Depiction of Women in Video Games: Examples for a thesis
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That is actually Isaac using a wig, same for all the others characters. Its either his gender problems or...lacktheknack said:
..the mother loves to dress him like
her death daughter.
her death daughter.
OH.MY.GOD....the stereotipes....it burns my eyes...IT BURNS MY EYES...IT BUUUUUUUUUUURNSS!!!!!!!!Easton Dark said:
At 11:00
Definitely agree with the Boss - MGS3 - very strong character (by that I mean a well fleshed out character in the story) with arguably equal amounts of masculine and feminine attributes
I also think ellie from dead space 2 was a good example of a woman with a believeable personality, that mainly displayed masculine traits during her interactions with isaac on titan station
I also think ellie from dead space 2 was a good example of a woman with a believeable personality, that mainly displayed masculine traits during her interactions with isaac on titan station
Try looking at RPG's and see the different choices presented for both genders if any [such as the black widow perk in fallout] this way you don't need any one specific character but still have a wide range of discussion!
Rather than writing yet another vague "here is how half of the human race is represented in the sub-James Patterson storytelling of our blinky beepy thumb-twiddly entertainment", how about exploring a specific facet of gender directly linked to gameplay? For example, ever notice there's a cliche where the female characters are often lithe and agile compared to the slower, harder hitting males? How women are usually put in backline and support roles such as archer (which doesn't make much sense in stereotypical terms when you consider combat archery actually requires just as much strength as wielding a sword), nurse, or mission support (this likely being because female voices have better clarity)? Related is how in games where you can be male or female with any job (e.g. MMORPGs), female armor covers less and is often tight enough that it should constrict movement, but carries the same stats.
I'm blanking on good examples of the "women stand behind men" motif, but most fighting games have the "fast woman strong man" cliche and MMORPGs revel in the fanservice armor. You should try to focus on games that don't have much characterization for the best insight into the assumptions built right into the gameplay.
I'm blanking on good examples of the "women stand behind men" motif, but most fighting games have the "fast woman strong man" cliche and MMORPGs revel in the fanservice armor. You should try to focus on games that don't have much characterization for the best insight into the assumptions built right into the gameplay.
I'd second Lacktheknack's recommendation of April Ryan and Zoe Castillo from the Longest Journey series. Of particular relevance to your topic, in the second game, Dreamfall, Zoe embarks on a long, perilous quest to help her ex-boyfriend. This is an inversion of the traditional adventure in which the male risks life and limb to rescue a female.
Here's my thesis for you:
Men and boys that get into video game relationships with AI characters prefer to have a woman that has some sort of weakness that makes that character approachable/less intimidating. AKA they're inexperienced/weak in some way that makes them seem more realistically in their league. Like for reals.
Morrigan grew up in the forest with only her witch mom. Tali could never remove her mask and was restricted from normal interaction by this. Princesses need to be rescued. They're not capable on their own. They need a man.
Why is Morrigan more popular than Liana? Why is Tali more popular than Miranda?
The confident, *competent* women are just too damn intimidating for nerdy guys. They need to feel like the hero. For the woman to be the hero is just too emasculating. Or something. Boys like to know that they're a "big boy."
It makes me feel sorry for all the especially confident, competent women out there that intimidate most of the boys around them. There are guys out there that will match them wit for wit, and enjoy the fun that entails. Unfortunately, we're few and far between.
Men and boys that get into video game relationships with AI characters prefer to have a woman that has some sort of weakness that makes that character approachable/less intimidating. AKA they're inexperienced/weak in some way that makes them seem more realistically in their league. Like for reals.
Morrigan grew up in the forest with only her witch mom. Tali could never remove her mask and was restricted from normal interaction by this. Princesses need to be rescued. They're not capable on their own. They need a man.
Why is Morrigan more popular than Liana? Why is Tali more popular than Miranda?
The confident, *competent* women are just too damn intimidating for nerdy guys. They need to feel like the hero. For the woman to be the hero is just too emasculating. Or something. Boys like to know that they're a "big boy."
It makes me feel sorry for all the especially confident, competent women out there that intimidate most of the boys around them. There are guys out there that will match them wit for wit, and enjoy the fun that entails. Unfortunately, we're few and far between.
Sounds like a rather unoriginal thesis topic. Hasn't this been done to death already?Zeke63 said:
OK, well if you're going for it, I'd recommend you don't make the mistake most pop-sociologists make when they turn their fleeting attention to videogames, and that's to assume that videogames and game conventions arose in a vacuum. Almost every character archetype/stereotype you can find in games has an existing precedent in literature or film. Video games are a relatively new artform but they're a logical extension of books and films and use a lot of the existing tropes. No need to assume that "men are portrayed as strong and heroic because developers and gamers are sexist, women are portrayed as sexualised and helpless because developers and gamers are sexist", as many do. For the roots of these stereotypes, look to Hollywood, comic books, anime, etc.
Next unexamined premise: the idea that videogame characters are often well-written at all, and men (let alone women) in games often "exhibit a believable personality that breaks gender roles". Just like the lead in a Hollywood action movie is likely to be a straight, white, tall male with dark hair, men in games are often picked from a really quite restricted stable of archetypes. Sure, you could probably successfully argue that men in games have a wider range of roles and variety of acceptable appearance than women (the same is also true of society as a whole, if you listen to the feminists, and I think they may be on to something). Certainly "being attractive" is a box that women in games often need to have ticked before they're allowed in, whereas the "unattractive male who is competent or endowed in some other way" (Marcus Fenix, Zangief, etc) is a viable possibility.
Next up: what's this?
Did you say "a stick man"?
