Tag: Gaming

Father’s Day In Gaming

Video games are full of dads. Dads over here, dads over there. And why not? Games reflect society and guess what society has a lot of? Dads. Thus, in honor of father’s day, I thought we’d look at some the best and worst fathers in video gaming history. I’ve decided to break these dads into three categories: Bad dads, Sad dads, and Rad Dads.

BAD DADS

Dads sometimes like to be bad. Could be rebellion against the feelings of being tied down by a family, or pent up anger over their favorite sports team losing the big match (THE DENVER SLIM SLAMS GOT ROBBED, HUH HONEY!?), regardless there’s a lot of bad dads out there in video games.

-Heihachi (Tekken franchise)

Kazuya Mishima, my son, this is where you die. I will see you in hell!

Fighting games seem to have a lot of bad dads, but none seem worse than Heihachi from the Tekken franchise. I know the Tekken universe is a little insane, but let’s put that all aside and look at the terrible father that is Heihachi. Let’s look at some of the fatherly things hes done over the span of the series.

  • Throws his son into a ravine and forces his son to make a deal with the devil.
  • Throws his son into an active volcano.
  • Adopts a second child to fight his biological son.
  • Enters a tournament to beat up his son and adopted son.
  • Betrays his grandson to experiment on him.
  • Shoots his grandson into space. INTO SPACE.

So there you have it. His son wants him dead, his adopted son wants him dead, and even his grandson wants him dead. That said, he has a pretty sweet bear that loves the hell out of him.

-The King of the Cosmos (Katamari Series)

“It is not your fault. It is our fault for believing in you.”

Now you may be saying ‘THE KING OF THE COSMO IS THE GREATEST!”, and yes you’d be right. However, The King of The Cosmos is a terrible father. He’s constantly destroying the cosmos on accident on either drunken binges or haphazard tennis games that make black holes and then has the nerve to make his son clean up the mess. That would be all fine and dandy, but he doesn’t give his son the credit he deserves. He constantly talking crap about all of prince’s work making stars and then takes the credit for making the stars. WHAT THE HELL!? Nothing is good enough for this bad dad, not even creating an entire sun.  He’s just a lazy, glory hogging, careless, tyrant.

Honorable mentions:

  • Kratos: Killing your wife and kids, even if being tricked by a God, is still pretty bad.

SAD DADS

Let’s face it. There’s an odd amount of sad dads in video games. This could be because video games inherently make dads sad because they remind them of their forgotten youth, or because game developers use childrens’ death as a motive for plot progression and more developed characters more often than Mario saves Peach.

Joel (The Last of Us)

READ NO FURTHER IF DON’T WANT SPOILERS!

Joel is a mix of a sad and rad dad. The game starts with Joel desperately trying to protect his daughter from the onslaught of a mysterious outbreak. He tries hard, and in his attempt you see how much he loves his daughter even as she lays dieing in his arms. 20 years later he’s a sad, hardened dad. Unlike a lot of sad dads who sit around looking at pictures of their children, this sad dad has become the ultimate survivor. Of course, throughout the game he bonds with Ellie, a young girl that is thrust into his life, and shows that he still has the fatherly nature in him. DON’T BE SO SAD, SAD DAD.

END SPOILERS.

 Bowser (Super Mario Series)

Bowser isn’t a sad dad in the normal sense of a sad dad; you’ll never see him weep into a swansons tv dinner or grow a slovenly beard over missing his kids, but he is a tragic dad. Why? Because he’s a constant failure to himself and his kid/s. All Bowser ever wants to do is capture Princess Peach so she can be the mother of his kids. He’s desperate for a female role model in his kids life. Unfortunately he’s always foiled by Mario and his goons, but that doesn’t stop him from trying. Time and time again he fails, only to rise up again and again. He’s so tragic that his own kids have disowned him (See the Koopa Kids) and his only remaining son is now deranged in his own right. It’s Okay Bowser… It aint easy being king.

Honorable mentions: 

-Doctor Light: Doesn’t have kids, so he build some. They have to save the world and almost die with each step they take.

