Thursday, August 05, 2010

Second verse, same as the first (aka JAYNE SMASH)

The casting calls for the Runaway movie is out. Okay, a Runaways movie is AWESOME. I am really, ridiculously excited!

What's not awesome? Alex's ethnicity is specified. Nico's is not. In the comics she is explicitly stated to be Japanese-American, and yet the call is only for female actresses to play 16-18. Yeah, that's going to end well.

And then we have the fun description of a Japanese-American girl as "uniquely beautiful" to Karoline's (an alien who appears as a blond Caucasian) "conventionally beautiful." Guys, I do not have the time to unpack all the ways that's messed up, but it is certainly messed up.

Hey, remember how well that whole color blind casting thing worked out for Airbender? It wasn't like that led to the erasure of characters' ethnicities or undermined the world building of the show, or you know, reinforced the fucked up idea that white people get to play hero to the poor oppressed people of color. Turns out that Hollywood just loves its whitewashing fail so much it's going to do it again! Awesome.

If you excuse me, I have uncontrollable strangly hands to deal with.

Monday, August 02, 2010

Shameless plugging aka nerd squee-ing

Something I often forget to talk about is independent developers and the personal role each gamer plays is what is developed by anyone. It is often believed by people that the government 'controls' what we play and see, but when you think about it, we the people have just as much or more control. Our shameless support or boycotting is just a pair of ways we shout out in protest. Women are an equal part of the gamer society (there are studies done, and by 'study', I am not implying that any one was done with statistical clarity in mind) and it seems that people forget that just because we don't show up on your x-box live chat window, we aren't there.
Hey! Hey! Listen! HEY! LISTEN!
We play PS games, DS games, all sorts of games were women aren't slandered over the mic or on the screen, games that don't involve rape or violence (and some that are notorious for it- looking at you God of War and GTA 1-whatever number we're at. You guys have a special place in my heart <3 ) and one of my personal favorites, computer games!
So today's post is about a really interesting independent team of developers that won my heart this weekend (because after a long day of putting the 'laughter' in slaughter, I like a nice romance game!)
Sakevisual! Everyone give these hard working guys a round of applause!
After being sucked in by the free material, I was convinced to play the demo to their newest release- Jesei. It's a story about a mysterious boy who is pulled into helping solve a murder case with the special abilities he has.
My love of computer games and murder mysteries was aflame with this quiet gem's charm. The style was clean and everyone was super suspicious. I'm happy to report that next paycheck might be going into funding the work these guys do.
Now I understand my bias opinion of the game is super....well, bias. Let's admit it, not everyone likes the same stuff as the next person and this game might come as a disappointment to someone else. Personally, I'm just happy to find a good game and great team to support, because I like to rock the vote as to what gets developed as much as the next trigger happy nerd is.

Until next time, Rawk on!
~Dancing Shadow

PS; On my search to find any serious data on female gamers, I found this little site. Read the statistic. Note that it was poorly put together based on a stereotype and isn't properly researched (ie, where are the women under 18 and the boys over 17? What are they accepting as a video game? What counts as instructional? Who were they asking and how were they contacted?)
Now read the comments. I hope you laugh a little. Best part for me? Where is says "Click here for info on new games designed for female players and how software companies are tackling this emerging market.", click the link. It says "page not found"
....
yeahhhhh. You tackle that new market guys.