Wrong! It's a stick figure, or a stick person. There's no suggestion of maleness or masculinity there. The fact that we'd call it a stickman - and if we wanted to draw a "stick woman" we'd need to give her some hair or a skirt - reinforces the point that we live in a society where things are male by default, and being female is a variation or addition to that (I'm not saying this is necessarily harmful, at least not all of the time, although many would disagree).
So, the same is true of videogaming avatars, at least historically. Put pixels on a screen, make it personified in some way, and suddenly that flapping ball becomes Pac MAN, the little running figure is Pitfall Harry, and a bloodied chunk of flesh is Super Meat BOY. Where the blue blazes am I going with this? Well, for better or worse videogame characters are generally male, and I don't think that has anything to do with the gender of the developer, the gender of the gamer, or the "inherent misogyny" of either. It's just the invisible guiding hand of society that makes male "default". So, what then is the place of a female character in a male game? Typically it's either to complement the male character (the damsel in distress, the weak but fairly helpful mage/healer/cleric who stands behind the big tough Warrior, etc) or as a counterpoint (the "tough girl" trope). It's rare, but not unheard of, for the main character to be female "just because" (exceptions: FemShep (and notice how even she needs a differentiating prefix), Faith from Mirror's Edge, Chell from Portal, etc etc).
Point, err, three? "If all you have is a hammer, every problem tends to look like a nail". So it is with videogames. The most immediately gratifying situation to put a player in is one where they have a danger to face, the threat of failure, but the power to prevent it. Classic Space Invaders, or Doom, or Modern Warfare: man, gun, enemies. Gameplay has historically been limited to combative scenarios. Within that context there's not much scope for character development or the discussion of emotions or flowery soliloguys, big explosions and seeing the End Boss go down in flames are much more immediate and visceral. So please, don't disingenuously assume that games have shunned intelligent storylines, the truth is that they just haven't been possible to really pull off, at least not before full motion video and voice acting in games became possible.[footnote]I realise that this isn't quite true - Roberta Williams was making King's Quest back in 1984, so there's always been narrative-based gaming. But we're talking about mainstream trends, right?[/footnote]We're dealing with an emerging artform here. So should developers now be setting their sights higher? Well, yes and no. On the one hand games are now capable of just as much richness of spectacle as the average movie is. On the other, whatever narrative the developer wants to insert needs to fit within the context of somebody sitting in front of a 2D screen with a controller in their hand, which is a situation technically identical to gaming in the 1980s. It'd be a fair question to ask whether games should try to tackle mature and intelligent storylines, and to what extent gameplay should be restricted or railroaded to still allow gamer interaction and freedom.
Time for a silly question: WHY is it important for women to break gender roles, and WHY should videogames be the platform for this? There's the assumption here that this is something that needs to be done (does it?) and that videogames are a suitable medium for this change (are they? As opposed to literature and film?)
Oh yeah, and lastly, I think it's important to differentiate women as characters and women as avatars. Pre-made female characters (Lara Croft, Bayonetta, etc) are usually written with "femaleness" in mind, with all the pros and cons that entails. Many games now offer a lot of character creation where you can freely choose the gender and physical appearance of the protagonist (like WoW) and arguably this is a much more culture-free way of achieving diversity and possibly even equality. However this is at the cost of obliterating any established "role" for the character and reduces them to being an "everyperson", which could be seen as pointedly ignoring sex, race, appearance and so on, rather than truly representing it ingame.
That WOULD be true if most people didnt went apeshit when a certain woman whose confidence was her super heroic trait was derrailed into submission worthy of a slave.theevilsanta said:
That certain woman is Samus Aran.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/lb_i.php?lb_id=13373815860B43920100&i_id=13373815860I43921400&p=1
So i guess that not everyone loves fragile women that need to be saved.
Right.DioWallachia said:
Also, that theory would completely go against the popularity of Lara Croft in the '90s/early 00s. That was a strong, tough, distinctly female character and it was overwhelmingly male players who "fell in love" with her (some of them literally. Ugh.)
Whether Lara represented Girl Power or violent female exploitation is something that still hasn't been answered, though. Personally I think the game's success was riding the wave of the former, but just try convincing some people otherwise...
Umm. What did you just say? I don't mean to be rude but that fist sentence made no sense what so ever. "Didnt went apeshit?" and "was her super heroic trait was derrailed?"DioWallachia said:
Because in both examples the latter go out of their way to be bitches?theevilsanta said:
Morrigan is pretty much nasty to everyone, thinks that compassion is weakness and the only thing that matters is power. Miranda is a part of a pro-human, anti-alien organisation, thinks she is superior to everybody on board the Normandy and gets pissed off if you dare disagree with her about absolutely anything.
It has nothing to do with them being strong, or independent, it's their attitudes that put people off.
I should also point out that I do not particularly dislike either character, but they are both more or less the same in that they are overtly nasty to other people for no obvious reason. Both know that they are intelligent, but unlike the trained assassin that is Leliana, and the genius technician that is Tali, they don't rub other peoples noses in it.
Lots of fine examples have already been listed in this thread and many of them get a +1 from me, but I also want to add one more of my favourites.
Jaheira from Baldur's Gate 1&2.
In the first game she and her husband Khalid are a pair of experienced and capable adventurers, who were friends of your adoptive father. They are there to help you in your hour of need.
Of the two of them, Jaheira is the braver and possibly more competent. And yet she is totally devoted to Khalid. This becomes even more apparent in the second game when
Jaheira from Baldur's Gate 1&2.
In the first game she and her husband Khalid are a pair of experienced and capable adventurers, who were friends of your adoptive father. They are there to help you in your hour of need.
Of the two of them, Jaheira is the braver and possibly more competent. And yet she is totally devoted to Khalid. This becomes even more apparent in the second game when
Khalid dies in the prologue.