Hey everyone, I've sadly moved on from this blog as I've been writing all over the place and frankly don't need one anymore! But you an keep up to date by checking out my portfolio site: mattiebrice.com and adding me on Twitter: xMattieBrice
See you around!
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Friday, December 2, 2011
Kotaku and Getting Men Sexy
For those who didn't hear the cry of the internet when my two recent pieces went up, I was a guest writer at Kotaku with "Why I Don't Feel Welcome at Kotaku." I shared with the editors and commenters why I don't frequent Kotaku anymore and how I feel there has to be a fundamental ideological shift before I do. In hopes of Kotaku continuing to be a good example of change in the gaming community, I am trying to work with them to make it more friendly to minorities of all sorts. Unfortunately, I had to put up my moderation here at my blog because I did get hateful comments, though it was mostly because I didn't want the random porn a determined Kotaku-ite wanted to share with me. Except a summation and reflection of my interaction with Kotaku within a week.
My second piece was a Moving Pixels blog called "On Men's Sexualization in Games." To anyone aware of gender and body politics in games, its common knowledge men are rarely, if ever, sexualized in video games. I decided to be a little playful and speculate on how we could actually sexualize men in media, because, well, maybe I want some man-service too? As well, it can make artists aware of how they are sexualizing women without realizing it, and remove that gaze when creating female characters. Head over to the cross-post at Gamasutra if you want to see how the average poster is trying to wrap their head around it.
My second piece was a Moving Pixels blog called "On Men's Sexualization in Games." To anyone aware of gender and body politics in games, its common knowledge men are rarely, if ever, sexualized in video games. I decided to be a little playful and speculate on how we could actually sexualize men in media, because, well, maybe I want some man-service too? As well, it can make artists aware of how they are sexualizing women without realizing it, and remove that gaze when creating female characters. Head over to the cross-post at Gamasutra if you want to see how the average poster is trying to wrap their head around it.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
"Meet Me at the Rendezvous" - An Audiosurf Playlist
I put together a quick playlist for any Audiosurf players to experiment with what goes into making such a thing. So your feedback helps! I had fun doing this and had a story in mind when arranging the list. See what you get from it!
1. Air - La Femme d'Agrent
2. Amon Tobin - Slowly
3. Bonobo - Kiara
4. Bajofondo - Grand Guignol
5. Badmarsh & Shri - Bang
6. Goldfrapp - Voicething
7. Daft Punk - Aerodynamic
8. Moby - Rafters
9. The Seatbelts - Goodnight Julia
Enjoy!
1. Air - La Femme d'Agrent
2. Amon Tobin - Slowly
3. Bonobo - Kiara
4. Bajofondo - Grand Guignol
5. Badmarsh & Shri - Bang
6. Goldfrapp - Voicething
7. Daft Punk - Aerodynamic
8. Moby - Rafters
9. The Seatbelts - Goodnight Julia
Enjoy!
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Update - November 20th, 2011
So this week I've put out two noteworthy pieces this week:
Over at Moving Pixels, and later cross-posted at Gamasutra, I wrote about the politics of accents in "Speaking in Accents and the American Ethnocentrism in Video Games." Most of my response has been through Gamasutra, where the commenters are fixated on "practical" matter that fails to cover up how much ethnocentric thinking has ingrained itself into the community. What's interesting is there isn't a challenge to the ethnocentrism, but rationalizations of how it's not a bad thing. Instead of looking at how we as an industry could view the meta of our game production when viewing something like voice acting, people are caught up in logistics and how they prefer American voice acting rather than voice acting from other countries. I think they are too scared to look into what it means for video games to see the American gamer and perspective as the "neutral." I wish I had more comments from non-American gamers.
And if that wasn't enough rabble, there's a lot of surrounding my "Open Letter to Kotaku's Joel Johnson," which is response to his "Equal Opportunity Perversion of Kotaku." I'll save more commentary for after a couple more pieces of material surrounding this topic gets published, but here are some reaction to my letter: Richard Goodness at Second quest felt my response "lacked teeth" and Jen Frank at Infinite Lives wants a distinction between the person and their job's role. Sit on that for a while and I'll do my own reaction soon.
Over at Moving Pixels, and later cross-posted at Gamasutra, I wrote about the politics of accents in "Speaking in Accents and the American Ethnocentrism in Video Games." Most of my response has been through Gamasutra, where the commenters are fixated on "practical" matter that fails to cover up how much ethnocentric thinking has ingrained itself into the community. What's interesting is there isn't a challenge to the ethnocentrism, but rationalizations of how it's not a bad thing. Instead of looking at how we as an industry could view the meta of our game production when viewing something like voice acting, people are caught up in logistics and how they prefer American voice acting rather than voice acting from other countries. I think they are too scared to look into what it means for video games to see the American gamer and perspective as the "neutral." I wish I had more comments from non-American gamers.
And if that wasn't enough rabble, there's a lot of surrounding my "Open Letter to Kotaku's Joel Johnson," which is response to his "Equal Opportunity Perversion of Kotaku." I'll save more commentary for after a couple more pieces of material surrounding this topic gets published, but here are some reaction to my letter: Richard Goodness at Second quest felt my response "lacked teeth" and Jen Frank at Infinite Lives wants a distinction between the person and their job's role. Sit on that for a while and I'll do my own reaction soon.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Why You Should Give 'Dragon Age II' a Second Chance
My debut post about Game Criticism and Dragon Age II is up at Moving Pixels!
Why You Should Give 'Dragon Age II' a Second Chance
Why You Should Give 'Dragon Age II' a Second Chance
The Border House Podcasts
I am now the host of the bi-weekly podcast over at The Border House. We talk about diversity issues in games, and hope to find some solutions to common problems dealing with gender, sexuality, race, disability, and other identities in the gaming community and industry. Here's what's been done so far:
Episode 1: Lewd-onarrative Dissonance
And I also started doing interviews of those in game development. Here's the first of hopefully more to come:
Update!
Sorry everyone for the lack of posting, but it seems like I got myself a lot of work! Little original work will be posted here, but I will easily direct you all the places my writing is featured! For ease, here is where I'm working presently:
The Border House
Game Critics
Moving Pixels at Pop Matters
The Border House
Game Critics
Moving Pixels at Pop Matters
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