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A Game Ahead of its Time

 

With gender and cybertyping so common in digital media, it is rare that we find a game that embodies the norms of society. However I believe The Sims video game does a good job of analyzing gender and portrays it well throughout the game. In Sims, you are essentially creating a character that emulates a human being. You are responsible for making sure your character is fed, washed, fulfilling their basic daily needs as well as advancements on their personal and professional lives. Your character goes on to getting a job, starting a family and so forth.

Sims does a good job of remaining neutral because your role in the game is the same no matter which gender you choose. In early versions of Sims, which launched in 2000: all types of people were featured including same-sex couples. Your identity in the game focused on how well you take care of your character and build their life. You do not receive special advantages because you are male or female, no extra special powers are given.

With the newest update of Sims 4 the focus on character development rises. You can adjust Sims identities to represent actual family members are give them personality types related to their actual personalities as well. These Sims are more emotion based, and your goal is to make them “happy”. Happy Sims also have the power to cheer up sad Sims, and their everyday interactions mimic the actions of people in real life.

 

Questions

Do you believe Sims represents a true reality or are there still evidence of gender and racial stereotypes?

Why does it appear that most video games use cybertyping? Does this help or hurt the video game industry?

Sexism in GTA V

The Grand Theft Auto has not had a lot of gender problems because of the fair representation of female and male characters in the past series. However, the development of the Grand Theft Auto series to GTA V led to skewed representation of femininity and masculinity. Surprisingly, the GTA V video games represents masculinity as an ideal gender for interpreting the game, with popular protagonists in the video game being male characters and excluding women as possible targets for attack. The masculinity gender values of toughness is represented with how male characters in GTA V are allowed to use all sorts of weaponry to wipe out people which in most cases happens to be women. Interestingly, GTA V comes with the ability to customize gender of the main character. The video game utilizes the use of radio calls and mobile calls in promoting sexist comments. The females in the online game are depicted as weak characters over their protagonist male counterparts, with women allowed to make fun of the male characters, who afterwards pursue the mission of attacking them or simply make sexist jokes against them.

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I don’t think the representation of gender in GTA V reflects a broader social norm. However, this does not underscore the fact that different cultures and societies have different perceptions in regard to gender, with GTA V offering a new understanding of the same. GTA V simply presents the undertones of female stereotyping that may be concealed in our modern world but in the real sense do exist in the manner men perceive women. Additionally, the video games embody the violence against women and objectification of women in the contemporary masculine world.

According to Nakamura, the artificial identity of video games characters is redress the burden of physical “handicaps” such as gender, race, and age (319). This relates well with GTA V console that can enable the gamers to customize the gender of their main character, giving them the liberty to swap genders with time when they deem fit. Notably, the online representation is a choice that one can make in which the opposite gender for the real-life one can be chosen (Schaap 237). Interestingly, Schaap’s assertion resonates well with the reality embodied in GTA V coupled with its additional feature of customizing the gender of the main character, which supports gender swapping.

Questions

  1. If you have ever played GTA V, did you ever change your gender in the game and what could have influenced you to change into an opposite sex?
  2. Do you think that GTA V maintaining a neutral approach to gender could still make it better by avoiding sexism?

All Races Cant Be Any Class

 

In the game Everquest, just like in any other video game, the player has to pick an avatar to play the game. In  the  below video, at time marker  1:05s you can hear the youtube user say “ All races cant be any class” The following video shows  the professional gamer explain the setup and use of this game.

Depending on which avatar you pick, your powers and function within the game are preset. In Everquest, the first two options you get while building your avatar is Race and Class. Now, they might not have races in the game that exactly mimic the real world, but they do have barbarians, trolls, warriors and princes in the game. Depending on which race you pick, y our class is determined. In other words if the user uses a warrior of a certain race, he or she cannot be a member of a certain class. This concept is seen in the real world where in order for us to be a part of a certain group, you have to be born in and raised in a certain class. Being a part of these classes will give you or deny you access to certain jobs, social and political roles. Another similarity between video games and real life is that gender roles have begun to be more fluid. men now stay at home and watch kids and women can be the breadwinner. Videogames can be similar, because a man or woman in the real world can choose opposite or neutral genders in the realm of video games.

