Tomb Raider Anniversary

Tomb Raider Anniversary: blog tasks

Language and Audience

Analyse the game cover for Tomb Raider Anniversary (above).

1) How does the cover communicate the genre of the game?

The weapons such as the gun suggests the action genre of the game. The colour theme is quite dusky but also golden and the background the protagonist is standing in suggests a quest; linking to the adventure genre. 

2) How does the pose and costume of the character appeal to primarily male audiences?

The protagonist is wearing revealing clothes which links to Mulvey's idea of the male gaze. The character is also postured in a way audience can see her figure which is a way to market her; attract male audiences to purchase the game. 

3) How might the cover be read as empowering for female gamers?

It could be seen as empowering as you don't see a female protagonists in video games often and this was a new introduction to females which could be seen as something that inspires women in real life. Moreover, the game is an action and adventure genre which people stereotypically do not tend to associate with women. 

Gameplay analysis

Watch the following gameplay clips again:

1) What does the gameplay for Tomb Raider Anniversary involve?

The gameplay offers a third person perspective of the game where you also get to control the moves the protagonist in the game makes.  

2) Write an analysis of the media language choices in the construction of the game: e.g. genre, narrative, mise-en-scene, camera shots etc.

Mise-en-scene; first of all looking at Lara Croft's costume it is very revealing and figure hugging and the purpose of this is to attract male audiences and make her look sexually appealing for their pleasures whilst playing the game. You can also see intertextuality in the game as there are similarities to other action and adventure theme media texts; an example would be Indiana Jones. 

3) Analyse the clips for audience pleasures, applying audience theory and considering media effects.

Action and enigma; mystery and fighting
Diversion; getting hooked into the game and feeling like you're in the game world yourself.

Representations

Read this NME feature on the evolution of the character of Lara Croft. Answer the following questions:

1) Note the statistics in the opening paragraph.

-Tomb Raider has sold over 58 million video game units worldwide
-Lara Croft has been on the cover of 1,100 magazine covers

2) How does the article describe the cultural change in society and the media since the early 00s?

The article is based on women's equality and how it has entirely changed over time. Women are now less objectified to please the male eye and there are more movements and campaigns designed to support women in recent years. 

3) How was the original 1996 Lara Croft received by audiences and critics?

Many females at the time were inspired due to the fact that Lara was the first female protagonist in a video game.

4) What did the 2013 re-launch do differently – and how successful was it?

In the 2013 relaunch, Lara Croft was given an entirely new look as she was shown to be more fitting of her environment and wore clothes that realistically suited her character and the tasks she had to handle rather than just looking sexually appealing. 

5) How is ‘woke Lara’ defined in the conclusion of the feature?

The woke Lara Croft is seen as lightness, intelligence, recklessness, courage, physical ability.

Now read this feature – Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft: feminist or femme fatale? 

1) Why is Lara Croft considered a “polarising figure among gamers”?

It was seen to be standard to use features a female would usually hold in order for video gamers to be able to understand if the character they're playing as is male or female.

2) How did the limitations of game construction in the 1990s help to establish the way female characters were animated?

Lara's appearance being heavily sexualised was due to a drawback from the early days of video game development as women were hard to distinguish from men on 32 bit consoles.

3) Why were Lara Croft’s physical attributes emphasised in the original games?

Her body features were made to sexually attract male gamers; male gaze. 

4) How does Anita Sarkeesian describe Lara Croft?

She says that Lara Croft promotes sexualisation and objectification of women. 

5) Why has Lara Croft’s appearance and characterisation changed over time?

Her characterisation has changed over the years as more women have become interested in videogames and they wanted to make it more relatable and less sexist for their audiences.

Industries

1) Why is Lara Croft such an iconic figure in the gaming industry?

She's an iconic figure because she's the first female protagonist in the videogame industry and has also become a large success by going into other media industries. 

2) What products and spin-offs have featured Lara Croft or the Tomb Raider brand?

There have been films created inspired by the game with Angelina Jolie playing the role of the protagonist. 

3) Why might Lara Croft be considered a postmodern icon?

She'd be considered as a postmodern character as she represents a strong female character and was the first to do so in the videogames industry. As a fictional character, she's even featured on magazine covers which shows how popular and influential she has been. 

4) Why is Tomb Raider Anniversary a 'case study in conglomerate ownership'?

