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By: Belal Bilto, Gary Jorge, & Estefania Leon
Month: May 2017
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?
Do video Games represent the reality?!
Photo Credit: Topconzient
The video game that I chose for this blog is the one my brother used to play. It is called Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). It is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game. The game puts two teams against each other: the terrorists and the counter-terrorists. Both sides’ task is to eliminate the other while also completing separate objectives. For example, in the game terrorists either plant a bomb or take hostages while the counter terrorists either try to prevent the bomb from being planted or rescue the hostages.
For the sake of this blog I asked my brother couple of questions regarding the game. I found out that there are no women in it, not even big pictures or the wall or something like that. This makes me think that CS:GO is very male dominated and it ties to the Frank Schaap’s reading Disaggregation, Technology, and Masculinity where he talks about masculinity. Not only women are totally unrepresented, but the male characters are extremely muscular and caricatures of men. Similar to Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell, the terrorist and Counter-terrorists are men that seem “strained, stereotypically male” (Schaap, 240)
As for the race I found that characters in the game are white. So non white races are also underrepresented. CS:GO reinforces the idea of a “monoculture” Lisa Nakamura mentions in her reading Cybertyping and the Work of Race in the Age of Digital Reproduction. “monocultures are posed here as the opposite of diversity.” (Nakamura, 17)
Since there are no people of color represented in the game_ this creates a monoculture, meaning it’s not diversified.
Also, white male stereotype shown in CS:GO is an example of one of the cybertypes the author talks about.
Representation: Race, Ethnicity and Gender in Video Games and Video Gaming Culture
Questions:
1) What will be the future for gender and race representation in video games?
2) What would it take for women and non white people who work in technologies to start more representing themselves?
Do women even play Basketball?
2k.com
We all love it, Basketball! I played basketball since I was in 5th grade mostly for recreational purposes, but now I could even play it from home. 2k is a very well known video game amogst teenagers that love sports. However, very little the consumer knows the details that goes into the race and gender misrepresentation. Most of the best players in 2k are black, although it does fit into the stereotype of black males being basketball players. It is mostly evident when it comes to NBA 2k, that the best players are shown in the best of their ability. For example, Stephen Curry unanimous MVP for the year 2016 is a great basketball player and in 2k he plays like so although he is white. However there is a very big gender gap. As some of you guys might know, there are also professional female basketball players, but they are not being represented at all in 2k. Which raises the quesion do women even play basketball?
2k is a perfect exmaple of the research done by Schaap. Although, there are two different leagues; the woman’s league and the man league, 2k only choosed to portray the man’s league. Which proves what Schaap said “that online spaces in many instances are masculine spaces, where expectations of behavior and iden-tity are shaped by traditional notions of heterosexuality and standards of hegemonic 1nasculinity.” This is true because although there is a woman’s league 2k has not developed female characters within their video game. Although, one might argue that there is no reason for a company such as 2k to create female characters since the consumers are mostly male teenagers. Well, that idea feeds into the stereotype that woman are not interested or may not be as good as males in sports, which is not true. Attached is an article that expands on the idea of female basketball athletes being underrespresented.
2k also feeds into Nakamura’s concept of ” the term cybertype to describe the distinctive ways that the Internet propagates, disseminates, and commodifies images of race and racism.” Cybertype is clearly evident in 2k. In the game you are allowed to create your own player, which createsa variaty of different players. However the asian and hispanic race is not represented, they only have the white and black race. Feeding more into cybertype, even when a player chooses a white character, the story is told as if the white character comes from a black family. Again supporting the stereotype that only black males are good in basketball.
Here’s a famous basketball player talking about race and basketball:
Questions:
1)Do you think women are underrepresented in sports game?
2)How much importance do you think race and gender underrepresation have in regars to videogames?
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By Arielle Lana LeJarde, Carlos Mejia, and Nicole Taniguchi
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.
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
- 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?
- Do you think that GTA V maintaining a neutral approach to gender could still make it better by avoiding sexism?
I will Survive… I will Surviiiiive!
Ark Survival Evolved is a online game that goes against the typical stereotypes of white or male (or both) dominance in the world. This is a game about SURVIVING in the wild, surrounded by dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures where you have to build a camp and collect your own food in order to stay alive. On this game you get to choose the gender of your character and even the clothes that you would like them on.
Unlike most of the online games, Ark Survival shows the characters with a neutral look, they don’t look explicitly white with light eyes. Also, they don’t show that dominance or discrimination over any other race, or gender; they use dinosaurs as their objects to achieve their goals.
This game also connects people from around the world. While you playing, you can interact over the microphone with other players. You can guess their gender because of their voice but you won’t necessarily know their race; but that won’t matter to you because you are trying to achieve the same goal in the game, survive. And this will bring more people from different places, races and cultures to interact. This is the perfect example of what Frank Schaap shows in his article when an studio professor was asked : “What would be your ultimate online gaming experience?” and he answered: “I’d like to be able to play with friends scattered all around the world. I’d like sufficient tools to interact with them in ways that didn’t feel forced”
This idea of how people perceive (players) and also create (programers) is what Lisa Nakamura calls “cybertype”. According to her article, cybertype describes the distinctive ways that the internet propagates, disseminates and commodifies images of race and racism. Which in this case, for Ark Survival, the lines between race and gender are being eliminated.
