mnemosynekurai Blog

My New Mass Effect And (Sort Of New) Zelda Tattoos

Ali Rapp — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 02:55:00 GMT

Yesterday, I was lucky enough (thanks, state tax refund!) to walk into the tattoo shop where my amazing artist works and walk out 3.5 hours later with a finally finished Deku Scrub tattoo and a pair of Mass Effect Paragon/Renegade symbol tattoos on my back.

My Deku Scrub is sort of two-years-old, sort of brand new. In April of 2011, I went in for my first ever tattoo session. I planned on getting the entire Deku Scrub done that day, but passed out about halfway through (I have low blood sugar), which made me nauseous. I had to cancel the rest of the appointment, but promised I'd be back in a couple weeks. A couple weeks, a couple years…what's the difference, really?

The tattoo's significance: one of my family's favorite pastimes was gaming together, and a lot of my bonding moments with my mom happened as a result of playing and watching each other play Zelda games. I spent probably hundreds of hours reading the Ocarina of Time player's guide and exploring the game's map, which seemed enormous to me as a kid. As an adult academic, one of my first major research projects (which I was finally able to present nationally in March) was on archetypes of femininity in the Zelda series, specifically Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess. Needless to say, my experiences with the Zelda games are very meaningful to me. Not to mention, Deku Scrubs are just so darn cute. By the way, "Twenty-three is number one" is the hint the traitor Deku Scrub gives to Link in Ocarina of Time's Deku Tree. Do you remember that part?

Note: The blue rings are actually just stencil marks my tattoo artist used as reference points. They'll wash off in a couple days.

The significance of my Mass Effect tattoos? Despite not yet being done with all three games (I'm only a few hours into ME3), the series has touched me in a way I haven't experienced since playing through the first few Kingdom Hearts games back in high school. I feel like a giddy, fourteen-year-old fangirl, and I love it. There are a lot of specific reasons I feel impacted by the series, but those reasons are still mostly personal. The symbols, specifically, speak to me as a relativist. The Paragon symbol represents a perfect hero; the Renegade symbol represents a perfect badass/meanie. I put one symbol on each shoulder because my heart is in the middle. I believe there is no black and white in the world – no pure evil or pure good. We are all grey. Er, purple.

What do you think? Do you have any game-related ink? If not, would you like some? What do you want to get?

(Remember to avoid Mass Effect spoilers! I don't know how the game ends yet)

Ali is a former Game Informer editorial intern and is currently a master's student at the University of Minnesota, where she studies games, virtual communities, manga, and other nerdy crap. Follow her on Twitter or Tumblr.

Shut Up And Take My Money #3: Special Mass Effect Edition

Ali Rapp — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 02:44:00 GMT

If you've been following me on Twitter, you know that I'm currently playing through the Mass Effect series for the first time, and I'm OBSESSED. I'm on ME2, I'm playing as FemShep (named "Xeph," short for a misspelled version of "Zephyr," and I'm romancing Garrus (and ONLY Garrus; my FemShep is monogamous).

Anyway, I have some totally amazing Mass Effect plans cooking in my brain, but I can't tell you about those yet. Until I can, enjoy perusing my favorite Mass Effect gear, both official and unofficial, from around the web.

ALSO: Please keep comments as spoiler-free as possible. I know sort of what happens in the end of ME2, but know almost nothing about ME3, and I would cry if I found anything out, including what happens to romance options. Thanks, y'all.

This FemShep t-shirt is incredible. I tend to not give official game merchandise stores the time of day because gear is usually logo-heavy and bland – but this shirt is gritty, original, and freaking cheap at a measly $15. The only thing I'd change is the color of the shirt itself. Gritty FemShep deserves to be showcased against an equally gritty background color.

HOLD THE PHONE. This is as it looks. It is an N7 baby onesie. I've never seen onesies called "creepers" before now, but that's neither here nor there. If you have a baby in your life, you need to ask yourself this very important question: What illicit things do you need to do to raise $14 plus shipping fees to make it so this baby will never have to live another day without an N7 onesie?

I know I've already answered that question for myself, and there's a lucky fetus somewhere in the world patiently waiting for his onesie from Auntie Ali (disclaimer: I am not actually the baby's aunt). And, you know, to be born.

This mix-and-match magnet set is one of those things you see and initially think, "This is literally the stupidest thing I have ever seen," but then you really think about it, and you realize, "This is literally the best thing I could possibly buy with $6." Admit it. You know I'm right.

I mean, there's even a Tali x Liara set. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Look at this. LOOK WITH YOUR EYES. It's a freaking omni-tool, you guys. It's made out of Plexiglas and it's beautiful. Brb, cosplaying as FemShep with this on my arm.

I'm showcasing these bracelets because they're clues to what my super-awesome-but-also-super-secret Mass Effect-related surprise is. Also, because they're great. Buy both and wear whichever one you're feeling that day. Wake up feeling chipper? Put on the Paragon bracelet and help old ladies carry their groceries across the street. Wake up grumpy? Slap on the Renegade bracelet and finally do what you've always wanted to do: headbutt your annoying coworker. You know. The one in sales who wears a bow tie. You have to earn the right to wear a bow tie, man.

So, are you planning to buy any of this sweet merch? If not, share your favorite Mass Effect gear in the comments!

Remember, avoid spoilers out of respect for those who haven't played/finished the series yet.

Shut Up And Take My Money #2

Ali Rapp — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:00:00 GMT

Those of you who thought you escaped the wave of Etsy posts after my internship with Game Informer or the last SUATMM were sorely mistaken. SORELY.

Enjoy blowing all your hard-earned cash, b*tches. Here are six Etsy things you definitely want.

From uniquechicbowtique.

I used to have pretty long hair, so getting into bow-wearing was a no-brainer. Long, stick-straight hair can get pretty boring and tedious without a little added flair every day. Over the course of about a year, I accumulated around thirty different hair bows to accommodate my new addiction. Why not add one more?

From DieselLaceDesign.

