糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 Inclusive Gaming Club Back in Action
During a lively Wednesday afternoon on campus, a group of 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students, faculty, and alumni who have a passion for gaming gathered to play.
They started out with Townscraper, where users construct an island town by placing and removing colored blocks on an ocean. They next perused options like 鈥淚t Takes Two,鈥� 鈥淯npacking,鈥� and 鈥淕oat Simulator,鈥� before deciding on medieval-themed 鈥淚nkulinati.鈥�
After choosing Alewife, who is described as a 鈥渟trong woman in these difficult times,鈥� as their main character, the group quickly decided to change her name to Qwerty. Dr. Joe Williams, a professor of rhetoric and writing, commented that it can take the group a full hour to decide on the character alone.
While nobody seems to understand the purpose of the game in the beginning, they dig the 鈥淢onty Python鈥� vibe of the game. This is a scene from 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 Inclusive Gaming Club, a place where people can play video games, hang out, and discuss diversity and representation in gaming.
鈥淭he primary purpose of the club is to give students a place to play games in a low-stakes, comfortable environment,鈥� said Dr. Londie Martin, associate professor of rhetoric and writing and faculty advisor of the Inclusive Gaming Club. 鈥淲e want to use this space to build community and give students and anyone on campus who is interested a place to have conversations about video games. We see video games not just as games, but as important cultural artifacts that we can learn from.鈥�
After a strong start in 2018, Martin said the club lapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when classes went online and groups could no longer meet in person. Now the Inclusive Gaming Club is back in action, meeting once a month, and looking to regain momentum.
Martin said she was inspired to start the Inclusive Gaming Club after she felt left out by many of the mainstream games as a child.
鈥淚鈥檝e been gaming since I was a little kid back in the days when you rented games from Blockbuster,鈥� Martin said. 鈥淲hen games shifted to first-person shooter games, it seemed like it wasn鈥檛 as open to me as a girl. When I got to college, I started to discover more indie games where there was more diversity. I found a gaming community, and it made me feel like gaming was open to everyone.鈥�
Connor Pearce, a December 2022 graduate, said he joined the club to learn more about diverse video games.
鈥淚 studied video games a lot in graduate school,鈥� Pearce said. 鈥淚 care about the language that is used in games and the representation of games. This is a fun space to just enjoy playing video games and talking about them. You can talk about how games can be more inclusive to more types of people who don鈥檛 normally play, as well as the concerns of how different underrepresented groups are portrayed in game narratives.鈥�
The Department of Rhetoric and Writing is full of students and faculty with a love of gaming. Williams, a faculty advisor to the Inclusive Gaming Club and co-founder of the Little Rock Game Designers Group, teaches courses like video game writing and game creation. The department regularly participates in the Global Game Jam, where teams create games in one fast-paced weekend. Prior to the pandemic, the Inclusive Gaming Club held a 24-hour live streamed gaming event where members played games to raise money for Lucie鈥檚 Place, a nonprofit that helps LGBTQ+ young adults who are experiencing homelessness.
鈥淭his club combines a lot of faculty and student interests, including gaming, social critique, and inclusivity, and it opens us up to exploring different media and modalities,鈥� said Dr. Joyce Carter, chair of the Department of Rhetoric and Writing. 鈥淲e are exploring the role of games and gamification. Games are hands on, and they can create educational opportunities.鈥�
She points to the video game, 鈥淭o The Rescue,鈥� as a successful example of how games can help educate people. Two 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock graduates, Olivia Dunlap and Tanner Marshall, created the dog rescue shelter simulation game as students to help raise money and awareness for animal shelters.
鈥淕ames help us make connections across the university, and this is the kind of club that crosses departments and majors and builds community among faculty, students, and alumni,鈥� Carter said.
If you are interested in learning more about the Inclusive Gaming Club, contact Professor Martin at [email protected].