s Play Charity Beat Down: Interview with Frag Doll Valkyrie
Jul 10th
The Child's Play Charity logo--a picture of a white controller, with a cross in the middle, on an olive green background, and the words "Gamers Give Back: Child's Play" under the controller.
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 money for Child’s Play, a charity that donates games and console to hospitals, for the benefit of sick children. Members of the Frag Dolls, a group of women gamers formed to promote Ubisoft games and raise the visibility of women gamers, came to Seattle to compete in front of an audience of Undead Labs supporters and friends.
I had a chance to interview Amy Brady, also known as Frag Doll Valkyrie, about the tournament and about her work as a Frag Doll.
How did you get involved in the Child’s Play / Undead Labs event?
Valkyrie: The Frag Dolls have been big supporters of Child’s Play for years and we wanted to contribute in some way to the charity auction. We brainstormed a bit about how we could help raise money and decided on creating a “Beat Down” package for people to bid on. The beat down consisted of flying out to kick the butt of someone’s friend/s. We thought this would be a fun package and would allow us to do what we do best—kick some tail!
Undead Labs was the winner of that bid, and they decided to take it ten steps forward by creating a tournament out of it and raising more money. So instead of us coming out to play against a specific person, they held a 32 man tournament in which people donated to play in, and we played against the winners of that tournament. A brilliant idea and a lot of fun-and they raised over $3000!
What fantastic ideas all around for a great cause.
How did you prepare for the Undead Labs tournament? Did you do anything different than your regular tournament prep routines (if any)?
Valkyrie: Although we didn’t go all out on practice, as we play quite a bit anyway, [Frag Doll] Fidget and I did a little prep-work for the tournament in the form of practicing some 2v2 for the finals. We only spent about 5 hours total on it, as most of our practice time is 4v4, and we weren’t completely sure about how the tournament would work, and [we didn't have information about] all the maps/modes except the first round. In the end it’s a good thing as we ended up playing 3 rounds and we let the competitors choose the last two maps and modes!
How was the Undead Labs tournament? What were your most memorable impressions of the night?
Valkyrie: The Undead Labs tournament was awesome! It was a very relaxed setting with many people from the industry playing and partying it up. I think everyone loved the show they were given and enjoyed watching the pwgage that occurred as Fidget and I stomped the competition. The most memorable moment was when Fidget pulled out her sniper and facilitated the crowd to “ooh” and “ahh’ as she repeatedly spawn sniped the opposition!
It was definitely an impressive showing. It was fascinating to witness the strategies and tactics that you and Fidget used to rally together, hunt down, and kill the competitors. I heard more than one comment about how quick Fidget’s reflexes are, too.
Was the Undead Labs event any different from the sort of events you attend and participate in as a Frag Doll?
Valkyrie: This event was very different than what is normal, as it was a much more relaxed and smaller environment then we are used to competing in. I really enjoyed the more intimate interactions with the people there, and it was a great event for Fidget make her début LAN competition.
So, let’s talk about the Frag Dolls. What are the guiding principles of the Frag Dolls?
Valkyrie: Frag Dolls do try to set themselves as role models to some extent for female gamers. It has always been our mission to promote female gaming in a positive and competitive light. While we are not a normal team, in that we work in the industry and were hired to promote Ubisoft brands, we have always taken competition and knowledge of the gaming industry very seriously!
Do you think the Frag Dolls have a role in fighting against sexism in gaming communities? If so, what do you think that role is, and what sort of activities do the Frag Dolls participate in that help with this?
Valkyrie: As a well known female gaming group, it is inherent that we have a role in fighting sexism in gaming. The natural mental tendencies in this male-dominated industry lean toward women being sub-par gamers and any female that is in the public eye will have a role in representing all of us—whether they wish to or not.
This is why the Frag Dolls have always been so active on competing on many competitive titles, not just Ubisoft’s. We know if we’re not out there and being proactive in maintaining our competitive edge, and trying to educate the masses about the hurdles female gamers are trying to overcome through various forms of promotion, that we aren’t doing much to try and change anything. Women are a vast minority in the world of competitive gaming and the more [women] that show up, the more it will pull other women with them.
