Midterm

 

Make some connections between class content (a blog post or class discussion) and Ready Player One.

At first glance, Ready Player One may not seem like it could possibly have any connections to our "real" world. However, if you look just a little bit deeper into the content, it reflects much of our society and even does a little foreshadowing into our future. Take media and technology, for example, in both worlds (Wade's Ready Player One world and ours) and you will find that it rules both societies almost completely. These days, everyone has a smart phone with them at all times and if they don't they are completely dysfunctional. People need to constantly be plugged in to the virtual world and the same goes for Wade and his world. In his reality, though, he is more concerned with Oasis, the online world and virtual video game, than his own life. So much so that he even skipped school to continue to play the game or slept right through school as a consequence of playing on Oasis for too long. I know more than a few people that have delayed going to sleep or any other important obligations to play videogames.

The opening line of chapter twelve is, "I slept for over twelve hours and missed school entirely." Wade completely rearranges his sleeping schedule and life for this online world, which isn't too far off from the world we live in now. Another very brief conversation from class was about the Sixers threat, turned reality, to blow up Wade's home with all of his family inside. They made the comment,

"With everything going on in the world, do you think anyone will care about an explosion in some ghetto-trash rat warren in Oklahoma City?" and continued with, "No one will care. And the authorities won't even blink." This relates back to our society in a different way. Crimes are happening everyday all over the world, but the difference is that some are reported and cared about more than others. Just like what Sorrento stated, society tends not to care about the crimes that take place in the poorer areas. The crimes that take place to the wealthier folks in nicer areas are reported at higher rates as they are "more valuable humans". Sorrento even goes as far as to say that people will be glad that there are a few less hundred people using up food vouchers and oxygen, which is often times how people feel about those on welfare in our world.

One blog post we were assigned recently was about female characters in videogames, whether or not they were damsels in distress, and what characteristics they had that reinforced the previous question. I decided to examine Art3mis on those grounds and was glad to find that Ernest Cline had incorporated a female character who was not a damsel in distress. Quite the opposite actually, she is fiercely independent and protective of herself. She even named her avatar after Artemis, goddess of the hunt and fertility, which gives the egg hunt a whole new meaning. I couldn't decide whether or not Cline had thought about that or if it was just a silly coincidence. She is extremely capable of holding her own even if she trips up sometimes as she is an extremely skilled character in Oasis with the best weaponry that she earned all on her own (or with her money).

-Alison Provost          

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Midterm post: How does critically looking at videogame(s) highlight flaws in our current society?

In our society many of our flaws are embedded in the video games that people of all ages play. Critically looking at the characters, background scenes we can clearly see values, that are problematic to say in the least, are both overt and covert  in the games that have been best sellers. Games such as  the GTA (Grand Theft Auto) series, Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty portray several narratives that are singular in perspective. In the games, as in many games, the lead character is a male who uses violence to achieve the goal. The stereotypical  In some games the people who are minorities either criminalized or as Anita Sarkeesian are background pieces that are repositories for gratuitous and/or sexual violence. These flaws are exposed, exaggerated and consumed as libidinal commerce geared to attract males. But to be more honest the question that does arise from critical analysis is what do these best sellers say about our society? 

Midterm Blog: Adrienne Shaw

4. Shaw finds two problematic approaches to rectify the misrepresentation of women in games:  The “add women and stir” approach (increasing the diversity of game-makers), and placing the burden of change on representatives from the marginalized group(s).  Choose one of these two approaches to write about in your blog.  What’s the approach and what are issues related to the approach?  Then think beyond the problematic approaches:  How can we “create critiques of representation that are politically engaged enough to resist market logics and nimble enough to encompass interactive, personalized, customized media texts?”

In her book Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture, Adrienne Shaw discusses the problems inherent in two common attempts to rectify the misrepresentation of women and other marginalized groups in video games. The first attempt, which "focus[es] exclusively on courting female players and designer via female-friendly game content" (Shaw 2), operates under the assumption that more people from marginalized groups working within the video game industry or playing games is all that is necessary to broaden representation game texts. This approach is problematic in that it "privileges marketable audiences in its demands for representation" (Shaw 2), meaning that it frames positive representation as something the industry must only concern itself with if positive representation will be profitable. In other words, this approach insinuates that the video game industry should only include positive representations of women as a method of profiting off of female gamers. This mindset is encapsulated within the mission statement of Gamers in Real Life, Sony Online Entertainment's scholarship for female game designers, which reads: "G.I.R.L helps raise awareness of the serious female gaming audience to the media in an effort to encourage the gaming industry to positively promote women throughout all facets of games, game production and into game management; which will hopefully impact the way females are depicted in video games and create and influence content to be appealing to women." This statement implies that a "serious female gaming audience" is what will result in the positive representation of women because of the potential profit in creating "content to be appealing to women." Clearly this is not the case, as video games still pander to male fantasies by representing women in cliché, stereotypical ways despite the fact that more women than teenage boys are gamers.

