It's been a long time since I've actually posted anything to this blog... I regret that very much. I often feel like my blog takes on its own persona when I think about how much I've neglected it. Like, despite how young our relationship is, it still has the power to guilt me like an old friend I've lost touch with. Our conversations often go like this...
Hello, Blog! Long time no see. How have you been?
Oh, right, like you really care.
No, seriously, I'm genuinely interested.
You know, you'd actually know how I am if you put forth a little effort to find out. Just thinking about me does very little to maintain a connection.
I know, I'm really sorry. I've been pretty busy with school and teaching...
Oh! And I don't get busy! Seriously, you can be such a ----
And then I usually try to snap out of it and realize my blog isn't a person. In an attempt to get back into the swing of things, I'll be finishing the history of my voyage into a long distance relationship with D, before dedicating future blogs to more current issues. I plan to include a summary gaming blog entry before I move on to my real time gaming blogging. So, without further ado...
I left off with my last historical blog right about the time D left for his doctoral program in San Diego, Fall 2009. As I said, we had spent the previous year and a half+ playing games together on his Nintendo Wii and I bought one (off his parents, actually) so that we could continue to play games together over wifi. Unfortunately, Nintendo doesn't have a great deal of games that can be played together using a wifi connection, and the ones that were available to us were often hard to play because I had a very crappy Internet connection. Eventually we devised a way to play offline games together, while Skypeing.
Our favorite game to play was Wii Sports Resort, more specifically the bowling games. We really enjoyed bowling together in real life (IRL), actually one of our favorite date night activities, so this was a natural extension of that. We each set up our laptops near our TVs so that it appeared as if we were facing one another while we played. We'd select a one-player game and then take turns - calling out our scores as we went along. My absolute favorite version of this game is 100-pin bowling. It's just so fun!
As we do IRL, we also drink beer while we play - and we've come up with a pretty specific set of drinking game rules to accompany this game. For the most part, when we play video games together, we maintain as close a resemblance to our in-person gaming experiences as we can.
Other Wii games we experimented with over the course of that first year include the disc-based Mario Kart, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and virtual console games Uno, Phase 10, TV Show King, and other trivia-based games. We would also spend time playing different games simultaneously while talking on the phone.
During D's first semester at San Diego, he purchased a Sony Playstation 3 (PS3) - which would up changing the entire course of our Long Distance Gaming Relationship (LDGR). In addition to having early Nintendo systems while I was growing up, I also had an original Playstation and had always been a fan (on the fringe) of that system. When I visited him over winter break we took turns playing the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which at the time I found incredibly difficult. For the remainder of that academic year, we continued to play games utilizing the Wii, but always suffered from the crappy and unreliable wifi connection and selection of games that effectively used it.
D returned to Ohio the summer between his first and second years (2010), bringing with him his PS3. We used it so much that summer that I eventually bought my own so that we could continue to use this system to play games together once he returned to SD. To this day, this remains our 'chosen system' when it comes to game play. We've transitioned through a great many games while playing together on this system - which will be the subject of my next blog!
This is a pretty interesting article about Saints Row: The Third that addresses the pure ridiculousness of the game and over-the-top portrayal of sex and sexism of both men and women.
I'm planning on renting the game and playing it --- then I will report back! Look out reader(s), haha.
I also have a blog post coming that will respond to my last discussion, about Dead Island and the potential sexism that was allegedly associated with its characters and gameplay.
As I said in my last entry, I'm going to continue talking about the stages of my relationship with D that led up to this project - and really my ability to claim even semi "gamer" status. But first, I'd like to share a few things.
I should probably quickly mention, though, that despite the fact that it's been some time since my last post - this blog has been on my mind a lot. I see a lot every day that I want to post or talk about and I somehow never make my way here to do it. I've never kept a blog or a diary or a journal of any kind before, and D has me convinced that's why I'm struggling with this: I'm not very good at talking about myself. And, if I'm going to be blogging about my relationship, then talking about myself is inevitable. Perhaps that's why I've been avoiding it...
I have been collecting articles to share on here and I will start with a couple that peaked my interest early on in this project, so as not to just link-dump all over this entry.