Visibility matters. It’s said that a lack of representation and visibility of women in a lot of industries and in high-ranking, decision-making positions, influences how girls view those professions. So it makes sense that this applies to gaming as well. Having said that, I also believe that male gamers bear some responsibility in reducing sexism in games, and I know that in the clan you manage outside of your Frag Dolls duties, the all-female PMS Clan, you have an affiliate clan, H2O, which male gamers can join as allies to PMS Clan.
I’ve heard that some gamers believe the Frag Dolls are only pretty faces with no substance and, to put it bluntly, corporate shills. What is your reaction to that?
Valkyrie: Well, my reaction would be they haven’t played against or with us, nor have they even researched us to make an educated comment. Anyone that has done any of these things would be hard pressed to make that statement as we have placed professionally and competed on many titles!
Do you feel that women gamers in general have to work harder or put in more effort to be accepted in gaming communities than men?
Frag Dolls logo--Black on a blue field. There is a pink controller under the logo.
Valkyrie: There is a flip side to the coin on being accepted as a woman gamer. While many male gamers would be happy to play with women, even our supporters have a socialized tendency, sometimes unconsciously, to consider women gamers in general as sub-par. Whether they admit it or not, this is due in large part to stereotypical and social upbringing issues. This is also perpetuated by lack of top ranking females on competitive circuits.
Until we have more awareness and understanding of the issues at large, as well as top-ranking female teams, we will continue to fight these perceptions. And we need more competitive and skilled women gamers to do this, so really until we are no longer a minority, these issues will remain. That is why it is so important to keep promoting and bringing more women into the gaming world!
You’ve been active in gaming communities for a long time, to promote the visibility of women gamers and to help women gamers find safe spaces to come together. Is there any advice you can give women gamers who experience sexual or other kinds of harassment online?
Valkyrie: The best advice I can give is to surround yourself with friends when you play. If you don’t have a lot of friends playing games, you can look into joining other gaming groups and clans (female or co-ed whatever you prefer). Female gaming groups usually have measures to make girl gamers more comfortable while playing and you do get to play with others that experience the same issues you do—but you aren’t limited to support only by them. No matter who you are playing with, you will still encounter all kinds of situations that might be negative towards your gender but the mute function works wonderfully against the opposing team! Then you and all your friends can laugh at the idiots as you kick their butt!
I think it makes sense to try and seek out safer spaces, but inevitably and unfortunately a lot of gamers are forced to take measures like you mentioned to be able to play and have fun.
What games are you currently playing for work, and for fun?
Valkyrie: Most of my time has been spent on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, as it was our hope it would be picked up by a pro-circuit. But as of recently, it looks to be confirmed that there is no hope for competitions on this game due to the inefficient capabilities of the LAN settings, so I will probably be moving off it shortly! Other than that I have been playing a lot of Magic the Gathering: Duel of the Planeswalker to gear up for some fun social gaming nights and I just took a leap off a cliff and went back to my old classic favorite: World of Warcraft!
Thank you for your time!
Valkyrie: Thanks so much!
Interview with SOE GIRL Scholarship Winner, Sylvia Liu
Jun 7th
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 developing videogames that attract more women to play.
Liu’s $10,000 scholarship award will to be applied toward tuition and other educational expenses at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and comes with an optional paid internship of up to 10 weeks at SOE’s headquarters in San Diego, working on one of the company’s hit titles.
I was given the opportunity to interview Liu about the scholarship, her goals, and about gender and games. More >
2010 PAX Booth Babe Survey
May 28th
The Penny Arcade Expo Logo
Here’s a chance for your voice to be heard within the gaming convention community. The Penny Arcade Expo, one of the largest and most fan-friendly videogame events in the United States, has just released a survey asking attendees their opinions on PAX’s “no booth babe” policy.