I'm actually planning on getting these to wear to my Love-A-Palooza (wedding) this August. The party's color scheme is going to be kinda-sorta-purple-green (green is my husband's favorite color; purple is mine), so these earrings would be a nice addition to my outfit, don't you think?

From NerdAlertCreations

This skirt design really sticks out to me because a lot of the nerdy skirts available on Etsy reuse vintage fabric. That's fine, but this one is original, which is neat. The different color flecks in the block, too, would make the skirt an easy match for other outfit pieces.

From CloudyKasumiArts.

I don't know why anybody would ever want to buy jewelry that isn't from Etsy. Where else could you get Korok earrings? KOROK EARRINGS.

From ChibiToymaker.

The great thing about this Teddie pouch is that, 1) it's Teddie (do you really need another great thing?), and 2) the pouch opens up at Teddie's head, à la Teddie IRL. Er, Teddie in Persona IRL. Now all the crafter needs to do is shove a beautiful, jovial young blonde man inside the pouch and I'm sold.

From Peachykiki.

Three words: Glossy. N7. Leggings. I'd love to pair these with a fiery red dress on a nice night out. This is how it plays out in my head: Waitress: "A table for two? What's the name?" Me: "Right. The name's Shepard. Ali Shepard. And this is my favorite Tex-Mex restaurant on the Citadel."

God, I'm lame.

I'm A Bad Nerd, Or Whatever (8 Games I've Never Played)

Ali Rapp — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:30:00 GMT

Gamers like to talk about all the games they've played, and grumpy gamers like to dump on others who haven't played that one obscure game nobody really cares about anyway. What, you've never played Mickey Mousecapade? (You should probably keep it that way – the game is almost impossible.)

So, instead of a list of all the cool games I've played and you haven't, here's a list of games I haven't played but you probably have – complete with my shallow, noob impressions of each title.

1. Gears of War

Is this game about guns, or something? Because it looks like it's about guns. Guns and tough guys. Wait, holy cats, are those women? Are there two women in this game? Also, wouldn't "Cogs of War" have been a better title? Or maybe "Chess Pieces of War?"

Oh baby. Who's that sexy, dark, and mysterious fellow on the right? Dark Pit, you say?
I'll show you a dark pit.

2. Kid Icarus

THIS. IS. SPARTAAAA. Didn't we learn in, like, eighth-grade English class that Icarus was pretty stupid? Yeah, let's attach wax wings to our backs and then fly into the sun. Seems legit.

3. EarthBound

It's about a boy, and he has this amazing baseball bat that can hit people clear across maps in Smash Bros. Am I getting close? Apparently it's also pretty philosophical, or whatever. It was also originally called "Mother (2)," which means the main character probably has bad mommy issues. Maybe he goes on a killing rampage with his bat because his mommy didn't love him enough?

4. Animal Crossing

I once owned Nintendogs, which I guess is kind of like Animal Crossing, in that if you don't pay enough attention to the needy little bastards inside your game, they rebel or think you don't care about them and run away or stop sending you presents or let weeds take over your garden. Anyway, I couldn't handle the stress of Nintendogs, so I sold the game. Lassie, come home! I'm sorry I patted your head only thirty times, and you needed forty! I could never play Animal Crossing.

"Time to make some babies. And by 'make some babies,' I mean 'brown some meat.' Are you ready for some footbaaaaaaall?" -a thing my husband once said

5. Every Madden Ever

Do I even really need to defend this? I don't like football. There. Boom. Done.

Please tell me this is a real screenshot

6. Conker's Bad Fur Day

I know this is, like, the holy grail of naughty cartoon games that parents inadvertently bought for their horny twelve-year-old kids, but it creeped me out when it was first released, and it creeps me out now. I'm cool with you furry folk doing your thing (whatever floats your boat, man), but I'll pass.

HONK HONK BEEP BEEP GET OUT THE WAY I'M A SEXY CAR

7. Need for Speed

I will kick your sorry butt in Mario Kart Wii any day (I liked the Wii version. Sue me.), and Smashing Drive for the GameCube was the best Crazy Taxi knockoff this side of 1999, but I have close to no interest in Need for Speed. Like, CARS, MAN. Cool. No.

8. Q*bert

Don't pretend like you've played this game, either.

Now it's your turn to ditch your nerd cred. Which popular games have you never played?

Great Women in Games: Part 3 of 5

Ali Rapp — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 21:10:00 GMT

In the last two Great Women in Games pieces, we explored characters who did not fit typical problematic female character molds: They were feminine without being sexualized, and instead of essentially "becoming men" by relying on brute force and aggression to advance the plot, they relied on inherent skill, diplomacy, and caretaking behaviors.

Joanna Dark is nothing like our previously-highlighted ladies.

Joanna, Jo, or Agent "Perfect Dark" is the titular character of the 2000 N64 FPS, Perfect Dark. The game was originally helmed by the staff responsible for the hit shooter, GoldenEye, and is still widely considered to be one of the best FPS games of all time. It's often called a sort of "unofficial sequel" to GoldenEye, and the game received a visual makeover and re-release on XBLA in 2010.

The really interesting thing about this popular and prolific FPS, though, is that it follows many traditional conventions of FPS games and of the Bond series: It features a spy who is usually just badass but is also sometimes sexy, it's about saving the world from something evil and/or foreign (or is it that foreign = evil?), and it's unapologetically aggressive. And yet, Perfect Dark manages to do something even modern action-heavy game designers have trouble with: Featuring a female lead.

Perfect Dark Director Martin Hollis once said that he was frustrated with the lack of female characters in big-name games, and so set out to create an androgynous one who was controlled from a first-person perspective. This made it so, as Hollis put it, "you are" the woman – and yet you are not. Players control a woman, but the character's gender has little actual bearing on the plot of the story or how well people connect with the unseen avatar.

The reason Joanna Dark's role as a female character in a traditionally male game genre is important is similar to why Samus Aran's de-suiting at the end of Metroid is also important: it subtly, and yet not so subtly, challenges our assumption that action and shooter games have to star either men or balloon-boobed women. Perfect Dark takes the spotlight off Joanna's gender and focuses it instead on gameplay and story.

