Gender and Computer Games ,-Cambndge, Massachusetts-London, England i IustineCassell and Henry lenkins j “Complete Freedom of Movement”: Video Games as Today, each time I vmt my parents, I am shocked to see thatmost of those “sacred”places are now occupied by concrete, bricks, or asphalt They managed Gendered Play Spaces to get a whole subdivision out of Jungleloca and Freedonla’ Henry Jenkins My son, Henry, now 16, has never had a backyard He has grown up In various apartment complexes, surrounded by asphalt parking lots wlth, perhaps, a small grass buffer from the street Children were prohibited by apartment policy from playing on the grass or from racing their tncycles in the basements or from doing much of anything else that might make noise, annoy thenon-childbearing populatlon, cause damage to thefaclll- ties, or put themselves atrisk There was, usually, a city park some blocks away that we could go to on outings a few times a week and where we could watch him play Henry could claim no physical space as his own, except his toy-strewn A Tale of lko Childhoods room, and herarely got outside earshot Once or twice, when I became exasper- Sometimes, I feel nostalgic for the spacesof my boyhood, growing up in subur- ated by my son’s constant presence around the house, I would folget all this ban Atlanta in the 1960s My big grassy front yard sloped sharply downward and tell him he shouldgo outside andplay He would laok at mewith confusion into a ditch where we could float boats on a rainy day Beyond, there wasa pine and ask, “Where?” forest where my brother andI could toss pine cones like grenades or snapstlcks But, he did have video games that took him across lakes of fire, through together like swords In the backyard, there was a patch of grass where we cities in the clouds, along dark and gloomy back streets, and into dazzling could wrestle or play klckball and a treehouse, which sometimes bore a pirate neon-lit Asian marketplaces Video games constltute virtual play spaces which flag and at other times, the Stars andBars of the Confederacy Out beyond our allow home-bound children like my son to extend their reach, to explore, ma- own yard, there was a bamboo forest where we could play Tarzan, and vacant nipulate, and interact witha mole diverse range of imagmary places than con- lots, construction sites, sloping streets, anda nelghbonng farm (the last veshge stitute the often drab, predictable, and overly-familiar spaces of their everyday of a rural area turned suburban) lives Keith Feinsteln (1997),President of the Video Game Conservatory, argues Between my house and theschool, there was another forest, which,for the that video games preserve many aspects of traditional play spaces and culture full length of my youth, remained undeveloped A fnend and I would survey that motivate children to this land, cla~mlng it for our imaginarykingdoms of Jungleloca and Freedonla We felt a propnetorship over that space,even though others used itfor school- learn about the environment that theyfind themselves living In Video yard fisticuffs, smokmg cigarettes, or playmg kissing games When we were games present the opportunity to explore and discover, as well as to there, we rarely encountered adults, though when we did, it usually spelled combat others of comparable skill (whether they be human or elec- trouble We would come home from these secret places, covered wlth Georga tronic) and to struggle with them in a form that 1s similar to children red mud wrestling, or scrambling for the same ball-they are nearly matched, Of course, we spent many afternoons at home, watchmgold horror movies they aren’t going to really do much damage, yet it feels like an all- or acbon-adventure series reruns, and our motherswould fuss at us to go out- important fight for that child at that given moment “Space Invaders” side Often, something we had seen ontelevision would inspire our play, stalk- gives us visceral thrill and poses mental/physlcal challenges similar ing through the woods like Lon Chaney Jr’s Wolfman or “socking” and “powmg” to a schoolyard game of dodge-ball (or any of the hundred of related each other under the influenceof Batman kids games) Video games play wlth us, a never tiring playmate Henry Jenkins “Complete Freedom of Movement” Feinstein’s comment embraces someclassical conceptions of play (such as spa- bodles bobblng and swaying to the on-screen action, and It’s clear they are cial explorauon and identity formation), suggesting thatvideo game play Isn’t there-in the fantasy world, battling It out wlth the orcs and goblins, pushing fundamentally dlfferent from backyard play To facilitate such lmmerslve play, their airplanes past the soundbarrier, or splashing theirway thlough the waves to achieve an appropnatelevel of “holding power” that enables children to tran- in their speed boats Perhaps my son finds in his video games what I found in scend their lmmedlate environments, vldeo game spaces requrre concreteness the woods behind the school, on my blke whizzing down the hllls of the subur- and vividness The push in the vrdeo game industry for more than a decade ban back streets, or settled Into my treehouse during a thunder storm wlth a has been toward the development of more graphically complex, more visually good adventure novel-intensity of expenence, escape from adult regulation, engagng, more three-dlmenslonally renderedspaces, and toward quicker, more in short, “complete freedom of movement” sophlstlcated, more flexible interachons with those spacesVideo games tempt This essay will offer a cultural geography of vldeo game spaces, one whlch the player to play longer, puttmg more and more quarters into the arcade ma- uses traditionalchildren‘s play and children’s literature as points of comparison chme (or providing “play value” forthose who’ve bought thegame) by unveiling to the digital worlds contemporary children lnhablt Specifically, I examme the ever more spectacular “mlcroworlds,” the revelatlon of a new level the reward “fit” between video games andtraditional boy culture and review several differ- for having survived and mastered the previous environment (Fuller and Jen- ent models for creating virtual play spaces for glrls So much of the leseaich kins 1995) on gender and games takes boy’s fascination with these games as a gwen As Video games advertwe themselves as taking us places very different from we attempt to offer video games for glrls, we need to better understand what where we live draws boys to video games and whether our daughters shouldfeel that same attraction Say hello to life In the fast lane “Sonic R” for Sega Saturn is a full- Video games are often blamed for the llstlessness or hyperactlvlty of our on, pedal-to-the-metal hi-speed dash through five 3D courses, each children, yetsociologists find these samebehavioral problems occurring among rendered in full 360 degree panoramas You’ll be flossing bug guts all children raised in highly restrrctlve and confined physical environments out of your teeth for weeks (“Sonic R” 1998) (Booth and Johnson 1975, van Staden 1984) Social leformers sometimes speak of children choosing to play vldeo games rather than playngoutslde, when, in Take a dip in these sub-infested watersfor a spot of nuclear fishin’ many cases, no suchchoice IS available More and more Americans hein urban Don’t worry You’ll know you’re in too deep when the water pressure or semi-urban neighborhoods Fewer of us own our homes andmore of us llve caves your head in (“Cntlcal Depth” 1998) in apartment complexes Fewer adults have chosen to have children and our society has become increasingly hostlle to the presence of chlldren In many Hack yourway through asavage world orhead stralght for the places, “no children” polmes severely restrict where parents can live Parents, arena Complete freedom of movement (“Die By the Sword“ 1998) for a variety of reasons, are fnghtened tohave their children on the streets, and place them under “protectlve custody” “Latch key” children return from school Strap in and throttle up as you whip through the most reallstlc and and lock themselves in their apartments (Kincheloe 1997) immerslve powerboat racmg game ever made Jump over roadways, In the nineteenthcentury, childrenliving along the fronheror on America’s and through passing convoys, or speed between 011 tankers, before farms enloyed free range over a space of ten square miles or more Elliot West they close off the track and turnyour boat to splinters Fmd a shortcut (1992) descnbes boys of nine or ten going camping alone for days on end, re- and take the lead, or better yet, secure your victory and force your turning when theywere needed to do chores around the houseThe early twen- opponent into a nver barge at 200 miles per hour (“VR Sports“ 1998) tieth century saw the development of urban playgrounds in the midst of city streets, respondmg to a growing sense of chddren’s dlmmlshlng access to space Who wouldn’t want to tradein the confinementof your room forthe lmmerslon and an increased awarenessof issues of child welfare (Cavallo 1991),but autobi- promlsed by today‘s video games’ Watch children playmg these games, thelr ographies of the period stress theavallablhty of vacant lots and back alleys that Henry lenklns “Complete Freedom of Movement” 266 267 children could clalm as thelr ownplay environments Sociologists writing about velop as they map thelr fantaslesof empowerment andescape onto theirnelgh- the suburban Amencaof my boyhood found that childrenenloyed a playterrain borhoods Fredenck Donaldson