Rachel Edidin at Sequential Tart notes that PAX is generally a woman-friendly gaming convention, and one where the responsibility for good behaviour is placed upon the convention attendee. They have a short, sweet, and common sense rules of conduct posted clearly on each badge and in the convention materials.
The survey asks respondents about how they feel about the current “No Booth Babe” policy, whether they should be more lenient, and what sorts of attire should be included in the policy. It’s not often that any fandom convention actually asks attendees for their opinion about booth staff attire, particularly in a culture that tends to be very male-dominated.
Let’s boost the signal on this survey, and get the word out. Tweet about it, Facebook it, post on your blog, tell your friends, and let people know any way you can. With this survey you have the chance to have a real impact on any changes made to this policy.
Video: Bayonetta: Innovative Advertising or Sexual Harassment Training?
May 22nd
This video, from Feminist Frequency, was making the rounds this week. It discusses an advertising campaign in Japan to promote the videogame, Bayonetta, to which we’ve devoted a few blog posts.
The video’s description reads:
The widely popular video game Bayonetta has had an advertising campaign that matches the on screen sexism of the game itself. In Tokyo a large billboard in the subway invited passersby to literally strip off flyers to reveal Bayonetta naked underneath. The campaign perpetuates and encourages sexual and physical harassment against women, an epidemic in Japan (and many other countries, including the United States).
Video (subtitled):
Link: Bayonetta: Innovative Advertising or Sexual Harassment Training? (full transcript)
After watching the video, I couldn’t help but think about all the parallels this has to last summer’s #EAFail incident, in which EA Games ran the “Sin to Win” contest to promote Dante’s Inferno. The contest encouraged the sexual harassment of female attendees at San Diego Comic Con, and given the fact that sexual harassment of women at fandom conventions is commonplace, it’s disturbing that a company would run such a contest. It’s stunts like this and the advertising campaign for Bayonetta that encourage a tolerance for sexual harassment, making it more difficult for women to go about their daily lives.
What do you all think of the points Sarkeesian makes in the video, and of the Bayonetta advertising campaign?
Game Covers Women Want to See
Apr 28th
Back in ye olde days of the feminist gamer blogosphere, there emerged a meme. A meme which asked women gamers to give examples of game box art that makes them think, “I want to play that”. This question was originally posed at Yudhishthira’s Dice (blog now seems to be defunct), and tekanji maintained a list of blogs participating in this meme. Since tekanji has somewhat retired her own blog and probably hasn’t the time to maintain a list, I’ve decided to resurrect this meme here on The Border House. If you come across particularly cool videogame box art that makes you want to play the game, please participate in this series of posts! If you don’t have a blog, you can write a guest post at The Border House. For instructions on how to submit a guest post, check the contribution page.
First, a couple administrative details:
- I will link to all particpating blogs in this post, which you are currently reading.
- Any submitted link that goes against the spirit of the meme will not be posted.
- Please read the meme rules carefully.
Now, here’s how it goes…
Game Covers Women Want to See
Yudhishthira’s Dice asks:
Ladies, what RPG covers (or interiors) have you seen that involve a woman in the art that make you say, “I want to play that” or, just as good “I want to play her.” Or that make you feel like it is a game you could like, or be included in by a group of guys you’d never met and whose maturity you didn’t necessarily know?
Rules of the meme, by tekanji:
- Copy the text of the original challenge from Yudhishthira’s Dice and give a proper link attribution.
- Copy these rules exactly (including any links).
- Find images of game covers (interiors are okay, too) that make you want to play the game. Any kind of game — video game, card game, tabletop RPG, etc — is fine. Post them and include a short (or long) explanation on why the image makes/made you want to play the game.
- The original challenge is about finding out what women think about how game art is marketed and therefore it is targeted at women. I’d like to keep it that way, please.
- You can tag as many or as few people as you want. You do not need to be tagged to participate in the meme.
- When you make your post, please post the link on this thread so we can all see what others have said.
Particpating Posts
- Check out the original home of the “Game Covers Women Want to See” meme!