Because Tomb Raider started off as a videogame and now has it's own movie and merchandise and so on... 

Further feminist theory

Further feminist theory: blog tasks

1) What definitions are offered by the factsheet for ‘feminism ‘and ‘patriarchy’?

Feminism: is a movement which aims for equality for women – to be treated as equal to men socially, economically, and politically.
Patriarchy: male dominance in society

2) Why did bell hooks publish her 1984 book ‘Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center’?

She had identified a lack of diversity within the feminist movement, and argued that these diverse voices had been marginalised, being put outside the main body of feminism.

3) What aspects of feminism and oppression are the focus for a lot of bell hooks’s work?

Hooks argues that feminism’s goal to make all women equal to men is flawed; not all men are equal to men as a result of oppression, sexuality, ethnicity. She argues that male involvement within the equality movement was important, encouraging men to do their part.

4) What is intersectionality and what does hooks argue regarding this?

The term intersectionality is used to describe overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination or discrimination. It means that multiple identities intersect to create a whole that is different from separate component identities.

5) What did Liesbet van Zoonen conclude regarding the relationship between gender roles and the mass media?

Van Zoonen concludes that There's a strong relatioship between gender and communication but also suggests that the mass media leads to a lot of the gender related structures created. 

6) Liesbet van Zoonen sees gender as socially constructed. What does this mean and which other media theorist we have studied does this link to?

This means that expectations that society have for each gender has been constructed over the years through stereotypes and we all as a society just believe we need to follow these constructions. Scientific feminist research always includes 3 perspectives: the individual, the social and the cultural influences in order to understand the different meanings of media content. For van Zoonen, culture is seen as “ways of life”

7) How do feminists view women’s lifestyle magazines in different ways? Which view do you agree with?

Feminists have criticised women’s magazines as commercial sites of exaggerated femininity which serve to pull women into a consumer culture on the promise that the products they buy will alleviate their own bodily insecurities and low self-esteem. 

8) In looking at the history of the colours pink and blue, van Zoonen suggests ideas gender ideas can evolve over time. Which other media theorist we have studied argues this and do you agree that gender roles are in a process of constant change? Can you suggest examples to support your view?

The association of pink with femininity and blue with masculinity was made in 19th century France. In the 18th century however, a pink silk suit was regarded as appropriate attire for a gentleman. Gender should therefore not be seen as a fixed property of individuals, but rather as a part of an ongoing process where subjects are constituted, often in paradoxical ways as van Zoonen suggests.

9) What are the five aspects van Zoonen suggests are significant in determining the influence of the media?

- Whether the institution is commercial or public
- The platform upon which they operate (print versus digital media)
- Genre (drama versus news)
- Target audiences
- The place the media text holds within the audiences’ daily lives

10) What other media theorist can be linked to van Zoonen’s readings of the media?

Stuart Hall's negotiated readings, arguing that the negotiated readings and subsequent focus on the way meanings are encoded and decoded "implies acknowledgement of gender construction as a social process in which women and men actively engage.”

11) Van Zoonen discusses ‘transmission models of communication’. She suggests women are oppressed by the dominant culture and therefore take in representations that do not reflect their view of the world. What other theory and idea (that we have studied recently) can this be linked to?

Stuart Hall's constructivist approach which is about how the way audiences respond to texts is impacted because of their own perspectives and conceptual map. 

12) Finally, van Zoonen has built on the work of bell hooks by exploring power and feminism. She suggests that power is not a binary male/female issue but reflects the “multiplicity of relations of subordination”. How does this link to bell hooks views on feminism and intersectionality?

It successfully links to Bell Hooks theory on feminism and intersectionality as it debates the power imbalance between males and females. 

Women and videogames

Women and videogames: blog tasks

Part 1: Medium article - Is Female Representation in Video Games Finally Changing?

Read this Medium feature on whether female representation in videogames is finally changing. Answer the following questions:

1) How have women traditionally been represented in videogames?

Women are traditionally represented as sex objects in videogames and in majority of cases used for male satisfaction rather than to give them their own identity. An example would be Lara Croft where although she is portrayed as a strong, independent women; she is structured and dressed in a very sexually appealing way and is made to do certain things that are appealing to men which is not necessary to represent a strong female character. 

2) What percentage of the video game audience is female?

A survey shows that between 2006 to 2017 42% of video game audience were female in the United States. 