This "add women and stir" approach is also problematic in that it "assumes that there are no structural limitations within the industry that preclude this representation, that men in the industry are simply incapable of creating texts that are not representations of themselves or their fantasies, and that all women are feminists" (Bunch, qtd. in Shaw 2). Women simply existing within the industry is in no way a real method of deconstructing negative representations of women, especially when one considers the "structural limitations within the industry that preclude this representation," such as the glass ceiling or workplaces that may be hostile towards female employees. Zoë Quinn is a perfect example of the failure of the "add women and stir" method. Quinn, a female video game developer, was falsely accused of sleeping with a journalist in order to receive positive coverage of her game, an accusation that sparked the Gamergate controversy and resulted in Quinn and other women in the video game industry being harassed by doxxing, rape threats, and death threats. Women in the industry cannot single-handedly dismantle patriarchy and misogyny as they relate to video games, and suggesting otherwise is a very simplistic way of viewing the issue. In this way, Shaw's first approach and the second approach, placing the burden of change on representatives from marginalized groups, are essentially the same, as the implication of "add women and stir" is that the onus of change is on these "added women" as representatives of their marginalized group.

These problematic approaches to rectifying misrepresentation exist because we have yet to discover a foolproof way to “create critiques of representation that are politically engaged enough to resist market logics and nimble enough to encompass interactive, personalized, customized media texts" (Shaw 4). There is no clear path towards progressive change in video games, but the first step towards Shaw's ideal representation is to reject the notion that marginalized groups are responsible for change by diversifying representation for purposes of social justice rather than for profit, and by moving beyond the assumption that "men in the industry are simply incapable of creating texts that are not representations of themselves or their fantasies." Real change can only occur when we acknowledge that we all have a role to play in creating it.

Rowan McKenna

Midterm

How does looking at Ready Player One highlight flaws in our current society?

Ready Player One highlights many flaws in our current society considering it is based in the future. It mostly references problems that are happening due to what has happened in today's time. We are able to see many similarities when comparing our societal problems and theirs, which shows that things haven't quite changed. For example, Ready Player One takes place mostly in the virtual world, which is greatly prevalent in today's society. In an early chapter, Wade mentions how most people only interact on OASIS and barely take part in the real world. Later on, he even admits that he sometimes forgets about the real world. He goes months without even stepping foot outside of his apartment. This may be an over exaggeration, but i wouldn't say our society today is very far off from this. Even now, people tend to spend most of their times online. Almost anything can be done online. Although we may not be able to eat online, we can already order the food to be delivered right to us, so how different is it really? Some gamers will spend days at a time plugged in and only take minimal breaks. They forego sleep because they would rather get to the next level on their game. Already, our lives take place greatly online. Most people can't even go an hour without checking social media or playing an online game of some sort. Soon enough I could see our society reflecting the one in the game.

At one point, Wade mentions that he spends most of his time in OASIS because his virtual life is better than his real life. In chapter 1, Wade says,

"Growing up as a human being on the planet Earth in the twenty-first century was a real kick in the teeth. Existentially speaking".

Since the real world is not very enjoyable, people would rather spend their time online, where they can recreate themselves and their lives. This is similar to the real-world today. When someone isn't quite enjoying their life, they end up online. Some people will even present themselves as someone else online so they can change what others see. We were able to witness how different a person can be online when we created our avatars. There were minimal rules for creating one. Even though you had to choose a gender in most, you didn't have to choose the one that you are in real life. No one was going to force you to be someone you don't want to be. You can create a life online that is 100% different from your own in the real world, similar to how Wade was able to through OASIS. Virtuality has become a part of our lives and will just grow from here on out whether we like it or not. The society in Ready Player One is a lot more similar to ours today than many want to believe. We want the life that others see to be better than reality.

Regina LaPietra

Mid-Term

2.  How does looking at Ready Player One highlight flaws in our current society?

 

Ready Player One highlights flaws in our society early on in a very obvious way. On the very first page Wade tells us that the people of earth were dealing with the aftermath of “the ongoing energy crisis, catastrophic climate change, widespread famine, poverty,and disease”. He says that big news would be of a “new killer virus or another major city vanishing in a mushroom cloud. These examples sound extreme but they also stem from problems we face today. Such as the zika virus, or the fact that our country is responsible for the very first attack via atomic bomb. The energy crisis begins with our constant need to use energy and an ever growing population. In order to keep cities growing we have resorted to some seriously dangerous ways of acquiring sustainable energy. One way this is done is by creating nuclear power, by which Uranium is removed from the ground during strip mining which has huge implications on our carbon footprint. Chemicals from all the waste we produce and the energy we use are having a devastating effect on our climate change and no doubt will be catastrophic if we continue on the way we have been. As far as poverty goes, this is an ongoing problem that has no end in sight. With the changing climate we face a problem with our agriculture which is likely to affect famine in our world as well as disease if we keep using chemicals (GMO) to produce our food. Some other flaws in Wade’s society that he doesn’t come right out and talk about are seen in the way he tells his story. The most obvious is the ease in which people surrender their real lives in order to live full time in a virtual reality. To be fair I don’t see the difference in spending money on things that make you happy that are fake vs real as long as it makes you happy. But to put so much effort into people and connections that could disappear if the OASIS were to crash,is risky. If that were to happen people would be forced to look around and see that they have wasted all their time on a dream. Anonymity aside, the risk of putting all your time into a virtual world means no one is focusing on fixing the real world. If you aren’t meeting your basic needs, how can you thrive in the OASIS? This isn’t lost on Wade however, in chapter 19 we see how he lives in his new apartment and how he forces himself to stay physically fit in order to continue on his quest. Side note: I WISH there was a diet/exercise program as effective as Wade’s (that’s locks him out of his home until he takes care of himself).

