My Semi-Retired Crusade Against Video Games

My family is in the process of moving. I say “process” because we live in the new house but not everything has left the old.  Unpacking I discovered shirts I had made while a graduate students for my personal crusade.  Yes, I had more than one crusade but this shirt really  exemplified so much of who I am today.

It was almost a decade ago and I was poor grad student working in retail hell aka Game$top. 

The worst part of every shift was when parents came to purchase games for their kids and even after my explicit reasons why they should not they still bought the game.  Grand Theft Auto was the biggest seller and I would regularly remind parents that in this game,

“Your child can have sex with a prostitute and then kill them to get some money back.”

Most parents would avoid making eye contact and handed me their credit card with ID. 

I built a website, went to some industry events in my inflammatory t-shirt, and made a stink with as many parents as possible. 

What is Happening Now

Fast forward to now and one of the most shocking realities for me is that my WAR website still exists.

And in better, more substantial news there are people who are great with new media doing innovative stuff to keep the gaming industry honest.

The problem with parents is still a problem but this industry is getting more accountable, not great but accountable.  In a recent post I referred to Anita Sarkeesian from Feminist Frequency who has made tremendous headway in giving an audience to problematic gaming tropes.  I forgot to mention James Portnow from ExtraCredits who is also doing some really great critical perspectives on issues in games.

In my current reality I am following conversations about video games on many different fronts with different audiences that should overlap.

• Game publishers/industry
• Textbook publishers
• Parents
• K-12 Educators
• Cultural critiques/ bloggers (seriously if you have not checked out Anita or James shame on you)

There are very different dialogues happening in different circles.  But no matter the conversation many of them in the past, present and future will continue to be about games.

Romance and Technology

I have been working on a thoughtful blog post about what area of technology I would most like to investigate as part of a current course I am enrolled in.  If I am being honest the area I will research is pragmatic and overlaps with my current professional research.  The area I would like to research is interpersonal relationships, specifically marriage and technology/ geekdom. 

This blog was created as a place to reflect and honor the awesomeness of my partnership with John Boone.  Technology, gaming and professional wrestling were a large part of our initial friendship.  Our history day project was a website and in 1997 people thought teenagers coding html was hot shit. We celebrate milestones in our life by playing video games and some of the most memorable aspects of our friendship revolve around tech.

Now that we have kids we are forced to recognize Valentine’s day in a new way.  Normally we buy video games and wrap them with flower wrapping paper.

Today my gift is to think about what major moments in our journey make us, well "us." Please click the image bellow for a timeline of some milestones in the Boone story. 

Generation Google

Normally what occurs in my doctoral classes is like Vegas, only in the sense that what happens in our meetings, stays in the vault of the unrepeated.  At our first face-to-face Spring course session we were asked to recall our personal journeys with technology.  Aside from helping me feel very old, it was interesting to discuss how instant message and Google have played a large role in our educational experiences and lives. 

A while back there were some Google commercials that showed the protagonist googling advice on issues that include travel, dating and translating languages etc. I felt that this commercial, and others, encompass my digital history in so many ways. 

  

The Evil Word Processor

In high school, I used a ballpoint pen, typewriter and word processor to construct essays.  Rewrites in my honor classes became almost impossible until I befriended a guy with two computers at his house. When I left for college in the fall of 1999, my grandparents bought me an “e-machine” which is one of the worst computers ever produced but I loved it dearly.  Though I was an adult when I had my first personal computer, I was comfortable with technology before then.

Minors Stealing Passwords

There are two memories I have of using the Internet.  The first is coming to CSU, Bakersfield as a high school student and using the online search engines, specifically Lexis Nexis to research for debate.  Lexis nexis is amazing but as the internet grew, we would also use the campus computers to find research from a variety of sources.  No one taught us, high school debaters, how to use the search engines.

Gaming and then College

When it comes to my first interactions with the internet the second vivid memory is sitting in the living room of my best friends house, which is coincidentally now my husband, with a network port connecting all of the computers to play Diablo. This was in the mid 90’s and I can count on one hand how many people I knew that actually had the internet. 

