Polygamer #08: Chris Barney on games for social justice

Chris Barney is a game developer who sees games as an engine of social capital. As a maturing medium, video games have the potential to reinforce, shape, and influence societal norms and values toward sexism, racism, upward mobility, and other constructs. How do video games do this, and how can game developers balance this responsibility to their audience with the responsibility to their shareholders? Can video games truly make us violent? Can a single video game change the world? Reprising his BostonFIG presentation on "The Nature and Purpose of Games: Toward Social Justice", Barney speaks on these topics, answering many questions while raising others.

Download the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spoke, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

• Intro
  • Polygamer #07: Susan Arendt & Russ Pitts of Take This
  • PAX East 2014 panel on Sex, Sexy & Sexism: Fixing Gender Inequality in Gaming
  • Brianna Wu of Giant Spacekat: I’ve Been Forced Out Of My Home And Am Living In Constant Fear Because Of Relentless Death Threats From Gamergate
  • Doxxing defense: Remove your personal info from data brokers
• Interview
  • Chris Barney
    • Email
    • Twitter
    • Google+
    • Facebook
  • Chris Barney’s BostonFIG presentation, "The Nature and Purpose of Games: Toward Social Justice"
    • Official event description
    • Video
    • Slides (PowerPoint)
    • Slides (PDF)
  • Lumosity
  • Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
  • Comparative Media Studies at MIT
• Additional resources
  • Social capital
    • What does "social capital" mean?
    • What is social capital?
    • OECD Insights: Human Capital (PDF)
  • Effects of violence in games
    • Violence in the Media — Psychologists Study TV and Video Game Violence for Potential Harmful Effects
    • Video games do not make vulnerable teens more violent
  • Gender & sexism in video games
    • SeX-Box: Exposure to Sexist Video Games Predicts Benevolent Sexism (PDF)
    • The embodiment of sexualized virtual selves: The Proteus effect and experiences of self-objectification via avatars (PDF)
    • Communication in multiplayer gaming: Examining player responses to gender cues
    • Shirts vs. Skins: Clothing as an Indicator of Gender Role Stereotyping in Video Games (PDF)

Podcast: Download (Duration: 55:18 — 28.9MB) | Embed

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