Monthly Archives: August 2013

Just to Vex and Be Vexed in Return
Anthropology, Study of geek culture

Just to Vex and Be Vexed in Return

·6 comments

I suppose it’s my turn to introduce myself.

My name is Nick Mizer, and I’m a PhD candidate in cultural anthropology at Texas A&M University, where I’m working on a dissertation analyzing the historical relationships between story, play, and imagined spaces in Dungeons & Dragons.  I’ve been studying D&D since my senior year as an undergraduate, when I came to the topic by way of studies in folklore and mythology. The parallels between ritual and myth on the one hand and play and narrative on the other are the first thing that caught my interest in D&D. Gaining a better understanding of those relationships has been the driving force behind a lot of my research since then.  Here on the blog I’ll probably be posting a lot about gaming, but also about other areas of geek culture too.

Geek Girls: I need your help!
Anthropology, Definitions of Geek, Geek Girl Survey, Gender, Study of geek culture

Geek Girls: I need your help!

·30 comments

I am looking for geek girls and women of all ages to answer a few questions about their involvement in geek culture and their experiences with geek peers. Whether you are 16 or 50 years old, a trekkie, a pegasister or a browncoat, whatever your gender identity or sexual orientation is, or even if you consider yourself more of a nerd than a geek, I want to hear your story.

Confidentiality will be respected, so don’t be afraid to contact me!

Review / 1: Cheating: gaining advantage in videogames by Mia Consalvo
Anthropology, Book Reviews, Games / gaming, Online communities

Review / 1: Cheating: gaining advantage in videogames by Mia Consalvo

·2 comments

I admit without shame that I often cheat when I play video games:  I have skipped missions on Starcraft when loosing repeatedly became too frustrating. I don’t think I have ever played Quake on anything else than Godmode. Cheating allows me to manipulate the game experience, exploit the aspects of it I enjoy the most and free myself from some of the more demanding aspects when I don’t enjoy them. 

However, because I cheat to enjoy easy and fun gaming, I would not go out of my way to cheat. Additionally, I would not cheat if the game-play is enjoyable and rewarding. And I have found that cheating can rob you of some of the best rewards games have to offer. When I got stuck on the final stage of Portal 2, I looked up a walk-through and ended up discovering the final step without wanting to: to this day, I wonder what kind of amazement I would have felt had I been able to figure it out for myself.