Video Games Have Predominantly Male Characters And Represent Females Negatively

By Author: Jordon
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The video games appealed to girls like Gina due to the emphasis on problem-solving strategies and analytical skills to solve mysteries and the emotional and tactile stimulation of realistic characters. Other appealing features of these video games included familiar forensic clues used in the story lines. The types of evidence in the video games were those that Gina had learned about in chemistry, such as fingerprints and chemical or powder substances. These were recognizable to her; she knew their applications and roles in solving crimes, thereby motivating her and giving her confidence that she had practical knowledge that she could apply to solving the video games' crimes.

Gina was also intrigued by the thinking skills required in these video games that kept her engaged in competition with her sister to solve the crime first. The emphasis on problem solving reinforced the observation and Tag Heuer Grand Carrera Replica inquiry skills that Gina practiced in class. Gina reported that she particularly enjoyed using her observation and inference skills to "piece things together" ...
... and "to think ahead but not jump to conclusions" in figuring out who committed the crime.

Gina appreciated the attention to detail and the sophisticated graphics in mystery video games like Murder on the Orient Express and the Nancy Drew video game, Stay Tuned for Danger. For example, in Murder on the Orient Express, the visuals carefully and colorfully reflected representations in the movie based on the book so the characters and setting were recognizable to those who had seen the film. The power of these graphics to motivate her to engage with this text was evidenced by Gina's remark, "I'm more a visual person; I'd rather play a video game or read a picture book than a text. I get bored reading just a plain text."

Although Gina did not like to read informational text, she read and reread the booklet included in the Agatha Christie video game. This illustrated text provided an overview or advance organizer for the story, background on the author and a link to a website about her, installation instructions, a map of the Tag Heuer Replica Watches crime scene, a menu and cursor explanations, and strategy and solution guides. Gina found these useful as she and her sister and as she and I consulted this text for direction and hints to advance the game.