“The hour or so after i woke up was my least favorite part of each day, because I spent it in the real world. This was when I dealt with the tedious business of cleaning and exercising my physical body. I hated this part of the day because everything about it contradicted my other life. My real life inside the OASIS. The sight og my tiny one-room apartment, my immersion ring, or my reflection in the mirror- they all served as a harsh reminder that the world i spent my days in was not, in fact, the real one.”

 

It was a relief to me that Wade finally talked about how he is aware of how fake his world really is, and how it makes him feel. But the sad part is that even knowing what he knows, he still plugs in everyday and doesn’t change his ways. This also speaks to our own addiction to social media and where our priorities are. Given the choice between creating a life in a perfect world i’m not sure anyone would refuse.

 

-Dawn

 

Mid-Term: Thinking Critically about Games and Media

This is my mid-term response to prompt three, "How does critically looking at video games highlight flaws in our current society?"

It is important to think critically about not only video games but popular media in general when trying to examine flaws in our current society. The popular media that we consume is created by people who live in our society, and who were raised around certain ideologies. These creators bring these ideas into the video games and other media that they create, and the media will often reflect ideas about society that creators carry with them. Especially in examining popular media, one can see where dominant ideology is reflected.

By examining the media, we can see which ideas are continuously legitimized through a staggering amount of representation. For instance, according to an analysis of 1990s television advertising (which is, admittedly, a bit outdated), researchers Scott Coltrane and Melinda Messineo found that there were four common images throughout the ads: powerful white men, white women sex objects, aggressive black men, and inconsequential black women. Unless one learns to question these representations, these stereotypes may find themselves being incorporated into other areas of the real world. Critically looking at video games highlights flaws in society, and allows others to do the same.

It is not only important that we critique our society and the media that is being created, it’s also important that we understand that media being consumed. There is a constant cycle of media consumption and output; when you are raised on ideology present in mass media, you inject that ideology into the media you create, and that cycle can perpetuate an ongoing cycle of creating and consuming media that conveys sexist, racist, transphobic, classist, etc., ideology.

Even the very act of examining games through a lens (feminist, racial, etc.) can reveal ways in which our culture is attached to certain ideologies. For example, Anita Sarkeesian made a few videos using a pretty basic – and I don’t mean that in a negative way – and academically accepted feminist lens in order to critique the representation of gender in video games, and she is continuously harassed for it. 

Her views are not even extreme, and yet she has received death threats, rape threats, and has had her personal information spread across the internet. If we talk about something sexist in a video game (for instance the lack of non-sexualized women represented in the Grand Theft Auto games), not only do we highlight sexist ideology being injected into the game, but the backlash to the criticism also serves to highlight how society perceives women and how normalized that kind of representation has become. Criticizing games allows us to think about the reasons why society ultimately outputs the kind of content that it does, and allows to see the flaws in the system that surrounds us. 

One example of these concepts is, once again, Grand Theft Auto V. In GTA V, there are virtually no female characters that are not sexualized, incredibly dumb, or incredibly weak. While some people have argued that GTA V is intended to be viewed as some sort of satire, and viewed as a depiction of society through the eyes of three, overly masculine criminals, the writing in the game not only reinforces stereotypes and imagery about women, it also says something about the writers and designers of the game. The player's only available interaction with women is to kill, to grope, or to have sex with these women. When interacting with men, players can still kill them (and the general interaction with city NPCs functions in the same way, regardless of gender), but men also play a larger role in story missions, side missions, and other content in ways that does not depict them as overtly stupid or sexualized.

While it would be incredibly interesting to view this game as a feminist critique of masculine power, the backlash to feminist critiques of the game highlight the amount of players who enjoy or do not question its representation of women and male power. The game ultimately reveals an injected representation of misogyny that may also serve to reinforce some ideas about masculinity, femininity, and sexuality. The only way to examine these flaws, in video games and in our current society, is to think critically about the video games we consume, and to have discussions about them in ways that highlights the flaws and questions their causes and effects.

Cameron Bryce

[Updated last paragraph to give an alternative perspective]

Ready Player One

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