Workshop about the importance of gender representation in game design. Organised by T-Union (http://t-union.it).
A perspective on how gender roles influence the game design process. As creators, we have a responsibility and we should always keep in mind the effects of our artefacts, and we should try to understand how they impact on our world. This workshop will highlight some bad and good practices in game design with a focus on how gender is represented in games.
3. Bad feminist and inclusivity advocate.
Game design ninja and project manager.
Overthinker and detail oriented. INFJ.
Constantly fighting analysis paralysis.
Event curator at Game Happens.
Co-founder at Contralto Game Collective.
13. SEX
Sex refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define
men and women.
Different biological characteristics include: sex chromosomes, genitalia,
hormones, gonads, anatomy, body hair, voice pitch…
Sex is assigned at birth.
14. SEX
Sex can be: female, male, intersex. Intersex: 1 in 100 births have
variations and do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies.
Germany is the first European country that recognises “indeterminate” sex on
birth certificates, which is materialised by the absence of any gender marker.
15. GENDER
Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and
attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.
Not all cultures have strictly defined gender roles. Different gender
characteristics may vary greatly between human societies.
Nepal, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh have all legally recognised the
existence of a third gender, hijra.
16. GENDER
A transgender person is someone who has a gender identity that differs
from their assigned sex.
A cisgender person is someone who has a gender identity that
correspond to their assigned sex.
It is not ok to ask about how body parts looks like, what is their dead name,
call them with the wrong pronoun. It’s ok to ask their preferred pronoun.
18. Facebook’s 71 gender options (US/UK)
Agender
Androgyne
Androgynes
Androgynous
Bigender
Cis
Cis Female
Cis Male
Cis Man
Cis Woman
Cisgender
Cisgender Female
Cisgender Male
Cisgender Man
Cisgender Woman
Female to Male
FTM
Gender Fluid
Gender Nonconforming
Gender Questioning
Gender Variant
Genderqueer
Intersex
Male to Female
MTF
Neither
Neutrois
Non-binary
Other
Pangender
Trans
Trans Female
Trans Male
Trans Man
Trans Person
Trans*Female
Trans*Male
Trans*Man
Trans*Person
Trans*Woman
Transexual
Transexual Female
Transexual Male
Transexual Man
Transexual Person
Transexual Woman
Transgender Female
Transgender Person
Transmasculine
Two-spirit
Asexual
Female to male trans man
Female to male transgender man
Female to male transsexual man
F2M
Gender neutral
Hermaphrodite
Intersex man
Intersex person
Intersex woman
Male to female trans woman
Male to female transgender woman
Male to female transsexual woman
Man
M2F
Polygender
T* man
T* woman
Two* person
Two-spirit person
Woman
19. SEXUAL
ORIENTATION
Sexual orientation is a person's sexual identity in relation to the gender
to which they are attracted.
Generally we use three categories: heterosexuality, homosexuality,
bisexuality. But we have also pansexuality and asexuality.
Gender ≠ Sexual orientation
29. – Kevin Gannon
History is not just stuff that happens by
accident. We are the products of history that
our ancestors choose, if we’re white. If we are
black, we are the products of the history that
our ancestors mostly likely did not choose.
35. PRIVILEGE
When a certain category is considered the norm. Usually in regard to
age, disability, race gender, sexual orientation, religion, social class…
Intersectionality: all aspects of our identities – whether those aspects
are oppressed or privileged by society – interact with one another.
Privilege is not wealth. It’s not earned, but it’s not an accusation. It’s the
other face of oppression.
37. CULTURAL
APPROPRIATION
Appropriation occurs when a style leads to racist generalisations or
stereotypes where it originated but is deemed as high-fashion, cool or
funny when the privileged take it for themselves.
56. – Sut Jhally
That is, there is simply not enough diversity in
the stories of sexuality that circulate in the
culture because the commercial, male,
heterosexual, pornographic imagination
monopolizes virtually all of our media terrain.
78. – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The single story creates stereotypes, and the
problem with stereotypes is not that they are
untrue, but that they are incomplete. They
make one story become the only story.
116. – Geoffrey Zatkin
Games with a female only protagonist,
got half the spending of female optional, and
only 40 percent of the marketing budget of
male-led games.
118. – Sut Jhally
The question if not whether an image is good or
bad, the question is whose story is being told?
Who’s eyes do we see the world through?
Who’s eyes do we not see the world through?
121. – Elizabeth Sampat
No one else has your exact lived experience,
and when you bring your lived experience into
a game in a real and intimate way, you create
a game that no one else could make.
164. All of the choices in the game are binary choices: you make a
choice to go left or right, [gender] is a choice that we asked the
player to make without actually asking them to. It's silent and
implicit, but it gives the player ownership over how they view
Taylor.
– George Orwell
198. Choose a default white male playable character
and change at least 1 (up to 3) characteristics.
How does this change affect the story and / or
the gameplay of the game?
Team work #1
199. Choose a game series. Create a new character for
the next installment. List as many characteristics
as possible.
How does the character’s background affect the
story and / or the gameplay of the game?
Team work #2
202. 13th (Ava DuVernay, 2016)
The Codes of Gender (Sut Jhally, 2010)
Dreamworlds (Sut Jhally, 2007)
GTFO (Shannon Sun-Higginson, 2015)
Joystick Warriors (Sut Shaley, 2013)
The Mask You Live In
(Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Jessica Congdon 2015)
Tropes vs. Women in Video Games
(Anita Sarkeesian, 2013)
Films & Video Series
204. Play games created, designed, written,
programmed by a woman or by someone of
underrepresented gender, race, sexual identity,…
Read articles or books written by women or
someone of underrepresented gender, race,
sexual identity,…
Include women or someone of underrepresented
gender, race, sexual identity,… both in
participants and decision makers.
To Do