ARGs and Women: Moving Beyond the Hot Brunette

Andrea Phillips * SXSW March 13, 2010

ARGs and WomenMoving Beyond the Hot Brunette

What’s an “Alternate Reality Game”?An alternate reality game (ARG), is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions.

Some Stuff I’ve Done

IGDA ARG SIGLearn more: http://www.argology.orgParticipate: http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/arg_discuss

“female” by DiscourseMarker on Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Attribution -NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

CloudmakersEstablished April 11, 2001

The first ARG brunette?

Laia Salla

SHE NEEDS

YOUR HELP

Internet Use by Gender

Data from http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d01345.pdf “Characteristics and Choices of Internet Users,” US General Accounting Office, 2001.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/cloudmakers/message/5097

Recipe for an Alternate Reality Game✤ Some fictional websites✤ Some puzzles✤ A hot brunette

Brunettes of ARGdom

DO GIRLS PLAY GAMES?

DUH

Numbers Show That...

Two in five gamers are

female.

“The State of the Video Gamer,” The Nielsen Company, 2009.

Numbers Show That...

52% of PSP owners are

female.

“Gaming Device Profiles” NPD Group, 2010.

Numbers Show That...

Women over 25 play more gaming minutes than

any other group.

“The State of the Video Gamer,” The Nielsen Company, 2009.

GIRLSOR

BOYS?

GLITTER

GUNS

FIGHTING

DANCING

STEAK

CUPCAKE

SO WHY ARE GAMES

“FOR BOYS”?

“DSCF1925” by adubber on Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Attribution -NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

“Day 252 - Sibling Rivals” by Ken WIlcox on Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivativeWorks 2.0 Generic license.

GAMES ARE

MARKETEDTO MEN

GAMES ARE

MADEBY MEN

More Men Make Games

Percent of women working

in the games business, by department

Game Developer Magazine salary survey, 2009.

Women Make Less Money

Gender pay disparity

in the games business, by department

Game Developer Magazine salary survey, 2009.

Women On My ARG Teams

Numbers Show That...

One third of ARG creators are female.

“The State of the Video Gamer,” The Nielsen Company, 2009.

FEMALE CHARACTERS IN GAMES

SUCK

Numbers Show That...

One in five characters on a game box is

female.

“Sex, Lies, and Video Games: The Portrayal of Male and Female Characters on Video Game Covers,” Burgess, Stermer, Burgess, Sex Roles, 2007

Brunettes of ARGdom

SO WHAT?

Sexism 101Intro to sexism with Mr. Kuntz

“Emily’s meant to be doing her homework!” by squarepants2004j/auntyh uia on Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Attribution -NoDerivativeWorks 2.0 Generic license.

“Blue Eyes” by jimmybrown on Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

“Women-in-Uniform_Germany” by MATEUS 27:24&25 on Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Attribution -NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

“Fairy Nuff” by left-hand on Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Attribution -NoDerivativeWorks 2.0 Generic license.

GIRL STUFF

SUCKS

“A Twisted Family Tradiition ~The Lime Jello Brain” by hurleygurley on Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivativeWorks 2.0 Generic license.

THE SLEEPER

EFFECT

PRIMING

WE ARE THE

MEDIA

WE MAKE

CULTURE

WHY ALL THE BRUNETTES

?

“Asleep brothers” by fofurasfelinas on Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivativeWorks 2.0 Generic license.

Archetypes & Stock Characters

Cheerleader Mad Scientist

Hooker With Heart Of Gold Hapless Husband

Alcoholic Detective Gold Digger Grizzled Veteran

Drill Sergeant Wise Elder Used Car Salesman

Mysterious Wizard Rock Star Kindergarten Teacher

Grumpy Old Man

Stereotypes & Stock Characters

Sassy gay friend Latino gangster

Asian convenience store owner Jewish mother

Italian mobster Dumb blonde Trophy wife

Homophobic Christian Jihadist Arab

Drunk American Indian Stoned Jamaican

Man-hating lesbian Ignorant Southerner

Racist Republican

How to Make Complex Characters

1. Pick an archetype

2. Give it atypical traits

Bonus: Mix and match

NOW YOUR TURN

STUFF YOU CAN

TRY

Pass the Bechdel Test

✤ Two or more women

✤ Who talk to each other

✤ About something other than a man

GIVE HER AGENCY

DIVERSIFY

“Vanishing pier” by Ravages on Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

STORIES ARE

TRUTHS

CHOOSE YOUR

MESSAGE

DISCUSS

Resources

✤ Wonderland http://www.wonderlandblog.com/

✤ Sociological Images http://contexts.org/socimages/

✤ Geek Feminism Blog http://geekfeminism.org/

✤ The Border House http://borderhouseblog.com/

✤ Tiger Beatdown http://tigerbeatdown.com/

✤ Feministing http://www.feministing.com/

✤ Game Girl Advance http://www.gamegirladvance.com/

✤ Jezebel http://www.jezebel.com

✤ Racialicious http://www.racialicious.com/

✤ Shapely Prose http://kateharding.net/

Andrea Phillips

✤ Game designer, writer, strident feminist

✤ andrhia@gmail.com

✤ Twitter: Andrhia

✤ AIM: Andrh1a

✤ Skype: Andrhia

✤ Deus Ex Machinatiohttp://www.deusexmachinatio.com