You can witness this shift as described by Nakamura “Chosen identities enabled by technology, such as online avatars, cosmetic and transgender surgery and body modifications, and other cyberprostheses are not breaking the mold of unitary identity but rather shifting identity into the realm of the “virtual,” a place not without its own laws and hierarchies. Supposedly “fluid” selves are no less subject to cultural hegen1onies, rules of conduct, and regulating cultural norms than are “solid. ”

  1. Have you played an online game? If yes, have you picked a gender that is different from your real life gender and why?

The Way I See It

While approaching what the future holds in regards to social media and digital communication, there are always going to be two sides of the story. When it comes to the technological innovations we have seen over the past decade, we have come a long ways since dial-up. But, not everything can be all flowers and rainbows. There is a dark side to the way our society has adopted and adapted to digital communication.

From a business standpoint, digital communication and social media platforms are the probably one of the greatest things to happen. I don’t think there is a company out there right now that doesn’t use any social media platforms to help build and market their brand. According to Forbes, some of the most desirable internship and full-time opportunities are working for these giant tech companies. Social media has such a massive reach that companies are able to use target marketing and online surveillance to reach their target market easily. They are also able to promote sales, events, food, festivals, and everything else under the sun. The future of marketing is incredibly promising because of digital communication and the technological advances that are yet to come.

Now here’s the negative side. Social media and digital communication has changed the way we think and act with one another. When I say this I  mean we are interacting more yes, but we are not interacting the way we should be. We rely heavily on our mobile devices and the Internet and it has made us become dependent on them as the technology keeps advancing. We are not living in the moment anymore and we constantly feel the need to refresh our newsfeeds and timelines while documenting everything. What many of us are unaware of is how every digital footprint we leave, people are using that, analyzing it, and selling it. We are constantly being targeted by companies because of our previous searches and our privacy is diminishing. Whether we like it or not, what we think we are keeping private is actually up for grabs by anyone (mainly corporate giants) who is willing to use it and capitalize off of it.

Ultimately, in our digital future I hope to see more privacy changes despite the fact that it probably won’t happen. There is so much data flying around that it will be impossible to collect it all and “dispose” of it or make it untraceable. Aside from the privacy matter, I am excited to see what the future holds in terms of digital communication and digital technologies.

Questions:

  1. Do you agree or disagree that digital communication has affected our social relationships for the worse?
  2. Do you think there will be any privacy changes, gain more privacy, in the future? Or do you think the issues will only go further downhill?

The bright future of video chat

The digital world today in all aspects is changing so fast that it is almost impossible to predict it’s future. Every month is seems like there is a new app, product, or feature that helps us stay connected and communicate with each other. Overall my vision for the future of digital communication is very bright. As different forms of communication start to develop and evolve I believe it will only benefit daily life.

A present aspect of digital communication that I would like too see really develop would be the ability to communicate face to face over a digital interface. Companies like Facebook, Skype, and Apple all provide video chat services and having this form of communication excel I believe it will revolutionize the way we communicate with each other. Video chat has come a long way and this article written back in 2009 shows you how it all came about and just how far it has advanced.

Face Time

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Some major aspects that I would like to see change when it comes to digital communication are the regulations that are often put against it. Regulations are constantly changing and I believe that is holding companies back from really being able to advance in certain technologies. For example, making privacy polices shorter and easier to read for better understanding and being able to expand data collection regulations in order to gather stronger information. These are all aspects if strengthened can really start to advance the digital communication atmosphere.

Andrejevic mentions in the reading that “commercial surveillance has a central role to play in the forms of alienation, manipulation, and control associated with the interactive economy.” (Pg. 279, Surveillance & Society) In my opinion this statement has a lot of negativity in it because it is only focusing on the bad. Something like a video chat can come off as something that has a lot of surveillance on it and users may not feel as protected. The good outweigh the bad in this case and if Andrejevic focused more on the good more people would come to the realization of what this feature can bring. I appreciated the Jenkins reading more because he said that majority of the people are “watchers.” People want to see things happen and evolve that will make there daily lives more efficient. Jenkins also takes a lot of pride in ownership, people make there own decisions at the end of the day.

Are there any new forms of digital communication on the rise?

Do you believe that one day digital communication will be more dominate than physical face to face encounters?