Now, this isn't to say that Joanna Dark is completely unproblematic. Using first-person perspective to combat androcentrism (remember that word from GWiG #1? If not, click here) is a double-edged sword. It could also be argued that the fact that Jo is controlled only from a first-person perspective strips away the power of her gender. That is, we don't get more used to seeing women in shooters because we don't really see Joanna, except in cutscenes. She is hidden and easily forgotten about. The lack of third-person perspective, then, is both a blessing and a curse. Joanna's lack of immediacy and physical presence helps ease people usually grumpy about female characters into accepting women in games. At the same time, however, Jo's lack of immediacy and physical presence means she is relatively harmless. Joanna may not challenge ignorant beliefs about female characters because her position, physically and figuratively speaking, isn't forced on the player.

Yet, I consider Joanna to be a great woman in games because she is (sadly) one of the only women to get the chance she had. Even today, action, FPS, and other traditionally male-dominated genre developers struggle with either justifying including female characters, or with representing them appropriately and fairly. Most of the successful shooters (whether first or third-person) from the last decade feature male protagonists, with female protagonists sometimes added on as an "alternate" choice (e.g. Mass Effect's FemShep). Perfect Dark, comparatively, featured only a woman. Not only that, but players who wanted to play co-op had to choose another woman – this time, a blonde – as their character. Can you imagine that happening with any of the most popular modern shooters?

Perfect Dark was ahead of its time in many ways – it had excellent visuals for the time, a tight campaign, and incredibly detailed multiplayer options. Modern shooters have easily outstripped Perfect Dark in all of those categories. Why can't they measure up to the standard it set for female protagonists?

Jo's place in Great Women in Games has as much to do with Perfect Dark as a game as it does with Joanna's character. Her importance, though, shouldn't be overlooked because of that. Perfect Dark was an immensely popular critical success that managed, way back in 2000, to get gamers (who were, at that point, still largely male), to play as a short-haired, usually modestly-dressed lady. Joanna herself certainly deserves some of the credit for that.

**Note: This analysis is based on the original Perfect Dark's portrayal of Joanna. Her design and use in marketing differed dramatically in Perfect Dark Zero, and even in the XBLA re-release.

Ali is a former Game Informer editorial intern and is currently a master's student at the University of Minnesota, where she studies games, virtual communities, manga, and other nerdy crap. Follow her on Twitter, Tumblr, Twitch TV, or her personal blog.

How to Use Cultivation Theory to Defend Violent Video Games

Ali Rapp — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 19:26:00 GMT

Now that it's enjoyed the spotlight on my personal blog for a few days, I'd like to share with you all a piece I wrote on cultivation theory, a theory of communication studies, and how to use it to defend violent video games. I wrote it before the NRA's ridiculous press conference partially blaming games for gun violence in the United States, though you can easily see where their argument would fit into my piece.

-Cross-posted from No, I Am a Dog-

I’m not going to lie: I didn’t know the name of the Newtown killer before doing research for this piece. He was a very sick person and a murderer – that’s all I needed to know. I avoided clicking hyperlinks posted by Twitter friends because I didn’t want to be surprised by horribly sad pictures of dead kids, and more than anything, I didn’t want to feed the media frenzy that keeps Newtown residents from going out for groceries in fear they’ll be harassed by interviewers.

But then I started seeing the same old argument about the effects of violent media being thrown around by grown, “educated” people who should definitely know better, and I knew I couldn’t ignore it any longer, because I had something I finally needed to say. National outlets like The Washington Post pretended to approach the issue of Lanza’s mental (in)stability objectively while at the same time offering up platforms to people with bunk ideas about how media can and cannot affect an individual’s behaviors. In a December 16th article, they quoted a forensic psychiatrist who believes first-person shooters encourage players to “dehumanize” others and “unreservedly” considers violent video games a cause of real violent behaviors. ABC News recently ran an article titled, “Do Video Games Make Kids Violent?” It doesn’t matter that the article was actually relatively fair – the headline sets the “agenda,” as we like to say in communication studies, and the agenda is, “violent games are something we need to worry about.” The Atlantic published an article written by a parent now paranoid about giving her sons Halo 4 for Christmas. Fox News reported that the NRA is currently planning to attempt to shift the debate from gun control to how video games “teach young kids how to shoot heads.”

As a media studies scholar who researches deviant media like pornography (and yes, even hyper-violent video games), I’ve heard all these arguments and issues with media, and more – many times, from much more educated folks who hold doctorates and are responsible for curating future generations of critical thinkers – and I’ve had just about enough of it. Clearly, the people who write and administer national news outlets never paid attention during their college courses about media effects and persuasion. If you agree with me (and if you don’t now, I think you might by the end of this piece), then read on to learn how to defend against the pithy, uneducated, distracting arguments claiming violent media cause violent actions.

One of my favorite communication studies theories is called the “cultivation theory.” It began as a large-scale research project in the late 1970s, and a scholar by the name of George Gerbner is usually credited with its long-term development. The theory continues to be one of the most frequently cited and most popular theories in communication studies, media studies, cultural studies, and mass communication studies, and thus, it’s been both refuted and refined since its original conception. However, at its core, cultivation theory basically states these three things that are highly applicable to discussions about media effects:

One, media does not influence people’s actions. Instead, media tends to influence people’s beliefs about reality. For example, people do not watch shows like Jersey Shore and The O.C. and then go out and have a ton of unprotected sex and act like idiots. People watch shows like Jersey Shore and The O.C. and then go out into the world believing that there are exponentially more people like Snooki in the world than there actually are. Teenagers who watch a lot of reality shows or pretty rich kid dramas tend to believe that most of their peers lost their virginity at an early age, that most people their age are rich, and that to be beautiful, one must be flawless, and usually white.

Two, the less people consume of a certain type of media, the less their conceptions of reality are affected by it. That is, people who watch one hour of Unsolved Mysteries every week are much less likely to believe that kidnappings happen by the second than do people who watch several hours of mystery-drama television daily.

