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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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Tag Archives: Mass Effect
Boob Sliders, Or How Role-Playing Games Helped Me Transition
The following is a guest post from Samantha Allen: Samantha Allen is a transgender woman and an ex-Mormon. She is also a third-year PhD student in the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Emory University writing a dissertation … Continue reading
Missing the Point? An Examination of Reaction to Newtown
The following is a guest post from Dakin “Chilly” Lecakes: Chilly has been playing videogames since their beginning as a commercial product. He has a longtime perspective on gaming and tries to add a voice of sanity to the diverse … Continue reading
Omega: Writing one of Mass Effect’s wrongs
I’ve written here before criticising Bioware for only featuring male Turians in their Mass Effect series. As a quick reminder, Bioware essentially didn’t include female Turians because they had no idea how to denote female characters other than by adding … Continue reading
Posted in Console Games, PC Games
Tagged BioWare, character design, female characters, Mass Effect, omega, turians
17 Comments
Same Sex Romance and Mass Effect 3
Though rare, same sex romance options are not new to video games. We have seen them Jade Empire, The Sims, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and the Dragon Age series. But lately, BioWare has had some shining moments in this … Continue reading
Posted in Console Games
Tagged BioWare, game design, LGBT, Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, mass effect 3, sex, sexuality
29 Comments
Mass Effect 3 FemShep Trailer is Finally Here
Back in June of last year, in response to a group of passionate fans, BioWare announced that they would give the female version of Commander Shepard her own trailer. It was supposed to be released some time last summer, but … Continue reading
Posted in Console Games, PC Games
Tagged commander shepard, femshep, jennifer hale, Mass Effect, mass effect 3, trailers
84 Comments
Designing non-human females
Creating non-human species for games (or other media types) can’t be easy. You need to try to create a unique and interesting look, which retains some humanoid features for familiarity, but also has several alien features as well. You need … Continue reading
Posted in Console Games, MMORPGs, PC Games
Tagged arenanet, BioWare, character deisgn, charr, female characters, guild wars, Mass Effect, non-human characters, turians
84 Comments
Social responsibility in pop culture and video games
There is a great article today over on one of my favorite non-gaming blogs, This Ain’t Livin, about whether or not pop culture has social responsibility. While the post itself isn’t about gaming, there are definitely some intriguing thoughts within … Continue reading
The Border House Podcast Episode 1 Transcript and Call for Volunteers
Below is the transcript for Episode 1 of The Border House podcast. But before we get to that: we need your help! Transcription is a big job, so we are looking for volunteers who can transcribe 5-minute segments of the … Continue reading
Posted in Podcast, Site News
Tagged Dragon Age, Mass Effect, podcast, romance, transcript
10 Comments
Mass Effect Goes Multiplayer
After months of rumors and speculation, BioWare has confirmed that, Mass Effect 3, the final part of their space opera action RPG trilogy, will feature a 4-player online co-op mode. BioWare introducing multiplayer at such a late stage in the … Continue reading
Recommended Reading: the Women of Gears 3, the Case for a FemShep Movie, Sexism in Arkham City
There have been a lot of good posts and discussions relevant to The Border House this week, but here are three that I read that all deal with female characters and how they are treated by the games they are … Continue reading