Tag: e3

  • Women in Gaming: Borderlands 3 Mission Designer Kate Pitstick

    Women in Gaming: Borderlands 3 Mission Designer Kate Pitstick

    In the veritable shadow of larger-than-life statues of new Borderlands 3 characters at E3 2019, mission and level designer Kate Pitstick got to see her work showcased to thousands. During the bustling exhibition at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Pitstick took the time to talk about her career and work on the latest entry in…

  • A Community’s Lifespan in Dialect: A Game About Language and How It Dies

    A Community’s Lifespan in Dialect: A Game About Language and How It Dies

    Embodying the spirit of encompassing all gaming, the IndieCade showcase at E3 2019 featured tabletop games too. This included Thorny Games’ Dialect: A Game About Language and How It Dies. But before players can reach the destruction of a language, they have to create it first. Communally Created Words “For every turn of the game,…

  • Waiting for Animal Crossing

    Waiting for Animal Crossing

    The Nintendo Switch was released in March 2017. That makes the new console nearly a year and a half old; and quite the year and a half it’s been. We have seen long-awaited releases such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, and we are awaiting titles such as…

  • How The Sims Became a Champion for LGBTQ Representation in Gaming

    How The Sims Became a Champion for LGBTQ Representation in Gaming

    When talking about The Sims, an adjective that could very accurately describe it is influential. The follow-up project to creator Will Wright’s SimCity, the game was something that had never been tried before: an intimate simulation of real life where the player can act as either caretaker or doom-bringer for the characters in their charge.…

  • Ori and the Will of the Wisps is Tearfully Beautiful

    Ori and the Will of the Wisps is Tearfully Beautiful

    At this year’s E3, Microsoft announced it’s sequel to 2015’s Ori and the Blind Forest: Ori and the Will of the Wisps. The trailer for Ori and the Will of the Wisps premiered on stage, with composer Gareth Coker on piano. With scarce expositional dialogue to carry the story’s narrative, Ori and the Blind Forest managed to…

  • Why Did EA’s E3 2017 Press Conference Include a Racist Madden Player?

    Why Did EA’s E3 2017 Press Conference Include a Racist Madden Player?

    The EA press conference wasn’t…great. The use of influencers and the unclear commentary during the Star Wars Battlefront 2 gameplay portion led many to deem the presser ‘unnecessary.’ Many also argued that the best part about the whole shebang was Battlefront 2 star Janina Gavankar. Gavankar’s incredible Star Wars-themed dress was a runner-up. But one…

  • E3 Presentations Featured Just 8 Female-Led Games

    E3 Presentations Featured Just 8 Female-Led Games

    You might have noticed during my Gender at E3 series that I wasn’t exactly blown away by any of the press conferences when it came to showing women. And stepping back now that the shows are done, things really come into a sharp focus: this was a terrible E3 for female protagonists. Eight games. Tacoma.…

  • Gender at E3: Nintendo

    Gender at E3: Nintendo

    The Nintendo E3 press conference opened with a reel showing a diverse cast playing a bunch of Switch games, from Arms to Rocket League. Unfortunately, while they were happy to show people of all kinds enjoying their games, they weren’t so keen on including them in the games or the presentation themselves. Female characters were…

  • Gender at E3: Playstation

    Gender at E3: Playstation

    The Playstation E3 press conference was a whirlwind of trailer after trailer after trailer, leaving no stage time for anyone except Sony President and CEO Shawn Layden. The games themselves, then, were mixed in every respect. Out of the gate they showed Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, featuring Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross, both women of…

  • Gender at E3: PC Gaming Show

    Gender at E3: PC Gaming Show

    The PC Gaming Show at E3 showed off various bits of hardware and a bunch of upcoming games. Somehow, not one of these things was represented by women. Streamer Sonja Reed was given a secondary presenter role, but the developers interviewed by Sean Plott, who was given the the main stage, were overwhelmingly white men. There…

  • Gender at E3: Ubisoft

    Gender at E3: Ubisoft

    The Ubisoft E3 press conference was hard to parse. Not just because of Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, but because of the shadow that South Park: The Fractured But Whole cast over it. It’s not like I wasn’t expecting South Park to be bad. At last year’s E3, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone discussed…

  • Gender at E3: Devolver Digital

    Gender at E3: Devolver Digital

    The Devolver Digital presser was less of a conference and more of a surrealist skit, but it was a surrealist skit with plenty of women in it. Primarily headed up by Nina Struthers’ unblinking comedic presence, she was joined by bit characters like the scientist Margaret as things devolved (hah) into body horror and gore.…

  • Gender at E3: Bethesda

    Gender at E3: Bethesda

    The Bethesda E3 press conference opened with a bunch of kids talking about what their parents – mothers and fathers – did for a living. Both women and men were shown enthusing about their jobs and the games they’re making. Though Pete Hines did all of the presenting, Bethesda was careful to include female Youtubers…

  • Gender at E3: Xbox

    Gender at E3: Xbox

    The Microsoft press conference featured more women on stage and on screen than EA’s did within the first 14 minutes. They started out with the reveal of the Xbox One X, and the face they chose to be the player was a (white) woman. Immediately thereafter they announced Forza Motorsport 7, with a female driver…

  • Gender at E3: EA Play

    Gender at E3: EA Play

    There was a segment in the EA Play press conference pumping up their new esports project, which is designed to encourage more new competitors. “Ladies and gentlemen sitting on your couch, this could be you!” exclaimed one man. Except that the montage of new competitors had not included a single lady. This was in many…