Three, media does affect people, but its most dangerous effects are on a cultural level. Watching Leave it to Beaver probably didn’t convince many women to quit their jobs to lead lives as devoted housewives, but it did encourage the belief that there is an ideal U.S. American household (married parents, two kids, white picket fence).

Cultivation theory works just as well when discussing the effects of violent media, especially video games, on individuals. Actually, the theory was originally developed to speak solely to violent media effects. Here’s how:

One, violent video games do not make people more violent. This is why 99.9% of little boys and girls who grow up playing things like GoldenEye (like I did) or Doom never commit egregious acts of aggression. Violent video games can encourage those little girls and boys to believe that the world is an inherently violent place, and that they are at-risk for becoming victims, but violent video games cannot, in most circumstances, convince people to actually commit acts of violence themselves.

Two, the more violent video games people play, the more they will believe that the world is a violent place. These are the types of people who stereotype all Black Americans as dangerous because the majority of the mugshots their local news station publishes are of ethnic minorities. There isn’t some magical threshold that, once crossed, turns people into killers – they simply become more paranoid.

Three, the real danger in violent video games that dehumanize victims and encourage killing sprees isn’t seen in the ways they affect individuals – it’s in the ways they affect a culture’s relationship to violence and masculinity. The U.S. is notoriously obsessed with war-mongering, gun rights, and rigid gender roles that force people of all gender identities to act aggressively in order to gain power. It’s only when a culture, like the U.S., doesn’t critically analyze how those unfavorable realities are manifested and reinforced through media saturation of those types of messages (war coverage, unnecessarily gendered advertising, incessant coverage of tragedies, excessive profiling of killers) that the really dangerous stuff like mass murders are legitimized and encouraged.

I’m sick and tired of hearing all this “science” reporting by national news outlets and politicians. Cultivation theory is one of the hallmark theories of communication studies – the primary field responsible for critical analysis of media, media effects, and audience studies. There are many other communication theories that deal appropriately and fairly with media effects, and I encourage you to do your own research as desired. In the meantime, be a voice of educated reason in a sea of mindless bodies who would rather repeat untenable nonsense “science” than critically analyze the real issues affecting and affected by U.S. obsessions with violence, masculinity, and aggression.

Additional reading

Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Morgan, M., & Signorielli, N. (1980). “The “Mainstreaming” of America: Violence Profile No. 11″, Journal of Communication, 30:3, 10-29.

Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Jackson-Beeck, M., Jeffries-Fox, S. & Signorielli, N. (1978). “Cultural indicators violence profile no. 9″. Journal of Communication, 28(3), 176-207.

Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Morgan, M., & Signorielli, N. (1986). “Living with television: The dynamics of the cultivation process” in J. Bryant & D. Zillman (Eds.), Perspectives on media effects (pp. 17–40). Hilldale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Gerbner, G. (1998). “Cultivation analysis: An overview”. Mass Communication and Society, 3/4, 175-194.

Griffin, E. (2012). Communication Communication Communication. McGraw-Hill: New York, (8), 366-377.

Great Women in Games: Part 2 of 5

Ali Rapp — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 18:18:00 GMT

In the previous installment of Great Women in Games, I highlighted Aqua, one of three playable characters from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. I chose Aqua because of her excellent portrayal as a motherly figure who essentially throws herself into an endless purgatory to save her two male companions.

In this installment, I'll be showcasing a similarly motherly character, but this time, one whose unique powers lie in her abilities as a caregiver, a diplomat, and as someone willing to traverse dangerous areas avoided by other traditionally "strong" characters.

Spoilers ahead.

Medli, a member of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker's Rito tribe, begins the game as the caretaker of the great dragon god, Valoo, and as the friend and mother-figure of the Rito chieftain's socially-anxious son, Komali. Medli is both young and inexperienced, and so, when Link arrives on Dragon Roost Island to investigate the source of the dragon god's anger (or, rather, when he is roped into helping, as Link so often is), Medli doesn't seem like she's a character who will be of much help. She isn't yet fluent in Valoo's ancient Hylian language, and thus can't interpret the usually benevolent deity's cries of pain. To make matters worse, without Valoo's help, the Rito's young prince Komali is stuck grounded, unable to receive the gift of flight. Medli blames herself for the prince's predicament, implying that if only she were as good as Valoo's previous attendant, everything would have already been sorted out.

Despite her lack of confidence in her ability to converse with the great Valoo, Medli asks Link to help her reach the entrance of Dragon Roost Cavern, a dangerous dungeon. Medli's wings are still weak, so Link is forced to fling her to the other side of a small valley in order to reach the entrance to the cavern. Once inside the entrance, however, Medli unexpectedly yells:

"Oh, thank you! I think now I'll be able to climb Dragon Roost and meet with the great Valoo! Don't worry, I'll be fine! I may just be an apprentice attendant, but I can understand some of the great Valoo's language. I'm not exactly bursting with confidence, but...Look, if anything happens to me...Please look after Prince Komali!"

Medli appears to be one of, if not the only female Rito alive in the game, and, juxtaposed against the outsider, Link (who doesn't understand what's going on), the rest of the Rito (who are all male, and who know something bad is going on but don't seem concerned with trying anything) and Prince Komali (who knows there is a serious issue but is too overcome with emotion to care to do anything about it), her act of entering the dungeon and climbing the monster-infested mountain by herself to save her tribe is a unique moment in The Wind Waker, and in game narratives more generally.

Typically, in action-adventure games, the willingness and ability to traverse dangerous areas is afforded only to the main character, the hero. This ability gives the hero a type of power over other characters – if other characters are unwilling or unable to, for example, enter a dungeon (or any other dangerous area), they are afforded much fewer opportunities to be shown committing acts of heroism. Of course, this can be explained using narrative game development as an excuse: If everyone could enter a dungeon and become the hero, then there would be no reason for the player to play the game. There has to be one hero, or a unified team of heroes, in order for there to be an identifiable storyline.

