equality
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Hawken employees genderflip CEO's sexy lady poster, have a laugh
Hawken publisher Meteor Entertainment has a handle on the gender equality gig, with ladies making up a solid half of its executive branch, according to a female employee's post on The Hawkeye Initiative. "Our gender awareness standards, compared to the industry at large, are top shelf," she writes. "We are talking Amelia Earhart in Atlantis, at a five star resort, getting a mani-pedi from Jensen Ackles. I have it good." But CEO Mark Long (a dude, if that wasn't apparent) had a penchant for the sexy lady poster above (on the left, if that wasn't apparent), and the writer didn't particularly care for it. It was blown up to poster size and placed in his office so that it was the first thing the writer – and all visitors – saw upon entering, and the last thing when leaving. "This little lady's undermeats have been the open- and close-parens to my work world for the last six months," she described. "I loathe this picture." So she did something about it. The writer roped in a co-worker and artist, Sam Kirk, to whip up a gender-swapped version of the poster, which they named Brosie the Riveter. They blew it up to the same poster size, and on April 1, they swapped it with the female one in their CEO's office. When Long saw the poster, he flipped. But then he came up to the writer and said something truly touching: "That was a brilliant prank. You called me on exactly the bullshit I need to be called on. I put up pictures of half-naked girls around the office all the time and I never think about it. I'm taking you and Sam to lunch. And after that, we're going to hang both prints, side by side." And so they did. The end.
The Soapbox: Yes, Virginia, sexism still exists
About two years ago (two decades in internet years), I wrote a piece about sexism as it pertains to MMOs. I didn't write anything about it for a long while afterward because I would just be reiterating points that were stated in the first article, something I'm not fond of doing. But when I wrote another article praising a game for mostly getting equality right, well... I'm not fond of rehashing old points. But I'm also not fond of the idea that people have evolved from saying "it's not sexist" to "oh, there's no sexism here in the first place." As I said two years ago, there's a lot that MMOs get right that gaming in general still gets wrong. But there's also a lot that MMOs get wrong still. So I want to look at the issue, look at some of the common attempts to pretend it's not really an issue, and possibly provide some links of relevant interest. There are a lot of those.
Apple files statement with US Supreme Court backing gay marriage
Apple is among 60 companies filing a brief with the US Supreme Court in support of gay marriage nationwide. The iPhone maker will argue that gay marriage bans in 41 states are a detriment to workplace morale, harm employees and undermine recruiting, according to Bloomberg. The brief comes at a time when the Supreme Court will hear arguments about the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in the state in 2008. Apple, along with companies as diverse as Facebook, Nike, Office Depot, AIG, Barnes & Noble and more, hope its brief will spur President Barack Obama's administration to announce today that it will urge the Supreme Court to back gay marriage nationwide. The 60-strong conglomerate of companies are joined by another group of over 200 companies, led by Goldman Sachs Group, which will urge the Supreme Court to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, a law which defines marriage as a heterosexual union and bars gay couples from receiving the same federal tax breaks that heterosexual couples receive.
Why the NFL's Chris Kluwe will always be @ChrisWarcraft on Twitter
It's been a big week or two for Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe. Beyond his resolute focus on the field, the former WoW player has been juggling an avalanche of media interviews after lighting up the internet with a ferociously profane tongue-lashing on equality and gay marriage. When a Maryland legislator tried to tighten the screws on Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo's support for marriage equality, Kluwe unleashed a tirade on sports blog Deadspin that quickly went viral. "Your vitriolic hatred and bigotry make me ashamed and disgusted to think that you are in any way responsible for shaping policy at any level," Kluwe wrote. "I can assure you that gay people getting married will have zero effect on your life. They won't come into your house and steal your children ...They won't even overthrow the government in an orgy of hedonistic debauchery because all of a sudden they have the same legal rights as the other 90 percent of our population." While we couldn't actually print the Kluwe's most choice quotes on a safe-for-work site like WoW Insider, Kluwe most assuredly made his point. The Maryland delegate backed off, and Kluwe's been snowed under with interviews. One of those interviews was with yours truly at Tecca -- and we concluded our discussion with an email conversation about that other thing you've all been waiting to hear about: his love of gaming and history with World of Warcraft.