- Dungeon Blue – Game Covers Women Want to See Meme – Mount & Blade: Warband
- Feylamia – Game Covers Women Want to See – Das Schwarze Auge [German]
- Bakka’s River – Game Covers Women Want to See – Emerald City Confidential, Portal, Mirror’s Edge, Dragon Age: Origins, Flower, Little Big Planet, Frogger Beyond, Dancing Demon, The Oregon Trail
- Pirate Joe Radio Show – Video Game Box Art – American McGee’s Alice, Spore, Mount & Blade: Warband
NLC Releases Report on Shocking Working Conditions in Xbox Controller Sweatshop
Apr 21st
KYE Factory Workers - More than a dozen girls exhaustedly sleep at their work stations in a Chinese manufacturing facility for electronics.
The National Labor Committee, an organisation dedicated to “exposing human and labour rights abuses committed by U.S. companies producing goods in the developing world”, released a report detailing the shocking working conditions at a KYE manufacturing facility. KYE, a Chinese firm, manufactures Microsoft Xbox controllers as well as other Microsoft products and electronics for other U.S. companies. The three-year investigation uncovered damning photographs depicting the poor working conditions and their effects on the workers. The report details the following injustices (emphasis mine):
- KYE recruits hundreds-even up to 1,000-”work study students” 16 and 17 years of age, who work 15-hour shifts, six and seven days a week. In 2007 and 2008, dozens of the work study students were reported to be just 14 and 15 years old. A typical shift is from 7:45 a.m. to 10:55 p.m.
- Along with the work study students-most of whom stay at the factory three months, though some remain six months or longer-KYE prefers to hire women 18 to 25 years of age, since they are easier to discipline and control.
- In 2007 and 2008, before the worldwide recession, workers were at the factory 97 hours a week while working 80 ½ hours. In 2009, workers report being at the factory 83 hours a week, while working 68 hours.
- Workers are paid 65 cents an hour, which falls to a take-home wage of 52 cents after deductions for factory food.
- Workers are prohibited from talking, listening to music or using the bathroom during working hours. As punishment, workers who make mistakes are made to clean the bathrooms.
- Security guards sexually harass the young women.
- Fourteen workers share each primitive dorm room, sleeping on narrow double-level bunk beds. To “shower,” workers fetch hot water in a small plastic bucket to take a sponge bath. Workers describe factory food as awful.
- Not only are the hours long, but the work pace is grueling as workers race frantically to complete their mandatory goal of 2,000 Microsoft mice per shift. During the long summer months when factory temperatures routinely reach 86 degrees, workers are drenched in sweat.
- There is no freedom of movement and workers can only leave the factory compound during regulated hours.
- The workers have no rights, as every single labor law in China is violated. Microsoft’s and other companies’ codes of conduct have zero impact.
The comprehensive report covers each of the above bullet points in detail, citing examples of labour and human rights abuses, as well as quotes from workers about the conditions they work under. They are pretty much powerless to do anything about the working conditions. Those who speak out are sacked. There are no labour unions. Something I found interesting about the report is the point about bosses’ preference to hire young women because young women are more easily intimidated and controlled:
Management likes the high school students since they are easy to discipline and control. For the same reason, management targets young women 18 to 25 years of age, and some up to 27, to staff its production lines. If management can help it, they will not hire any males-except if they are high school students. It is only when the factory is desperate that they will hire males and workers “as old as 40.”
And this quote regarding sexual harassment underscores the powerless and dehumanising situation that the girls and women working at KYE find themselves in:
Some security guards sexually harass the young women, often using very provocative language. There is nothing the young women can do but to bear it in silence as there is no avenue in the factory for addressing such abuse.
Chinese law requires that all international companies doing business within the country partner with a local company in order to operate within the country. According to the report, the factory managers hid their illegal activities from inspectors, so it’s possible that Microsoft might not have been fully aware of what was taking place at this facility:
Factory management knew what it was doing was illegal. When management was alerted ahead of time that there was going to be a local government inspection, all the work study students under 18 years of age were gathered in the courtyard where they would board buses to be taken to another location and held until the inspection was over.