Medli's character is a challenge to that narrative model. Her act of bravery, made even more heroic by the fact that Medli is an insecure character who is, at times, very doubtful of her own abilities, forces her character from the passive periphery to the active forefront.

In addition to her unique ability to enter spaces other NPCs and even the game's main hero are unable to traverse for a time, Medli also exhibits characteristics and skills typically undervalued in game characters: Motherliness and diplomacy. For example, after the death of Prince Komali's grandmother, Medli appears to take over the duties of caring for the prince while his father rules the Rito tribe. Additionally, as the great Valoo's attendant, she is the only Rito capable of interpreting the will of the tribe's deity. Rather than this meaning Medli is relegated to a subservient and secondary position compared with her fellow Rito people, Medli is depicted as the only Rito to consistently command a clear kind of power – a kind that was traditionally a feminine "non-power" – in the narrative.

Later on in the game, she becomes the Sage of Earth and assists Link in his quest to return sacred power to the Master Sword, literally carrying him through the portions of the Earth Temple Link is unable to traverse. To complete her duties as a sage, however, she has to commit to leaving the tribe and abandoning Prince Komali, who has since become a winged, mature Rito, and a possible love interest for Medli. In the end, Medli sacrifices both her safety and a continued relationship (platonic and otherwise) with Komali to help save Hyrule.

Medli's uniqueness as a character comes not only from her ability to enter dangerous spaces unfit for other, more traditionally "strong" NPCs (such as chieftains and princes), but also from her active narrative influence despite the fact that she is cast in traditionally feminine roles like the mother-figure, caretaker, and diplomat. Medli is one of many excellent women in The Legend of Zelda series and thus, is often forgotten in lists of favorite series characters. But, because of her unique depiction as a traditionally feminine but brave character, willing to risk her life for the rest of her passive, seemingly all-male tribe, Medli deserves a spot in Great Women in Games.

If you liked this article and are interested in hearing more about female characters in The Legend of Zelda, be on the lookout for my spring/summer 2013 podcast series, where I'll discuss my research on archetypes of femininity in three LoZ games.

Happy 13th Birthday, OC ReMix

Ali Rapp — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 23:00:00 GMT

OverClocked ReMix, the web's largest hub for video game music remixes, turns a whopping thirteen-years-old today. I've been rocking out to their free-to-download, panel-vetted music since high school (oh god, now I feel old), and I thought it'd be nice to celebrate OCR's big 1-3 with my top five remixes.

I chose my top five based on personal preference rather than quality (though, there isn't really what you would call "low-quality" work on OCR), and I list them in no particular order. Turn up your speakers, open your ears, and enjoy.

Remix artist(s): B33J, Cerrax, Sixto Sounds, nonsensicalexis

Game: Shadow of the Colossus

Type: Badass rock

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Clean out your ears, folks – this one's epic. Fitting for a game about stabbing the heck out of massive giants (who didn't do anything wrong, you monster!), don't you agree?

Remix artist(s):Trace Dragon XVI K

Game: Ecco the Dolphin, Sega Genesis version

Type: 2002's version of good dubstep

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Cruise around town with your windows down and this dirty track blaring from your sub-par Oldsmobile speakers (or, was that just me?). Never thought you'd dig music based on a game about a magical dolphin, did you? Note: Ecco the Dolphin is actually a really incredible and really tough game.

Remix artist(s):Uboichi

Game: Kingdom Hearts II

Type: Dueling pianos

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Pretend to play the piano (when are you gonna pay for lessons, mom? ugh) alongside this epic dueling pianos remix of KH2's "Darkness of the Unknown."

Remix artist(s): Draggor

Game: Final Fantasy VII

Type: Over the top electronic...or something

(Please visit the site to view this media)

This Electric de Chocobo remix is either really stupid or the best Chocobo theme remix out there. It's been almost ten years since I started listening to it and I still can't decide. I'm leaning toward it being the latter, if only because it features a sick tempo change, a la The Surfaris' song, "Wipe Out."

Remix artist(s): halc

Game: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Type: Chiptune

(Please visit the site to view this media)

I said that my top five tracks weren't listed in any particular order, and I only sort of lied. This track is my all-time favorite OCR remix. Even death metalheads (are those a thing?) will leap gleefully about to this excellent bubblegum chiptune mix. Also, I have an internet crush on the artist, halc, who recently worked on his first official soundtrack, for the game Bitstream.

Once again, a very happy thirteenth birthday to OC ReMix. Here's to another thirteen years of celebrating video game music through creative and quality remixing!

What are your favorite OCR tracks? Share them in a comment!

Great Women in Games: Part 1 of 5

Ali Rapp — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 18:27:00 GMT

As a feminist (the sex-positive kind) and a critical media studies scholar who studies sex and gender, I've always wanted to do a series on my favorite lady video game characters. As a GI intern, I worked on a lot of news pieces and features about game studies in academia and so on, but because I was so busy with those things, I didn't get the chance to talk about some of my other interests.

Thus: welcome to Ali's Great Women in Games. This five-part series will explore five female game characters who aren't typically included in lists of popular digital ladies. Chell? Faith? Samus Aran? Pfft. Old news.

Now, it's wrong to assume that this will just be a list of women who kick ass. Androcentrism is the term used to describe the (bad) practice of putting the traditional male experience at the center, and all other experiences at the periphery. If we're talking about androcentrism in games criticism, it means that just because Lara Croft shoots bears and so on, doesn't necessarily mean she's a fair, relatable representation of a woman. Why? Because in order for her to be taken seriously as a "cool" character, she has to act like a badass dude with huge boobs. I hope the five video game women I choose for this series are characters who are great women, yes, but also, more generally, great people who exhibit both compassion and heroism.

We'll start the series off with an underappreciated and oft-unrecognized heroine of a PSP game released in 2010. She is the only one of three main characters to master her deadly weapon, and to save her friends and the fate of the world(s), she sacrifices herself to the darkness. She's blue-haired, beautiful, and magical. I'm talking, of course, about Aqua, from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep.

