Tag: games

JS is curious about ASL:

Read about this game (again) in a GamerGate post today… Which set do you play?  I’m intrigued…I’d like to buy a kit and start playing. Time for a post for us inspiring ASL newbies! I like turn-based games (I own Supremacy, and even ported the board to Java…Very handy to have a seamless scroll when you control Siberia and Alaska!), but haven’t played detailed military rules since high school.

I own two sets of Squad Leader and two sets of Advanced Squad Leader as a consequence of the Hasbro acquisition panic of 1999 and Ender has a complete set of the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit. Right now, I mostly play ASLSK because we are methodically playing our way through that. I myself started with the ASL11 Defiance on Hill 30 scenario from Paratrooper, followed by ASL14 Silence that Gun. While I’d owned Squad Leader, Cross of Iron, and Crescendo of Doom since I was 10, I’d never actually played against an actual opponent because I didn’t know anyone willing to learn the rules.

Since then, I’ve played a Red Barricades campaign and took part in an eight-man game of Gold Beach, which was one of the better gaming experiences of my life. Ender was actually given his nickname by Big Chilly as a result of ASL, as he managed to beat me, fair and square, (albeit with the help of a 1 in 36 shot) in one of the first ASLSK scenarios he ever played. I usually win, as he’s too conservative in attack and doesn’t have the experience to deal with my 3GW tactics, but he’s learned that I tend to have trouble maintaining my focus once the game is well in hand and has taken advantage of that to steal a victory or two at the wire.

It’s a wonderful game, and if you take the Journals and Annuals into account, makes for great reading material; Chapter H alone is a comprehensive education in World War II fighting vehicles. Start with ASLSK #1, play through it, and then move on to #2 and #3 if you enjoy it. Then you’ll be ready to move up to the big league and the ASLRB.

Although somewhat biased towards equalitarianism, this history of the general absence of women in gaming goes a long way towards putting #GamerGate into perspective:

The final roster of almost six hundred IFW members, tallied in March of 1973, contains only one recognizably female name, that of Elizabeth A. Parnell. By the end of the 1960s, Avalon Hill faced stiff competition from Jim Dunnigan’s wargames company Simulation Publication, Inc. (SPI), who published the widely-circulated magazine Strategy & Tactics. Dunnigan regularly sought feedback from his broad readership to tune the contents of his games and periodicals. It was not until 1971, however, that the feedback questionnaires in Strategy & Tactics began to inquire about gender. The first returns that summer (published in issue #28) indicated that 1% of those surveyed were female, though that number is perhaps inflated due to rounding. At the beginning of 1974, on the next iteration of the survey, Strategy & Tactics reported, “We asked how many female subscribers we have. The number is roughly one-half of 1%.” That article goes on to explain their survey methodology, which they believed reflected “over 10,000 different gamers,” a sum they credibly represented as the largest study group available to the industry.

That figure, that roughly one half of 1% of “gamers” were female, is borne out by other contemporary sources as well. The “Great Lakes Gamers Census” of January 1974, assembled by the Midwest Gaming Association, tabulates more than one thousand gamers in the Midwest. It contains five recognizably female names: Marie Cockrill, Anne Laumer, Denise Bonis, and then two couples: Mr. & Mrs. Linda Anderson, and Mr. and Mrs. Paul Pawlak. It was this overwhelmingly male community which was the target of contemporary periodicals branded for “gamers” like Gamers Guide.

How much attention were game developers reasonably supposed to pay to a group that made up less than one percent of their market? Notice that as with SFWA, it was the inclusion of fantasy that brought women into the mix. And in games, as in science fiction literature, the subsequent expansion caused the original pioneers to be largely pushed to the side:

The release of Dungeons & Dragons triggered a crucial intersection of two fandoms: wargames fandom and the group collectively known as science-fiction fandom, which included fantasy fans. This is significant because science-fiction fandom, while predominantly male, had far more gender diversity than wargames fandom. Exactly how much diversity has been a matter of some scholarly debate; a recent study suggests that as of 1960, science-fiction fandom was perhaps one-fifth female. Other data points show finer divisions: while subscribers to a hard science-fiction magazine like Analog might have been only one-tenth female, a survey of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction — which published many of the fantasy stories that inspired the creators of Dungeons & Dragons — revealed that around a third of its readership was female as of 1966. Fans of that era, most notably Diana Paxson, invented the Society for Creative Anachronism, a medieval recreation group which offered dramatically segregated, yet appealing, roles for male and female participants. However we measure it, science-fiction fandom attracted far more women than wargaming.