New Gamasutra feature looks to define fairness in MMOs
Buying power! Class Balance! Easy mode! We'd be willing to bet that those pharses invoke some pretty strong feelings in many of you. When it comes to MMORPGs -- especially those of the free-to-play variety -- fairness is often a huge concern. Whether it's in the form of class balance, content tuning, or buying to win, equality is a delicate subject. Mr. Simon Ludgate over at Gamasutra realizes this, and has put together an incredibly in-depth feature discussing the philosophy of fairness in MMORPGs. The feature is packed with star-power, with commentary from En Masse's Brian Knox, Trion Worlds' Scott Hartsman, Richard Garriott, and more. For the full, in-depth, and interesting feature, head on over to Gamasutra.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Content needs to meet the versatility of gear-upgrading
Last week I compared looting and class-bending in Runes of Magic with similar features found in RIFT. RoM's system of gear customization was a part of that article. This week, I want to talk business. Don't worry, I'm not a business major about to sling pie charts at you or talk about quarterly earnings. I want to talk a bit about business, specifically about how it might relate to decisions developers make concerning what kind of balance to put into an MMO. RoM's gear system is extremely flexible on the outside, but inside there are some restrictions. Some of these restrictions are imposed by the game, but some are imposed by players. In this week's Lost Pages of Taborea, let's take a look at how the flexibility and choice of RoM's gear system -- and other systems -- are in opposition to the game's content and some desires players have.
Female Shepard will play a greater role in Mass Effect 3 marketing
For years, when confronted with Mass Effect marketing materials, you've been asking yourself, "Who is that dude?" Trailers, toys, boxart ... he's everywhere. Not only is that dude bland beefcake, but everyone knows that Shepard is a woman. With that said, BioWare's Director of Marketing David Silverman noted on Twitter that the company recently had a meeting about incorporating female Shepard into marketing materials and "are working on the look now." Silverman also stated that the Collector's Edition of the game will have both Shepard genders on the cover. We can't wait to see generic man Shep paired with a powerful, black female Shepard. What? Shepard is a black woman! Everyone knows this.
Students recreate the civil rights movement in Second Life
Americans celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day this past week to honor both the man and the civil rights movement that he supported. As part of that celebration, a team of doctoral students from Indiana University of Pennsylvania used Second Life to recreate key moments in the civil rights movement as a teaching tool. Players who went through the simulation encountered critical junctures of the movement, including the Montgomery Bus Boycott, King Jr.'s beginnings at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, the 1963 March on Washington, and the Mississippi Freedom School Movement. By experiencing it first-hand in a virtual world, players hopefully gained a perspective on the issues surrounding segregation, integration, equality, voting rights and civil disobedience of the era that are in danger of slipping into distant history. As they moved through the simulation, players were able to take quizzes, look at photos and videos, and make personal choices relating to the movement, such as whether to protest or sit in the back of the bus. While it looks as though the simulation is no longer available in the game, you can watch the two-minute overview of the project after the jump.
Jennicide: Male players "need to be more accepting of women ingame"
Allakazaham has posted an interview with "Jennicide," who, as we reported previously, is not only a poker player and Playboy poser, but plays World of Warcraft as well. Unfortunately, she doesn't sound all that into the game (she does claim to have raided during a poker match, which is pretty awesome if true), but she does make an excellent point about Blizzard's marketing: as cool as William Shatner and Mr. T are, their ads could use a little more feminine touch, and they could certainly acknowledge all the women playing this game a little better.She also says that "guys need to be more accepting of women in game," and unfortunately she doesn't offer any solutions on how to make that happen, but it's good to hear someone say it -- just ask any girl who's been afraid to come on Ventrilo for fear that creepy guys will come out of the woodwork.All in all, Jennicide sounds like she's got a good head on her shoulders (and she does actually win a few nerd points for playing The Realm). Maybe she's right -- more high profile female players might help turn the image of gender in game a little more close to equal.
Niko's voice earned about $100,000 from GTA IV
The New York Times has an interesting piece this morning about how actor Michael Hollick earned about $100,000 for playing GTA IV protagonist Niko Bellic. Had the actor done the role for almost any other medium than video games, he would have received very generous residuals and royalties off the title, which made $500 million in its first week. The piece basically explores how all the actors in GTA IV would be rolling in dough had the work not been in video games.Of course, if the actor gets residuals, does the artist who "made" Niko get a cut? Although the actors provided voices, and apparently motion-capture, what about all the other people that worked on the creation of these characters? People aren't buying these games because of the actors, they're getting it because of the title and its associated gameplay. In time, this issue will probably come to a head (especially as the industry grows), but for now it comes off like actors whining while everyone else is getting a similarly bum deal. Maybe it's time the video game writers, artists and developers started complaining too? Union, union, union!