Furthermore, workers were prepped for surprise inspections and visits by monitors, and there is intense pressure for workers to answer questions in the “right” way. Those who answered truthfully were sacked:
At the KYE factory the process of preparing for monitoring visits is somewhat subtle. Management instructs the workers to “answer the clients’ questions very carefully.” They should say they never work more than 12 hours a day and overtime is less than 36 hours a month. Workers are told to respond they are “very satisfied” when asked about working conditions, their dorms and meals. To make this sound even more “authentic,” workers are told to “spontaneously” mention other factories where they had worked in the past, where conditions were “awful.” They are more “hopeful” now that that they are working at KYE.
We asked if factory management has to openly threaten workers to lie. The answer was no. As the workers put it: “They don’t have to as workers get it and know what is going on. Those who break ranks are fired. Workers have heard of others being fired for speaking truthfully. Among themselves, workers talk about this. They know not to tell the truth.”
Whilst there appeared to be deception on the part of factory bosses, this doesn’t absolve Microsoft of responsibility in this incident. Ultimately, Microsoft (and other software companies) are the ones placing orders and entering into manufacturing agreements with these factories.
Sweatshop labour has long been a hot topic in many industries, like the clothing and shoe industries, and it’s more than likely this has been going on for a very long time in the tech industry, only we just haven’t heard much about it. No one should be forced to tolerate these sorts of working conditions. It might ease our wealthy, Western minds to tell ourselves that these workers wouldn’t be able to live without taking jobs in sweatshops, but I don’t think it should be so easily dismissed like this. According to an anonymous Chinese labour rights activist and scholar, we’re fooling ourselves if we think that way:
“The idea that ‘without sweatshops workers would starve to death’ is a lie that corporate bosses use to cover their guilt.”
Keeping in mind our (if applicable) Western-centric world view, Western privilege, and class privilege (if applicable), what do you think can be done to address this issue in the computer and videogame industries? What do you think of the KYE factory management tactic of recruiting women and girls to these jobs?
[Via 1UP.com]
[Via 1UP.com: Gamers Against Sweatshops Petition]
[Microsoft supplier in China Forces Teenagers to Work 15-hour Shifts Under Sweatshop Conditions]
Hate Speech in Online Games
Apr 16th
Main stream news site MSNBC has published an article about the widespread use of hate speech in online games. It’s an introduction to what many of us have either experiences first hand, have friends who’ve experienced abuse online, or we have read stories about it. The article notes that game developers are trying to crack down on it:
Players trade racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic insults so frequently that game makers are taking steps to tone down the rhetoric.
The post also singles out certain marginalised groups that are frequently targeted by many online gamers:
One gamer told an opponent he presumed to be Jewish that he wished Hitler had succeeded in his mission. Many exchanges involve talk of rape or exult over the atomic bombing of Japan. There are frequent slurs on homosexuals, Asians, Hispanics and women.
So, pretty much the status quo in terms of random people you meet in online games: homophobes, racists, misogynists, and other bigots. The article does note that reports of abusive behaviour and hate speech is increasing, which is great, however a lot of people aren’t seeing those effects reflected in most people’s behaviour. Unfortunately, players outnumber the customer support teams trying to take action on abusive gamers. More >
Ada Lovelace Day: Women in the Games Industry
Mar 24th
Ada Lovelace Day is a day set aside to recognise women in technology and in the sciences. Earlier, I posted interviews with two women who I wanted to give a small shout-out to today, Tracey John and Nicholle Young. The former already works in technology and games journalism and the latter seeks to enter the videogame development industry. I’d like to do another post, this time about all the women in game development I know of or have met, and the women who want to get into the industry. I know it seems like a bit of an easy out to write a post recognising many unspecific women, however my personal experience as both a member of the games industry and as a longtime observer of the industry, have led me to think about this for Ada Lovelace Day.
