Gaming - Harmonix on gender, self-expression in Dance Central

[Felix]

Gamasutra
Leigh Alexander
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/39514/Harmonix_on_gender_selfexpression_in_Dance_Central.php

As mainstream video games gain an all-time high cultural profile, demand for an inclusive, mature medium continues to increase. Many of us would like to see games as experiential and as accessible to anyone, where all identities can be represented. Yet the games industry notably continues to struggle with welcoming broader demographics.

Not so for Harmonix games, which have made admirable strides in bringing culturally-universal musical experiences to the living room. Interestingly, when it comes to Dance Central, allowing players total freedom to choose how they physically express themselves -- including the extent to which they want to gender their movements -- has been a considered and intentional process.

[Felix]

On Playing Dance Central 2... While Male
Kotaku Australia
Kirk Hamilton
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/01/on-playing-dance-central-2-while-male/

Recently my friend, who for this article we'll call "Dan", was over at my apartment for beers and video games. We'd gone through most of the big recent releases — I showed him some craziness from Saints Row: The Third, got across the gist of Catherine and played some (shockingly fun) split-screen Modern Warfare 3 spec-ops. The Kinect had gotten a go as well, and we'd laughed our way through several levels of Gunstringer and gotten our arses kicked by the surprisingly difficult Child of Eden.

"You know, I've got Dance Central 2 here, let's play that!" I said, pointing to the shiny, colourful box of Harmonix's Kinect-only dancing game.

"Sure", Dan said, though in retrospect he was doubtless entirely unsure what he was getting himself into. And so we played Dance Central 2, two dorky bros in the mid-afternoon, standing in front of the TV and swinging our hips to "Toxic" and "Bad Romance". It was funny, it was dumb; it was uniquely uncomfortable.