Magen Thornhill
Blog 14: Gaming
The reading on Lara describes her as being an object for the male gaze. The reading compares her to a Barbie doll and says her body image can give a false impression to boys about the female body. While I do agree that Lara was designed for the male gaze, I don’t have a problem with it. I’ve played a lot of video games and I’ve seen several characters with unrealistic body images both male and female. I view video games as being more fantasy where normal rules don’t apply. There are also characters designed for the female gaze so I think it works both ways. For instance, I played Final Fantasy Crisis Core. There is this one part where the protagonist, Zack is out on the beach stretching with just his swim trunks on.
The reading describes Lara as being one of the first female heroines in video games. I really think that’s grown. There’s Blood Rayne, Parasite Eve, and Silent Hill 3 to name a few. I’m drawn to action/adventure games or role playing games. I wish there was more of an attempt to market them to girls. Since as the reading described games that involve things such as fashion and cooking are often marketed to girls. They didn’t have these games out when I was a kid but I’m fairly sure I wouldn’t have been interested in them.
The reading on Inventing Space looks at the development of video games such as the uses of space. It also compares video games to film. I really like this comparison since I do view video games sometimes as a film or book. The stories lines can be so amazing and I find myself trying to quickly get through the next task just so I can get to the cut scene. Cut scenes are also becoming more developed and can even be over a half hour long as in Metal Gear Solid 4.
I really liked the section on Pixar. It was interesting to see how it developed and took off. I did see Avatar and the imagery was really amazing although I didn’t care much for the storyline. I always did think facial expressions looked a bit plastic in CGI so it’s nice to see that’s its changing. It’s also nice to see that Pixar is moving away from more traditional Disney and coming up with new storylines like Up instead of the common the prince saves the princess.
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I have to disagree with you because I do have a problem with female characters designed for and by the male gaze. Is it not the body alone (I hear you when you mentioned the figure on Zack in shorts) but it is also the role that women have in videogames: why do they always have to perform like men? why do they always have to dress like sexual objects?. That is something that has to be changed and that is actually a big problem because renders the female identity in old and retrograde ways.
ReplyDeleteI like what you have to say about the cut scenes. I think cut scenes are so intriguing and give games another layer of depth. I find the combination of play and story to be one of the best things about certain video games because it pulls you in more and you feel like a big part of the story. I also agree with your wish that video games aimed more at women in the action/adventure category. I love anything that has to do with solving mysteries with adventure; I hope in the future that these genres will have games for girls as well.
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