I have the good fortune of working at a company that, comparatively, has a large number of women filling its ranks (disclosure: I am an employee of ArenaNet). Nearly every single department—from design, to production, to web, to community, to business and administration, to writing, to quality assurance, to art—has at least one woman (if not more) working there. We have a number of women who are quite influential on the design side of our games. One of the clearest recent examples of that influence is in the design of the female charr (on the right), a feline-like playabe species in Guild Wars 2. Many women in the company (including me) felt quite strongly that female charr should not be vaguely cat-like humans that you attach breasts to. The result is the female of the charr species looking every bit as powerful and deadly as the male, but with a more feminine appearance (at least, feminine according to human standards). And thus, in this instance, we have avoided the “if it’s female, just put breasts on it” approach to species design, an approach that is so personally aggravating in a great number of games. Fan reaction? Almost universally positive, with most fans using every superlative under the sun to describe the female charr design. Notably, many women have approached me personally, asking me to thank our developers for the way they designed the female charr.
Would the same thing happen in another company where there were fewer women? I’m not sure. I know that more diversity and more perspectives are better in game design. Game developers need to understand the perspectives of people who don’t have the same lived experience as them, because not everyone who buys a game will be a straight, white male.
The fact that we have as many women as we do in game development is unusual amongst game companies, where women tend to be highly represented in business development, marketing, public relations, and administration, rather than in game development. Having said that, we as a company and as an industry are nowhere near as close to the proportionate number of women out there who actually play videogames in general, which is about 40% of gamers. There is still a very long way to go in terms of the percentage of women working in game development at large, in roles in which they’re able to shape and influence game design.
This year, I attended the Game Developers Conference. I met many women game developers over the course of my week in San Francisco. Again, male game developers vastly outnumbered the number of women attending the conference. I had so many conversations with women game developers that week, and many of those conversations were discussions about sexism, inequality, discrimination, and hope. While many shared observations (and sometimes firsthand experiences) of sexism in the industry and rightfully griped about sexism in games and games marketing, all of the women I encountered were optimistic and hopeful for the future. There’s no other field they’d rather be in, and all of them were passionate about their work and ambitions.
As I ruminate on the goals of Ada Lovelace Day, I realise that I am fortunate to have met a many women in game development and to have a number of women to look up to, both within the industry and aspiring to get into the industry, as colleagues, as friends, and as people I only know of from afar, but admire nonetheless. I respect them for their friendship, professional and personal, for their advice, for their opinions, for their constructive criticism, for their intelligence, for their senses of humour, and for their examples of excellence. So, this post is for all of the awesome women in the games industry. May you continue to inspire by being your fantastic selves!
This post is part of Ada Lovelace Day, an international day of blogging (videologging, podcasting, comic drawing etc.!) to draw attention to the achievements of women in technology and science. You can read more about Ada Lovelace Day at the website.
Ada Lovelace Day: Nicholle Young
Mar 24th
I have been watching The Tester, the Sony PlayStation Network reality show, since the series first started. In the show, cast members compete for a position as a Sony PlayStation Quality Assurance Tester. Nicholle Young is one of the cast members of The Tester, and she graciously agreed to take time out of her busy day and participate in this interview on extremely short notice. In this interview, Nicholle shares her thoughts on what inspires her in games, a career in the industry, and diversity issues in games.
Read on for the interview!
Ada Lovelace Day: Tracey John
Mar 24th
I’ve been reading Tracey John’s work since her days at MTV Multiplayer. I recently met Tracey at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Tracey agreed to participate in this interview, despite her very busy post-GDC and pre-PAX East workload. So, a huge thank you to Tracey for setting aside some time for this interview!
Tracey John is a writer and journalist based in Brooklyn, New York. She has written feature articles about video games, technology, toys and geek culture at large for MTV News, The New York Post, NYLON Guys, ToyFare and Wizard. Her writing on the web can be found at Techland.com, Wired.com, Massively.com and many other sites. She currently is an editor at UGO.com covering tech, gaming, comics and toys.
Read on for our interview with Tracey!
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