Updated slides for the lecture on games and representation

1. Video games &
Representation
MAC129 - Cyberculture

2. Economic success: e.g. GTA IV
 Released April 2008
 Day 1 sales: 3.6 million
($310m)
 Week 1 sales: 6 million
(£500m)
 August 2008
 Sales: 10 million
 June 2009
Source:  Sales: 13.2 million
http://www.vgchartz.com/games/index.php?name=grand+theft+auto+IV

3.  Released November 2009
 Day 1 sales: 4.7 million
($310m)
 Day 5 sales = $550 million
 January 2010
 > $1 billion
 November 2010
 > 20 million copies sold on
console alone

4. Historical business
 A struggle to define a place for early
games
 No guarantee that games would be
successful
 (see Marvin, 1988; Poole, 2004)
 Historical accounts tend to be lists of
names and dates

5. First game?
Tennis For Two 1958
(William Higginbotham)
Spacewar! 1962
(Steven Russell)
5

6. Cold War kids
1950s….
 Emerged during a period of intense socio-economic
and geo-political changes:
 Space Race (USSR)
 Cold War paranoia (nuclear anxiety)
 Decline of heavy industry
 Major changes in life style
 Advent of domestic mass communication
 Consumer confidence

7. Game development…
 Largely due to
 “university computing departments, the military, the
interest of the first game developers, the first games and
the subsequent development of game playing as an
activity embraced largely by young males”
 (Kerr, 2006: 14; see also Haddon, 1988; 1993)

8. The console wars

9. The console wars

10. The console wars

11. The console wars
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_wars

12. The console wars today (Oct 2012)
Sales (millions)
68.91 67.23
PS3
Wii
Xbox 360
96.93

13. Controversial claims about video games
 Negative associations – health and violence
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCuKQIMg0I4
 Columbine shooting: Doom
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1295920.stm
 Car-jacking: Grand Theft Auto
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3680481.stm
 Stabbings: Manhunt
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3936237.stm

14. (Un)popular claims about video games
 Positive claims?
 Surgeons who played games for at least 3 hours a week
made „37% fewer errors, were 27% faster‟ than surgeons
who did not play games. (Hall, 2007)
 Safe environment to enact fantasy
 Creativity of „modders‟

15. Games emerge from a cultural context
 US military funding?

16. Always a „politics‟ in every representation
 Representations are never innocent.
 Representations are always a „construction‟ in
accordance with the producer‟s politics.
 Representations reflect cultural attitudes and beliefs.

17. “Orientalism” and “the Other”
 Edward Said (1978), Orientalism
 Western discourse on the Orient has
constructed a knowledge of the East and
a body of power-knowledge relations
which serve the interests of the powerful
West.
 The Orient was invented by
Europe, through specific scientific and
artistic representations, as its
„contrasting image‟ (p.1-2)

18. Discourse and power/knowledge
 Michel Foucault (1981) The History of
Sexuality
 The discourse that circulates around
sexuality constitutes the reality of
sexuality, and embodies „power-
knowledge‟ relations
 It is difficult to step outside of discourse
or challenge the assumptions we have
been imbrued with

19. Ways of seeing and „The Gaze‟
 John Berger (1972) Ways of Seeing
 In European art from the Renaissance
onwards women were depicted as
being „aware of being seen by a [male]
spectator‟
 The ideal spectator position in western
media products appears to be
male, heterosexual, post puberty and
white

20. Under-representation = social inequality
 “In television, it was always a
landmark moment when some
minority or disenfranchised group
appeared on the screen for the first
time”
 “That kind of visibility is really the first
step toward leading to public
consciousness and equal treatment.
These cultural markers matter.”
 D. Williams et al (2009), New Media &
Society

21. Representation and race
 Black culture as
animalistic, subservient
, sexual, violent and
dangerous

22. Race and technological identities
 The default Internet identity is
White, male, and middle class and the
majority of videogame protagonists
are White
 Nearly 80% of video game
protagonists are white males
 Williams, D., Martins, N., Consalvo, M., &
Ivory, J. (2009). The virtual census:
Representations of gender, race and age
in video games. New Media and
Society, 11, 815-834.

24. Games reproduce dominant discourses
 GTA: San Andreas portrayed
ghettoized, hyperviolent Black
protagonists and NPCs, all
sanctioned by popular
culture, gamers, and academics who
praised the game for its
mechanics, narrative reach, and
creativity.
 Idealizes Black and Hispanic gang
culture
 Leonard, D. (2006). Not a hater, just
keepin‟ it real: The importance of race-
and gender-based game studies. Games

25. Resident Evil 5 Race Row

26. Resident Evil 5 Race Row

28. Kotaku‟s response
Ignores the
original argument
to focus on the
game and function
of zombies
Seems ignorant of
the fact that
zombies are
inherently linked
with black history
(Vodun/Vodou)

