Women and Productivity [Abstracts]

Productivity, to some extent, is a by-product of all video games: game players are constantly forced to be productive with their avatars, making the best of in-game resources. Productive play also often comes from games such as Wii Fit and Brain Age: these are video games that offer real world productivity in exchange for play. Additionally, other researchers (some on this panel) have examined how productivity is often a byproduct of player communities, with projects such as game modding, skinning, and machinima. In this paper, though, I am focusing on an entirely different kind of productive play which I refer to as Simulated Productive Play: play that mimics real world productivity both in the game narrative and mechanics. Essentially, I argue that Simulated Productive Play is a categorically feminine gaming style, often reflecting many women’s anxieties about play, work, and leisure. Leisure studies has long noted the complicated and tenuous relationship between women and play. For example, Deem [1] discusses how women often feel that they do not have the right to leisure time given the overwhelming concerns of maintaining households and work responsibilities. Hochschild, in her well known book The Second Shift [3], discusses ways that time constraints often leads to a “leisure-gap” between men and women. More recently, Green [2] explains that with women and technology there is often a “blurring of work and leisure activities”. Ultimately, it is this conflation between work and play activities that has lead to Simulated Productive Play in many video games aimed at feminine audiences. Specifically, in this paper I conduct a rigorous analysis of the Dash games: Diner Dash and the spin-off games involved in the Dash universe (known as “Dinertown”). These games are referred to by many video game publishers as “time management games,” and provide a perfect case study of Simulated Productive Play. According to Lazzaro [4], Diner Dash has particular appeals to women audiences by using emotional experiences that women are familiar with. In addition to emotional appeals, the game’s overarching themes of domesticity and work encourage ingame productivity. By analyzing both game mechanics and narratives, I illustrate how these games constantly simulate domestic productivity in their game worlds by having main characters serve, clean, cook, arbitrate in-game disputes, and mollify those around them to gain the favor and love of in-game characters. At times, mechanics and gameplay are in tandem with themes found in the game narratives, which generally encourage work over leisure and the caretaking of others. At other points in these games the mechanics and narratives have contradictory themes, potentially sending mixed messages to audiences about work, leisure, and domesticity. By cataloguing these alternating dynamics through screen shots and rigorous notes of both game levels and cut scenes, I illustrate how these components create some compelling themes about women and gaming that are worth further examination. Additionally, I discuss some possible reasons why Simulated Productive Play is a category that is particularly popular with women gamers. REFERENCES 1. Deem, R. All Work and No Play: The Sociology of Women and Leisure. Open University Press, London, 1987. 2. Green, E. “Technology, Leisure and Everyday Practices.” In E. Green & A. Adams (Eds.) Virtual Gender. Routledge, New York, 2001. 3. Hochschild, A.R. The Second Shift. Penguin Books, New York, 1989. 4. Lazzaro, N. “Are Boy Games Even Necessary?” In Y. B. Kafai, C. Heeter, J. Denner, & J. Y. Sun (eds) Beyond Barbie and Mortal Combat. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008, pp. 199-230.