Episode 58 - LARPers Brandes and Rabbit

Before I get to the write up for this week's episode, I'd just like to take a moment and send some positive thoughts to the people of Boston. The bombings after the Boston Marathon were horrific. If you are able, please consider donating blood in your city. Find a Red Cross center near you. 

RabbitBrandes

This week we interview married gamers, LARPers, and game industry vets Brandes and Rabbit. They share some really fantastic stories of acceptance and engagement from their LARPing community. To learn more about the LARPs they participate in, check out Rule of 3 Productions, the game they run, Dust to Dust, and Eclipse. Brandes and Rabbit are also active bloggers so make sure to checkout their articles as well. 

Make sure to follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page! 

Until next time, game on!

Regina & Rhonda

Episode 58

Episode 52 - Gaming 101: RPGs

Returning to our series discussing gaming basics, we talk about all you'd ever want to know about RPGs or Role Playing Games.

Telling your character's story in Guild Wars 2

We talk about the connections between tabletop and digital games, terms, and how and why we find this genre to be so compelling. Check it out to catch up on the terms we often use and share it with your non-gaming friends and family. Maybe this will get them to join you in a campaign. 

Game on Girl is on Stitcher so you can stream our show to your mobile device or subscribe via iTunes or the RSS Feed.

Like us on Facebook to participate in our listener polls!

Until next time, game on! 
Regina & Rhonda

Episode 52

What Gamer Type Am I?

One of my not so pretty avatars.

It occurred to me while speaking with Regina last week that I've never discussed what type of gamer I am by her codification on this site. Regina and Rhonda have their views on what type of gamer I am, and you can find those on episode 5 of the Game On Girl podcast. I would like to take a stab at it now. 

I'll skip to the end right here. I believe I am all three in pretty equal measure. Here's why: 

As a Self Player I tend to create avatars that have long hair and some form of facial hair like I do. However, I usually don't strive to create them as an idealized representation of my self. On the contrary, I try and make them ugly or non-human where ever the option presents itself. In World of Warcraft the first avatar I ever created was undead. My second was a dwarf. Neither would come close to hitting the top of the fantasy attractive race list. I also do not tend to refer to my avatar in the first person unless it's for expediency's sake. Example: “I'm in the room to the south of you being attacked.” 

As a Role Player I do have an idea of who my avatar is. I believe their personalities take shape as I’m creating the avatar. Typically if you ask me a question about my avatar's back story or his morality, I will have a quick answer. I also will indulge in making female avatars from time to time. However, I do not role play as a female avatar. In fact, I don't tend to role play in game much at all. My character's back ground and personality are as far as I go with role playing. 

Finally, I am a Mastery Player too, but only in so far as it's fun to do so. I've referred to myself on Game On Girl as a “Lazy Mastery” player. This is because I want to be as good at a game as I can be, but not to the point where it becomes a job; certainly not to the point where it takes over my life; never to the point that it stops being fun. 

Well, that's me. A self-role-mastery player! 

What about you? Are you an amalgamation of the gamer types too? Please leave your comment in the comments below or @MarsUller or @game_on_girl on Twitter.

Episode 43 - Permadeath

For our last episode of the year we taking on endings . . . permanent endings.

Inspired by Andrew Groen's article, "In These Games Death is Forever and That's Awesome," in Wired, we discuss how the mechanic of permadeath might impact all three of our Gamer Types. Listen to the episode and see if you agree with our assessment of how self, role players, and mastery gamers might experience true game loss.

A huge thank you to all our listeners, interviewees, and our fantastic community for supporting our first year of the show. Your input and engagement has been more than inspirational. We look forward to more conversations with you all in 2013!

Please remember Game on Girl is on Stitcher so you can stream our show to your mobile device or subscribe via iTunes or the RSS Feed.

Until next time, game on! 
Regina & Rhonda

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Hey-o!

Hello! I'm Jerry, and I'm pleased as punch to be a member of the Game on Girl writing team. I appeared on the podcast for Episode 10, in case you didn't catch Regina's earlier announcement. I met Regina via my Ethnographic Methods class. I read her dissertation (which is amazing) for a research project I was doing at the time, and I got the opportunity to interview her (role reversal!) as a part of said project. We had a delightful chat, which led to me joining up here!

I guess I should pass along a little of my gaming (and life) background. I was born in 1983. I started playing video games when I was two or so, haphazardly (I'm sure) playing games on my parent's Colecovision. At four I would get a NES, which pretty much hooked me. I used games as a means of escape from the trials and tribulations of school. I did well in class, but my social interactions were not...favorable. Let's just say I wasn't all that popular. :p I did meet some awesome people who I felt I could be myself around, and their support and friendship, along with video games and an active imagination, powered me through elementary and middle school. High school was a little better. It was when I got out of the public school system and into community college that I truly discovered who I am and felt unashamed about it. Games have always been a major part of my identity, and I felt that I could finally express that at that point. They continue to serve in that role now. :) Sorry for a bit of sob story, but to fully comprehend my appreciation of gaming, I had to discuss some of my past.

Today, I am happily married to a wonderful woman and we both are pursuing cultural anthropology B.A.'s. Along with becoming an anthropology professor, I wish to apply my discipline's techniques towards video games and dig into their various cultural aspects, such as localization practices, gender and sex, and how video games handle violence. I am anticipating exploring those ideas through Game on Girl, particularly the gender/sex related topics.

Now I suppose would be a good time to share some of my favorite things about gaming!

Favorite games include Skies of Arcadia Legends, Hotel Dusk: Room 215, Beyond Good & Evil, Super Metroid, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Mega Man 3, Persona 4, Resident Evil 4, Chrono Trigger, Portal, Morrowind, Dragon Quest IX, Bionic Commando for the NES, Fire Emblem, and Super Mario 64.

What do I like to play? Well, I'm into a lot of different genres. As you could gather from my podcast appearance, I like RPG's a lot. I'm a role player when I can be! I also get heavily into platformers (2D and 3D), fighting games (preferably 2D), action games (depends!) and any game with heavy exploration elements (I LOVE searching out stuff). On the whole I am not too keen on puzzle games, racing games or most FPS/shoot-em-up games, although there are exceptions. I do love me some Hotel Dusk, Ace Attorney, Portal, Mario Kart, Burnout, Deus Ex, Bioshock and Perfect Dark.

I also run my own gaming blog, LVLs., where I am transitioning the format to be more anthropological (and academic) in focus. I've been at that for three plus years now. You can find out more about me and my interests there (if you're curious); I post as Wildcat-LVL there.

I'm looking forward to seeing where Game on Girl goes and am excited to be an active part in its development. Game on!

~ Jerry Fieldsted