At the start of the new millennium when I went to college I lived on “instant messager.”  Emails became like a virtual diary where things could be sent off into the virtual world.

Personal Learning Network

I have been married for 11 years and my very geeky partner is my PLN (personal learning community) when it comes to technology.  Over the years anything we might want to know and didn’t, we googled it.   I discourage my students from relying to heavily on google: I cannot imagine life with the ability to search through google. 

It was insightful to share my contact with technology with others. My favorite history of technology was by an artist who drew a visual representation of her journey as a means of sharing her story: I hope she posts the photos on her blog so I can share with you soon.

The Blogging Binge

My 4 online followers will be surprised to find that my neglected blog will receive an influx of posts over the next few months as part of a required graduate technology course.  The idea is to create an “educational leadership” blog to “enhance” my current professional life.  I am not sure that blogging for me can become a professional platform but I do know that blogs are a useful part of my existence.  

Those who know me virtually or in person know that I am a big ole’ geek.  I will attempt to show self-restraint by mostly excluding my favorite Buffy and Gaming blogs. 

BLOGGERS I FOLLOW

As a Higher Education teacher, I find that blogs can humanize theoretical concepts through storytelling and images in a way that a textbook is unable to capture. The majority of blogs that appeal to me are feminist and popular culture writers with panache.

The Feminist Breeder

  

Feminist Frequency

Skep Chick

Some great male bloggers that have great cross-over and application in Communication and Culture include:

Confessions of anAca-fan: The Official Webblog of Henry Jenkins

Daddy in a StrangeLand 

As an overworked student, I find that blogs can provide “life hacks” that help motivate, inspire and provide insight into practicality in cooking, organizing, exercising and motherhood.

ABOUT MY BLOG 

This blogs, "100 Days of Gaming," inception was as an homage to my geek marriage and gaming; Today is our 11-year wedding anniversary so clearly we are doing something right.  With two kids and professional lives we have transitioned into more PG board games and less late night co-op gaming. 

The one thing I know for certain is that blogging is a huge time commitment.  It is great to interact with other people but it can also take on a life of its own and consume a writer in sharing how to live life instead of living it: Hopefully this binge and my blogging will find a balance between life and reflection. 

Yo Ho Ho...Geek Parents Plan a Disney Scavanger Hunt for Christmas

Nathan (4) and Inara (6) got tickets to Disney Pirate Princess Jr. Live from Santa. As parents, we were worried that they would be under whelmed by an envelope from Santa. Peter Pan left a series of clues for our kiddos that sent them on a pirate adventure. Four treasure chests, 1 mile, a sunken bottle and some pixie dust later and our kids saved Christmas. Hook had stolen both their present from Santa and the puppies gifts: they had to follow the clues to save Christmas.

First, the kids found a box with instructions that they had to find 3 gold doubloons and hand them to their 6 foot tall grandpa to retrieve their first clue (it was on top of the tree). In line with the magic of Christmas, the children did not attempt to ask grandpa to get them their clue without paying Peter Pan’s requested toll.
 

We are very lucky to have a relative within walking distance. The first clue told the kids they had to walk 4 blocks to their great-grandma’s (GG) and save her from dragons. When they arrived she informed them the dragons were shy and they would have to find them. They found the clue and the box informed them they had to find a bridge (back to our grandparents house).


As the kids, still in their PJ’s ran enthusiastically back to their starting point. Our son hit every passing bush with his sword just in case Hook was hiding. Our daughter sang Jake & the Neverland pirates song at the top of her lungs. Neighbors arriving to celebrate Christmas in their driveways waved and laughed as though children in their PJ’s dressed like pirates is perfectly normal.

As we walked home the magical iphone informed us that the next clue had sunk. Grandpa saved the day and pulled it out to shore before the little ones arrived.

When we arrived back at the driveway our 6-year old remarked “why did we just walked all that way, instead of taking the car?”

After providing the puppies with their Christmas treats the kiddos returned to the map.
 

It took a little searching but they found their bottle washed ashore which prompted them to follow the pixie dust to the final clue. The final box was suspended in air and the kids had to chant



“Yo Ho, Hook Let the Box Go” -- 3 x’s - while throwing pixie dust everywhere.