The following two articles (additional links to supporting information are littered throughout, but my main focus is on the two articles discussed in this paragraph) are about the game Dead Island, with which I have been slightly interested in since seeing some early promos online (probably on IGN, but I could be wrong), and, to be completely honest, am still kind of interested in despite this. Basically, according to Eykemans' article, someone got the game, ripped into the source code a found that a skill called "Feminist Whore" previously existed for one of the female characters. There's really no additional information other than it could have evolved into something called "Gender Wars" which gives that same female character a 15% damage bonus against men (Eykemans). However, according to Crecente, "Feminist Whore" was indeed the original name for the female character's existing skill "Gender Wars". A brand manager with the development company called the code "highly inappropriate", said that it was "inexcusably overlooked", that it was "considered a private joke" by the programmer, and apologized several times (Crecente). As usual, the real meat (and incredible sexism) is in the comments' sections of both articles. Plenty of "this is hilarious", "now I want the game more", "women/feminists/bitches/whores need to stop complaining and get back to the kitchen" to go around. I like the Kotaku.com article the most, I think, because there is one commenter trying to genuinely have a discussion about an underlying issue and no one will take them seriously.
This is the coverart (above) for the PS3 version (although, I'm pretty sure this is the cover art for every version) and a promotional still (below). The game itself is about basically what you would think from looking at it: zombies... and an island. Four characters on a fictional paradise-like island have to survive an apocalyptic zombie attack of which they seem to be the only non-infected/non-afflicted/non-dead (DeadIslandgame). I've never actually played the game and have only seen promos and game stills, but it looks pretty interesting... If you're into that sort of thing. Which I am. A trailer the DeadIslandgame YouTube Channel is below.
As stated above, there are four playable characters in this game - two of which are female, two of which are male. They're pictured above, back-to-back, in the middle of an assault. Starting with the female character in white (also pictured in the promotional still above) is Xian Mei - originally from China, she is an employee at the fictional resort on the fictional island, and described as "a fast learner, intelligent, and... quick on her feet" (DeadIslandgame). While this hero is not quite dressed to kill (zombies) she's at least slightly more clothed than a lot of female video game characters I've seen (which, I suppose, is something). All of the following character images (except Alice) come directly from the DeadIslandgame Character pages.
The male character next to her in the original character photo above is Sam B. Described as a "one-hit-wonder rap star of fading fame", this hero character was also an employee of the fictional resort (for one gig, at least) (DeadIslandgame). From his appearance and character bio, this character, in my opinion, is the embodiment of a stereotype - from the gold "B" chain to the low-rise jeans to the "history of drug and alcohol abuse" (DeadIslandgame). I'm hoping there's much more to his character than that...
Next to Sam B, is the second female hero character, and the one discussed in both of the articles that inspired this post, Purna. Purna was previously a police officer in Sydney who was fired for killing a wealthy and connected child molester (very SVU) and then became a bodyguard for VIPs (DeadIslandgame). It doesn't say who she was protecting, but I'm going to venture to say it was a guest at the fictional resort. I loved her character description immediately, not so much her attire (however, her accessories do make her look pretty badass, and she's finally not violating my very picky shoe rule*. She also looks strikingly similar to Alice from the first Resident Evil movie).
*Shoe Rule: No woman (read: NO! NONE! NEVER!) would ever run or battle zombies or aliens or monsters or freaking Decepticons (You hear me, Michael Bay??) in high heels or platform heels or spike-heeled boots or anything similar. It's completely impractical, illogical, irrational... and a total safety hazard. Nothing about women in action roles bothers me more than that. Which is what I like most about Purna (above) and Alice (below). Totally appropriate for ass kicking.
http://residentevil.wikia.com/Alice_Abernathy
The final hero character, the second male, is Logan. He's described as a "former American football star" who's spoiled and egotistical, but also bitter and in despair after a reckless car accident that ended both his football career and the life of his female passenger (DeadIslandgame). He is a guest at the fictional resort, trying to relax. I find his appearance the least offensive of them all, as I could conceivably see a person wanting to be more in this type of zombie-fighting attire than any other pictured above.
So, what's the point of this post? Well, this is partially to give me an opportunity to work through my feelings about the game, the characters, and that tiny piece of code. Since, again, I have not played it, and with the understanding that many first-person action/adventure games have great stories with a lot of character development, I cannot completely dismiss these characters for their face value. While they each embody an obvious stereotype, that could very well be the point... And, while the code was very offensive and absolutely does speak to the way in which women are viewed, treated, and dismissed every day. I have to say that I do see both sides of the issue.
