Introduction: studying media and class

Deery, June; Press, Andrea L.

doi:10.4324/9781315387987-1

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Her intent is not to discard financial concerns entirely—certainly, income is still central—but rather to recognize the many other factors that help construct class. June Deery and Andrea Press propose that socioeconomic class is “a combination of economic (income, wealth) and social factors (family background, education, occupation, social prestige)” ( 2017 , p. 6) which can manifest through values, behaviors, mannerisms, and more. Pertinently, they highlight that there are certain symbols and cues that embody commonly held class ideals, and that media producers will invoke these elements when constructing fictional representations of class ( Deery & Press, 2017 , p. 9).…”

Section: Socioeconomic Class In Videogamesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…June Deery and Andrea Press propose that socioeconomic class is “a combination of economic (income, wealth) and social factors (family background, education, occupation, social prestige)” ( 2017 , p. 6) which can manifest through values, behaviors, mannerisms, and more. Pertinently, they highlight that there are certain symbols and cues that embody commonly held class ideals, and that media producers will invoke these elements when constructing fictional representations of class ( Deery & Press, 2017 , p. 9). Various occupations, attitudes, and material objects become class markers that can be employed in the media to evoke the desired type of class experience.…”

Section: Socioeconomic Class In Videogamesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Background Checks: Disentangling Class, Race, and Gender in CRPG Character Creators

Iantorno

Consalvo

2023

Games and Culture

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Character backgrounds are one of many elements players use to customize their protagonists in fantasy computer role-playing games. By documenting the narrative trappings, mechanical benefits, and hierarchical availability of character backgrounds in Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (2001) and Dragon Age: Origins (2009), this paper considers how real-world socioeconomic class markers and racial stereotypes have been repeatedly associated with fictitious races such as orcs, dwarves, and elves. Class is an understudied axis of identity in media studies and this research scrutinizes how developers construct socioeconomic class, particularly through character-creator interfaces. We begin by building a theoretical repertoire for studying identity in digital game interfaces while also scrutinizing long-established discourses of race and gender in the fantasy genre. We then analyze the hierarchies embedded in both games’ character creators, connecting them with broader gameplay and narrative themes and contextualizing them in established media stereotypes and existing scholarship.

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Section: Socioeconomic Class In Videogamesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Socioeconomic Class In Videogamesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Background Checks: Disentangling Class, Race, and Gender in CRPG Character Creators

Iantorno

Consalvo

2023

Games and Culture

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“…User agency allows players to take on or aid NPCs in their tasks while hopefully succeeding at a game's core goal. As Deery and Press (2017) note, media structures influence class ideology through their inclusion or exclusion of specific class positions. By providing agency in these spaces, games can further reinforce these ideals in their ability to present and obfuscate specific ideologies around labor and class positions.…”

Section: Background Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Top Shelf Drinks, Bottom Line Play: Examining Representations of Class in Bartending and Mixology Games

DeJong

Blamey

2022

Games and Culture

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There is an emerging body of games that simulate the labor of drink making and serving at the forefront of play through the role of a bartender or artisanal mixologist. Both are working class but the creative variance between them challenges how economic precarity is understood. The authors ask how this translates to video games when these positions are foregrounded. How do play, poverty, and precarity interconnect in drink making and serving games? Through the qualitative analysis of four games that put the player in the position of bartender or mixologist, this paper shows how creative labor and precarity are illuminated or obfuscated through mechanics and narrative. In doing so, it argues how games, as one form of media, obscure or make visible labor and precarity to players and simultaneously reinforce the romanticization of often exploited creative labor. These findings prompt further questions and research directions on representations of working-class labor.

