Work Induces Hunger for Brains...

Whee! Guess what I got for Christmas? The oh-so-awesome Creepy Cute Crochet book, which is stuffed with adorable little amigurumi patterns of vampires, zombies, Cthulhu, and more.

A coworker of mine left to work for his parents' company that fixes up old video game arcade machines. (How cool is that?) As a going away present, I made him a little somethin' somethin' from my new book, the Corporate Zombie.


See how undeniably creepy cute he is? In case you're wondering, K cut the yarn hair messily on purpose because what zombie has a perfect combover? Next time I should make the skin pale green as well. Can't wait to make everything else in the book!

A Critique on Mario's Uniform

Speaking of fashion, I have a guilty pleasure when it comes to TV shows I won't miss: Project Runway. Considering that I don't put a lick of effort in my outfits and my metro-marketing coworkers all dress better than I do, it seems ill-fitting that I would enjoy the series so much. Imagine my delight when the show's main fashion advisor, Tim Gunn, decided to critique our favorite little plumber's outfit:


Haha, "functional" is the way I view most of my clothing. It seems Mario and I have more in common than I thought!

Scary Angry Gamer Girls

Along the same vein as my previous post, one thing I really don't understand is ultra-feminist gamer girls. The ones who deliberately interpret everything that male gamers and game designers do to be directly aimed at causing offense to the female population. Now I will admit outright that I am not a feminist in the traditional sense, someone who focuses on more rights and legal protection for women. In fact, with that definition K probably embodies more feminist ideals because it always enrages him if he hears about a woman being abused by some guy. As an female engineer, I've always straddled the line of understanding both genders. I like computers and cats, and yet am uncomfortable talking about football and fashion. Weird mix.

Bottom line: I tend to accept things for the way they are. Especially if it's concerning something as "silly" as video games. A female columnist for Kotaku called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 a "typical male fantasy" and felt guilty for enjoying such a sexist piece of software. Okay, think about what you're saying:

1. Is it wrong to produce products geared toward a specific gender? (e.g. skirts)
2. Does having negligable numbers of female characters prevent anyone from using the product? (e.g. the film Saving Private Ryan)

With uniforms so thick, I think only the 5 o'clock shadow gives it away.

Also, her top suggestions include adding more women in different clothing and body types, having a lead female character she can identify with, and hearing radio commands in a woman's voice. Hmm, somehow I just can't imagine that increasing the "female presence" will grow the number of girls who play Modern Warefare 2. I'll admit that I tend to choose a female avatar if there's one available, but avatars are not the reason why I choose to play a game. It's about the game play, the art, the story, the soundtrack. If you're a gamer girl who plays first person shooters, you're going to try out the #1 selling game of its genre, regardless of the number of women you can find in the background scenes. And don't let any feminist tell you otherwise.

That might be a girl, but I prefer to repect his/her privacy...

Yummy Snacks for the Brain

K's gift for me this year was (surprise, surprise) a video game. But no worries, this was one title I had specially requested: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. If you've never heard of the series, Professor Layton is a British professor of archeology strongly modeled after Sherlock Holmes, and he travels everywhere with Luke the young apprentice/sidekick.* The repeating theme of the series is to deliver Mensa-like puzzles wrapped in the guise of solving a mystery plot, with 2D animated cutscenes interspersed between.


For some reason, I'm very particular about the type of puzzle games I like. People were going gaga over Puzzle Quest a couple of years ago (K included), but after an hour of play time, I just couldn’t choke down anymore. It was just too repetitive, like ingesting the same tuna salad sandwich for lunch every day of your middle school life. But Professor Layton is the equivalent of eating fiber granola bars that are magically infused with over 60 varieties of calorie-free frosting. It’s appealing to the mental taste buds and good for you!


One new feature I love is the memo pad that allows you to jot down notes on a translucent whiteboard while solving a puzzle. No more scrambling around for scraps of paper when tackling those hard math problems! I ended up wolfing down the entire game in ~15 hours (hidden stuff included, minus 2 ridiculously hard bonus puzzles). Now it's back to methodically plugging through Scribblenauts (even that innovative jewel is getting a little tiring).

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* Many people have made, ah, inquiries as to why Professor Layton is traveling across countries with a 10ish-year-old boy that apparently has no parents. Kind of like Batman and Robin. So when I unwrapped my gift, I found that K had so thoughtfully taped a label to the case, changing its title to "Professor Layton and the Curious Urges." ::sigh::

The Roles We Play

Ah, finally the holiday parties are over and life has returned to some semblance of normality. It seems that every time we go to some group function, K inevitably gets asked about his job as a video game developer. The automatic response then becomes "Oh, so you do a lot of programming?" Apparently, the general populace believes that all video game developers are geeks who sit in dark cubicles, furiously typing the night away. It's like assuming that everyone in a hospital is a doctor. But no worries, I've heard this explanation many a times and am happy to share what I've learned. Here are the four most common types you'll find walking around the halls of your typical development company.