[Spoilers ahead]

Aqua is one of Birth by Sleep's three main characters and Keyblade wielders. Her best friends, Ventus and Terra, are also Keyblade wielders, though Aqua and Terra are the only two old enough to vie for the rank of Keyblade Master, the ultimate type of wielder. Birth by Sleep requires gamers to play each of the main character's complete storylines, and in true Kingdom Hearts fashion, no matter how good everyone's intentions or the player's ability, everything goes to hell in the end.

Among the three characters, Aqua seems like she'd be the most traditionally weak: She is a heavy magic-user, she is the only woman in the main cast, and she exhibits obvious motherly affections for her comrades. Terra, on the other hand, exhibits traditionally powerful characteristics, such as physical strength, and Ventus easily fits the mold of the plucky Kingdom Hearts hero originally created by Sora. Yet, in the end, when the fate of the worlds hangs in the balance, Aqua is the only character of the main three to receive the rank of Keyblade Master and the only character to survive the game in a fully-conscious form, heart (both literally and figuratively) intact. Though she ends up trapped in the dark realm indefinitely, she does what she can to save Terra and Ventus, at least until a young boy named Sora she once met on Destiny Islands can save them all for good. Aqua exhibits mental and physical strength, loyalty, and wisdom in times when her male companions fall short.

Aqua is a bit more sexualized than some of her contemporaries in other games, such as Mirror Edge's Faith, but her sexually-suggestive costume is rarely, if ever, a focal point of her portrayal. She is empowering as a strong-willed and well-skilled, yet feminine character who defies common Kingdom Hearts and more generally, Square Enix female tropes. The other two main female characters in the Kingdom Hearts series, for example, are Kairi and Namine.* Both are plot-drivers in their own rights, but nonetheless take relatively passive, stationary, and often objectified damsel in distress roles compared to their male counterparts and/or love interests, Riku, Sora, and Roxas. Contrastingly, Aqua is an active participant in the story, she is rarely objectified, and she retains her femininity.

Aqua is a talented, beautiful, strong, and compassionate woman who succeeds at the rare task of saving her companions without having to essentially become a man. She remains a woman –no, a complete person – to the end, and is an excellent character with which to begin this five-part series of Great Women in Games.

*Edit 10/9/12 10:50 PM: I conveniently forgot about Xion (she's definitely not a personal favorite of mine) but now that I think about it, I'm not sure I feel comfortable calling her a girl/woman for the purposes of this article. She's essentially a Sora replica, and she appears to be biologically male and female at different times to different characters. She's very interesting and I probably should have at least mentioned her, but the haziness and fluidity of her gender and its impact on her portrayal would have been too complex for me to adequately tackle in this article.

Crap I Want for Christmas

Ali Rapp — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 01:38:00 GMT

Dear Santa: I've been a relatively good girl this year. I hope your elves can make all these great video game things for me!

First, I want this statue of the Creepypasta Majora's Mask Link. You know, so I can have nightmares about catching fire, drowning, and a dead boy named Ben.

Santa, I don't have a Vita (grad students make soooooo much money, don't you know?), so be sure to get me the PS2 version. I watched my old roommate play through it, and now that I don't suck major crap at JRPGs, I'm ready to take this on. Alternatively, you could get me a real-life Teddie. He's one sexy bear-person.

The funny thing is, I hated Hope for 3/4 of FFXIII. But then, suddenly, he wasn't a total turd blossom, and now I'm crushing hard. Well, actually, that's only half the story. My new OTP is Hope x Lightning. There's a great Hope x Lightning doujinshi on the market, but it's in Japanese, and my skills aren't really THAT good. But, then again, who buys doujinshi to do any sort of reading?

How, I mean, HOW adorable would I look in this Skyward Sword Zelda dress? Do I even have to ask? I'm still trying to convince my husband to let me wear this during our big wedding party thingy next summer. I'll keep you updated.

Knowing what you know about me, Santa, don't you agree that I must own this book? I'm working on a virtual ethnography (of bronies!) as we speak, so we could even call this a "required course text," if that makes you feel better about getting it for me.

I can never have enough bags. NEVER. And look at this thing? WHO WOULD NOT WANT TO CARRY THIS? My question necessitates all-caps because the fact that I have to ask it makes me incredibly angry.

Alright, Santa. I'll leave you my leftover pizza and maybe some wine I don't like. We don't have a fireplace, so you'll have to squeeze through the vents in the air conditioner. Good luck, and don't bother coming unless you've brought every single one of these things.

I Am Now A GI Intern Alum

Ali Rapp — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:55:00 GMT

Tim made this for me. Don't ask. It's a long story.

Today marks my last day as a Game Informer intern. Where have the last three months gone?

Let's start with what I've done over the summer. I've written twenty-three Gamer Culture pieces, seventeen features (if you count every update of the "Kickstarter Compendium"), twenty-three news pieces, four collectibles stories, eleven game previews, four Reader Discussions, and five Weekend Warriors. I've been a part of three podcasts and one video, and I've transcribed sixteen interviews, including the one I conducted for my own story. My fellow interns have been equally as busy, writing fantastic pieces about game accessibility, eSports, and a plethora of other things. GI interns are, if nothing else, busy little beavers.

But I've done more than just write things for the Game Informer website. By spending an entire summer immersed in the game industry, I've learned invaluable things about it – some things I like, some things I could do without – that will be foundational for the rest of my life as a gamer, an academic, a writer, and a woman. I've learned that it actually takes ages (in internet time) to vet incoming news and get a corresponding story up online, that a piece about Pokemon plushies (furries?) will probably net more views than a well-researched feature about game studies, and that there are still prominent people in the industry who think there is nothing wrong with off-handedly calling an in-game handicap mechanic, "girlfriend mode" (I'm looking at you, Gearbox).

Hey, GB, I love your game, but "girlfriend mode" is not an unloaded term. Language carries consequences.

Also, I love playing as Lilith.

