The Politics of Gaming

Call me a little delayed or behind the times but when I first bought Minecraft for the Xbox 360 I was surprised about the cross platform feature. I thought it was innovative, and a genius idea, much like when you could have split screen online multiplayer, that too was an innovative idea. This led me to think if we can have split screen online multiplayer and cross platform gaming between Xbox and PC gamers, then why not make all games cross platform involving Sony’s Playstation? This has become a wasted opportunity between the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 and even with the release of the next generation there is still no evidence of any cross platform.

An Investigation into the debates surrounding the objectification of female characters in gaming. (Media)

It is often stereotyped that it is men who are stereotyped as the “gamers” of the world as cultivated by constant broadcast advertisements from the institutions,  like from Game, IGN and Gamestation and a personal study proved my initial ideas that it is the majority of men that play the action/adventure etcetera. Does that mean that all female characters are designed with the male gender in mind? I’m a female gamer and although I may not fit with the hegemonic view of young women in society, I still exist in a niche community. When you look at female gaming characters we can see from their big boobs and little clothing (their iconography) that they are designed by men for men, whether they are independent or reliant on the male character, portraying them as heroes and desired objects. (Prop’s character roles)  

Lara Croft is one of the most iconic female roles in gaming history selling nearly eight million copies on its first two products. Yet even its British, male producers (CORE Design) still objectify Lara Croft, this is evident with the image you can see here, this objectification could be the reason why the institution managed to sell so many products. The player can actually play Lara Croft in this outfit in the game, it is no special fan art add-on, and it is a feature built into the game itself.  This is again reinforcing cultivated and existing expectations of women in gaming. The large bust will not help her in battle, and she may advocate a strong and independent ideologies but she is unfortunately clichéd and designed for men. She has a thin yet curvy figure, two big guns and that big bust. It is no doubt that she was made to be both a male fantasy and a female role model. We know very little currently about the latest Tomb Raider game, but we do know that a young Lara Croft becomes a victim of rape.“Because, of course, women only develop emotional depth after being subjected to sexual violence.” Some theorists suggest that men actually enjoy scenes of rape, it gives “the male audience voyeuristic pleasure” as said by Daniel Chandler. The fact that theory is suggesting that scenes of rape to male eye is enjoyable in new media products brings about the debate of what role do women really play in gaming.