Gender in Games

There is a lot of past conceptions that women are not large fans of video games. This conception has also led to a reduced number of female workers in the gaming industry.

Due to games becoming more popular, everyone is presumed to having access to either a pc or console within their household. If we are to follow a graph that was established back in 2009 then it is believed that on average there is an equal number of women to men gamers. This could have potentially increased upon the previous years and may be even more equal than before.

Also, to develop upon the idea of segregation there is clearly a higher percentage of men in the games industry than woman, especially in the programming section. This is believed that it is stereotyped towards the previous connotations that programming and games are 'nerdy' and 'un-cool'.

Below is two charts, the top one detailing the examples of how many men and women play games and the second being used to display the percentage of male to female workers in the games industry.

 

Also, in another note in relation to women in the gaming industry there is a single idea that a woman by the name of Brandii Grace. Grace is hoping to open up a triple A games studio, and by doing so will offer a woman's experience to gaming. Through this she hopes to create more games that will be emotional and offer more to a gamer than violence and excitement through ideas such as being a divorce lawyer and other similar examples.

Narrative in games

Chris Crawford explains multiple features that are crucial when attempting to create a narrative. One of the first topics he addresses is the structure of the media.

The main topics that brings up is how the structure is placed and uses the itsy bitsy spider story to show them off. These topics are:

A protagonist
A conflict
A struggle
A moral
A resolution

These are all necessary components that are required in order to establish a strictly structured narrative.
This teaches the first lesson that is to follow the strict requirements for a story structure.

Games have a tendency to avoid this and as a result do not always have a powerful narrative.

The second lesson is that people are the most interesting thing ever and stories focus upon this. This reference does not have to be absolute, the person could be anything in a metaphorical sense. There are films that apparently 'revolve' around items but instead they are about the story of the person holding the thing, such as Frodo and the ring in Lord of the Rings.

There is always a conflict in a story, whether it is a major conflict such as a war or a minor conflict such as being late for a bus. Games are experienced in the simplest form of conflict which is violence.

Games also involve puzzles, however the third lesson is that puzzles are not necessary to a story.

Choices are an important and often a story is built up around the idea of the protagonist making the single key choice.

Spectacle is another method of telling the narrative, utilising exotic imagery to allow the viewers to enjoy the sight. Lesson number four is learned from here and that is how spectacles do not make a story.

Many forms of media focus on the image, and this is especially so in video games. This idea of visually thinking has conquered the worlds thinking. The lesson involved with this is that visuals do not dominate story telling.

Next up is spatial thinking and the idea of a story being told in the appropriate space. When describing distance it does not matter in relation to the drama, such as travelling for 'days'. In most stories this is not important to the viewer and this leads to the lesson that stories are told on a stage, and not on a map.

Dramatic time will not be the same as reality, often jumping forward or backwards in order to add to the confusion of the drama.

Writing Rules in Games.

Rules are the most important aspect of games design; in a non-digital game if the players are not able to understand the rules then they are also unable to play the game.
The rules need to clarify everything that is found in a game, making sure the players are able to completely understand the game and will not question everything. However, it is also necessary that the rules are as brief as possible, this means that the player will not need to read a tome of writing and get bored before even starting the game.

There are some important things to remember when designing rules :

1. Flavour first. Utilise a narrative if it exists. It will help tie the game rules together.

2.Get the boring stuff out of the way. Always list what the game needs and how it is set up after establishing the narrative, if it is too wordy then utilise an illustration.

3.Begin with the end. Always offer the objective first, as this is the win condition. This will be easy to find so that the players can understand how to win if they forget.

4.Go from general to specific. Similar to an inverted pyramid. Explain the general rules first before narrowing down and going into specifics. A way to think about this is to explain the rules of what is most likely going to happen before explaining what is less likely to happen.

5.Tell the players what they can do before saying what they cannot. The first rules are established as the primary rules this way, allowing the following rules to either change the former or not be in a state where the primary rules are applied.

Finally make the rules less serious and informal, unless the nature of the rules is to be strict and formal.

Utilise short sentences, simply vocabulary and include white space to make the rules easier to read.


Jacob Davenport further develops on the above rules that were written by Scott Jon Siegel.

If we explore Jacob'x writings he agrees with the above to an extent. In his opinion, anything extraneous should not be added to the rules unless necessary. This would contradict with Siegel's writing about being less serious and more fun when writing rules.

Other than the above, Davenport expands upon the rules by writing that your rules should be able to be read out loud to another and then they are able to start playing your game with little confusion. He also brings up that bullet points and white space are important, similar to Siegel.

Get the rules reviewed by people who know nothing about your game, and if they are unable to explain them to another without translating certain points then be prepared to re-write the rules to make them easier to understand and interpret.

Include interpretations of rules to prevent the above issue, such as issuing examples in italics to be read and reinforce the rule.If more clarification is needed then include it later on, perhaps as an appendix.

Finally, be prepared to consider how the rules would be used and write them as necessary. Always review and include the feedback and comments when designing or re-designing the rules in order to make them as accessible and understandable as possible.

Games Journalism

There are two types of Games Journalism, the older version from when Gaming journalism began and the more emerging new version.

New Journalism is an example of experimentation with journalism. This form of journalism focuses on putting the writer 'into' the text through the use of his experiences, whilst Old journalism is more centralised around delivering an objective idea of the experience. If we were to explore an example of this type of journalism then Youtube is an ideal media to examine. Due to the large number of independent game 'reviewers' and lets players there is often a large number of personal reviews that utilise New Games Journalism to offer their independant opinion on the game in the hopes that they will be able to reach out to their viewers and convince them to purchase, or simply enjoy watching, that particular game.

New journalism utilises the idea of having fun with facts and explaining a topic in a more humerous and personal manner. By an extension of this, New 'Games' Journalism focuses more on the writer explaining the game through his own experiences with it and what he achieved or 'achieve.
Old Game Journalism does not explore this personal relationship and instead strives to deliver an objective report on the different parts of a game. Typical examples of Old Games Journalism would be found in certain video game magazines, such as PC Gamer. These reviews are designed to focus upon the technical aspect of video games that are reviewed, and sometimes a small amount of personal opinion in order to enhance the overall article.

These two different types of games journalism offer a very different perspective for the consumers when dealing with journalism in relation to a video game. If a player would like to understand more about the game in relation to the technical issues they should explore an article that follows Old Game Journalism, whereas if you would rather explore a personal opinion and play-test of a game then you should follow New Games Journalism.