The Producer

Requirements: management experience with a passion for video games Favorite Games: Call of Duty series, anything from EA He's slick, he's suave, he's on the fast track. This alpha male likes to talk budgets, head count, and The Schedule. He's the one who will showcase your hard months of work to the big wigs while glossing over bugs and unfinished features. Producers can run the gamut from a rough & tumble John Wayne to your typical metro business professional, but either way he will tear up the scene in any FPS fragfest.

The Computer Programmer

Requirements: C++ programming skills with an air of intellectual snobbery Favorite Games: Starcraft, Supreme Commander, Puzzle Quest The stereotypical computer geek who was lucky enough to make it into the industry. He'll complain bitterly about the long hours, but never leaves because he's living his dream job. He relates to his coworkers by inviting them to play RTS games over lunch, and knows most of his friends by their online screennames. It's not uncommon to see an ungodly number of soda cans proudly stacked in their cubes.

The Artist

Requirements: posseses an impressive art portfolio and demo reel Favorite Games: Final Fantasy, God of War, pretty games!! It's like flipping through the best and worst-dressed in People magazine: they either dress like George Clooney or Lady Gaga. Another duality is that some artists are very team-oriented, while others have that "art is my soul" elitist attitude. Frustration is a normal part of the job since their resource-intensive creations tend to be first on the chopping block. Marijuana usage during lunch is also not uncommon.

The Designer

Requirements: demonstrated aptitude for general game or system design Favorite Games: World of Warcraft, D&D, any and everything for the sake of "research" If the artist is the interior designer and programmer is the plumber/electrician that makes everything work, this creature is the architect of the game. Designers are in charge of the game mechanics, fiction, map layouts, systems - basically what makes the game fun. He builds specifications and systems for the programmer to make and creates the characters and a conceptual world for the artist to render. He looks like your average gamer, which can vary widely as you all know.

Knocking Down the Gamer Girl Pedestal

A few months ago, Busted Analog posted an article titled Gamer Girls Aren’t Special Anymore. His stance: stop putting gamer girls on a pedestal because females are more integrated into the gaming world nowadays and therefore should be treated with gender-free equality. The post also introduced me to the concept of the "single game girl," someone who was introduced to a title via a male friend or old boyfriend and obsessively plays only that title. While Busted Analog makes a very stimulating point, I was more interested in the comments that ensued afterward, both online and in real life:

"Like some of the others have said, I think the mystery is still there because 90% of the gamer girls out there aren't what most of us consider gamers. Playing occasional games of Guitar Hero and Tetris does not a gamer make. Girls who play MMORPGs like WoW don't count as well as that is more of a female nerd than female gamer."

Having attended an engineering college, I experienced first hand the perks of being a woman in a male-dominated environment. I never stooped as low as some of my female classmates, who would deliberately wear low-cut, tight-fitting tops to weasel extra computer time from the lab assistants. But yeah, guys would willingly help me with a homework question, while brusquely declining if another dude had asked the same thing. Plus, on the anime chat room where I downloaded episodes, I used a seemingly generic username. But once people realized that I was female, the number of chats I received suddenly tripled.

Yes, college was exactly like this...

I talked about the phenomenon with K afterward, and our conversation turned back to the article...
K: I don't see what the big deal is. An attractive female that actually can beat me at Mortal Kombat seems like quite the rarity to me.
A: Now that I cannot do.
K: True, but you probably could get to my level with practice. I think that the real issue is that you don't like competitive games in general, so your motivation to do so isn't there.
K: Anyone who gave Metroid a big try qualifies as hardcore to me - that game's hard!
A: I definitely prefer co-op; even Left 4 Dead would be ok (if it weren't so creeepy ^_~)
K: After your experience with Monster Hunter, I bet you'd be 4000% better at Metroid's gameplay skill aspect now. I mean, if you can decode timing and tells on a monster and move in with a precision hit... well, that's Metroid in another form.

Aww, thanks for the boost in confidence, K! #^_^#

Related Links:
Seven Types of Girl Gamers

"NOW I Can Have a Happy Christmas..."

K's feeling a little glum as Christmas nears because this is the first year where we are not going back to his parents' place for the holidays. To help him combat the homesickness, I've been determined to cheer him up by packing December 25th to the fullest. My brainstorming ideas included ice skating, looking at Christmas lights, decorating a gingerbread house, calling his family via webcam, and attending the church Christmas service. All of these pitches were met with slightly positive to mediocre responses. And then today K excitedly sends me this news article over instant chat, saying "NOW I can have a happy Christmas!"

Natalie Portman starring as Elizabeth Bennet the Zombie Killer

Haha, I guess I shouldn't be surprised after two years of marriage. What is it with gamers and their fascination with zombies?