E3 Gender and Combat breakdown

Feminist Frequency have a breakdown of the female representation in the games showcased at E3 2015: 7 exclusively female protagonists, 24 exclusively male, and 35 where you could choose. Which sounds like progress.

Also interesting is their analysis of how many games depend on violence & combat for their gameplay. Out of 76 games, only 18 were trying something different - and 8 of those were sports/driving. Watching someone get on stage and boast how their game is all about “delivering full guns up combat control” (whatever that is) during the Sony press conference highlights just how reliant on guns games are.

Something like Unravel might be just the antidote - getting “a glimpse of what’s possible when games approach human experience through a lens of empathy rather than one of violence.”




Google law

Interesting stuff from Tor and Wikileaks contributor Jacob Appelbaum on Google going in to battle for him on the US government’s request for backdoor access to his Gmail.

Appelbaum had no idea this was happening of course, but Google none-the-less threw their full legal weight behind trying to deny the DOJ request. +1 for Google.