Cerise Magazine

For this installment of Gaming in the Media, I am going to deviate from providing game commentary or analysis and instead provide you with some reviews of other gaming blogs to watch. While I do read many of the more mainstream blogs (Kotaku, Gamasutra, etc.) the lesser known blogs tend to provide me with a bit more to grapple with mentally.

Law of the Game

The Law of the Game is an interesting little blog that discusses how gaming and game legislation relates to the law and the constitution. I’m a bit of a legal/policy wonk (DC-based, it’s in the air…) but I think most gamers would be interested in some of the discussions surrounding gaming and the first amendment.

Check out the posts on the ESRB review process, Rape in Second Life (which echoes Regina Lynn’s earlier piece over on Wired’s Sex Drive blog) and an interesting discussion of Copyright.

Game Politics

This blog discusses gaming as it appears on political agendas. I have some reservations about the Game Politics Blog (for example, GP is “presented by the Entertainment Consumers Association” which also has a definite agenda; the blog has a consuming hatred for Jack Thompson, which is apparently mutual) but overall I do try to skim the blog a few times a week as it does discuss relevant issues to gamers who are of age.

Gamers have grown up; is it so difficult for politicians to understand that the industry has grown up with us?

Posts of interest include the discussion of video games and police murders, representations of gaming on the small screen, and the RE5 controversy.

Girl in the Machine

The “About Us” section of the Girl in the Machine Blog says it all:

We are gamers, students, artists.

We are two girls and a gay guy.

We can remember the Days of the Arcade, tell you the original game on which Super Mario Bros. 2 was based (Doki Doki Panic!), and forcibly borrow all of your fingers and toes and those of your immediate family and your dog to help us count our respective game collections.

We are feminists.

Welcome to Girl in the Machine.

What do you do here? We talk about video games — both classic and new, on any and all formats — and we talk about feminism, and oftentimes add in a healthy does of queer theory as well.

How do you do it? With lots of pretty pictures of rampant sexism at which we point and laugh. And discussions of where Game Developers Get it Right, How They Get it Wrong, and How it Can Be Fixed. Don’t worry, it’s not all lip-tightening and arms-crossing and head-shaking. We all laugh and swear and have a great time.

But why?! Well, we love video games. And we’ve grown up with them all of our lives. We feel that gaming is an acceptable medium to which we can apply feminism, discuss women, and generally have a fun time doing it.

But games are just for boys! No, they’re not.

I’m scared! You should be.

Key Posts: Samus in Super Smash Bros Brawl; a critique of the Heavenly Swords ads; Games marketed to girls

[Editor's Note: Also be sure to check out our interview with the bloggers of GitM in this issue!]

Gameology

Tanner’s “gaming is a masculine sport” thing aside, Gameology is a good resource to find gaming jobs and gaming studies, as well as information on various game conferences that occur around the nation.

Sample Post: The ICFA:Gaming Theory and Culture Conference

Gamers of Color

A relatively young blog started by user yeloson, the Gamers of Color Community was intended to be a safe space for PoCs to talk about issues in gaming. The community is a little quiet, but hopefuly it will grow over time. Until then check out The Power of Critical Mass, Why There Won’t Be an Earthsea RPG, and And So (Steal Away Jordan.)

(Note: I read all my blogs through an RSS feed, so I didn’t know Gamers of Color had referenced two of my articles/postings until I researched this article. No intentional bias here - but thanks for the link love!)

Token Minorities

Pat Miller has kind of abandoned this blog, but the original entries are worth reading again and again. I first came across Pat’s work on Racialicious.com [another site I write for - please excuse some of the overlap] and was drawn to Pat’s dead-on analysis of what racially ails the gaming industry.

Foundation reads: Are Video Games Racist?; Race, Place, and the PSP; What About Everyone Else?; and Race, Class, and Street Fighter.

For more recent work, Pat also writes for the Escapist.

Heroine Sheik

Bonnie Ruberg’s blog is kind of a mixed bag for me - while she is an excellent writer, I find myself skipping more blog posts than I actually read. Her insights on gaming, however, tend to make all the other randomness worthwhile. Between her Village Voice articles and gaming posts, her insights are welcomed in a medium that seems to be growing more hostile to discussion and dissent.

Classic articles: Games for Girls, Girl on Girl Gaming, Gender Roles in Odin Sphere

Those are some of my favorites. Does anyone else have any overlooked blog gems they can recommend?

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Gaming in the Media: Gaming Blogs to Watch

October 2007 Issue

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