RAD DADS

Some dads are pretty rad. Hopefully your life is filled with Rad dads; dads who go to your ballet lessons and wait in the car listening to talk radio without batting an eye. Dads who give their Sundays up to take you to some kids party you’ll realize you hate years later. These are the rad dads that make up certain video games.

–Octodad

Octodad is a pretty rad dad. Why? It’s not only because he’s an octopus disguising as a human man to live a normal dad life of taking care of a wife and kids, it’s because he’s damn good at it. Contrary to naysayers who say “Octopuses can’t be good human dads!” or “He’d be as good at being a dad as an octopus could possibly be” Octodad blows all presumptions away by being an awesome dad regardless of being an octopus or not. Not only that, he does it while trying not to raise suspicion that he is an octopus; how many dads out there have to do that?

-Big Daddy (Bioshock Series)

Not all dads have blood relations to those they’re dads to, and Big Daddy is a great representation of that. What’s there to say that hasn’t been said about these massive, monstrous, creature dads in  metal suits whose sole purpose are to protect the hideous and evil little children that dwell in a post apocalyptic underwater city? Regardless of what’s been said, i’ll say it again: these dads are rad. Like mad sports dads who fly off the handle when their kids get fouled in a game, Big Daddies protect their young at all costs, and that’s a damn honorable trait.

Honorable mentions:

Hagger (Final Fight): He’s a the mayor of the city. That doesn’t mean he won’t kick some ass to save his daughter.

 

There’s some dads for ya. Let me know who your favorite video game dads are and why they deserve the respect of their peers and unsupportive children.

Fans Disappointed With Ubisoft’s Lack of Gender Choices in Upcoming Assassin’s Creed Unity

Fans Disappointed With Ubisoft’s Lack of Gender Choices in Upcoming Assassin’s Creed Unity

It’s been a fun week of demos, conferences, and mostly announcements for First Person Shooters. Between announcing games in which people shoot each others’ heads off, Ubisoft announced the newest entry into their Assassin’s Creed franchise. The game is the first game in the franchise to offer co-op play, allowing up to 4 players at once. That’s all fine and dandy, but fans are disappointed with Ubisoft for something besides them announcing another AC game; fans are upset that the game will feature no playable female characters. Alright, you may be saying “Hey, dingbat. Lots of games don’t feature female characters”, but it’s pretty silly when other games in the franchise have featured playable female characters. With 4 main protagonists in the game, surely they could have put one in.

So what’s Ubisoft gotta say about this lack of gender choices?

“It’s double the animations, it’s double the voices, all that stuff and double the visual assets…Especially because we have customizable assassins. It was really a lot of extra production work.”

DOING THINGS FOR BOTH MEN AND WOMEN IS HARD. I get it, it’s true that having to animate, design, and whatever else a female character would add production time to the game, but really? For a company like Ubisoft, who has been releasing an Assassin’s Creed game almost annually, to play the workload card is a little absurd. How about spacing the games out a little more to add this one customization in? The company went on to explain that designing a female character is increasingly difficult because they  don’t have a”female reader for the character” at their disposal, nor do they have “all the animations in place.” A spokemen went on to explain that designing a female character is different from a male one, because they look, act, and walk different. After he said that, the world smallest violin was played for him.

It’s not only fans reacting to the statements of Ubisoft either, as other game developers have added their voice to the subject matter.

Jonathan Cooper of Naught Dog calling  them out for being both lazy and…incorrect? This one  from Tim Borrelli from 5thcell is in response to female characters looking and acting different.

One last one from industry types (I forget who they are with)

All in all, fans and developers aren’t happy with Ubisofts response and laziness on the matter. Come on Ubi, you’re not an independent developer struggling here; the Assassin’s Creed franchise is a huge one and we expect more out of they. They should probably use some of that Babyz and Dogz money to fix this fiasco, but we probably won’t see that happen. Who knows how this will change future Assassin’s Creed games or ever the upcoming Unity.

BLOG NEWS!

