Carly A. Kocurek, PhD - Games, Scholarship, Media

Casual Thinking. Serious Gaming.



Tag : women and gaming

What I’ve Been Playing: Agent Alice

What I’ve Been Playing: Agent Alice

I downloaded Agent Alice to my phone a few weeks ago, and I’ve been playing it intermittently. It has a Warehouse 13-style supernatural detectives type setup and is very clearly being marketed to women with ad slogans like, “Sometimes it takes a woman to get the job done.”… Read the rest

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A MAZE. Magazine: “I have a fucking agenda”

A MAZE. Magazine: “I have a fucking agenda”

I was interviewed briefly for a piece in the current issue of A MAZE. Magazine, which is free to read online right here. The theme for this issue is “women,” and a number of amazing women in and around the games industry are featured.… Read the rest

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Call for Participants in Documentary Project on Women in Gaming Culture

My colleague Jennifer deWinter and I are putting together a short documentary project, and we are looking for contributors. Please pass along the call here and consider participating. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch.… Read the rest

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Sexism and Gaming at Flow: All of Jennifer deWinter and My Columns in One Place

Sexism and Gaming at Flow: All of Jennifer deWinter and My Columns in One Place

Over the past few months, I’ve had the pleasure of co-authoring a series of columns for Flow with Jennifer deWinter of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Our columns, which focus on sexism in the gaming industry, have now all been published, which means you can go read them all, in order, at your leisure.… Read the rest

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Video Games and Women’s History Month

Video Games and Women’s History Month

On Tuesday, I gave a talk for women’s history month on my campus here in Chicago. The talk was part of a lunch hosted by the Department of Humanities for Women’s History Month.… Read the rest

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The Simple Genius of the Gamer Girl Manifesto

I saw “The Gamer Girl Manifesto” (embedded above) by Sexy Nerd Girl Presents thanks to Geekquality. The brief video features a number of young women gamers who identify themselves by their on-screen identities (which range from notable characters like Mario to the more subtly constructed identities from games like World of Warcraft) and by the game systems they use.… Read the rest

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I Said Diamonds: the Aubrey Plaza WoW Spot

I Said Diamonds: the Aubrey Plaza WoW Spot

The first time I saw the TV ad above, which features Aubrey Plaza (best known for playing April Ludgate on “Parks and Recreation”) explaining in her trademark deadpan how she became a World of Warcraft player, I was rather charmed.… Read the rest

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Women Gamers as Social Animals in the GameHouse Survey

Women Gamers as Social Animals in the GameHouse Survey

 

By now, you have probably seen some of the data from the GameHouse infographic above [source]. Collected by Harris Interactive for GameHouse, the data includes a few particularly sexy statistics.… Read the rest

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This Week in Feminism and Gaming: Tits, Chicks, and Casual Sexism

This week saw the publication of two sharp pieces on the casual sexism of much of video gaming culture. At Kotaku, LaToya Peterson responds to comments a Comic Con panel titled “East Meets West, Art Direction for a Worldwide Audience” in “The Tits Have It: Sexism, Character Design, and the Role of Women in Created Worlds.Read the rest

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