29. André Brock (2011) Games & Culture
 „„When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong‟‟:
Resident Evil 5, Racial
Representation, and Gamers
 Looks at race and gender via:
 discourse (reviews of the game and
reactions by gamers)
 play mechanics, narrative, and genre
 software (the game‟s imagery and
aesthetics)

30. Mechanics, narrative, genre
 RE5 controls specifically awkward to evoke fear via
„fight or flight‟ mechanic
 Simple gameplay: shoot enemies, keep your partner
alive, conserve resources, and collect things.
 Co-op AI player, Sheva, lacks skill and wastes
valuable resources
 Sheva becomes a mule to carry equipment. The
player must organize her inventory, ration her
ammunition, and heal her. Frustrating rather than
sympathetic

31. Imagery
 Survival horror convention: innocence vs evil
 Typically coded and white vs black, light vs
darkness, west vs rest, etc
 “Early in RE5, the team sees a (extremely) White woman
dragged screaming by an African into a second-story
apartment. This scene evokes allusions of Black-on-
White rape because of the woman‟s Whiteness as well
as historical connotations of Black desire for „„pure‟‟
White women. There are no random choices in
videogames; the developers chose that pairing to fit in
with the horror aesthetic of the game”
 Brock, 2011: p.433-434

32. Imagery

33. Imagery

34.  RE5, however, utilizes a character set more
frequently seen in action movies: a skilled, laconic
White mercenary type teamed up with an exotic
female partner. Sheva‟s African origins lead one to
believe that she will serve as a native guide, but her
AI capabilities are not robust enough to allow her to
survive autonomously plus she is apparently
unfamiliar with the area. At all times, she requires
Chris‟ assistance to fend off enemies and provide
direction … In her role as support person, Sheva
does little to challenge gendered and racialized
stereotypes of women in media

35. Sheva Alomar
 “Sheva Alomar‟s depiction evokes possibilities of
changing industry perspectives on female
videogame leads. Unfortunately, Sheva’s
character conforms to Western hegemonic
conceptions of femininity and race: she is
brown, inarticulate, and supportive of the White
hero. Sheva‟s alternate costumes make it clear that
she is window-dressing; a sexualized mule that
lovingly carries tools of domination and death for her
White partner to use against her people.”
 Brock, 2011: p.434

36. Representations of Arabs and Muslims
 Post 9/11 Islam portrayed as a
threat; linked with terrorism;
ordinary Muslims marginalized

37. link

38. Depictions of „Others‟
 Games set against the backdrop of current real-world
conflicts?
 The narratives help shape understandings of the conflict:
 its morality
 Hero-ification of some groups
 Dehumanising others
 Normalizing warfare
 “These types of images […] reinforce the perception of
Arabs and Muslims as racialized Others, bloodthirsty
terrorists whose acts of aggression are inherently
illegitimate, while any by the Coalition forces are, by
definition, moral and justifiable in the face of such an
enemy.”
 Gwen Sharp, 2010, Sociological Images

40. Representations of gender
 1950s
 Women as
domestic, maternal, n
aïve, consumers, etc

42.  http://www.feministgamers.com/?p=466
 http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2008/07/i-
write-letters.html
 http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/07/23/wel
l-that-was-bound-to-happen/

43. Representation of gender
 Feminist critics have argued that many media texts
represent women as:
 Sex objects
 Dutiful housewives / virginal daughters
 Mad, bad, dangerous women who need punishment
 Are video games any different?
 Jiggle physics?
 http://archive.gamespy.com/fargo/january02/jiggle/
 See also:
 „Top 10 Boobies in Video Games‟
 „Sexy Video Game Babes‟

44. Game design
 Studies of digital games have noted a „consistent
pattern of male technocratic privilege‟
 Williams, cited in Kerr, 2006: 19
 Game development & design, production, marketing
& construction, dominated by heterosexual
masculine fantasies
 Gansmo et al, 2003

45. Gender in games
 Traditional stereotype of femininity evoked
 Relationships
 Romance
 Emotions
 Role-play
 Gansmo (2003): little understanding within the
industry about how game design might be linked
to gender socialisation

46. Consequences of stereotypes…
 Games are a „prime example of the social
construction of gender‟ (Cassell and Jenkins, 1998:
37) and they may significantly influence people‟s
attitudes towards the use of computers in school or
later career choices

47. Women do play games!?
 Funk (1993):
 75% of females play games at home (90% males)
 Colwell and Payne (2000):
 88% of females aged 12-14 play games regularly
 ESA (2004):
 39% of US gamers are female and females account for 40% of
online players.
 Krotoski (2004):
 approx 25% of gamers are female in Europe, compared to 70%
in Korea
 Crawford & Gosling (2005):
 Women much less likely to play the older they get
 Alexanda (2009):
 Female console gamers grew from 23 to 28 percent in 2009

48. Krotoski, 2004: 10
48

49. The Wii and women?
 „Nintendo's Wii console captures new game market‟
 John Sterlicchi, Oct 2007
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/oct/10/usnews.i
nternationalnews

