I'm so proud of my team! And while I thought that this year would be a good year to not be able to actually watch the games, it's now clear I was wrong like a wrong thing.

Timelies, folks. Sorry I missed the GTA discussion, but I left the computer to go do real-life adult recreational stuff.

The Raq, look at the thread title. You don't truly miss any conversation here.

Heh. True enough. But normally people don't want to have the same conversation two days in a row. I'll let it skip a day.

Or not. One thing I've noticed about the whole kerfluffle (here and in the big wider world) is the assumption that games are for kids. This may be worth discussing.

In baby news, Mallory had his first honest-to-goodness belly laugh yesterday, not just the heh-heh-heh laughter. It was cool.

OK, my other computer-game discussion topic actually headlined on Yahoo! today: [link]

I game. I play all sorts of computer games. I have a very high tolerance for the sex-object stuff. But the belief that only men game, and that men want the in-game women to be prizes/decor is pervasive, and problematic. Not only is it leading to a preponderence of FPS games, and away from strategy and "God" games, it's stuck in the same place that early pulp sci-fi was with regard to women.

My problem with the unlockable sex in GTA? You have sex from the point of view of the man. Same is true for all the Japanese sex games. This gives the idea that the man is the active person in the sex act, and the woman is the passive person. You do sex "to" a woman. With GTA, you can argue that they are "playable movies" and that Tommy Vercetti (Vice City) and CJ (San Andreas) are scripted characters who do perceive women this way, and are straight (thus no potential male sex partners). You act as them, but you can't fully control how they act. When you play the game, you end up identifying with the character, though, so it's likely young men and women who play these games will start to perceive women this way also.

The Sims was way better for this (and, you know, not much controversy over the patch for The Sims that revealed the Sims having sex): male and female Sims were completely equivalent in how they seduced and got seduced.

And guess what? Women played The Sims.

Related but not fully on the same topic, in other FPS games like Quake and Unreal Tournament, the taunts that are scripted into the game have a gender bias. Players yell "Die, Bitch!" and "You whore!" You could argue that "whore" is non-gender-specific, but it's scripted to only be yelled at female characters. I complained about this in meatspace, and was told "those are real words that don't reference body parts. All the bad words for men are either only bad words, or reference body parts." What about "bastard?" (Note: you can turn "adult taunts" off, and then you don't hear these particular phrases. But if you have them on, I'd rather both genders got the same level of verbal abuse.)

And in the lightest example of sexism, but one that bothers me a lot, the Tom Clancy series got rid of female avatars in multiplayer. Ghost Recon doesn't allow me to use a female character. They have female characters in the single-player game, so they have done most of the coding and voice recording, so it's not like they saved a lot of work, but they didn't think anyone would or should play them in multiplayer. I hate having a man's voice to talk to my teammates.

But maybe they're right. There are few experiences more unpleasant than playing a female avatar in an open internet game, where you don't know the other players. People say the most horrible things. So is the market answering this urge, or is it reinforcing and therefore confirming urges that otherwise wouldn't come out?

And is the market accurate? Why don't women play games?

This is probably an essay for my future website, rather than a discussion, but I would be interested in the Buffista take on it.

I'm not particularly into gaming, but I've spent countless hours playing the GTAs, and I've generally done so with a big group of my girlfriends. Occasionally someone's boyfriend will join in, but for the most part it's a big ol' gang of girls playing. In all honesty, the sexist aspects of the game have never been a point of disussion. I think it's probably due to the fact that it's so otherworldly anyway, so removed that that it has no actual bearing on our reality. Though maybe we all just like beating on ho's.

Note: This week's This American Life includes a brief mention of the "myzled" misled thing.

made me laugh! TAL this week is so good and reminds me of certain people's arguing styles, especially the physics guy.

So is the market answering this urge, or is it reinforcing and therefore confirming urges that otherwise wouldn't come out?

And is the market accurate? Why don't women play games?

I don't play the games but I have a few thoughts.

First is that women are probably far more tolerant of playing make characters than vice-versa. It's probably a fair parallel to kids and fiction -- but now we see boys identifying with the Power Puff Girls so the lock is probably breaking.

If games are half fiction they're half, well, games. After a few decades of Title IX the notion that girls aren't athletic or compeditive, etc. seems quaint.

If there are fewer women playing games its likely that they feel unwelcome. And if there were more they'd feel more welcome -- maybe it will hit a tipping point?

But I'm mostly speaking out of my tush.

Jobma to ND.

In a little bit, I go get my toenails done. They need it. I'm trying to decide if I want black (again) or a French mani(pedi?)cure. Decisions, decisions.

Gronk. I was going to be good and do some cleaning and run errands before settling down to finish HP6 this afternoon/evening, but I woke up in a sinus daze. Maybe I can do the errands tomorrow.