New Games Journalism
“Bow, Nigger”
This was an article written about Jedi Knight II by Ian Shanahan. In his review of this game, Shanahan concentrates on his feelings while playing. He writes in a personal style describing events and reactions in a story type way. There is hardly any actual discussion about the aspects of gameplay such as the interface, but rather he concentrates on how his experience of the game and his interaction with the other on-line player made him feel.
Friday 1 December 2006
Gender in Gaming
The Warriors
Based on the 1979 cult film of the same name, The Warriors is a story about a New York street gang accused of killing a rival gang leader during a massive gang meeting. The nine Warriors at the meeting need to get back to the relative safety of their home turf (20 miles away) with every gang in the city looking for them. The game is a beat-em-up, which runs through a story detailing the rise of the Warriors from it's beginnings, taking over territory, to the fateful meeting and the subsequent battle back across New York. The player plays through these periods doing missions such as raiding enemy territories, entering tag (graffiti) competitions, defending against rival gang attacks, as well as flashback bonus missions such as how certain members joined the Warriors. The Warriors allows the players to fight, mug, steal car stereos, take drugs as healing, and robbery.
Women in The Warriors
During gameplay, the player does not have control of any women. The gang does not seem have any women members. Women are only referred to by the characters as sexual objects in conversations or in cut-scenes or to be mugged on the streets. They are generally shown as weak and a few cut-scenes show women making bad decisions making them look unintelligent or just simply being there for the use of the male characters. The portrayal of women in the game would have them fall into a mixture of Krotoski's (2004) categories of The Helpless Female character or the Sex Kitten character with them having not much part in the gameplay or the story progression.
Shadow Hearts Covenant
This RPG is set six months after the start of World War One and follows the story of a group of people led by Yuri, an man who can morph into various 'fusion monsters'. Yuri's powers were sealed at the beginning of the game and he must travel the land fighting human, monster and demon enemies and gaining companions while regaining his powers. The power used to seal Yuri's power will kill him eventually so Yuri and his group must travel to many locations all over Europe to uncovers why it was done and how it can be stopped. While doing this they also uncover clues about a plot to destroy the world and must attempt to stop it.
Women in Shadow Hearts Covenant
The main group of characters in the game has a fair split between male and female characters. The female characters are shown as being strong, not needing or relying on the male characters. Karin, the main female character, is a very strong combat character and is a good addition to any combat group during the game. The combat group, in which you can select which three characters will take part, can be made up entirely of female characters. They are all included in the story progression and some have sub-plots and quests based around them. One of the characters is a young girl but the other two are women and these two have been 'sexualised' in much the same way as other game characters of the type (Lara, Tina, Ivy, the list goes on). This would make the women in the this game fall into Krotoski's (2004) category of Girl Power Figures or 'Action Babes'.
Women's Gaming Websites
I looked at an article written by Megan Parker for www.grrlgamer.com called “No Girls Allowed: Masking the Female Voice”. The article talks about a product called 'Voice Changer Software Diamond' which allows female gamers to change their voice to sound like men when playing on-line games. Why would women want to change their voices to sound like men? Megan talks about the times on-line when even though playing a female avatar, other players will still assume she is a male until she actually speaks. This shows that many people still believe that there are few women in gaming. Megan also points out that many males do not like being beaten by women. Megan argues that this product does not help the case of women gamers experience in gaming, because rather than educating the male gamers (and game companies) that there are lots of female gamers who are just as good as the men, it allows them to believe that they are still in a male dominated zone. Megan concludes her article by saying that using this software would be “sticking your head in the sand and hoping the problem will go away”. She states that the more female voices are heard in games, the harder it can be for many males and game companies to continue with their current ideas of women in gaming.
Bibliography
Alexs Krotoski, 'Chicks and Joysticks and Exploration of Women and Gaming', Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association, September 2004, http://www.elspa.com/assets/files/c/chicksandjoysticksanexplorationofwomenandgaming_176.pdf,
Date of Access: 30th November 2006.
