Notes from the book
Chapter 1: Press F to revolt
- talk about the fact that gamification compels people to do things, sometimes against what they would do in real life (pg 23), also talks about the phenomenon of ‘grinding’ and how it can relate to the labour of repetitive tasks in the real world. Games motivate behaviour…
- They discuss the way that online trolling and activism can be gamified and how it’s real world impact can be minimised by the confusion of the real/ not real situations created by virtual environments
Chapter 2: Putting our hearts into it
- “Grieving, the purposeful use of digital affordances to destroy another user’s pleasure or freedom of movement, is a perennial practice, and women, people of colour and sexual minorities are targeted more than others” (p35)
- Interesting terms:
- Negative: white knight, social justice warriors (SJWs)
- Digital zinester
Chapter 7: Gaming Masculinity
- They did a small study of young men talking about their gaming experiences
- They commented on the fact that men from majority identities (white, cis gendered) never described these identities in their conversations about their game playing
- This fits with broader discussions about ways that identities can be active and hidden to those who are experiencing them and this presents a challenge for me in the design of the game as men may not want to think of their gender as a characteristic that needs unpicking or further consideration
Reflections and what next
I am surprised at how under-investigated some of these ideas seem. I need to find time to investigate some of the theories about gender and gaming more. In particular I need to find ways to involve men the the conversation about gaming and gender as they may not think that this is an interesting conversation to be part of. I might be able to take learning from other disciplines about this.
Reference
Kafai, Y.B., Richard, G.T. and Tynes, B.M. (2016). Diversifying Barbie and Mortal Kombat : intersectional perspectives and inclusive designs in gaming. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University, Etc Press.
