These are not the girl gamers. These are three excellent academics who were part of this conference last week.
And that conference, (as keen readers will know) was closely followed by this.
I am not going to repeat myself further but want to just mention that I went to an excellent seminar yesterday, which Catherine again presented, on girl gamers. It was called
‘Would the real girl gamers please stand up? Gender, LAN cafes and the reformation of the girlgamer’.
and evolved out of research done by her and Claire Charles. (The presentation was originally done by Catherine and Claire together) You can also see an associated paper in Discourse see here.
As if the funky title were not enough, the seminar had some really compeling data and an interesting story to tell about some girls and their involvement in gaming. The data was drawn from an Australian cafe and focused on a particular LAN cafe where some girsl of south east Asian background, were keen and expert gamers. In a setting where it is nearly all Australian white men who play these games, these girls were quite a contrast to the usual sort ogf gamers. Catherine was looking at issues around how and why these girls are involved and looking at issues around feminine identity etc. Most of the girls got drawn into the gaming via their boyfriends but ended up loving the games andthe action it offered. Catherine’s work looks at the tensions in playing the shoot em up game, for girls who were fashionable, petite and in the main, strongly identifying with their culture’s mainstream notions of identity. Fascinating stuff and I did see parallels with my own work as in this paper here and here about ‘Negotiating Femininities online’.
I was also really fascinated to hear how common Internet cafes are in Australia, and have also observed the same in Toulouse, Rome and Berlin. I have also heard Claudia Mitchell talk about girls in South Africa in Internet cafes. I am now wondering why UK youngsters do not go to Internet cafes to do their online gaming. Or do they? As far as I can see all the attempts at getting Internet cafes going in the UK (including Edinburgh) were either closed down, or just used by occasional individuals. Nothing like the kind of rush of boys queueing outside the cafes to go in, in Toulouse. Apparently they all gather to play team games on the web, so that they can collaborate over tactics (shouted across the cafe) and then play teams from elsewhere via the Internet. So does anyone know of Internet cafes like this in the UK? If not, why don’t they exist? Does anyone know?
Across all of the talks I have been to lately, I have been thinking about the way in which the local is being played out on a global stage. Something which Jennifer and Anne alluded to at UKLA.
J’aime bien les photos - trés amusantes! Tu les as pris, Docteur Joolz? I think girls in the UK don’t go to internet cafés because quite a lot are rich and have their own PCs at home. Also, it is usually quite cold (unlike Oz and Serth Efrica) so would rather go home and curl up in the comfort of their own home. Or maybe they are not allowed by their parents.
Comment by citybitch — July 15, 2006 @ 9:07 pm
I think my hair looks rubbish in the photo but I think the ideas on Girl Gamers are very interesting.
Myspace is the obsession at the moment - it is aobut decorating homes I think also.
Comment by kate — July 17, 2006 @ 8:47 am
haha, once again ostralian super duper researchers show our colonial overmasters the way to do cool research …
Comment by scottb — July 17, 2006 @ 1:15 pm
Hi yes CityB I did take the photos … theya re a few years old now, taken in Toulouse. But the thing about the people who go to play games in Internet cafes abroad, DO have pcs at home. That was the mistake I made when I saw all these gamers in Toulouse. I assumed they were there as they had no pcs at home. But they go in order to be with other gamers and I doi not know why that does not happen in the UK.
DrK your hair looks fine but even fabber now though… I still have a photo tyo post of your new hair-do. OK then Scott, I am coming over to rub shoulders with you guys. I have to agree there is some MARVELLOUS stuff going on in Aussie.
Comment by DrJoolz — July 18, 2006 @ 10:14 am
I love your blogg Dr Joolz! Now I have to say, playing in LAN cafes is not just about not having broad band access - many people do. It’s about being in a different kind of space, a social space where you can be with your friends both on and offline, plus play great games.
How cool is the woman game player with the blonde hair???
Comment by Catherine Beavis — July 19, 2006 @ 8:00 pm
Oh Hi Catherine… nice to see you here!! That woman is very cool indeed with her high IQ and her specimens in the lab at the back. I am not very sure about the shapes game …perhaps she invented it?
As for the LAN cafe, I really wonder why UK kids don’t do that kind of socialising? we used to have this kind of cafe but they never realy took off .. they were just used by travellers unable to get access to ther home machines I think and then became out of date. Nowadays in the Uk you tend to see Internet cafes in one horse town type places I thin - or places where lots go on holiday. e.g. I saw some in Edinburgh. (No gamers though.)
Comment by DrJoolz — July 19, 2006 @ 8:50 pm
In Burnley internet cafes are popular among keen gamers - just as is mentioned for teambuilding, shouting tactics etc.
Comment by Julia — July 27, 2006 @ 9:12 pm