Tag Archives: characters

“That girl is kicking our asses!”: Tomb Raider’s (Lack of) Gendered Power Plays

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Jillian Scharr

The firefights in Tomb Raider are intense and brutal. There are many scenes where Lara is pinned down behind a splintered barrel or crate, shooting and ducking and shooting again at upwards of ten armed enemies, half of whom are … Continue reading →

Posted in Console Games, Virtual Worlds | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

No Excuses: It’s Time for More Female Protagonists

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Samantha Allen

If the game design of 2009′s Velvet Assassin were half as interesting as its history, I might be able to bring myself to play beyond the first mission. Velvet Assassin is loosely based on the story of Violette Szabo, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Console Games, General Gaming, PC Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 67 Comments

The Longest Journey and Dreamfall

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Mark Filipowich

Writing about the game that gave this site its name feels a bit like smugly opening a discussion about science fiction with “Did you know that Blade Runner is kind of a big deal?” But with creator Ragnar Tørnquist’s new … Continue reading →

Posted in General Gaming, Indie Games, PC Games | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Warcraft goes from Pygmies to Sherpa

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Pewter

The original version of this post appeared at Decoding Dragons. This is a difficult post. Not because it’s personal for me, but I feel like someone should say something. The casual cultural appropriation that Blizzard continues to practise is tiring, … Continue reading →

Posted in MMORPGs | Tagged , , , , , , , | 28 Comments

Religion in a faux-medieval world

Posted on January 16, 2012 by rho

I was thinking about the question of times when I’d played a role unlike myself in games and came to the conclusion that there were two entirely different ways this can come about. On the one hand, there are the … Continue reading →

Posted in Console Games, General Gaming, PC Games | Tagged , , , , , , | 40 Comments

Dungeons of Dredmor gets a female player character

Posted on January 2, 2012 by rho

I played quite a bit of indie roguelike, Dungeons of Dredmor, when it first came out in July. I enjoyed the game, but it annoyed me that I only had the option of playing a male hero. Eventually, I tire … Continue reading →

Posted in PC Games | Tagged , , , , | 18 Comments

Characters in Mario Kart 7

Posted on December 30, 2011 by rho

I’ve been playing a lot of Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS recently, and while I think it’s a great game, the character choice is extremely frustrating. Back in 1992, the original Super Mario Kart on the SNES featured eight … Continue reading →

Posted in Console Games, Handheld Games | Tagged , , , , , | 21 Comments

The Border House Podcast – Episode 3: Characters Done Right

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Mattie Brice

  Sorry for the delay everyone! But this episode, Denis Farr and I have a talk about Characters Done Right, and look further into how to succeed at creating diversity-aware characters. We are still looking for transcribers! If you can … Continue reading →

Posted in General Gaming, Podcast, Site News | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

League of Legends: SO MUCH character design fail

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Guest

Wundergeek is a straight, cis white woman who recently was asked to write an article about sexism in gaming and found she couldn’t shut up about it once the article was done. She’s since started Go Make Me a Sandwich, a … Continue reading →

Posted in PC Games | Tagged , , , , | 24 Comments

Playing Character Death

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Alex

Over the New Year holiday weekend, I played a lot of video games, finishing two of them. Coincidentally, both of those games contained scenes where you play as a character in an unbeatable scenario, where the character is eventually killed … Continue reading →

Posted in Console Games, Handheld Games | Tagged , , , | 29 Comments