General gaming

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• VIDEO: The DOs and DON'Ts of Gaming Gender Relations
• Wipeout Sets the Standard for Handling PS3/Vita DLC
• Shame, Sexuality, and the Interactive Medium
• Cover Story: Gender, Sexuality, and Video Games
• OP-ED: Heroes and Heroines, Apples and Oranges
• Interview: Anna Anthropy on Gender Identity and Games
• Lollipop Chainsaw Review: Caught Between Camp and Crap

VIDEO: The DOs and DON'Ts of Gaming Gender Relations Posted: 19 Jun 2012 08:00 PM PDT We admit, not everyone will be swayed by our recent focus on sexism and misogyny in video games. So, thanks to the recent scientific discovery that each picture does indeed contain 1000 words, we have strung several hundred of them together; and, when viewed in succession, they create the illusion of movement. We hope you enjoy the following piece, where we make an example out of Marty Sliva, who is not playing himself, but rather an entirely different character also named "Marty Sliva." Special thanks to IGN's Naomi Kyle, officially making her 1UP debut.

Wipeout Sets the Standard for Handling PS3/Vita DLC Posted: 19 Jun 2012 03:45 PM PDT Dedicated Wipeout fans with a PlayStation 3 and Vita are in for a treat today. Sony has released two new add-on packs for Wipeout 2048 containing the content from Wipeout HD and Wipeout HD Fury, neither of which will cost you a dime if you already own them on PlayStation 3. The Wipeout HD DLC pack contains the entirety of HD's campaign mode and its online multiplayer tracks, which means 12 new tracks (eight of which are reverse tracks), 12 new ships, a Zone mode ship, and the ability to play on 12 cross-play tracks with PS3 players are now available to Vita owners for $7.99. The Fury pack also costs $7.99 and includes an equally impressive lineup: 12 tracks (four reverse and four Zone mode tracks), 24 ships, a Zone mode ship, and 12 new tracks for cross-play. A bundle with with all of the content from both packs can be had at a discounted rate of $12.99.

Shame, Sexuality, and the Interactive Medium Posted: 19 Jun 2012 03:17 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JUNE 18 | GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND VIDEO GAMES Shame, Sexuality, and the Interactive Medium Cover Story: Learning from Shame's exploration of sexuality as narrative focus. T he interactive medium has come quite a long way from its now prehistoric beginnings. Narratives have grown ripe and complex, dabbling within classic three act structure and nonlinear forms alike. They've evolved to ascribe borrowing, touting and citing separate media, the most apparent and relevant being its moving picture predecessor, film. The exponential growth of technologies have pushed game pads to grow from single buttons and joysticks to complex arrays which have subsequently been stripped away altogether, replaced with only one's own movement. Sadly, while the replication of self is evolving to an impressive singularity, narratives still lack the weight of most other media, ignoring the maturation of a demographic whose median hovers well into their mid-thirties and is made up mostly of adults from their early-twenties to their late-fifties. Amidst this fearful pandering exists a continued adolescent worldview and interpretation of sexuality, one that grossly objectifies women and stilts perception of a medium that has matured in most every other aspect. So how could the medium stand to mature?

Cover Story: Gender, Sexuality, and Video Games Posted: 19 Jun 2012 07:55 AM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JUNE 18 | GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND VIDEO GAMES Cover Story: Gender, Sexuality, and Video Games 1UP explores what games get wrong and right when it comes to one of society's trickiest topics. Years ago, when I was very young, I saw a sitcom name-drop Ms. Pac-Man. I don't remember which show it was. The Facts of Life? A Different World? No matter; the important thing was the joke: One character made a passing reference to "Miss Pac-Man" only to be interrupted by a female classmate. "Miz Pac-Man," she corrected. Cue canned laughter.

OP-ED: Heroes and Heroines, Apples and Oranges Posted: 19 Jun 2012 07:54 AM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JUNE 18 | GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND VIDEO GAMES OP-ED: Heroes and Heroines, Apples and Oranges Cover Story: The recent Tomb Raider controversy highlights the inequality of the medium. T omb Raider executive producer Ron Rosenberg unleashed a tide of Internet debate in the wake of E3 when he referred to the game's public demo as an attempted rape scene in a Kotaku interview about Crystal Dynamics' efforts to build sympatico with heroine Lara Croft. "And then what happens is her best friend gets kidnapped, she gets taken prisoner by scavengers on the island," he told the blog. "They try to rape her, and -- She's literally turned into a cornered animal. And that's a huge step in her evolution -- she's either forced to fight back or die, and that's what we're showing today."

Interview: Anna Anthropy on Gender Identity and Games Posted: 19 Jun 2012 07:53 AM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JUNE 18 | GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND VIDEO GAMES Interview: Anna Anthropy on Gender Identity and Games Cover Story: The outspoken developer describes the failings of both indie and mainstream games. S ome people have personalities, others are personalities. Anna Anthropy is the Pixel Provocateur and a self-described "queer, kinky trans woman in a committed non-monogamous relationship." She is the author of Rise of the Videogame Zinesters, a call to arms for all those uncertain about bringing their unique backgrounds to game design. She is the creator of games including Mighty Jill Off and Lesbian Spider-Queen From Mars, works that deal with unconventional topics like the dynamics of a BDSM relationship. She is a critic and a dot-matrix dominatrix, but more than anything else, Anna Anthropy is unflinchingly forthright.

Lollipop Chainsaw Review: Caught Between Camp and Crap Posted: 19 Jun 2012 07:52 AM PDT Grasshopper Manufacture CEO Goichi Suda (otherwise known as Suda 51) made a name for himself with Killer 7, a conceptually and mechanically baffling game that succeeded creatively in spite of its unfriendly design. Since then, we've seen an extensive paring down of Suda's otherworldly ideas to the point where only the loud and vulgar ones remain. Lollipop Chainsaw continues the trend that No More Heroes and Shadows of the Damned started: iconic and ludicrous concepts strung together without much meaning behind them. Suda's latest adds nothing to his current formula aside from an icky layer of sexism that takes a stab at satire, but ultimately exists to titillate those who prefer the words "barely legal" branded on their entertainment.

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