The 'daddening' of video games

Sosokrates said:
They should take it it to there next level and have 2 MOMS!

ATk4uLe.jpg
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Now that's a cool poster!
 
*Ahem.*
White ppl be bad. (No, I will not bother to look if the people I am talking about are even white, lol why research)

That'll be a thousand dollars, and my Master's Degree thank you.
The absolute state of "Academia" in the West, tell you what.
 
Topher said:
This "daddening of video games" isn't really happening on a widespread level at all. The article mentions three games over the past 10 years with a (kinda) common theme between them. That is hardly a trend.
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And yet somehow...a thesis is born. Higher education is a fucking crock (mostly)
 
Kdad said:
Gone are the days of the lone protagonist in video games, fighting his way toward glory or to save the love of his life.

Now, several video games centre around a rugged father figure whose sole mission in life is to protect his offspring.
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From the very first few sentences it makes no sense.

Those days are GONE, because out of a sea of thousands of games, SEVERAL games have this?

People do not even think about what they are writing down.
 
Samus Aran is the star of the 2021 GOTY and the best game of all time
 
The daddening of video games obviously happened because now we have a majority of players being actual dads. Sony is sacrificing their entire genre roster to this market who has much much more money to burn.

I always used to think the veterans making these amazing games always say Zelda, Mario or some famous game of their time that motivated them towards gaming career. Now believe the new crop of game developers will come who will tout Minecraft, PUBG or Fortnite as "classic" that made them go into game development. I am fine with minecraft but still shake at this thought.
 
Kdad said:

U of A master's student examines the 'daddening' of video games

www-cbc-ca.cdn.ampproject.org www-cbc-ca.cdn.ampproject.org

Gone are the days of the lone protagonist in video games, fighting his way toward glory or to save the love of his life.

jLDZj0r.jpg


Now, several video games centre around a rugged father figure whose sole mission in life is to protect his offspring.


This new storyline is evident in video games like Red Dead Redemption, The Walking Dead and The Last of Us. The live-action series of The Last of Us is currently being filmed in Edmonton and Calgary.

Kaitlyn Ensley, a digital humanities student at the U of A, had this new storyline as a subject of interest for her master's thesis.

Ensley said she believes what video-game journalist Stephen Totilo called the "daddening" of video games stems from developers' own personal experiences.

The fathers in all these video games share common features; straight, white, brawny men — a consequence, Ensley said, of game developer leads being straight, white men.

The dads often have traumatic pasts that stem from their careers in the army, police or other militia.

They seek redemption while putting their lives on the line for their only child in a dangerous post-apocalyptic or dystopian — or some sociopolitical-disaster — world.

There is also a redemption arc where the dad figure is trying to redeem a past mistake, sometimes to do with his kids, Ensley said.

In The Last of Us, the protagonist takes on responsibility for a young girl after his own daughter dies.

Mothers are almost always absent.

More at link...
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She's clearly never heard of Jr. Pac Man, Donkey Kong Jr., or Jumpman Jr.
 
BlackTron said:
From the very first few sentences it makes no sense.

Those days are GONE, because out of a sea of thousands of games, SEVERAL games have this?

People do not even think about what they are writing down.
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Well...CBC talking to a digital humanities masters student gets you this level of reporting...
 
Kdad said:
And yet somehow...a thesis is born. Higher education is a fucking crock (mostly)
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And that student will probably owe 100s of thousands of dollars in student loans that she will never pay because the only job they could get was in a coffee shop. Nothing wrong with working in a coffee shop, but if you've got a PhD working in a coffee then you are failing at life.

/rant
 
I can see it. Third-person action game about a buff dad who has to kill ten thousand generic dudes to protect his kid is the new Oscar bait of the gaming industry.
 
Well, it's their interpretation of what fatherhood should be. Tbh, the whole Dad of War angle for Kratos feels narratively dissonant and "redeeming through parenthood" is a self serving notion.
 
If Metroid Dread was made in the west, then it'd be about a 49 year old Samus trying to raise her witty, back-talking Metroid baby.
 
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Kdad said:
The fathers in all these video games share common features; straight, white, brawny men — a consequence, Ensley said, of game developer leads being straight, white men.
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Maggie Q What GIF by Identity


Such incredible insight. In other news - water is wet.
 
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Thought this was going to be an article about the rise of popularity of roguelikes; a genre of games convenient for us dads who only get 30 mins or less to play games at a time.



Of fucking course it was about some bullshit.
 
Its almost like the Gen X kids who grew up playing games in the 90's are now very likely to be parents, and games where you're protecting a child is more relatable to them.
 
-be darker skinned female
-go to college
-danger hair
-write about common archetype/trope/thing
-notice that white people aren't a minority
-common people do common thing
-outrage
-????
-profit. So much profit.
 
BattleScar said:
Its almost like the Gen X kids who grew up playing games in the 90's are now very likely to be parents, and games where you're protecting a child is more relatable to them.
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Or I'm like, shit, I don't want to parent or protect anyone in my games, I have to parent enough in real life, I don't wanna do that on my time off!

Anyway it's a dumb premise, there are so many games released these days it would be easy to cherry-pick a few examples and shit out an article calling out a "trend" for clicks.
 
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Notabueno said:
So are straight-up racist comments allowed on Gaf or...because of course you would never quote the name of the countless white feminists or whatever behind those articles right?
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Well you bitch like a feminist so I'm quoting you.

Nothing racist about what I said, quit your lactating
 
Notabueno said:
So are straight-up racist comments allowed on Gaf or...because of course you would never quote the name of the countless white feminists or whatever behind those articles right?
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calm down bud. all he's trying to say, is that its really fucking hard to shoot a gun while wearing oven mitts
 
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Mossybrew said:
Or I'm like, shit, I don't want to parent or protect anyone in my games, I have to parent enough in real life, I don't wanna do that on my time off!

Anyway it's a dumb premise, there are so many games released these days it would be easy to cherry-pick a few examples and shit out an article calling out a "trend" for clicks.
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Its not an article being shit out...it's a digital humanities masters fucking thesis...
 
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