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“…This analysis draws on theorizations of social class as well as temporal labor. Scholars of social class and media have argued that our class positioning not only determines our educational and social opportunities, but also structures our use of media, our sense of ourselves, and our life expectancy and opportunities (Deery & Press 2017). In her studies of time and work, Sarah Sharma writes of how work time can be differently experienced depending on one's occupation .…”

Section: Semi-public Hobbyhorse Space: Instagrammentioning

confidence: 99%

Pleasure+gender+play

Chess¹,

Massanari

Kruse

et al. 2021

SPIR

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From the start, play and game studies scholars have investigated the experiences of women and girls who play games online, as well as gendered assumptions around digital as well as non-digital play (Brunner et al., 2000; Bryce & Rutter, 2002; Delamere & Shaw, 2008; Fron et al., 2007a, 2007b; Pearce, 2009). Scholars have challenged ideas such as that girls and women have weaker gameplay skills than boys and men (Jenson & De Castell, 2008), that women are not interested in competitive play (Taylor, 2006), that girls and women are different in their play experiences and interests (Royse et al., 2007) and that women are not frequent or loyal players (Consalvo & Begy, 2015; Williams et al., 2009). However, there is still more to learn about how women, girls, boys, men, nonbinary and other individuals play, as well as how gender can play an important role beyond as an identity marker in playful expressions as well as normative expectations for play. This panel offers new ways of examining how gender, games, and other forms of online play, can be analyzed and understood. These four papers argue for a more nuanced understanding of gender and play, further challenging gaming culture’s preoccupation that certain games and certain styles of play are more “valid” than others (Consalvo & Paul, 2019). To do that, we offer fresh analytical tools, different theoretical lenses and underexplored sites for study. $2 “No Need For Speed” makes a unique contribution to gaming and play literature, offering a new articulation of the temporal experiences within and external to game play - especially in COVID/pandemic times. In particular, the authors argue that the concept of “slow gaming,” might offer new possibilities for both our experiences of play and the way that time within the games industry itself is being reconceptualized. The authors offer three different games as examples of how “slow gaming” challenges our relationship to play, domesticity, notions of gender, and labor practices within the gaming industry more broadly. This paper argues that playing slow games, or playing games slowly, might provide a unique political rejoinder to contemporary life under late capitalism. $2 Two papers in this panel bring underutilized theoretical frameworks to the study of gender and games: examining how socioeconomic class and boundary keeping intersect with gender and gameplay in important ways. The presentation “Working for hearts: Social class and time management games” reads popular casual games such as Sally’s Spa through an intersectional critique. Adding to gendered examinations of casual games (Chess, 2012, 2017), this paper brings in a critique of social class. It does so through exploring the classed positions of jobs in these games, as well as how the player’s agency is limited both through classed expectations of certain occupations as well as further undermined by particular design decisions and gameplay mechanics as well as game narratives. It demonstrates how class is an important aspect of identity that can help us better understand gaming representations. The second paper to bring in underutilized theory is “Gendered expectations of playing nice, boundary keeping and problematic/toxic behaviors in casual video game communities.” This paper offers a different way of understanding the role of toxic behavior and players in game communities: through the sociological lens of boundary keeping. While not dismissing the real effects of harassment, it explores how activities such as trolling and other problematic gameplay is defined differently within different player groups, how it can strengthen some in-game communities or spur the creation of groups dedicated to combating such problems, and in the process helping to further enrich and make more inclusive gaming culture. $2 “Girls, Platforms, and Play” examines an offline form of gendered play and competition – pre-teen and teen girls riding hobbyhorses – and how the activity has been differently contested and/or constructed on two platforms: YouTube and Instagram. Legacy media video content of hobbyhorse competitions uploaded to YouTube inevitably have led – given YouTube’s largely antisocial comment culture (Burgess & Green, 2018) – to hobbyhorsers’ activities to be delegitimized for a number of reasons by commenters: mainly, because it’s just girls playing with toys, not participating in a sport; or because it is an athletic endeavor, but its participants should compete in a “real” sport, like track and field; or because it’s not real equestrianism. Instagram's affordances, which help encourage connections among subculture participants and the creation of communities (Leaver, Highfield, & Abidin, 2020), have allowed hobbyhorse enthusiasts to create a space of their own online.

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Introduction: studying media and class

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Background Checks: Disentangling Class, Race, and Gender in CRPG Character Creators

Background Checks: Disentangling Class, Race, and Gender in CRPG Character Creators

Top Shelf Drinks, Bottom Line Play: Examining Representations of Class in Bartending and Mixology Games

Pleasure+gender+play

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