For those who subscribe or check in regularly, you may notice the domain has lost the “wordpress” and is not just a .com! Exciting times people. We are now a registered domain! Will the blogs level of terribleness lessen? PROBBBBABBBLLLLYYYY NOOTTTTTTT

 

 

2014 Nielsen Report on Video Game Consumption

2014 Nielsen Report on Video Game Consumption

The folks over at the Nielsen Report (You know, the people who tell you that your favorite show will probably get canceled) have released their 2014 report on video game consumption. The Nielsen report is more of a general observation on video game consumption that other outlets. For a more detailed look, I recommend checking out the ESA’s 2014 report on video game consumption.

So what do these guys named Niels (I assume everyone that compiles this data is named Niel) have to say about video game consumption?

#1: People are spending more time playing video games!

Up from 2012 and 2011, gamers are putting more hours into gaming each week. This would mean that the average gamer puts a little less than an hour of gaming in a day. Neato.  That’s an extra hour of Pokeymans than last year! This increase could very well be due to the increase of popularity in mobile games, which enables players to play on the go.

#2: The number of console gamers who also play on mobiles is increasing!

This isn’t that surprising. As smart-phones and tablets become more and more common place so does the amount of gamers playing games on these devices. You’re not going to not playing games on a mobile device you already have, right? I mean that would be insanity…so of course I will devote days of my life to “Candy Crush” like the electronic heroine that it is.

#3: Mobile Games/Tablets are increasingly growing in the amount of gaming time played!

Although the number of hours spent on gaming is increasing, much of the share of the time is being given to mobile and tablet games. However, console games are still the norm and still make up the majority of gaming time spent. Likewise, newer consoles (Wii U/Xbox One/ PS4) are gradually building audiences while last generation consoles still make up the majority. We’ll probably see this percentages shift in the next two years, but as of this year many gamers have yet to make the jump to next gen.

That’s pretty much all the Niels have to say. Not real revelations, but interesting nonetheless. It’s pretty nifty to see in numbers the increase in popularity that video games are having. As these numbers grow, it becomes increasingly more pertinent that we evaluate all the sociological issues around video games. If only someone would do that…instead of what we’re doing here, which only amounts to nonsense.

NOW ONTO E3 WHERE ALL OF OUR DREAMS AND NIGHTMARE WILL COME TRUE!

Libertarism and Video Games: A match made in heaven? Poll Says So.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/video-games-and-libertarianism-go-hand-in-hand-poll-finds/1100-6419549/

 

A Ron Paul video game already exist. No “Take Nap” bonus level included.

A poll coming out of the magazine “Reason”, a libertarianism magazine, finds that there might be a correlation between libertarian beliefs and playing video games. Should gamers be flocking to the polls for Rand Paul, or is this all just bogus. WHO IS TO KNOW, PROBABLY NOT GOVERNMENT.

I won’t delve to much into the poll itself, but the poll was administrated by the magazine to gamers to get their beliefs about fiances and consumerism. The poll found that gamers had leaning towards libertarian beliefs, despite the majority of gamers classifying themselves as liberal.

“If there’s any one trend to take away from a poll looking at gamers it’s that gamers don’t like to be told what to do with their lives,…Again, they may describe themselves as liberal, but they do not like government policies that control individual life choices, like what products they can purchase or consume. Video games are all about making choices, right? That’s one mentality that does carry over in real life.”

Hey, ok. Having not seen the actual poll questions, I can’t comment on how slanted the questions were, but certainly one has to take a poll from a libertarian magazine making claims about libertarianism with a major grain of salt. Saying that this poll may have a political slant is a huge understatement. That said, the claims of “not liking being told what to do”  as an indicative  of libertarian beliefs in gamers is a little hard to chew. Even the most liberal individual probably won’t say they “like being told what to do” in regards to their consumer habits. That statement is about as libertarian as donkeys (Get it, because…they’re…democratic).