The first being how offensive these female (and male!) characters appear to be and how ridiculously awful it is that "Feminist Whore" could ever be considered a "private joke" that was not only mentioned (surely) but actually written into a game. And also how insanely offensive many of the comments are to both articles - which only supports the argument about the treatment of women. The second that the company apologized and claimed to be holding the programmer responsible "for violating the professional standards and beliefs" of the company (Crecente). In addition to that, I'm actually just totally blown away by the fact that there are two playable female heroes built into the game. I've seen a lot of highly promoted games where the "heroes" are all male, or at least the default ones featured in the trailers and stills are. This game was compared to one in the Fallout by an IGN reviewer, who literally called it "Fallout 3 with zombies" (Miller). And, while I enjoy this franchise (almost exclusively from a spectator's perspective), for the most part it is promoted as if played only by a male character. You can, in fact, play as a female character and you often interact with strong female non-playable characters (NPC) - but you wouldn't really know that without owning (or renting or borrowing, etc.) the game and actually playing it. So, the highly publicized female characters from Dead Island excite me and make me want to play the game, more than some a-hole programmer's idea of "humor" makes me want to boycott it.
But, hey, I could be alone in that - any thoughts?
But I'm just too excited to focus right now. Plus, this is technically "work", isn't it?
It's Thursday, which is the night D (my partner) and I set aside for playing games and hanging out. That's just the arrangement for this semester - we've had a lot of other schedules for when we would hang out during the school semester, most of which have been far from "scheduled". So, before I start actually blogging about my experiences with these date nights, I thought I would start at the beginning and explain how our relationship has evolved from geographically close to geographically distant to virtual and where it is today.
When D and I started dating, we were both attending the same university and working on our MAs. One of the first nights we ever hung out, he bought Guitar Hero for himself as a birthday present and we played it for several hours. [Sidenote: Although D grew up playing computer and video games (mostly Nintendo systems), he had been "off" of them for a year or so before that night. In his previous relationship, his girlfriend didn't quite share these interests (putting it nicely) and he sort of purged it from his lifestyle. Buying Guitar Hero was a video game awakening for him, as well.] Over the course of the next couple of years, we played a lot of games together, mostly on the Nintendo Wii or one of the changing versions of the Nintendo DS. I had had a sporadic, tenuous relationship with gaming up until this point. Sure, I grew up playing video games (e.g., the original Tomb Raider and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for Playstation 1 were my games), but when I moved away from home for college the systems stayed at my parents' house with my siblings and I couldn't afford one for myself. So the new(er) world of gaming that D introduced me to hooked me pretty quickly. Some entire weekends we would spend completely in front of his TV playing Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King or Animal Crossing or some other more demanding games whose names completely escape me at the moment. We also made up several drinking games to accompany Friday or Saturday night dates. I can say that, right? I mean we were well over the legal drinking age...
At any rate, when D introduced the idea of going out of state for a doctoral program I was immediately super emotional and sad. I had no idea what a long distance relationship was like, how it would function, what to even do to maintain any semblance of the relationship we currently had... Clearly I'm good at handling change. Of his original options, one of them was New York, which would have at least left us the option of weekend drives to see one another. But it ultimately became a decision between two programs in California, and San Diego triumphed.
So then we were left with a future full of distances that included three hours in time and about 2500 in miles, and an accumulation of student loan and credit card debt to support air travel. We also had a summer to figure out what was going on with us before it all began.
I'm not here to talk about the horrors and triumphs of long distance relationships, by any means. But, I do feel it's at least important to give you some background information about what happened next and why it had such a profound impact on our relationship, my research interests, and the reason I'm involved in this project.
So that summer, the summer before D moved to San Diego, I bought a Wii. The summer after that, I bought a PS3. These two consoles have played a major role in the shape our LDR (long distance relationship) has taken. In both gaming and non-gaming related ways. I'll explain each of these in more detail in another post, because the 'preview' of this one has shown me it's incredibly long.
What I find the most ridiculous is, as you will all eventually see, the comments section. I have always been very intrigued by comment sections because some people always take the illusion of anonymity as an opportunity to be incredibly hateful. This article was no exception - particularly when the first comment I saw after reading it was something to the effect of "I can't wait to buy this and punch out my first set of girl's teeth". I may have grammatically prettied that up a bit, but you get the point.
