Shira Chess - Play like a Feminist.

Playful Thinking

Jesper Juul, Geoffrey Long, William Uricchio, and Mia Consalvo, editors

The Art of Failure: An Essay on the Pain of Playing Video Games, Jesper Juul, 2013

Uncertainty in Games, Greg Costikyan, 2013

Play Matters, Miguel Sicart, 2014

Works of Game: On the Aesthetics of Games and Art, John Sharp, 2015

How Games Move Us: Emotion by Design, 4Katherine Isbister, 2016

Playing Smart: On Games, Intelligence, and Artificial Intelligence, Julian Togelius, 2018

Fun, Taste, & Games: An Aesthetics of the Idle, Unproductive, and Otherwise Playful, John Sharp and David Thomas, 2019

Real Games: Whats Legitimate and Whats Not in Contemporary Videogames, Mia Consalvo and Christopher A. Paul, 2019

Achievement Relocked: Loss Aversion and Game Design, Geoffrey Engelstein, 2020

Play like a Feminist, Shira Chess, 2020

Shira Chess

The MIT Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts

London, England

2020 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Chess, Shira, author.

Title: Play like a feminist / Shira Chess.

Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2020] | Series: Playful thinking | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019057053 | ISBN 9780262044387 (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: Feminism and video games. | Women video gamers. | Video gamesSocial aspects. | WomenRecreationSocial aspects.

Classification: LCC GV1469.34.F46 C54 2020 | DDC 794.8082--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019057053

ISBN: 978-0-262-36044-9

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d_r0

This book is dedicated to Charlotte Chess, who I never met.

Many people (we series editors included) find video games exhilarating, but it can be just as interesting to ponder why that is so. What do video games do? What can they be used for? How do they work? How do they relate to the rest of the world? Why is play both so important and so powerful?

Playful Thinking is a series of short, readable, and argumentative books that share some playfulness and excitement with the games that they are about. Each book in the series is small enough to fit in a backpack or coat pocket, and combines depth with readability for any reader interested in playing more thoughtfully or thinking more playfully. This includes, but is by no means limited to, academics, game makers, and curious players.

So we are casting our net wide. Each book in our series provides a blend of new insights and interesting arguments with overviews of knowledge from game studies and other areas. You will see this reflected not just in the range of titles in our series but also in the range of authors creating them. Our basic assumption is simple: video games are such a flourishing medium that any new perspective on them is likely to show us something unseen or forgotten, including those from such unconventional voices as artists, philosophers, or specialists in other industries or fields of study. These books are bridge builders, cross-pollinating both areas with new knowledge and new ways of thinking.

At its heart, this is what Playful Thinking is all about: new ways of thinking about games and new ways of using games to think about the rest of the world.

Jesper Juul

Geoffrey Long

William Uricchio

Mia Consalvo

This book sits at the cross-section of play, video games, and feminism. While this is by no means the first attempt at merging these topics, I have spent a good deal of time thinking about who you are and why you are reading this book.

• If you identify as a feminist, but rarely (or never) pick up video games, and worry about the frivolity of your leisure time, this book is meant for you to rethink the value of play and games in various aspects of your life.
• If you identify as a gamer, but are not so sure about feminism, this book is meant to help you understand the value of equality, and how embracing feminism might improve video games.
• If you identify as a feminist gamer, this book is meant to remind you of many of the arguments you probably already know, and make you think increasingly about improving the play of those around you who may not be there already.

Writing for three distinct audiences is exhausting. Some of you know things that others do not. Some of you might find my arguments obvious, while others might need a broader introduction to certain themes. This book has both footnotes and endnotes. Endnotes (numbered) are all sources, and footnotes (lettered) are context, commentary, and some additional sources. The footnotes are intended to delve deeper into specific ideas and provide context (both personal and through scholarly research). By the end of this book, I hope that you three distinct audiences will not be so different after all.

Because this feminist book is written, in part, for those who do not necessarily identify themselves as feminists, I want to clarify what the termoften misused and abusedreally means. In As such, this book is meant to call everything into question and challenge our understanding of play as it relates to larger inequalities.

This book was written on the shoulders of giants who inspired me with their scholarship, presentations, and conversations. I have tried to cite as many of you as possible. Thanks to all of you who laid the groundwork for this book. #CiteHerWork

Some amazing people read and gave feedback on iterations of this book in a variety of formats. This book would not have been possible without feedback from Laura Alexander, Amber Davisson, Kishonna Gray, Taneem Husain, Adrienne Massanari, Emily McGill, Christopher A. Paul, Anastasia Salter, and Wes Unruh.

Thank you to Doug Sery, Noah Springer, and the folks at the MIT Press for facilitating a seamless and enjoyable writing experience. Additional thanks to the Playful Thinking series editors for taking a chance on this project: Jesper Juul, Geoffrey Long, William Uricchio, and Mia Consalvo. Bonus appreciation to Mia for being patient, encouraging, and inspiring when this idea was no more than a title and paragraph.

A big thanks to my graduate assistant, Andrea Clements, for a bang-up job of transcribing quickly and precisely.

Thank you to Cathy Hannabach and Ideas on Fire for their indexing work.

This project has had deep support from my colleagues in the Department of Entertainment and Media Studies at the University of Georgia. In particular, thank you to James Biddle, Matthew Evans, Kate Fortmueller, Annie Gilbert, and Jay Hamilton. Im grateful as well to Bart Wojdynski for his friendship and allyship. Additional thanks to the wackiest of colleagues (you know who you are) whose advice, support, and humor has made my time at the University of Georgia deeply enjoyable.

A few industry folks have helped me to think through some big picture issues. Thank you to Marie Mika and the folks on the Diner Dash team at Glu. Additional appreciation to Justin Williams, who has continued to help me challenge my industry perspectives, and Anapurna Interactive for making games I want to write about.