I have been truly blessed by my time here. The Game Informer staff is full of extremely talented, generous, hard-working people who made it a point to show their appreciation for my work and the work of my fellow interns. The GIO readers (you!) have all been inspirational – your insistence on writing thoughtful, respectful comments and blogs makes this community one in a million. One of my favorite things about you is your eagerness to call out fellow members when they are threatening the respectful environment of the site. As a woman in an industry that still, by-and-large, sees me as a sex object rather than a fellow gamer, I appreciate that more than you know.

The user lost planet awesome condition sincerely apologized for his comment, showing again what kinds of great things this community is capable of.

I've learned a lot about the game industry, and about my place in it, and those new understandings have rekindled the fire in my belly for researching and teaching about video games. My regular full-time job for one more year is as a master's student studying communication – specifically critical media, focusing on, among other things, game studies. I'm currently working on updating some old research I did on depictions of femininity in The Legend of Zelda series, and am looking forward to another, newly-energized year of participating in scholarly discussions of video game culture.

I had an incredible summer working for Game Informer. I'm so glad I got to meet and chat with you all, and I look forward to continuing our conversations on gaming, gender, and My Little Pony.

Yay/the best pony.

If you'd like to stay connected with me (I sincerely hope you do), follow me on Twitter (where I do most of my blabbing), You're a Nerd (tumblr #1), Sexy Ragey Grad Student (Tumblr #2), and/or No, I Am a Dog (my personal blog). I will also occasionally blog here on GIO.

Thank you all for this opportunity, and for your support.

Jack, Overheard #1 (Things A Game Informer Intern Says)

Ali Rapp — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 18:00:00 GMT

Here's one thing you have to know about me: I like to quote people, especially out of context. I enjoy Game Informer's official Overheard series like any other GI fan/employee, and while I hope to submit particularly good quotes to the official series, I've found myself with an abundance of quotes from Jack (also known as Jack, The Quixotic Gamer), one of my fellow interns. And, rather than have them go to waste or clog up my submission to the official thread, I figured I'd share them with you in an all new series: Jack, Overheard.

"I think I've been around long enough to know how fruit works."

"[Burp]*. BOOM BABY!"

*Jack claims he didn't actually burp. Whatever. I heard what I heard.

"Hey Chad…" "Hey punk! Gimme your lunch money!" "Ok, Chad…" (monologued dialogue)

"Why is there a locked game called 'TickleTime?'"

"ARE YOU MAD MAX?!"

"StarCraft is calling my name." (whispering to himself)

"I'm practicing to embarrass my future daughter." (dancing)

"This is gonna be sick nasty awesome."

"I farted." (whispering)

"YOU SAID YOU WERE DONE." (yelling at me about my yogurt)

"I say everything wrong."

If you liked reading Jack, Overheard, and would like to hear more of his gems in real-time, follow me on Twitter. It's where I post all of Jack's best stuff as it happens.

Ali's Favorite Video Game Music #5: The World Ends with You

Ali Rapp — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 22:15:00 GMT

Spiky-haired emo guy? Yep. Buff guy with a heart of gold? Yep. Girl carrying a cat plushie and baring unnecessary skin? Yep. Amazing game anyway? Yep.

More than four years ago, Square Enix teamed up with Jupiter to put together a game that, by most people's standards, should have been trite and missable.

The World Ends with You, a 2007 (2008 in North America) game for the Nintendo DS, contains innumerable androgynous characters, a level-up and power-up system based on fashion, and an angsty spiky-haired protagonist. These are all tropes gamers have come to expect from cookie-cutter RPGs, especially RPGs coming out of Japan. Yet, somehow, much like with the odd Kingdom Hearts series (Disney and Square?!), the team behind TWEWY managed to make magic with that traditional formula. Former Game Informer Associate Editor Phil Kollar called TWEWY one of this generation's must-play JRPGs, and the cult-success of the game led Tetsuya Nomura to recently tease a sequel, saying, "there probably is something."

Here, the player is responsible for controlling both Joshua (top) and Neku (bottom)

TWEWY's combat system proved to be challenging, inspired, rewarding, and varied, forcing players to simultaneously control two different fighters in intense real-time battles. Its characters, while conforming to traditional tropes of JRPGs, were complex, hilarious, and often lovable. But what many people know the game for is its soundtrack, which is a strange but truly excellent mix of J-pop-style songs and quirky instrumentals.

The composer and producer for the OST is a guy by the name of Takeharu Ishimoto, who has either worked on or fully helmed the soundtracks for Crisis Core, Dissidia, Kingdom Hearts II, Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Legend of Mana, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy X, and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. His work, especially in TWEWY, is diverse, original, and sometimes a little strange in all the best ways.

Because of the varied nature of the TWEWY soundtrack, it was hard to pick just one song to showcase in this blog--so I picked several. This first track is the title screen song, called "It's So Wonderful" and is quite a bit darker than the rest of the album.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

This next track is one that better showcases what the in-game soundtrack is like and is titled, "Twister."

(Please visit the site to view this media)

This last track is one of my personal favorites from the album. It's titled, "Fighting for Freedom," and if you spend enough time with me, you may hear me quoting the title/lyrics of the song in everyday conversation.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

If you like the soundtrack enough to want to listen to it several times, you should support the artists involved and video game music in general by buying the soundtrack here. Also, if you're a fan of TWEWY, don't forget to check out Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance (due out in North American July 31st): Characters such as Neku, Joshua, and Shiki will all make appearances.

Gotta Love That Sweet Podcast Juice: My First Week As A GI Intern

Ali Rapp — Tue, 29 May 2012 22:02:00 GMT

The folder and eating utensils I bring to the office every day. I've received a few bemused looks.

At 11 A.M. on May 23rd, my life changed.

