Posted on

5 Things About Video Games Some Nerds Wish They Could Eliminate

As a gamer, I’ve spent a lot of time and money on games. I live and breathe these games. I’ll continue to support this market, but I want a few things in return:

This list was originally published by Anissa Hanley at Black Nerd Problems

Don’t Try to Fool Me With Your False Advertising

I get excited when I see a commercial or trailer for a new game. The first thing I critique is how clean the graphics are. Then how awesome the storyline is. Now, I get really pissed when I see a trailer that looks like this:

Untitled4

And the game really looks like this:

Untitled5

Ad agencies only seem to show the cutscenes from the game when advertising it and not the actual gameplay. Sometimes, they’ll portray a game in a way that has nothing to do with its aesthetic and falsely advertises it. This happens mostly with mobile games. Stop trying to fool us, WE’RE ON TO YOU!

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5
Posted on

One Girl’s Journey of Learning to Embrace Her ‘Nerdiness’

I spent more years than I’d like to admit being … myself. If you know me, you’d know that means an amalgamation of bad jokes, lame interests and awkward encounters. This also at one point included anime, video games (“Spyro the Dragon” to be exact), tinkering around with my mini toy microscope and spending all of my free time daydreaming about my alternate life as a mermaid.

In 2006 when high school struck, I realized that there was no room for anything I was remotely interested in. It seemed the only thing anyone really cared about were “jams,” basketball and trap music (which, of course, differed from my musical tastes at the time). As much as I don’t like publicly confessing, I had only recently been introduced to R&B and hip-hop in middle school, and still went pretty hard for bands and movie soundtracks (shout out to Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer).

I didn’t realize it wasn’t cool for my then-15-year-old self to rush home after school to binge watch the Family Channel. I didn’t know mimicking Tyler Perry’s Madea character in public was actually embarrassing. I sure as hell didn’t realize openly admitting I had read each line in the entire Twilight series, but had never opened up a Harry Potter book, was considered social suicide.

The thought never crossed my mind that there might be other brown-skinned girls in the world who’d, like me, seen all the Lord of the Rings movies and attempted to learn how to speak Elvish in The Fellowship. For the longest time, I’d accredited my borderline nerdish tendencies to my older half-brother, who introduced me to the wonderful world of sci-fi, fantasy and alternative Christian rock. In fact, up until then, I’d tried my hardest to hide my secret love for these things under an urbanite blanket of social acceptance. But as they say, all that is done in the darkness [of my basement] would surely come to light.

Now here was my dilemma. I was always under the impression that there was a specific type of nerd. The ones who got good grades, were a part of the science clubs, spoke to no one unless it revolved around schoolwork, and were the apple of their parents’/teachers’ eyes. No one ever mentioned to me that you could be neither of these things and still feel the effects of “nerdom.” I was almost never compatible with any of my peers and never fit in with anyone. My grades weren’t high enough for the geek squad, but good enough to be scrutinized by the more popular crowd. I felt like an outsider when I tried to join my school’s business club run almost entirely by students of East-Indian descent. To the Black kids, I was much too alternative to sit at their table. And for my brownies, I quite simply did not make the cut.

Read more from Lindsey Addawoo at Black Girl Nerds

Posted on

5 Superheroes You May Not Have Known Were Based on Ancient Egyptian Symbols and Names

White culture has been hesitant to allow too many Black heroes and Black superheroes into mainstream media, but mainstream media have not been without Black heroes/superheroes. In fact, the very term “hero” actually derives from an ancient Black deity by the name of Heru, son of Isis and Osiris.

Yes, the ancient Egyptians were Black; check Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop for further explanation and “10 Arguments That Prove Ancient Egyptians Were Black” — Atlanta Blackstar

So with the very term hero being based on a Black deity, you could actually say that all superheroes are essentially Black and just being drawn and marketed in a form that is easily digested and accepted by the dominant culture. Whether you think they are again appropriating Black culture or paying homage to our ancient ancestors, the fact is there are actually many popular superheroes that use ancient Egyptian names and symbols as their source of superpower.

Untitled17

Green Lantern

The Green Lantern Corps uses a power ring with two ancient Egyptian Shen Symbols, which mean eternal protection. The character is rumored to be featured in the upcoming Justice League live action movie set for 2017.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5
Posted on

Meet Hello Tractor: Integrating Agriculture With Technology

When you think of tech, do you think of agriculture? Yeah, me neither. But technology is everywhere. The only problem is it’s not being used in all possible ways — yet, until a visionary sees a powerful method of adaptation in a struggling market.

Meet Hello Tractor!

