Posts Tagged 'anthropology'

Geek Girl Survey Udpate 2: for science!
Anthropology, Definitions of Geek, Geek Girl Survey, Gender, Study of geek culture

Geek Girl Survey Udpate 2: for science!

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Last November, when I started compiling the data from the Geek Girl Survey, I was delighted to find that the wonderful individuals who took part in this project took the time to provide dense material for me to analyse (as well as several Portal references). I took the time to sort through everything carefully and I improved the questionnaire as much as possible for a second round of data collection. I will soon make it available again, so if you haven’t filled it out yet or if you know geek girls who might want to contribute, be on the lookout.

Before I start publishing the results from the survey, however, I’d like to share with you a shortened version of the paper I presented last November at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting. This paper, titled (Fake) Geek Girls: Unicorns, Sluts and Nerds? serves as a good introduction to the Geek Girl Survey and will be published in two parts this week.

Cyborgs & Singularity
Anthropology, Science-fiction

Cyborgs & Singularity

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I know, I’ve been remiss. Even though I’ve been a die-hard anime fan since early high school, it’s taken me until recently to watch Ghost in a Shell, the pivotal Japanese science fiction film released in 1995.

Based on the manga by Masumune Shirow, Ghost in a Shell epitomizes the sheer brilliance of Japanese animation: the illustrations impeccably render a dystopian future in which humans have begun to transcend the limits of the human body by incorporating state of the art technology and cybernetic science into every part of their physicality and cognition.

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

Just to Vex and Be Vexed in Return

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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.

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

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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.