When marginalized groups access the means of video game production, gamers win
Daniel Joseph, PhD student in joint Ryerson and York Communication & Culture program, argues that Toronto has embraced its video game counterpublic and that the city is now on the world map for oppositional media thanks to government and community support.
Changes in video game production, Joseph argues, has major political effects for marginalized groups in Canadian cities like Toronto.
Watch his digital report to the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at York University below:
Counterpublics, as Joseph explains in the video, are oppositional groups of people aware of a subordinate status to the larger public. The concept comes from Michael Warner, an English professor at Rutgers University.
More women are making games in Toronto’s scene, creating different stories and approaches that speak to personal experiences that they feel represent women more accurately.
This is significant, because video games are “the paradigmatic commodity of contemporary capitalism.”
Joseph also works also as a research associate at the Counterpublics Working Group for the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at York.
Visit Daniel Joseph’s tumblr DROP OUT. HANG OUT. SPACE OUT.
– Ernest Reid, Executive Editor (Online)