Some of the “libertarian beliefs” gamers have are:

A significantly larger percentage of gamers than non-gamers believed that they should be allowed to buy caffeinated energy drinks, play violent video games, and gamble in online poker games. They also supported legalizing marijuana and 3D printed guns in greater numbers. The biggest difference was gamers’ support for using Bitcoin as a currency. 55 percent of gamers were in favor compared to 30 percent among non-gamers.

I…don’t even know where to pick this apart. It’s pretty silly trying to relate most of these beliefs to a political philosophy , but of course that is what this magazine is trying to do. It would only be more absurd if the claims were “Libertarians drink mountain dew and so do COD gamers! REVELATION!?”  Again, having not seen the actual poll itself, I’m only commenting on the purposed results of the poll, but it seems that the magazine is drawing correlation where there isn’t really much. It’s our job as good sociologist and gamers to question these sorts of pieces, as having the backing of gamers is something many groups may want; They want to play with power.

That’s all for now. Silly poll, silly conclusions. I should have probably put that up front to save you time from reading this articles. TRICKED YA SUCKER.

Pollster Finds Correlation Between Having Tattoos and Video Games, Sociologists say “Duh”

Poll finds big changes in American life

Pollsters Find a Correlation: Tattoos and Video Games

Video_Game_Tattoos_13

This week the Wall Street Journal revealed their results of a poll gauging American lifestyles and habits. Among other rising trends in young adults, video games and tattoos have stood out as prominent habits in American lifestyle. The rise of video games isn’t surprising since, as we’ve discussed on this blog before, the percentage of Americans playing video games is growing more and more each year. However, the poll has found a overlap in the number of people playing video games and having tattoos.

Wait, there may be gamers that tattoos? SHOCKING.

Pollsters Bill McInturff, and Fred Yang found considerable overlap between tattoo households and people who said they play videogames, though they didn’t know exactly why that is beyond both videogames and tattoos holding more appeal to “younger, downscale respondents.”

You don’t need a doctorate in Sociology to begin to hypothesize why there’s an overlap between the tatted and gamers, it’s fairly obvious that the driving force is that both mediums appeal to a younger demographic. However, as the population of Americans who play video games has grown beyond 50%, the correlation between Video Games and anything begins to weaken. If the majority of the population are playing video games, then it’s reasonable to make the prediction that many niche groups (In this example, people with tattoos) will probably be doing that activity as well. Thus, it’s not really news for “young group A” to have a correlation with playing video games, as that’s the majority of the population for young adults. MORE WORDS TRYING TO EXPLAIN THINGS.

Now that video games are gradually becoming melded into American sociolization, isn’t it time that we start to accurately discussing and evaluating the medium for the increasing part of society that it is? Let’s stop being surprised that people are playing video games. Hopefully we’re doing our own part here to increase the awareness about the study  and discussion of video games.

That looks painful…

More Video Game Tattoos

ESA: 2014 Facts and Stats About Video Game Consumption

The Entertainment Software Association has released their annual report about video game consumption and demographics. For those new to the ESA, these statistics are gathered by the foremost collectors of video game demographics and stats in the industry. Here is the entire report for 2014 in PDF Form. Give it a read, it’s quick and very easy to read.

The ESA is super helpful for anyone interested in video games and sociology, as they do all the grunt work to figure out gaming population and trends.

Last year I posted the 2013’s report in some dept, but let’s see what has changed, stayed the same, or is new.

whos playing

The number of people playing video games has increased! Compared to last year, the percentage of people playing video games has increased from 58% to 59%. That means more and more gamers are becoming the norm.

digi

Digital sale of video games have surpassed physical sales of video games. What does this mean? This means that less physical games were sold in 2013 than digital video games. This is majorly due to the increase of popularity of mobile apps and online digital purchases, but it is interesting nonetheless. Now that it is easier to download games online over avenues such as the app store or Steam it is becoming more and more apart of the norm.

Who is the average gamer?