The big difference is that most male gamers understand and accept that, in the gaming hierarchy, they are third- or fourth-class citizens in gaming terms. The guy who plays Top Eleven respects that he is not considered as serious a gamer as Level 70 Elite Call of Duty player, who in turn understands that he’s not as serious as the average Eve Online player. Who, in turn, is not as serious as the wargamer, much less the monster wargamer. And even hard core wargamers tend to think that Advanced Squad Leader players are over-the-top. This hierarchy is simply recognition of the complexity involved in the game and the expertise required to master it.

Tell me that someone is an ASL player, and I immediately know that I’m dealing with a man who is intelligent, detail-oriented, patient, and capable of grasping a massive quantity of rules as well as mastering a considerable quantity of abstract concepts. Why? Because unless you possess those qualities, and possess them in abundance, you can’t even begin to play the game. The same is not true of a FIFA or Bejeweled player.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that prevents a woman from obtaining that high-level expertise. Any woman can buy War in Europe and start playing it tomorrow. Well, start setting it up tomorrow, at any rate. But some women appear to deeply resent that they are not granted the respect that comes from such hard-won mastery even though they have not put in the necessary effort to gain it. It is this petty resentment that sparked #GamerGate, as no wargamer is ever going to consider a Candy Crush Saga player his gaming peer. It is simply never going to happen, nor is there any reason why it should.

And as for the dearth of women on the development side, note that the very first female game design credit is for Battle of the Wilderness, published by SPI in 1975, only 62 years AFTER  men began designing wargames. I’m hardly ancient, and I have been playing wargames longer than women have been designing games at all.

One of the usual anklebiters attempted to claim that there is no evidence I was ever a successful game producer. Now, I don’t talk about most of my designs these days, for obvious reasons, but since the review is out there, here is the take on RMR from Computer Gaming World, written by Loyd Case, who was their most technical writer at the time:

There is an old aphorism that’s often said about weddings – something old, something new. You need a bit of each for good luck. REBEL MOON RISING is a 3D shooter that is a mix of the old and the new – both in terms of gameplay and technology….

Another new technology feature [after mentioning our first use of 16-bit color -VD] is voice recognition. One early Windows 95 game, ACES OF THE DEEP, used speech recognition, but the implementation was very limited. In REBEL MOON RISING, the list of usable words is quite large. While you can actually give orders to AI squad mates in a limited way, it’s mostly used to communicate with other players in multiplayer games…. Where REBEL MOON RISING doesn’t break new ground is in graphics. Although it does use 16-bit color, the style is still 2/12D, in the style of DUKE NUKEM 3D….

 “Where Rebel Moon Rising does
break new ground in 3D-action shooters is in mission design (as opposed
to level design). There are a couple of missions in which you defend a location. You can either choose to run around frantically, trying to defend against multiple attackers as they teleport in, or you can find the switch that will bring in reinforcements. The reinforcements are about as dumb as the AI opponents, but they do help buffer the target against the opposing forces. The two best missions in the game are ones where
you escort prisoners – in one case, alien babies – to a hand-off point.
The suspense gets pretty intense as you move with your charge and try to
keep enemies from picking them off. It’s also somehow more personal
than similar missions in flight sims. When one of the alien babies was
killed, I felt a very real sense of outrage and emptied most of a
magazine into the enemy that had killed it. Some of the other missions
which involve searching for and destroying a specific set of objectives
are more creative than the “if it moves, shoot it” philosophy in most
3D-action games. All of this takes place in the context of a relatively
interesting story.” 

So, I was publicly recognized by the leading industry magazine as the
first game designer to do mission design in 3D shooters, introduce 16-bit color, and feature AI squad mates to whom you could actually talk to using speech recognition, in a game that did over 6
million units. It did well enough that a strategy book was released for it. This is failure?

Case was absolutely correct. The game wasn’t outstanding. It had some production flaws and my decision to set it on the Moon was egregiously stupid. (Way to show off the color, sport!) But “it has an interesting story and some highly creative missions” is hardly indicative of “a crappy game”.

