Absolutely. As someone who has been very into gaming for over 30 years all of that stuff was pretty obvious under the surface, but I think it really surprised people as it boiled over into the (semi) mainstream for a little while.
Same. A lot changed very quickly, but it hasn’t gone away, and there’s definitely a story there in terms of how the art, design, etc. catered to male fantasy and how that shaped spaces and attitudes.
Yeah. I think games are made better than they used to be in that regard, but it's far from perfect. The community as far as I can tell is just as toxic and horrible as before. (E.g. see the crying over pronouns, Aloy not being pretty enough etc.)
I lived through Gamergate, so I’m definitely familiar. :) I’m thinking more of an over-arching history—the broader arc that GG was part of (I’ve been gaming since I was a kid in the 80’s).
Very possible. They were many articles and some scholarly monographs post-gamergate, but there was a real backlash and several cases of fans piling onto women game devs, leading to some of them being fired. Since then, I suspect mainstream publishers are reluctant to touch it.
And there was that bs from the “Sad Puppies,” adding to the general unpleasantness when trying publish about anything to do with women (or queer people, or people of color. 🙄)
Every time i see a gygax quote i learn more about just how much he sucked. Still have yet to see anything that takes the cake from the time he said killing orc babies was lawful good, citing a guy who committed acts of genocide against Native Americans.
Amazing how many problems with D&D even today originate with gygax being a petty, bitter dipshit. Not only with racism and misogyny, but also in small ways like barbarians having problems because he hated the Conan movie.
Thanks for recommending me ❤️ Sexism and DnD isn't my strength (although I found "The Privilege of Play" very interesting in that regard although it's focused on race and not on gender) but for digital games, I can think of a couple of interesting titles that go back to the 70s/80s as well.
Out of the top of my head: "Hot Tubs & Pac Man" by McDivitt and "Coin-Operated Americans" by Kocurek would be my first recommendation and there's also a special issue of Feminist Media Histories from 2020 on Feminist Games/Gaming Histories that's probably a great place to start.
This book is specifically about women’s wins in the industry + how much of what we play today came from them; it’s not focused on the people who tried to hold them back. It comes up in several stories but isn’t the focus
Comments
https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/raiders-of-the-lost-arcade/womens-history/learn-more
https://press.etc.cmu.edu/file/download/1005/0f2082a2-f750-41c6-bbe0-e6a2547eb333
Misogyny Dungeons Dragons
There's more where that came from I think. 🙏
This has a title and a half: "The Ludic Bestiary: Misogynistic Tropes of Female Monstrosity in Dungeons & Dragons".
https://nyupress.org/9781479802203/gaming-sexism/
I despise Gygax's view of what is Lawful and Good, and i think any conversation about Paladins or alignment are incomplete without understanding it.
https://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11762&start=77
Not to be confused with the Ready Player One sequel with the same name.
https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517900694/ready-player-two/
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/mary-kenney/gamer-girls/9780762474554/