Gamedev Barbie

I came for the BBQ but stayed for the progressive role model.

I wonder how this will go down after they royally fucked up the accompanying story :
Basically what happens is she designs a game, but can't code it without her guy friends' help, infects her own and her sister's computers with a virus by accident (lolol), has her guy friends help her fix both of them, and then takes all the credit for the game and fixed computers in the end.

infects her own and her sister's computers with a virus by accident (lolol)

It happens to the best of us. Just blissfully coding along and oops, It looks like my buggy code has once again infected my computer. Fortunately, I am a computer wiz and I can fix any virus by typing into the command console for a while.

I came for the BBQ but stayed for the progressive role model.

I wonder how this will go down after they royally fucked up the accompanying story :
Basically what happens is she designs a game, but can't code it without her guy friends' help, infects her own and her sister's computers with a virus by accident (lolol), has her guy friends help her fix both of them, and then takes all the credit for the game and fixed computers in the end.

To their credit, the ghost author who wrote that was told Barbie was a game designer, rather than a software engineer. And while it's not the most empowering thing ever written, it does show what one kind of game designer does. As accurate as a book for 5 year olds can.

Someone decided to switch the title from game designer to software engineer before it was published. Maybe because it sounded better, even though those things are not at all the same.

To their credit,

To their discredit, they do this kind of shit all the time.

I'm sure there are plenty other ways to explain game design and programming for 5 year olds without the sexist crap

"Fashionistas Barbies" - There are Barbie dolls which aren't fashionistas? :)

Other than that, made me chuckle. I have my doubts if Barbie dolls like that will help correct the rolemodel of 5 years old, but hey, gotta try, right?

To their credit,

To their discredit, they do this kind of shit all the time.

I'm sure there are plenty other ways to explain game design and programming for 5 year olds without the sexist crap

Barbie is an easy target, because those children who enjoy Barbie are not exactly into defying gender stereotypes, and she reflects her demographic. At the same time, she was a doctor at a time when women were doctoresses. She was an astronaut when American astronauts were restricted to men. She offers a lot of career choices that are / were typically thought of as male. And there are no boy version of Barbie, where boys are introduced to actual career choices they might pursue at a later date. (Unless being a fur speedo barbarian is a career choice)

And compared to her competitors, she's as liberal as they come. Moxie(formally Bratz), don't seem to do anything besides fashion. And Monster High almost goes back to ancient Roman practices, where all the dolls are introduced by who their father is. (For example Boo York is the daughter of the Rat King and Cleo de Nile is daughter of the Mummy).

My daughters will love this.

Well, Bild-Lilli, or Barbie how that American woman who stole her called her a decade or so later, is and has always been the stereotypical slutty, promiscuitive, hollow blonde. The impersonation of every macho prejudice, if you will. So does it really surprise that "girl is too stupid to use a computer" is the story that comes with her? The only thing that I always found stunning was that mothers, even militant women rights activists, actually bought these for their girls. :D

Sooo is there a Facebook barbie??

Sooo is there a Facebook barbie??

That is some impressive Thread-o-mancy....

Apart from that, since when is "Facebook" a line of work? Okay, Fashionista is also no a profession.

But what would make "Facebook Barbie" stand out from "Generic shallow Teenage Barbie"? :P

Replying to something on the front page of a sub-forum is Thread-o-mancy now? It isn't even a month old...

But what makes "Facebook Barbie" stand out from "Generic shallow teenage Barbie" would be the licensed Facebook logo on part of the product, probably on a little plastic cellphone that makes a shutter noise when you press the back of it.

But this "Gamedev Barbie" issue is really kind of making me want to get some people together and design a new series of toys and books to market to kids.

Replying to something on the front page of a sub-forum is Thread-o-mancy now? It isn't even a month old...

But what makes "Facebook Barbie" stand out from "Generic shallow teenage Barbie" would be the licensed Facebook logo on part of the product, probably on a little plastic cellphone that makes a shutter noise when you press the back of it.

But this "Gamedev Barbie" issue is really kind of making me want to get some people together and design a new series of toys and books to market to kids.

Well, I was obviously looking only at the time difference between posts... in hindsight that was maybe to harsh a comment thought. Its not like the Thread was brought back after a year or more....

If said Facebook Barbie would have some Smart functions that would tie in to the facebook account of the owner, that might actually really set it apart. Making snaps every 5 minutes, automatically posting them to facebook with some randomized pointless comment. Revealing the current whereabouts of itself on Facebook all the time.

Generally, annoying the 1000 non-existant friends on facebook so the owner doesn't have to would add real value to the toy. Its like having your cake and eating it too... you can have an incredible online presence nobody cares about without having to waste a single minute of your life on facebook. How awesome is that? Does it make sense to build something like that into a toy Barbie? Who cares? Its a smart toy. Lets also include a heart rate and bloodpressure measurement and apps. Everyone loves apps. The more the better....

And while going completly off on a tangent, how about combining smart facebook Barbie and gamedev barbie... into a Barbie that does all your social network marketing for you. It will automatically write facebook posts for you with the latest screenshots it snapped while looking over your shoulder from the shelf behind you, and write compelling marketing blurps to go with it.

It completly replaces your marketing guy... and maybe it is intelligent enough to playtest your game and make you aware of balancing problems? Who knows, maybe it can even learn to program....

Now THAT sound like a smart toy. And a true Gamedev Barbie.

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But given the ridicolous marketing blurp for its non-smart sister, Mattel would just add a Virus it would infect your computer with to its smart functions

But this "Gamedev Barbie" issue is really kind of making me want to get some people together and design a new series of toys and books to market to kids.

Waiting for your 'Socialist Susan' and 'Comrade Charlie', complete with removable limbs for realistic portrayals of the struggles of the people against nefarious capitalists like Android Carnegie and Rocket-feller.

[Edit:] Apparently *I* can't read post time stamps.

These are on shelves now :)

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/07/i-love-my-game-developer-barbie/

But this "Gamedev Barbie" issue is really kind of making me want to get some people together and design a new series of toys and books to market to kids.

Waiting for your 'Socialist Susan' and 'Comrade Charlie', complete with removable limbs for realistic portrayals of the struggles of the people against nefarious capitalists like Android Carnegie and Rocket-feller.

I would totally buy a Communist Barbie!

We need a Portal Barbie, based off of the character in Portal imo.

I was thinking something more along the lines of semi-realistic proportioned dolls (because making a fully realistic proportioned doll is actually a bit of a headache at times due to how they're made) in a small range of heights and body types, and then give them sensible characters who aren't presented as helpless and apparent dimwits who need to be rescued by others...

But "Socialist Susan" and "Comrade Charlie" were added to the notes.

I thought they did a "realistic" Barbie a year or so ago and it bombed badly. Could have swore I read an article on it. *shrugs*