Hello Tractor is a social enterprise focused on improving food and income security throughout sub-Saharan Africa. That’s quite a summarizing sentence of all that this tiny startup is doing and setting out to do, at the intersection of agriculture and tech.

Hello Tractor is on its way to revolutionizing agriculture for small farmers in Nigeria. They are engineering what they call “Smart Tractors,” which are two-wheeled GPS-enabled tractors that allow usage tracking, data gathering — on geo-location, market trends, uptake and tractor demand. Coupled with the Hello Tractor service that allows farmers to request, schedule and prepay for tractor services via SMS messaging and mobile money, it’s a win win for small farmers.

Labor constraints lead to late planting and under cultivation, which equals loss of time and money. Long-term struggles such as these could potentially lead to farmers selling their land for pennies on the dollar. That would be a detriment to rural families and Nigeria as a whole. With the introduction of Hello Tractor, small farmers are able to fully cultivate their land and free up time that could be spent with family or on other work-related duties. This puts more money into the hands of small farmers, more food into the local markets and boosts the security of Nigeria’s agriculture.

It can take 40 days for a single farmer to manually cultivate 1.1 hectare (2.7 acres) of land and it would cost $200 to hire someone to do it for them. But with Hello Tractor (machine + service), cost drops down to $75 to fully cultivate that same piece of land in a matter of hours. Time is wealth!

A majority of the farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are women. Women tend to be the caretakers, and since Hello Tractor is looking to disrupt that industry, it’s quite evident why they put women at the forefront of their customer base. Due to this, Hello Tractor is also looking to have the company driven by women. If you are a hardware and/or software engineer living in or willing to move to Nigeria, reach out to Hello Tractor for an exciting opportunity to work with an awesome startup with a heaping lot of growth potential.

So who’s behind this excellent idea? Co-founders Jehiel Oliver and Van Jones have been leading this company for roughly a year and a half. They’re definitely two to watch and fellow Blerds. They’ve won almost (if not every) pitch competition for which they’ve been involved — now that speaks for itself. I had the opportunity to chat with Jehiel a few weeks ago, who is extremely knowledgeable in his domain, socially conscious, understanding of the issues and solutions with regards to agriculture in Nigeria; but most importantly respectful of the culture. That, I believe will lend a hand in making their company very receptive and successful.

For more information on Hello Tractor, check their website and follow them on Twitter @hellotractor.

Quiessence is an Information Security Professional with over seven years of experience within the Financial Industry. She is also the Co-founder of Urban Tech Alliance, creator of the Girltechie Campaign, and a workshop series called SecurEd. Quiessence gravitated to technology at an early age and has been captivated ever since.

Posted on

Is It Sexist to Use Male Characters in Games as a Female Gamer?

Am I sexist when it comes to video games? I don’t think so, but some people may think that. I’ve been a gamer since I was 6 years old. (I’m 21 now). I’ve always played as male characters because most of the games I’ve played had male characters as the lead role. And honestly, I’ve always liked it that way. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all for gender equality, I mean come on, I’m a woman. But when it comes to video games, I’d prefer to play as a male character rather than a woman any day. I know what you’re thinking. “How can you say that?” “Women characters are just as good men,” and blah, blah, blah. That’s all good and stuff, but I have my reasons.

Male characters are always portrayed as a powerful figure. They have these wonderful physiques, awesome weapons and turn out to be all-around badasses. For example, Chris Redfield in Resident Evil 5. He was the main character in this game. He pretty much took charge of everything. He took all the calls from his team and gave all the orders. When it came to weapons, he handled them like a pro. With every gun he obtained, each shot was done in style. Now his sidekick, Sheva, is another story. She pretty much annoyed me throughout the whole game. When I needed help, she was nowhere to be found. She looked awkward with every gun she held. She also didn’t strike me as a strong female, just a weak partner. I never played as her. When I played two players, I always fought to play as Chris. I don’t know … I just felt that playing as Chris made everything easy and Sheva’s presence was unnecessary.

Even games like Sonic and picking certain characters mattered to me. I’m totally fine with picking characters like Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles. But when it comes to characters like Amy and Rogue, that’s where I drew the line. The male characters also seem to have better attacks than the females. While the males are the heroes in the game, characters like Amy always seem to screw up or become the damsel in distress. They’re just annoying, and they were never characters that I chose unless I needed to.

I’m not bashing all female characters. There are plenty that I like. Ellie in the Last of Us was awesome. She is the definition of badass. Joel and Ellie were a wonderful team; they supported each other well and they both had their uses. Ellie was definitely a girl who didn’t need anyone’s help.

Read more from Anissa Hanley at Black Nerd Problems