Episode 21 - Gaming

What choices are built into games and why? Why do they still inspire moral panic about young people playing them? We talk about games being used for political ends, sometimes by design, but best of all, when players get subversive with the mechanics. Plus, the power of gamers showing solidarity with the workers and creators, vs the toxic online communities that led to the rise of the alt-right. 

We interview Marijam Didžgalvytė, games industry expert, worker rights organiser, and creator of the Left Left Up Up video series for her insights.

References 

1. Video games are dividing South Korea, Max S Kim

2. Behind the gaming screen: Gaming industry's labour force has had a year of reckoning,

3. Gendered Spaces And Cultures In Video Games A Personal Study Of Breath Of The Wild, Ronny Ford

4. Videogames & IRL Politics: The Decade's 5 Most Important Developments, Marijam Didžgalvytė

5. Intersecting oppressions and online communities, Leah Gray-Denson, @equityingaming

6. US video gaming demographics, Who Plays Games In 2020

7. Self-organisation In Video Games: Political Message V Political Possibilities, Marijam Didžgalvytė,

8. Minecraft creator says he would rather be a fascist than have a ‘feminine dick’, Ana Valens

9. Minecraft being used as a safe space by the far right

10. Twitter thread on games which call you out for doing the killing they made you do @headsfalloff

11. Does keeping kids offline breach their human rights? Anya Kamenetz

12. Untitled Goose Game

13. Under Trump, Gamergate Can Stop Pretending It Was About Games, Emanuel Maiberg

14. Why So Many High-Profile Videogames Have Been Delayed

15. Some Streamers are Boycotting Twitch in Support of Amazon Prime Day Strike
    

FIND US:
Intersection of Things: @thingsintersect
Ruth Coustick-Deal: @nesient
Marianela Ramos Capelo: @undazedandsuch

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