The white knights of the anti-GG Left ride to the rescue:

niko ‏@nikodimov 30m30 minutes ago
There’s no anti-GG, just people with common decency who give a damn.

Peter Coffin ‏@petercoffin
Also I’m not anti-journalistic integrety, I’m anti-using-that-as-your-mission-statement-for-what-GG-is

Vox Day ‏@voxday
#GamerGate is all about journalistic integrity. That’s what kicked it all off. And they are VERY corrupt.

@IamSpacedad 
Nope. It’s about fear of ladyparts, and vultures like you projecting and attacking liberals journos

@IamSpacedad
‘Hey look a fake cause where I can pretend Im relevant and pontificate about corruption & vaginas.’

Vox Day ‏@voxday
Corruption and vaginas? Oh, you mean ZOE QUINN. Got it.

Ah, so THAT’S what that journolist thing was. Just a group of game journalists with common decency who give a damn.

UPDATE: I find this behavior typical, and all too telling, of the frightened little rabbits upon finding themselves face to face with the big bad wolf. They leap up and yap, and then upon learning, to their surprise, that you actually respond, immediately run away with their hands pressed over their ears.

niko ‏@nikodimov 1 hour ago
niko favorited some Tweets you were mentioned in 

niko ‏@nikodimov 55 minutes ago
@IamSpacedad @voxday @notryan @petercoffin
Guys, can you please untag me bc I blocked Voxday?

niko ‏@nikodimov 46 minutes ago
@IamSpacedad @voxday @notryan @petercoffin
Untag me pleeeeease.

Peter Coffin ‏@petercoffin 45 minutes ago
@nikodimov @IamSpacedad @voxday @notryan

Yeah, please untag me as well.

A civil exchange with a genuinely curious #GamerGate moderate who asks questions rather than flings accusations:

Vox Day ‏@voxday
As the game media grows, the probability of it being co-opted by women who want to make it all about their vaginas approaches 1. #GamerGate

René Dreadsteves ‏@robobeau 2h2 hours ago
I understand where you’re coming from, but that’s still a bit of a harsh generalization.

Vox Day ‏@voxday
Harsh or not, it is observably true. Most have zero interest in games, they just want to run the “insufficient vaginas” routine.

René Dreadsteves ‏@robobeau
A lot definitely do, but a lot simply want better representation, so I think it’s harsh to lump them all together.

Vox Day ‏@voxday
What is “better representation”? Precisely how would more vaginas being represented in Call of Duty or WOW improve them?

René Dreadsteves ‏@robobeau
More support for female developers, which is way harder than it sounds given the AAA game industry

Vox Day ‏@voxday
What “support” means is “someone to do the work for me”. Never happening. Game dev is too lean, especially at the entry points.

René Dreadsteves ‏@robobeau
Let me ask this: In your experience in game development, do you feel females have been treated equally in terms of opportunities?

Vox Day ‏@voxday
Yes. In fact, I’ve seen game companies bend over backward to recruit them. They seldom apply and usually can’t take the hours.

René Dreadsteves ‏@robobeau
Except female game designers are genuinely trying to stand as equals in the game industry.

Vox Day ‏@voxday
No, they’re not. They’re crying that no one wants to play their games. Roberta Williams just designed great games.

René Dreadsteves ‏@robobeau
Thanks for the reply. From an outsider’s perspective it’s really hard to tell one way or another.

I should add that when I was running a game development house, with multiple million+ development contracts with companies including Intel and Sega, the grand total of female responses to our various ads over a period of five years was one. That was an artist who responded to an ad for 2D/3D artists at MCAD and we did not even consider hiring her after interviewing her, viewing her portfolio, and learning that she was primarily interested in abstract art.

The reality is that the game industry is absolutely desperate for talent. But it requires real talent and an ability to deliver quickly and reliably, it is no place for anyone who is even slightly inclined to lean on others to help them do their job. There are women who can hack it. Roberta Williams was, and is, very well-respected as a game designer, for example. Scorpia was the single most respected RPG reviewer in the industry for years. Charlotte Panther was the News Editor at CGW; she was cute but she was also competent. Consider Scorpia’s opinion on the matter:

Question: Do you feel you have experienced significant discrimination as a female professional in the reviewing business?

Answer: None whatsoever. After considerable thought, I can’t come up with any incident of discrimination.