Objects in Flux - RMIT Research Repository - RMIT University

‘skinning’, the replacement of specific characters or objects within
the game, and ‘total conversions’, the ambitious remodelling of game
characters, environments, sounds and game play to produce a wholly
new gaming experience. Total conversions are often collaborative
efforts with teams of game modders working toward a common goal.
Prominent total conversions such as ‘Counter-Strike’ (2000) and ‘Day
of Defeat’ (2000), based on Valve Software’s FPS ‘Half-Life’ (1998),
became widely popular with gamers and went on to receive commercial
release.
4.4 DIY
The term ‘do-it-yourself’, and its acronym DIY, emerged amidst
a century of sweeping social change that saw dramatic shifts in
work patterns, a burgeoning of the middle classes and the rise of
leisure as a distinct domain. Steven M. Gelber claims that increased
separation of work and leisure at the end of the nineteenth century
created a condition where ‘the ideology of the workplace infiltrated
the home in the form of productive leisure’(1999, p. 2). According
to Gelber, the emergence of productive leisure within the domestic
environment reinforced established gender spheres and resulted in
increased demarcation of the home into male (the basement/garage)
and female (the kitchen/garden) zones (1999, p. 2). 52 However, as
popular media from the time attests, do-it-yourself production was
not a solely male domain. An article titled ‘Domestic Upholstery’
from an 1882 edition of The Queenslander states, ‘it is wonderful
how much can be done at home by willing hands and clever brains’
and encourages women to ‘do it yourself’ when it comes to reupholstering
‘ungainly old furniture’ (25 February, p. 234). While
specific do-it-yourself activities may have maintained and reinforced
gender divisions (male activities were generally associated
with tools and machines, female activities with fabrics and yarns), 53
the do-it-yourself movement was active across genders. Australian
newspaper advertisements from the early 20th century promote ‘do
it yourself’ home renovation, 54 car maintenance, 55 shoe repair 56 and
beauty products; 57 an advertisement from 1921 for a prominent Sydney
department store proclaims ‘THE “DO IT YOURSELF” AGE’
and urges readers to knit their own sweaters (The Sydney Morning
Herald, 18 May, p. 2).
Hacking, Modding and DIY
be found on YouTube, http://www.you-
tube.com/user/ramenwarriorthe1s#p/
a/u/0/M2tT78lq_-8 accessed 3 July
2010. For public criticism of Barney see
‘Why Children Hate Dinosaurs’ (Mitchell,
1998). For Barney parodies see ‘The
source of all evil’ (Frankel, 2006). For
legal controversy surrounding Barney
parodies see ‘Purple, the Color of a
Legal Conniption’ (Zeller, 2006).
50/ Shortly after the ‘GI Joe’ mod’s
alpha release Hasbro, owner of the GI
Joe brand, ordered development and
distribution of the mod to be stopped,
claiming infringement of intellectual
property rights. For further details see
Chapter 5: Telling Stories.
51/ See for example Red vs. Blue,
an animated web serial based on the
computer game ‘Halo’, http://red-
vsblue.com/home.php, accessed 16
February 2010.
52/ Positioning the home as a site
of leisure is a particularly masculine
vision and one that is largely blind
to extensive and enduring forms of
domestic labour. Green, Hebron and
Woodward give a lengthy account
of the gendered nature of leisure in
Women’s leisure, what leisure? (1990).
53/ Sally MacDonald and Julia Porter
dispute this clear division in domestic
roles, claiming couples often worked
together on DIY projects (cited in
Atkinson, 2006, p. 7).
71