Customer Reviews

From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

If you have only boys in your family or have never put down money for a computer game, you probably haven't kept up with the brouhaha that has been developing over computer games for girls that has appeared in the last four years.

The focus on computer games for girls became a issue when it was noticed that while boys liked playing computer games and were more comfortable with computers; girls stayed away from these games. The result - girls would be computer illiterate and be unable to compete in the technical job market.

The book is openly feminist, dealing with how girls and women are represented in computer games; bringing in academic research into gender play, and interviewing the women in the game companies who are designing and producing the games. The interviews with the women in the game industry offers outsiders the rare opportunity to hear the opinions of the designers and developers. Some explain how market research determines what they produce, others provide a more personal view of what moves them to design. The word "empowerment" appears repeatedly.

The editors conclude with ideas for game play that gives voice and play space to both girls and boys. The book's inclusive points of view ends with a talk back piece by Game Grrls - women who enjoy playing action games to compete and win - often over men. The book provides a scholarly treatise on girls, computers, and society. Each of the academic chapters are followed by extensive bibliographies. For whose who are interested in the subject it is extremely valuable to have everything in one place.

Genevieve Katz © 1999, Games4Girls

This collection is truly thought-provoking and insightful. It dares to tackle one of today's most challenging issues -- the relationship between gender and technology. The book is worth owning for the first chapter alone, Cassell and Jenkins' "Chess for Girls? Feminism and Computer Games."

For video game programmers and toy designers, this book should be required reading, especially for those who wish to be conscious of their contribution to gender differences in society. And a must read for parents and video game enthusiasts alike.

I found the first few chapters very helpful when writing my final paper for a graduate class in computer games and simulations. I was surprised when I conducted a survey for my paper that very few of the mostly female respondents supported use of computer games designed for girls in the classroom. They thought software should be free of gender bias. Of course, they didn't realize that much of the software being used in the classroom now was designed for boys!

Ann Williams

I expected more from this book. The title is misleading, for one. What the contributors offer is a lot of opinonage about games for girls, etc. When they start getting to the meat of the matter, commenting on female characters in games made for males, they drop the ball, and offer wishy-washy "answers" to potentially interesting queries. I knew this book was gonna suck (offical Art Historian's terminology) when I searched the index for Lara Croft references and, upon finding a few, realized that they spelled "Croft" with an "s" EVERY TIME. Do these people even know the games/characters they're talking about? I guess it's up to art historians to pick this topic up, dust it off, and talk about it with respect. This book will make an excellent doorstop.

What a pretty fine job! I'm copiling my thesis at university about the topic of videogames. Well, if you are in the same conditions of mine do not miss this book. It is not only a good example of understandable writing but it focuses on important topics too many times left in a corner. Of course, everyone who would approach a study of videogames phenomenon should consider that since they see the light, videogames were full of masculine points of view (and the relative effects whose they carry with them). Despite some relatively non fundamental mistakes, I think that the book hit the bull's eye: attracting the reader inside a new perspective by which he/her can consider the whole subject. The result, in my personal opinion, was a more complete and clear idea about videogames world. After I've finished to read the last line my feeling was the awarness that I didn't miss any aspect of a topic (which still complex, from a social-cognitive point of view). [p.s.: I hope my English is enough understandable]

Would that every game development professional would read this book! Well written, thought provoking and presented in a straightforward, non-confrontational manner. Thanks!

What a great idea for a book. It seemed really well thought out. I'm reading chapter one, and enjoying it greatly when BAM it loses me. While talking about Mortal Kombat, the game in the title of the book, it claims the game has no female chracters. So much for doing research ...... Yes, Mortal Kombat has females, even as far back as the first game with Sonja Blade. In fact some narrow-minded people objected to her at the time as she could kill or be killed. Street Fighter II which started this whole genre of games had a female player character and almost every game after it has had one or more. Recently released "Dead or Alive" features three females on the cover -- just the girls, none of the guys. Next time, check the facts. Anyway, I didn't read any more, maybe that was the only mistake in the book, but I don't know. Too bad, it's really good idea for a book.

This book has such potential. The topic is interesting and could offer insight on gender and technology issues. However, the writing is shabby (Nikki Douglas, anyone) and the book is a disappointment.

I started reading it and than read that there was no female characters in Mortal Kombat. I have all the Mortal Kombats, even the first one. The first one had Sonya Blade as a character. And she was treated the same in the game. I did'nt hesitate to kill her because she was a woman. I kill everyone in games!