It will likely not surprise any parents that our kids were much more excited about the treasure chest and gold chocolate than the tickets to the show. It is almost 10 am and they have not opened another gift. They are still relishing in the excitement of their adventure to save Christmas.



Thanks to all the relatives and friends that helped coordinate. Thanks to my awesome partner who painted treasure maps, rigged up floating treasure chests, used his modeling paint to decorate authentic chests.

Feminist Parenting

My daughter is a brilliant artist who is great at math and just turned six-years old. It is said all to often that they grow so quickly. What surprises me the most is how much my thoughts on feminist parenting have changed over the last six years.

When I found out I was pregnant I did not want to know the gender of my child. Much to our family’s dismay, we bought neutral clothing, bedding and toys and I was determined not to gender my child. If someone told me that I would enjoy purchasing hairbows and tutus I would have laughed hysterically: I love buying bows and the bigger the better.

For her birthday my daughter requested a trip to the Los Angeles Natural History Museum and wore said bows and an adorably gaudy green St. Patrick’s tutu. As she pranced around looking at dinosaur bones and reading plaques I watched grateful to have such a unique and adorable daughter.

One area of improvement is that I need to work on what I say in front of her because she will always repeat it and sometimes it makes me so happy she did.

To the parents at her school who bring their children McDonald’s for lunch and my daughter shared concern for their well being.

What I said: We do not eat at McDonald’s because it is poison.
What I meant: We do not eat at McDonald’s because it is poison.

For the little girls who dressed up like Monster High dolls on Halloween and had encounters with my daughter and were very confused.

What I said: Monster High Dolls are too hoochie.
What I meant: Monster High dolls are too provocative for your age group. As toys they should have less make up and more clothing if they are going to marketed to young girls. The hypersexualization of children’s toys is to widely accepted and just because they are ‘monsters’ does not mean that they do not objectify women.

For the woman at Target who recommended the term “special place” and was aghast as my daughter shared an all to common refrain with her brother.

What I said: Don’t touch your penis please. (to my son)
What I meant: Don’t touch your penis in public.

As our children grow we must protect them but also embrace the people they become (huge bows and all). Most importantly I remember that the way I love myself projects the capacity my daughter will have for self-love.

Getting Better

Carrying my children to bed, teaching and practicing yoga, spooning with my husband and writing papers for my Doctoral program have been painfully impossible tasks since my scooter accident on January 16th. On Wednesday I got my second cast removed and I wanted to celebrate 3 small moments from this week that I did not realize I missed so dearly.

Brushing Hair

Much to my chagrin my 5-year old daughter Inara has beautiful, thick and very long hair. I complain pretty regularly about styling her hair because I often go a few days without brushing my own. Losing function in my left arm made me realize that losing that extra 20 minutes a day fighting to make the tangled mess in my daughters hair somewhat presentable is a special time we get together. John does a great job with bumpy ponytails accompanied by large hair bows but I miss the time we spend together each day getting through this ritual.

Video Games

Many people know that this blog started as a space to vent about marriage, parenthood and gaming. It is difficult to use a controller with one hand. My 4-year old son was in the hospital for a serious infection. His room at Memorial hospital had an Xbox and as per usual he asked me to jump a platform he was struggling with. Such a small request became a difficult moment for me and I am so glad when he asked to play Castle Crasher this week that I know I will do better (not good but better).

Reading Books

It is awkward, uncomfortable and difficult to read a book or nook with only one hand. I took for granted bubble baths and late night reading where I swapped hands and turned pages with ease. I love to read paranormal romance (Patricia Briggs, Laura Hamilton, PC Cast), fun mysteries (Evanovich) and trashy romance novels (any NY times best sellers). Being able to read a book to unwind without being in physical pain is a remarkable improvement in my life.

While I was recovering my daughter did cover my cast in jewels which made me look way more artistic than I really am. I also learned a lot about myself. I discovered I find jazz music incredibly soothing and that as much as I have resisted a housekeeper sometimes its good to ask for help.

There is still numbness, limitations and pain but each day I am getting a bit stronger. I accept that I will not be as I was before but that does not mean I cannot get better.