OK, maybe I didn't get married or birth a child or become president or something, but I did begin my internship at Game Informer, which is close enough. As a graduate student, I often get asked, "What are you going to do after you graduate? Become a professor? Run for office? Be a hippie?" I'm still not sure how to answer that, but I do know that my time at Game Informer this summer will be one of the most educational, exciting, and fun job-related experiences of my life, and will surely affect the trajectory of my career path for decades to come. Here's a recap of my amazing first week at the always-goofy, always-hard working Game Informer office:

The first week was largely educational. I (see: Jack, Josh, and I) learned that posting news stories to GIO is not as easy as one might assume (I can't tell you exactly how it works, but I can say that it's much more complicated than posting a blog), that the GI website is extremely dense and extremely finicky, and that, while it's perfectly acceptable to install Minecraft on your work computer, good luck finding time to play it.

Now that I've learned the bare necessities of how to post news stories, handle press releases, and maneuver portions of the GI website's backend, I can start legitimately contributing to the website in the form of news stories, previews, reader discussions, and more. My fellow interns Jack and Josh have already posted their first few news stories and reader discussions. I was jealous of them until I got assigned a super-secret (OK, not really, but sort of) assignment to research something for a story series GI hopes to implement in the coming weeks. Just today, I was asked to write up pieces about Harmonix's Rock Band Blitz and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. I was also given my first interview transcription assignment. It may sound like typical intern slog, but it's actually pretty neat because I get to listen to interviews with big and up-and-coming names in the gaming industry.

I also learned about the infinite kindness and fairness of the GIO community and Game Informer as a company. I don't want to politicize my status as a woman in games too much (I have my academic writing for that), but it goes without saying that it can be undeservedly difficult trying to make a credible name for oneself in the games industry as a woman. I won't go into it more than that, but I do want to say that I'm extremely grateful for the respectful and normal way people have treated me over the last week. You all--as well as this community as a whole and Game Informer as a company--exist in some weird alternate reality where people on the internet are nice to one another. I couldn't be more happy to work for people who respect me for who I am.

WHY IS EVERYONE HERE SO NICE

To end this post about my first week at GI on a somewhat silly note, here are a few quotes I wrote down while listening to either staff members or my fellow interns (a la the official Game Informer Overheard series), and a couple pictures of Jack and I being goofy.

"Let's write about the top 10 babies in video games." -Matt Miller
"The pic of Mario naked." -anonymous
"Gotta love that sweet podcast juice." -anonymous voice coming from the podcast studio
"Sweeto burrito!" -Jack
"Oh, hold on, Sony's calling." -Andrew Reiner, being way cooler than I will ever be
"BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN AND IT WILL BE ALL YOUR FAULT." -GI website handbook
"You know, that thing from the Ghostbusters logo." -also from the website handbook

Jack and I were working in one of the intern offices together when a mystery staff person (he is clearly a ninja as well as a GI editor) left a strange wooden box on our floor. Jack and I very hesitantly opened it and found equally strange things inside. One of those strange things was a set of large keys. The box also says, "A Storm is Brewing." The only thing I can think of is Game of Thrones...

Another strange thing we found in the box was a hooded red cape.

We brought the box to the upstairs offices and found out none of the editors actually owned any of the strange things; GI simply received them in the mail. I wore a stranger's cape! Mortified, I took the cape off and draped it over one of the intern office doors to give the place a more colorful, homier feel.

And thus ends my first week as a Game Informer intern. It's been an incredible time: I've filled my brain with knowledge of the inner-workings of the website, felt overwhelmed by feelings of acceptance, kindness, and general good vibes from the GIO community and GI staff, and become confused and a little creeped out by the mysterious hooded cape and wooden box slipped into our office when we weren't looking. Here's to another three months of amazing learning experiences and happy memories. Cheers!

I'm A Nerdy Academic With A Cheese Obsession

Ali Rapp — Thu, 24 May 2012 20:12:00 GMT

Two and a half years ago, Game Informer's Phil Kollar responded to one of my tweets about the magazine. After engaging in what was surely hilariously nerdy banter over Twitter, we found out we both lived in the same area of Minneapolis and agreed to meet for coffee.

The year is now 2012. I'm a college graduate, Phil has moved back out to the west coast after an amazing and extremely productive stint at Game Informer (I miss him so much), and I'm moving my things into the GI office as one of their interns. Phil was the one who told me about Game Informer's new internship program. He said, Ali, I know you're a fancy-pants graduate student (more on that later), but you should really apply for this internship -- you'll be good at it. What that means and whether Phil knew what he was talking about remains to be seen, but I hope I can bring something unique, useful, and exciting to the team.

Growing up, my family's pastime was playing games together. My mother and I preferred The Legend of Zelda and it became such a bonding experience for us that I now have a Deku Scrub tattoo. As a family, however, we played a lot of GoldenEye and Perfect Dark. We were a weird and very progressive family, and I'm grateful for my parents' support regarding video games throughout my life.

Now, I'm a graduate of Augsburg College where I studied communication studies, international relations, and Japanese. I began my research career studying gender in Japanese popular culture and how archetypes of femininity manifest themselves in The Legend of Zelda series. My love of studying video games has continued into my graduate career. Currently, my regular full-time job is as a graduate student in communication studies studying marginalized groups in games, manga, and Japanese pop culture. I also teach public speaking to college students, which I think is the bee's knees. A few other things about me: I like bright colors, eat a lot of cheese, and have a boyfriend who cooks, gives great shoulder massages, and plays video games. What more could a lady want?

In addition to my general duties as an intern, which will include a fair amount of writing and other tasks commonly assigned to editors (this isn't your typical go-fer internship), I'll also be doing a lot of work engaging with the Game Informer Online community. I did a considerable amount of social media work in college and I was even lucky enough to get paid for it. I'm ready to get back into the habit of having my eyes glued to blogs and Twitter. In the short amount of time I've been active on GIO, it has shown itself to be a bastion of intelligent discussion and kind souls--an island of sanity in the sea of lunacy that is the internet -- and I couldn't be more thrilled and honored to not only be a part of the Game Informer staff, but also the Game Informer online community this summer. I look forward to working with -- and for -- you all.

For your daily dose of nerd, follow my Tumblr. To follow my non-gaming shenanigans, check out my personal blog.