3) What recent games have signalled a change in the industry and what qualities do the female protagonists offer?

In more recent games, just like Tomb Raiders the use of female protagonists can be inspirational for women to be more bold and brave in real life. Moreover, it could also attract more women to start playing their videogames.

4) Do you agree with the idea that audiences reject media products if they feel they are misrepresented within them?

I agree with this point as people tend to have stronger opinions as to how they believe genders should be represented in the media as it has an impact on society and the way people get treated. Therefore, if they feel like something is incorrect, they would voice their opinion and most likely also reject the game and stop playing in order to make sure they don't support something that is bringing their gender or the opposite gender down.

5) What does the writer suggest has changed regarding recent versions of Lara Croft and who does she credit for this development?

The article suggests that Lara Croft was "saved" by Crystal Dynamics because they made some changes to her character in the rebooted version of Tomb Raider and made her more of a character that people can relate to in real life. 

Part 2: Tropes vs Women in Video Games – further analysis

Visit Anita Sarkeesian’s ‘Tropes vs Women in Video Games Series 2’ YouTube playlist and watch ONE other video in the series (your choice - and feel free to choose a video from season 1 if you prefer). Write a 100 word summary of the video you watch:

Title of video: 



100 word summary: 


The video speaks about how videogames strategically use butt coverings. The main focus is on how their strategies vary according to the characters gender as a lot of video games make their female characters with a curvy figure and bring a lot of the attention to the bum whereas the male characters are strategically butt covering. This shows the binary opposition between male and female characters in videogames. 

Part 3: Anita Sarkeesian Gamespot interview

Finally, read this Gamespot interview with Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency and answer the following questions:

1) What reaction did Anita Sarkeesian receive when she published her videos on women in videogames? You can find more information on this on Sarkeesian’s Kickstarter fundraising page.

When she first published her videos on women in videogames she received a lot of criticism. The criticism and backclash went to the extremes of her receiving threats on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and even Kickstarter.

2) How does Sarkeesian summarise feminism?

"Working towards the equal treatment of women socially, culturally, institutionally, and economically."

3) Why do stories matter?

Stories matter as they are what create the world we live in and affect the things that happen around us. The way stories are told and portrayed can have a massive impact on peoples judgement and the way they see things, whether it's absolutely adoring a character or showing pure hatred. 

4) How does Sarkeesian view Samus Aran and Lara Croft (the two protagonists from our upcoming CSPs)?

She views them as both positive and negative characters. The reason for liking both characters is because they're both the protagonists in their games and represent strong female characters. However a reason for her to see the characters negatively is because they also reinforce certain female stereotypes and the idea of 'itemising' females for male satisfaction with the figure of the characters being very defined and the outfits they wear being a way to lure males into playing the game. 

5) How has the videogame landscape changed with regards to the representation of women?

Although the appearance of women in videogames has expanded a lot more over the ears and we even see female protagonists in video games now. However, there are still negative stereotypes about them being reinforced in these videogames. 

6) Why are Mirror’s Edge and Portal held up as examples of more progressive representations of women?

They now feature women without overly sexualising them and using them for male gaze and on top of that, they also feature women of colour which shows they are also working on equality to do with race as well and not only gender. 

7) What are the qualities that Sarkeesian lists for developers to work on creating more positive female characters?

Sarkeesian suggests having storylines where the characters are overcoming their own personal flaws, the protagonists not being directly tied to their sex appeal, stepping outside of typical conventions, emotional depth and expression in the characters.

8) What is the impact of the videogames industry being male-dominated?

The impact of the videogames industry being mainly male dominated has resulted in most of the audience also being a male audience. Which then leads to videogame producers having to create more content that men would enjoy playing and viewing and get satisfaction out of which is the main reason why female characters often get objectified and used for male gaze in the videogames market. 

9) What did Sarkeesian hope to achieve through her ‘Tropes vs Women in Video Games’ series?

She wants to promote media literacy and give people some tools to look critically at the games we play. She wants to clearly present the issues surrounding women's representations as a systemic problem by identifying recurring patterns.

10) What media debates did Sarkeesian hope to spark with her video series?

She hoped to spark conversations about/add onto existing conversations to do with sexist representations of women in video games and wanted to let young women know that on top of the fictional issues, there are also present issues that they need to be conscious of.