Blog 5

I will examine the video game Clue with Jenkins’ critical eye of gendered play spaces. I believe that this is the best choice to scrutinize the game since Jenkins draws out similarities through his subtopics.

Exploring Jenkins’ subtopics :

 “Moving Beyond “Home Base” Why Physical Space Matters, page 705: Clue provides a fantasy mansion which is a space to be explored. The game provides discoveries within the mansion rooms and the places where your character can accuse a suspect of murder. Also, the game characters, rooms, and weapons become part of the only active playground paraphernalia within the structured building.

“Putting Boy Culture Back in the Home”, page 707:  Clue provides mapping development skills through familiar surroundings as well as winning by one’s own achievement. Although Clue, I believe is not a true boy culture game there is still a hint of this within the game.

“Secret Gardens: Girl Space”, page 716: Clue offers secrets in a gothic setting. This game also resembles the type of realm which girls often observe and then respond vs. a boys realm of attack, attack, attack.

“The Play Town: Another Space for Girls?”, page 720: A spatial play area  seems to fit perfectly for the Clue game. The Clue mansion offers dimension with the opportunity to explore within a certain controlled environment.   The characters pieces are rigid in their role portrayal as suspects. Each adult character is sculpted to bring intrigue and familiarity.  In search of the murderer, the game brings suspicion by linking key components by which Mr. Boddy died. It is only at the conclusion of the game that all of the elements are revealed and the winner can claim that stake.  

In summary, I believe that the stronger argument will emerge from the last examined subtopic.   Although, I project that my main argument may be in Jenkins conclusion.  The claim will be  to evening out the playing fields between genders is a compelling because computer games of the future may allow by program design to offer a different ending or alternative playgrounds to the all familiar mansion setting.

Did you know that this popular game was a British invention?

Works Cited

Jenkins, Henry. ""Complete Freedom of Movement": Video Games as Gendered Game Spaces." Lidinsky, Stuart Green and April. From Inquiry to Academic Writing. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2008. 700-729.

Blog 4 Project 2

I chose the video game Clue for Project 2.  I selected this game because it has been around for a long time as just a boardgame.  Yes, I guess you can say it is a classic, tried and true. Since this was one of my favorite board game when I was growing up, I was pleased to see that it is now a video game.  The challenges of trying to guess who, where, and how can now come alive by clicking around the electronic mansion to try to solve the mystery. Even though the game is intriguing, it is the characters that I would like to investigate. I believe that in Project 2 that I will be able to show some interesting features about the celebrity guests turned suspects.  Yes, and of course there is always the victim!

Originally this board game was invented in 1944 by Anthony E. Pratt.  There are six suspects and one dead host, Mr. Buddy. My first tentative claim will be that the characters that are associated with the game are gender biased.  The details of the claim may rest on the fact that each character has distinguishing images and how those images are portrayed through the game. It will be fun to explore the mansion but most importantly the focus will be on the suspects.

 I propose a second tentative claim will be concerning the colors that have always been associated with each of the suspects.  In fact, the color for each of the suspects has never changed since 1944. I would like to explore the concepts of color which I hope shows a different diminsion to each of the game pieces 

The mystery escalates when the players choose the suspect, the room, and the method that was used to dispose of the mansion’s owner.  I believe that a correlation between the player, the suspect, and the mansion itself should also have some developing results for another claim.  The mansion sets the tone; the mystery develops and clues are entertained from each of the different locations.  I believe that the association of these locations have a direct bearing on the mental image that engages the player.  

Do you have a Clue?

URL: http://www.hasbro.com/games/enUS/clue/

http://www.hasbro.com/games/en_US/clue/