I stoped playing games five or six years ago. I seemed to lose interest in mainstream games which just like the author of “QUEERING HUMAN-GAME RELATIONS” mentioned, in the types of first person shooters and adventures and etc.
In the modern society, the players of games are dominated by male. Yet I have heard from both my male and female friends that in games, they do not have to worry about communicating to others face to face, it is a happy place where you can behave with less concerns and with more freedom. Such people may not really enjoy games, maybe they are just enjoying the feeling of getting away from all the social pressures and the activities by hiding their identities or even pretending to be someone else.
Myself do not have much interest in games that you kill monsters/other players and has a ranking system. They are just too much pressure and too intense for me. But recently I went to a event called ‘Future of Story Telling’. It totally changed my mind about games. I realize that there have been more games nowadays that promote more interactions between people, stimulate people’s understanding about others occupation and even lives of other species. Moreover, thanks to technologies like AR and VR, such games are very easy to play with and they can also be easily shared and enjoyed with friends/strangers.
Our recent projects of major studio course also made me think more about games and gender. Try to think of examples for men’s games and women’s games, I’m sure people’s answers will be men’s games are like gun-shooting and women’s are about changing clothes for barbie dolls. Why is this? From our major studio projects about instruction set for strangers, I realized that many of our projects in form of sticking things onto boards attracted more girls and a large amount of guys dragged their girlfriends away, and that guys who are alone though had interests about the project, did not have the courage to interact. Maybe it is that they feel too humiliated to do things on a ‘pretty’ board being a man. My friends did a canvas and encouraged people to throw balloons with water color filled inside on to the canvas. From their observations, this time many guys incited their girlfriends to do it and girls were like ‘no my clothes will get dirty’. Why is this that the stereotypes on genders are so deep into people’s minds that they cannot behave just simply as a human and instead as a man or woman?
In conclusion, I am very grateful that there are games emerging now that promotes positive things and thanks to technology making all these much more easier and meaningful.