50. Domestic access
 Access to gadgets in home is not gender neutral
 Highly masculine and potentially hostile to females
 Is this changing?
 www.girlzclan.com
 www.everground.com
 www.girlgamer.com
 http://female-gamer.com/

52. Domestic context
 Space
 a greater percentage of girls‟ play has been centred in or
around the home
 Time
 females still spend more time engaged in domestic labour
than males (typically 1.5 hours per day more than males
in the UK)

53. Gaming spaces outside the home
 Predominantly masculine
environments
 arcades, pubs, motorway service
stations
 Women at LAN parties tend to be in
a supportive role
 When they do compete the media
portrays them as:
 Exotic
 Sexualised

54. Game content
 Relatively low number of playable female characters
 Abundance of stereotypes
 Masculine themes
 The damsel in distress?

55. Positive moves!?
 1991: Nintendo release Barbie Game Girl for
Game Boy
 1996: Mattel release Barbie Fashion Designer
 2000: The Sims
 2003: Linden Research launches Second Life
 2004: The Sims 2
 2004: SCEEurope release karaoke title SingStar
on PS2
 2006: Sony launches pink PS2 and PSP
 2006: Cooking Mama released
 2008: Wii Fit released
 2009: Farmville success on Facebook

56. Children Now study (2000)
 92% games have a male lead (54% female)
 50% women portrayed in a stereotypical way.
 38% displayed women with significant body
exposure (23% breasts; 31% thighs; 15% backsides;
31% stomachs/midriffs)
 Female characters defined by „disproportionately
large‟ breasts (38%) and „excessively tiny‟ waists
(46%)
56

57. See: http://www.remedialthoughts.com/2008/11/can-women-in-games-ever-be-
more-than.html

59. Positive figures?

60. „Truly unique‟?
 Chloe Frazer in Uncharted 2
 See Tom Cross, 2010, Gamasutra

61. Conclusion
 History of games has been male dominated
 Industry can be conservative and not welcome
change (can be risky)
 Women increasingly more important to the industry
 Positive changes ahead?

62. Sources and further reading
 Leigh Alexander, 2009, „NPD: Female Gamer Population Increasing On
Consoles‟, Gamasutra, http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24245
 Jo Bryce & Jason Rutter, 2003, „Gender dynamics and the social and spatial organisation of computer
gaming‟, Leisure Studies, 22: 1-15
 Jo Bryce, Jason Rutter and Cath Sullivan, 2006, „Digital games and gender‟, in Jason Rutter & Jo Bryce
(eds.), Understanding Digital Games, London: Sage.
 Judith Butler, 1990, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, London: Routledge.
 Children Now, 2000, Girls and Gaming: A Console Video Game Content Analysis, Oakland, CA: Children
Now
 J. Colwell & J. Payne, 2000, „Negative correlates of computer game play in adolescents‟, British Journal of
Psychology, 91: 295-310.
 G. Crawford & V. Gosling, 2005, „Toys for boys? Women‟s marginalization and participation as digital
gamers‟, Sociological Research Online, 10, (1), http://www.socresonline.org.uk/10/1/crawford.html
 M. Cundy, 2009, “Absolutely terrifying „sexy‟ images of 8-bit „babes‟”, Games
Radar, http://www.gamesradar.com/f/absolutely-terrifying-sexy-images-of-8-bit-babes/a-
2009093014448271099
 T.L. Dietz, 1998, „An Examination of violence and gender role portrayals in video games‟, Sex Roles, 38
(5-6): 425-42
 J. B. Funk, 1993, „Re-evaluating the impact of computer games‟, Clinical Paediatrics, 32: 86-90
 Aleks Krotoski, 2004, „Chicks and joysticks: an exploration of women and gaming‟, ELSPA white
paper, http://www.elspa.com/assets/files/c/chicksandjoysticksanexplorationofwomenandgaming_176.pdf
 Carolyn Marvin, 1988, When Old Technologies Were New. Thinking about Electric Communication in the
Late Nineteenth Century, New York: Oxford University Press
 Steven Poole, 2000, Trigger Happy: the inner life of videogames, London: Fourth Estate
 Steven Poole, 2004, Trigger Happy: videogames and the entertainment revolution, New York: Arcade
Publishing
 G. R. Schott & K.R. Horrell, 2000, „Girl gamers and their relationship with the gaming culture‟
Convergence, 6: 36-53
 D. Willams, N. Martins, M. Consalvo & J.D. Ivory, 2009, „The virtual census: representations of
gender, race and age in video games‟ in New Media & Society, Vol 11, No 5.

63. Some questions to consider?
 What are your earliest video game memories?
 Have you ever played a game where the
represented characters seem problematic?
 Has gender/race/sexuality ever caused you to question
the representation?
 Do games evoke stereotypes and cliches, and
should we be concerned about these?
 Games are often regulated (ratings system). Does
regulation work to protect people?