- How many other games let you pick the gender of your character?
- Do you believe that Ark Survival is a door for the end of racism in the virtual world?
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. ”
- Have you played an online game? If yes, have you picked a gender that is different from your real life gender and why?
#TBT: Neopets
My favorite game back in elementary and middle school was Neopets! The best way I could describe is a game within a game: You, as the player, are accompanying your “pets” to get food, play other online games, create houses and surf the Neopets community. It’s a website known to be used by kids and teens for hours. MTV had big hopes and dreams for this site, valuing at over $160 million. This game, being that it is meant for kids and teens, does not adhere to politics that are common among other online games or video games.
Source: Flickr Creative Commons
But it is pushing boundaries. “Faerieland” for example, is a location known in the world of Neopia, that is all that is sugar, spice and everything nice. But all the faeries are ladies, just like in mainstream belief, with a color scheme that was full of pinks and purples, but I guess that it stuck with purple since I last played the game. “Virtupets Space Station” is another location in the world of Neopia, that follows the space-y technological theme, which is pleasing to the norms for boys.
Then you have the newer location, “Shenkuu”, that were added in the days when my Neopets usage was declining, that follows a mystical, up-in-the-mountain-tops theme. This location follows an oriental, ancient East Asian theme. The location called “Lost Desert” follows a Egyptian, Sahara desert theme.
According to the locations, the items sold like food, clothing and weapons, cater to the theme which can be borderlining racism and gender inequality just through the usage of stereotypical naming.
So what about the pets within our ownership? There’s no way to tell what Neopet is a male or female, unless you look at the actual profile of each pet, or put on clothes for the pets. You can even use a tool called a paintbrush to “paint” your pets a certain theme, which people can conclude gender from.
Source: SD1 (http://sd1.menu-it.ru/?p=55061)
You, as the user of the website, don’t have to choose a gender or race upon making an account, based on my memory from a decade ago, therefore a profile can be generated about the user through the choices made on things like which games to play originating from one location, the food fed, products purchased, and more. This supports Nakamura’s theory of cybertypes: a stereotype within a cyberspace. Nakamura has said that “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.” (Nakamura, p.4) This shows potential danger in the cyber community for its underlying gender and race distinctions. This would be against Schaap’s argument as he said “The potentially subversive effects of online games and social interaction prove to be quite limited, but the traditional gender conventions that were supposed to be questioned online appear to be doing quite well.” (p.239) But of course as a kid, these kinds of things pass over your head, how about now?
- If you have played Neopets before, and were to play it now, would you notice these subtleties?
- Is it possible for Neopets to maintain a genderfluid, non-racial website? Why or why not?
Hello Cortana
The Halo video game franchise has been one of if not the most successful video games to ever hit the market. With over ten different games being released from 2001 to current date 2017 the Halo series continues to flourish. For a short synopsis, the game has a main character by the name of Master Chief a super solider set out to defend the world from the Alien Covenant. Master Chief also has an Artificial Intelligence companion by the name of Cortana that joins him on all of his missions. Even with all the strength that Master Chief obtains he can not seem to function properly without Cortana.
Gender roles play a huge part in this aspect of the game between Master Chief’s and Cortana’s relationship. Now even though Cortana is a product of Artificial Intelligence her developers made her in a way where she is slim, big busted, and sports a complimenting figure. The character of Cortana can somewhat be imprisoned at times. She is a essentially a computer that can be programmed to do anything while she sends Master Chief Commands while he goes out into battle. Cortana is represented through all three major platforms of visual, verbal, and technological media the developers have created her in a sexualized way while also being under strict control. I believe that this character definitely reflects off the broader social norm for many reasons. For instance it is known that a majority of video game players are male. So the video game creators had to develop a character that makes them wanting to come back and play. They used the image of what a good looking women is in the real world and turned her into a sexualized icon in a video game.
Nakamura states that “identity prosthesis to redress the burdens of physical “handicaps” such as age, gender and race” (Nakamura, 2006: 319). I feel as though this relates very well with my topic because instead of the video game developers making Cortana appear as human they made her artificial intelligence. This possibly could give them an excuse when it comes to how they develop the female character over time. What Schaap means when he says “Cyberspace, the concept of an inhabitable, electronically generated alternate reality, has become the dominant metaphor for thinking about the nonspace of electronically represented and mediated symbolic interaction.” (Schaap pg. 233) It means that the things we see out in the real world we are bringing in to a different reality and turning it into something that is not. When something like this happens characters like Cortana start to form and topics of controversy start to emerge.
- Do you think there will be a new generation sweep of female led video game characters?
- Do you believe it is intentional when female characters come out to be something that they are not? Or is that just how society portrays them?