Although the demographics aren’t that different from last year, it is still worth looking into the average gamer:

whois

The industry is steadily growing to be a more adult one, with AAA titles mainly being made for gamers 16+. That said your average gamer is still an adult male, but more and more women are becoming apart of the gaming sphere; they’re really closing in! This could be in part due to the increase of popular mobile games aimed and women and girls, but also due to women becoming PC and Console gamers as well.

That’s all I’ll say about this years findings for right now, but please do go and read the ESA’s finding for 2014: they have an array of information from demographics to sales. I’ll try and edit or expand on these demographics and stats in the near future.

ESA Website

 

The Sociology of Video Games’ 1st Anniversary

Today marks one year since I registered The Sociology of Video Games

The cake is a lie. No cake was baked.
The cake is a lie. No cake was baked.

It’s been a year of sociologically relevant news, looking into racist games, and failed attempts at humor.  I can’t thank everyone who has supported the blog over this past year, you’ve help keep me motivated to post and share my interest in sociology and video games. I do hope the blog has been worthwhile for those who have subscribed and commented. With your help the blog has really taken off: we’re the first thing that pops up when you search “sociology video games” on google, and we’ve seen links to articles and post spring up in all sorts of awesome places.

The responses and feedback I have received has made up keeping this blog all the more worthwhile. I’m humbled by many of the responses I have received, and I’m glad so many people have found the blog to be worthwhile.

What does the future hold?

I intend to keep building the blog. I would love to see the blog become a place for people interested in sociology and video games to come, discuss, and share resources. In the near future I intend to make the transition to a full fledged website/blog that will provide outlet for discussion, outside contribution of articles or posts, and resources for those interested in sociology and video games.  I’m continuously trying to expand the blogs presence, so hopefully one day we’ll see these goals come to fruition.

I would love to hear from other fans of sociology and video games. Although this blog has been a solo effort, it would be great to share this blog and subject matter with those who are interested. So please let me know if there’s anything you’d like to contribute, share, or see more.

Things The Blog will Introduce in Year 2 (One of these is real!)

tails_out7tsm– A sidekick blog character that appeals to a younger audience and has more appendices than normal!

-6 readable authors, 5 of which are just clones of the original.

-Rideable dinosaurs!

-8 New Robot masters.

-More than 150 new articles, even though you were told in the previous year that only 150 articles in total existed. (Honestly, how hard did they even look?)

– More articles and silliness.

Wired – Nintendo’s New Key To Creativity: More Women

http://www.wired.com/2014/03/animal-crossing-director/?mbid=social_fb

Wired has a new article this weekend about Nintendo’s new strategy for creativity in their development process: adding more women to their development teams.

The article notes the success of Animal Crossing New Leaf, which has been  an all around success for Nintendo. It’s a great game for doing mundane tasks and filling the empty void in your life with fake furniture and appeasing talking animals. More remarkably:

Since its release in 2013, New Leaf has sold 7.38 million copies worldwide, and is credited by Nintendo with helping the handheld 3DS system reach 42.74 million units sold. It also boasts another striking statistic: Nearly half of the Animal Crossing: New Leaf game development team was female. And according to Eguchi and Kyogoku, the two are far from unrelated. Indeed, they believe that the diversity of their team was crucial to their game’s success.

However the bigger story is that they intend to further this success with applying the same belief to future games, which means we may see more female development staff on future Nintendo games.

I won’t go too much farther than that, as you should go read the article, but it is an important step in making Nintendo a more diverse company. If Nintendo, who has been slow to adapt to change in many parts, can begin to diversify, then perhaps we’ll begin to see it throughout the industry. And that, my friends, will be a great thing.

For More Reading:

Is Nintendo Being More Gender Inclusive?

New Study Suggest Video Games May Be Enforcing Racism

They did it everyone. They found the link between playing video games like Kirby and being a bigot…Well, not really. However, A recent study coming out of Ohio State University has found some interesting findings regarding racism and video games. This study may make your reconsider your next gaming choices.

In Saints Row you can be a thug of any race or gender! Or not, I haven’t played it.

