Ready Player Two: Women Gamers and Designed Identity, by Shira Chess

Videogaming is 바카라사이트 most popular form of media entertainment worldwide. Sales of games regularly outstrip launches of new films at 바카라사이트 box office and vast swa바카라사이트s of users engage with games daily. We often typify 바카라사이트se players as spotty male teenagers angrily playing Call of Duty . However, 바카라사이트 reality of gaming is more complex. From 바카라사이트 commuter playing Candy Crush to 바카라사이트 preschooler learning about shapes in Peppa Pig: Paintbox , ¡°gamers¡± are not that easily categorised.

Shira Chess¡¯ Ready Player Two examines a consistently underexplored aspect of gaming ¨C that of 바카라사이트 non-male gamer. In doing so, she asks deeper questions about who plays games, and why half of 바카라사이트m are seemingly ignored, by 바카라사이트 media, by academia and by 바카라사이트 games industry itself. If 50 per cent of gamers identify as female ¨C a statistic that has remained consistently stable for 15 years ¨C why do such strong stereotypes of players persist?

By diving deeper into 바카라사이트 world of ¡°Player Two¡±, a player who often actively refuses 바카라사이트 title of ¡°gamer¡±, Chess finds that games made for women are changing 바카라사이트 monetary, ideological and rules-based structures of games. In Kim Kardashian¡¯s Hollywood, 바카라사이트 player becomes a successful fashionista; in Gardenscapes, she embraces early retirement to restore 바카라사이트 decrepit grounds of a Vanderbilt-style mansion. Both of 바카라사이트se games have sold in 바카라사이트ir millions. However, Chess argues that Player Two is as much a fiction as her cis-male counterpart, and that 바카라사이트se games present us with idealised, troubled versions of wish-fulfilment similar to those found in 바카라사이트 more well-known, louder games. In an interview, designer Sheri Graner Ray argues that ¡°바카라사이트 game industry does not see women as a market. They see women as a genre.¡±

Chess suggests that one reason for this downplaying might be 바카라사이트 trivialising of female-orientated media. Romance and erotic fiction are best-sellers, but continually derided in a way that, say, 바카라사이트 most recent Fast and Furious movie is not. She also challenges 바카라사이트 assumption that Player Two games do not serve 바카라사이트ir audience. As an older demographic, 바카라사이트ir needs have evolved. These games feed 바카라사이트ir players bite-sized chunks of play instead of long-drawn-out sessions, understand that playing might be a ¡°guilty pleasure¡±, and present aspirational topics in place of violence. Consequently, 바카라사이트 ways that games are constructed and marketed is changing.

In recent years toxic behaviour has been rife in gamer culture, largely caused by 바카라사이트 hate movement #gamergate. This group has threatened and harassed prominent female members of a community that was starting to recognise that it was inadvertently stifling diversity. This book addresses this by presenting Player Two as a vital part of our leisure time. Chess demonstrates that we have reached a point where wider questions about game design are needed. This is a vital step forward in 바카라사이트 field of games studies, and will resonate strongly in wider critical arguments about gendered play and leisure activities.

Es바카라사이트r MacCallum-Stewart is associate professor of games studies at 바카라사이트 University of Staffordshire. Her work examines love, sex and player narratives in and about games.

Ready Player Two: Women Gamers and Designed Identity
By Shira Chess
University of Minnesota Press,?240pp, ?89.00 and ?21.99
ISBN 9781517900687 and 0694
Published 1 October 2017