Maddison Stoff

3 weeks ago | medium.com | Maddison Stoff

Recently, videogame company 2K Games released the third instalment of the open-world crime series Mafia. By most accounts, it’s a fairly average game: a mix of the original Saints Row with Grand Theft Auto V, marred by bugs and partially implemented gameplay. But where it truly shines is its depiction of the world — a gorgeously rendered simulacra of New Orleans in 1968 called ‘New Boudreaux’.

3 weeks ago | medium.com | Maddison Stoff

Historically, ‘post-punk’ has been described as a predominately white, male, middle-class musical scene. While the reality was really very different — female-fronted bands such as Delta V and Au Pairs not only participated in the subculture, but used it as a platform for gender commentary — it has mostly been the male performers — Joy Division, Wire, Gang of Four — who’ve received the bulk of critical attention.

3 weeks ago | medium.com | Maddison Stoff

In my playthrough of controversial mobile phone game Survival Island 3, I didn’t meet a single Indigenous Australian. I cut down trees, mined from rocks, and constructed a small base out of wood and stone.

3 weeks ago | medium.com | Maddison Stoff

I recently attended the initial appointment with a Jobactive provider in Melbourne, the first stage of the federal government’s recently revived Work for the Dole program. As a jobseeker under thirty who took over six months to find employment after graduation, I am well within the demographic for inclusion in the highest level of the program: being asked to work 25 hours a week in retail or community service for only $40 extra every fortnight. I live in inner south-east Melbourne.

3 weeks ago | medium.com | Maddison Stoff

Grand Theft Auto hasn’t always had a gender problem. The first game even had a number of female protagonists, none of which were any different to the male characters. But as its target audience became predictable, and the gameplay more defined, the franchise quickly laid the roots for its currently inescapable misogynistic undertones — from the simple exclusion of women in the otherwise neutrally gendered Grand Theft Auto London to the pure misogyny of Grand Theft Auto V.