To play a game like a feminist is in many ways like playing a game as a game designer. It means to be aware of feminist theories and to understand how games align with those theories. Much in the same way that as game designers, we play games even if they are not perfect, playing like a feminist does not mean playing only perfectly feminist games, but it also means playing games that get things wrong, or that simply never attempt to be feminist at all, but playing them with the purpose of understanding lacking in the mind of a casual player.
In reading Shira Chess’ book, I was reminded of how I first became what I would call a girl gamer – the days of dress up and virtual world pet games. Today, I’ve chosen to revisit this classic genre for it’s pivotal role in creating lifelong female gamers. Back then, I played like a player. Today, I play like a feminist and a game designer.
In looking to adhere to the criteria of the assignment, I chose to play Stardoll, an online dressup / room decorating game by Glorious Games aimed at tween and young teen girls. I chose Stardoll because it positively affirms a love for fashion, makeup, and all things girly, something I like many girls have been degraded for enjoying.
But more importantly, Stardoll stands above others in it’s genre through it’s social mechanics, which turns the game into an affirming female centered space.
Ecology is a concept in feminist design theory which states that when we design for a certain user, we reinforce onto that user what we believe their role in society ought to be. When applied to Stardoll, one might critique the game for it’s focus on traditionally “feminine” forms of play, which might reinforce the idea that girls ought to enjoy these things. And certainly, this is a problem in the gaming space, where games targeted at girls are often more on dimensional than those targeted at boys. However, when put in context of our larger society, wherein girls often deal with internalize misogyny over enjoying traditionally feminine subjects, I see a space like Stardoll where feminine self expression is centered as being empowering. In reality, many girls *do* like dressup games, and that’s exactly what Stardoll affirms for those budding gamers.
But, Stardoll is more than just a dressup game. It’s also a social platform, with chats, clubs, and HTML/CSS supported bios a la Neopets. I believe the social elements of Stardoll are much of the reason it grew to such a phenomenon during it’s height in the 2010s. As Chess mentions in her book, many female gamers seek agency. While Chess mentions how this agency manifests in the order afforded by match 3-type games like Candy Crush, agency can also be afforded by anonymity most commonly seen on social media.This is part of why virtual world avatar type games became so popular, as in many ways they are the embodiment of the gamification of social media. Where Stardoll differs from the likes of Club Penguin is the fact that its community is built off of a combined love for the aforementioned traditionally feminine forms of play. Even with the affordance of anonymity, an average online space a female player can never truly achieve agency in the same way her male peers can. But in a space where being a girl is *expected*, it becomes possible to experience agency in a way that is unique to this marginalized player base. This observation integrates another theory in feminist design, pluralism, which states that we ought not to design for a universal audience, because what works best for the majority might in fact harm the minority. Rather, we should create separate designs to best serve different, unique users. When applied to game design, this means that creating games like Stardoll, which give space to girl gamers, might work better than attempting to carve out space in existing male centered gaming communities. Certainly, this idea is backed up by the fact that a thriving girl led gaming community existed online in the same time period as but was untouched by the horrors of Gamer Gate.
Stardoll gave girls in the 2010s a way to explore themselves beyond the limitations of reality. This means self expression in terms of fashion, hair, and makeup, but it also means creating social relationships across boarders, writing their first pieces of code, and crafting narratives in club roleplay forums. My Stardoll bio was the first piece of HTML/CSS I ever wrote, and I have friends from my Hunger Games roleplay club who went on to become writers. In many ways, Stardoll is an example of what happens when girls are free to be who they are free from judgement.