Published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science the study questioned what  happens when white video game players find themselves playing as black video game characters in violent video games. The first experiment had 120 white students play the violent video game Saints Row. Participants were randomly given either a white protagonist or a black protagonist in the game. Furthermore, players were given one of two missions – break out of prison or go to a chapel without harming others. After each play sessions participants were given the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to reveal any hidden biases they may have had by having participants link white and black faces to either negative or positive categories. The results found that players that were using black avatars were more likely to link negative categories to black faces than those who used white avatars. Similarly, it was found that players who played the more violent mission were more likely to agree with the statement “It’s really a matter of some people not trying hard enough; if blacks would only try harder they could be just as well off as whites”.  Yeesh, that’s harsh.

We’re getting into some scary findings here kiddos, but it doesn’t stop there. A second experiment was conducted to further these findings. In this follow up experiment, 141 more white college students were asked playing either WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2010 or Fight Night Round 4. As in the previous experiment, participants were assigned either a white or black avatar and then given the IAT to measure their biases. However, after each play sessions participants had the opportunity to give their unseen partner (presumably their opponent) a punishment in the way of hot sauce, which the participants knew they disliked. The results found were inline with those of the previous experiment; players who played as black avatars were more likely to associate negative categories with black faces than those who played as white characters. In regards to the hot sauce portion of the experiment, players who played as black avatars gave their partners 115% more hot sauce than those who played as white avatars. Clearly, something about playing as black avatars makes white players want to dish out some hot sauce.

What this suggests is that something about playing as black avatar characters, especially in violent scenarios, reinforces negative stereotypes about the black community in white video game players and makes them more aggressive towards others. While it’s a general perspective to believe that more minority characters will make general audiences more empathetic to people of colors, this study suggests that negative and unbalanced minority characters may only fuel further racism and bias. Regardless of this study’s findings or not, clearly there is a lack of balanced and progressive minority characters in the video game industry.

gtav-screenshot1

One thing the study does not do is offer reasons why this may occur, other than their go-to embedded racism. Embedded racism may be the perpetrator, but one must consider that there may be something more at work. It would be interesting if the same experiments would be done with a control group of only black video game players: would the same results be found or would the results be flipped. One consideration the study does not offer is disassociation: players could potentially be more likely to be more aggressive when they have a further distance between themselves and their character. Not relating to their character on race may be making players relate less, and thus become more aggressive and more likely to act out. Of course this doesn’t offer a solution as to why they would be biased towards racial stereotypes, but it’s a consideration.

This study tells us something that we already know: negative characters lead to negative attitudes and actions. Playing as a violent killer is negative, regardless of the race of the character or player. I’m not suggest we pacify or censor our games, but instead me more conscious of the media we’re consuming and how it effects us. It often is more fun to be violent in a video game than not, but perhaps we should only be giving our gaming palettes opportunity to be violent.

IGN: Why We Need More Gay Characters

IGN: Why We Need More Gay Characters

Here is a link to a great piece by Luke Karmali of IGN about the lack of gay characters in video games. While he does note that representation and inclusion are up considerably in the last few years (mostly in part due to western studios such as Bioware and Naughty Dog), it is still an uphill battle to get proper and adequate representation for the LGBT community in gaming.

"Gone Home" is one the few games to feature a LGBT relationship.
“Gone Home” is one the few games to feature a LGBT relationship.

Growing up is hard. Growing up in a world where you find it nigh on impossible to catch sight of someone you can relate to is harder. The inclusion of gay characters in games leads some to believe that one day there will be no heterosexual characters they can choose to play as, that this is a slippery slope that will inevitably cause entire entries in popular franchises to be populated exclusively by LGBT characters. Such a premise is ludicrous. It’s also the exact reverse of what’s facing young lesbian, gay, bisexual and especially transgender gamers – who are represented even more poorly still – in most titles today.

I won’t say much more about the article, as the author has already said everything much more elegantly than I could ever, so please take some time and give the article a read.  For more articles about the LGBT Community and Gaming, check out these articles:

Can Video Games Alleviate LGBT Bullying

Kickstarter for Documentary about LGBT Community in Games