A Game of Ones Own:Towards a New

RegenderedPoetics of Digital Space

Tracy FullertonUSC

School of Cinematic Arts

Jacquelyn Ford MorieUSC Institute for Creative

Technologies

Celia PearceGeorgia Institute of

Technology

Ludica

A women’s game collective devoted to creating a more gender-inclusive

environment for game research, art, design and education.

Ludica

“Je Suis l’esacpe ou je suis.”

“I am the place where I am.” —Noël Arnaud,

L’Etat d’ebauch

Virginia Woolf, A Space of Ones Own (1928)

•Opening description of being blocked from Oxbridge Library due to her gender

•Described unique approaches by women writers,

•Presented notion of “androgynous mind” to describe literature that

Bachelard, The Poetics of Space

•Discussion of different types of space in literature

•Heavy emphasis on domestic space•Heavy emphasis on enclosed space, e.g., cupboards, wardrobes drawers, shells

•Also discusses issues of scale

The Production of Space

Game Space is overwhelmingly:

•Western•Cartesian•Male

Space is socially constructed

•Reveals priorities, perceptions of prevailing culture and time

•Video games have resolved into largely a spatial medium (from prior traditions in 2D, side-scrollers) (Murray, Aarseth, Konzak, Pearce)

“The defining element is computer games is spatiality.”

- Aarseth

•It is the difference between the spatial representation and real space that makes game rules possible.

•Space in videogames is allegorical, a “figurative comment on the impossibility of representing real space.”

•Unreality of these landscapes is due also to their inherent usefulness for certain types of gameplay.

“The basic feminine impulse is to gather, to put together, to construct; the basic masculine impulse is to scatter, to disseminate, to destroy.  It seems to give pleasure to a man to bang something and drive it from him; the harder he hits it and the farther it goes the better pleased he is.”

She also points out…“…the universal dominance of the

projectile.”

—Charlotte Perkins-Gilman, The Man-Made World

(1911)

“Every game of Myth is a fight for position in the landscape.”

—Aarseth

Dangerous and Contested Spaces

Age of Empires III

Space as colonial domain to be conquered

Civilization

Counter-Strike

Half-Life Counter-Strike

Space as tactical domain for combat

Levels and Secrets

Adventure “Easter Egg”

Super Mario Bros “Minus World”

We need to open up more space for girls to join–or play alongside–the traditional boy culture down by the river, in the old vacant lot, within the bamboo forest. Girls need to learn how to explore 'unsafe' and 'unfriendly' spaces, and to experience the 'complete freedom of movement' promised by the boys’ games, if not all the time, then at least some of the time, to help them develop the self-confidence and competitiveness demanded of professional women. They also need to learn how, in the words of a contemporary bestseller, to 'run with the wolves' and not just follow the butterflies. Girls need to be able to play games where Barbie gets to kick some butt.

Girls in Boyland

—Henry Jenkins,From Barbie to Mortal Kombat

Literary Models for Regendering Game Space

—Frances Downing, Remembrance and the Design of Place

Secret Places

The Secret Garden

A secret place always has aspects of a ‘removed’ existence, being a place that, physically or mentally, it is created for retreat, intimacy, enclosure, screening, and protection. These often are places of power and control that cannot be known or invaded by ‘outside’ forces.” 

Alice in Wonderland

Enchanted Spaces

Narnia

OzMary Poppins

Pride & Prejudice

Domestic Spaces

Little Women

Constructing &Cultivating Space

Doll Houses & Gardens

The Sims

Animal Crossing

Okami

There.com

Constructing Community

Second Life

Uru

Social Spaces

World of Warcraft

Zelda

Narrative Spaces

Myst

Virtual Reality asRegendered Play Space

PlaceholderBrenda Laurel & Rachel Strickland (1993)

Virtual Adventures: The Loch Ness Expedition

Celia Pearce for Iwerks and Evans & Sutherland (1993)

Memory Stairs

Jacquelyn Ford Morie (2004-Present)

Detour: Brain Deconstruction Ahead

Rita Addison w/ Marcus Thiebaux and David Zeltzer (1993)

Conclusion

• Mainstream game industry has evolved primarily around male models of space and agency.

• We advocate, after Woolf, a movement toward an “androgynous mind” for game design

• Such a move would create a more egalitarian approach to play space that engages girls and women and also expands the richness of game space for men and boys

Celia Pearce: celia.pearce@lcc.gatech.edu

Tracy Fullerton: tfullerton@cinema.usc.edu

Digital Arts and Culture 2007Perth, Australia

Jacquelyn Ford Morie: morie@ict.usc.edu