Megan Parker, 'No Girls Allowed: Masking the Female Voice', Grrlgamer.com, 19th November 2006, http://www.grrlgamer.com/article.php?t=voicegenderbender, Date of access: 30th November 2006.
Based on the 1979 cult film of the same name, The Warriors is a story about a New York street gang accused of killing a rival gang leader during a massive gang meeting. The nine Warriors at the meeting need to get back to the relative safety of their home turf (20 miles away) with every gang in the city looking for them. The game is a beat-em-up, which runs through a story detailing the rise of the Warriors from it's beginnings, taking over territory, to the fateful meeting and the subsequent battle back across New York. The player plays through these periods doing missions such as raiding enemy territories, entering tag (graffiti) competitions, defending against rival gang attacks, as well as flashback bonus missions such as how certain members joined the Warriors. The Warriors allows the players to fight, mug, steal car stereos, take drugs as healing, and robbery.
Women in The Warriors
During gameplay, the player does not have control of any women. The gang does not seem have any women members. Women are only referred to by the characters as sexual objects in conversations or in cut-scenes or to be mugged on the streets. They are generally shown as weak and a few cut-scenes show women making bad decisions making them look unintelligent or just simply being there for the use of the male characters. The portrayal of women in the game would have them fall into a mixture of Krotoski's (2004) categories of The Helpless Female character or the Sex Kitten character with them having not much part in the gameplay or the story progression.
Shadow Hearts Covenant
This RPG is set six months after the start of World War One and follows the story of a group of people led by Yuri, an man who can morph into various 'fusion monsters'. Yuri's powers were sealed at the beginning of the game and he must travel the land fighting human, monster and demon enemies and gaining companions while regaining his powers. The power used to seal Yuri's power will kill him eventually so Yuri and his group must travel to many locations all over Europe to uncovers why it was done and how it can be stopped. While doing this they also uncover clues about a plot to destroy the world and must attempt to stop it.
Women in Shadow Hearts Covenant
The main group of characters in the game has a fair split between male and female characters. The female characters are shown as being strong, not needing or relying on the male characters. Karin, the main female character, is a very strong combat character and is a good addition to any combat group during the game. The combat group, in which you can select which three characters will take part, can be made up entirely of female characters. They are all included in the story progression and some have sub-plots and quests based around them. One of the characters is a young girl but the other two are women and these two have been 'sexualised' in much the same way as other game characters of the type (Lara, Tina, Ivy, the list goes on). This would make the women in the this game fall into Krotoski's (2004) category of Girl Power Figures or 'Action Babes'.
Women's Gaming Websites
I looked at an article written by Megan Parker for www.grrlgamer.com called “No Girls Allowed: Masking the Female Voice”. The article talks about a product called 'Voice Changer Software Diamond' which allows female gamers to change their voice to sound like men when playing on-line games. Why would women want to change their voices to sound like men? Megan talks about the times on-line when even though playing a female avatar, other players will still assume she is a male until she actually speaks. This shows that many people still believe that there are few women in gaming. Megan also points out that many males do not like being beaten by women. Megan argues that this product does not help the case of women gamers experience in gaming, because rather than educating the male gamers (and game companies) that there are lots of female gamers who are just as good as the men, it allows them to believe that they are still in a male dominated zone. Megan concludes her article by saying that using this software would be “sticking your head in the sand and hoping the problem will go away”. She states that the more female voices are heard in games, the harder it can be for many males and game companies to continue with their current ideas of women in gaming.
Bibliography
Alexs Krotoski, 'Chicks and Joysticks and Exploration of Women and Gaming', Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association, September 2004, http://www.elspa.com/assets/files/c/chicksandjoysticksanexplorationofwomenandgaming_176.pdf,
Date of Access: 30th November 2006.
Megan Parker, 'No Girls Allowed: Masking the Female Voice', Grrlgamer.com, 19th November 2006, http://www.grrlgamer.com/article.php?t=voicegenderbender, Date of access: 30th November 2006.
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