WOW ( world of warcraft)
- Female characters are barely covered with armour so as to accentuate the female body for male gamers
- Male characters in contrast are given full body armour
Age of Conan
- Includes topless female 3D characters and promotes female nudity
Grand Theft Auto
- This game passed the classification boards at first instance despite the fact that there is an actual intercourse section of the game.
- The game allows characters to pick up hookers, attend strip clubs and register and brothels
From my understanding, the gaming industry does not seem to be progressing in terms of representing women in a non sexual, objectified manner. It amazes me how there are strict policies enforced in the workplace about computer savers or desktops having females in swimsuits however no stringent laws apply to the production of games. There seems to be a real blurring of reality and fantasy within actual games despite the fact that most games imitate reality. In essence, the games seem to reflect a modern day reality without any law and order, where brothels and hookers are available and where women are always exploited. I don't mean to sound like a nagging protester but some of these games are truly terrible!
2 comments:
I agree that a lot of video games are mainly set up for male target groups and that the women are displayed accordingly in those games. However, there are also very interesting developments in that area. Has anyone of you played the latest GTA? I mean, GTA is probably [i]the[/i] stereotypical male game. Interestingly enough, however, I discovered the following: In GTA, your character (he is a man...) can go to an internet café and surf the worldwide web...where he can access a dating site. Here, there are all the typical dating-site-profiles displayed that we already discussed a few weeks ago in this unit. However, your character does not have to pick a woman, he can actually choose a man as a dating partner and send this man (i.e. there are more than one) an email to invite him on a date. This may have nothing to do with the portrayal of women in this game, but I found it quite interesting simply because it shows that even games like GTA seem to slowly become more open-minded and not as typical straight-male focused as they used to be.
Hmm that really is interesting! Yes, I guess you are right in that by endorsing or allowing same sex dating, the game seems to be broadening the social view towards sexuality. I wonder whether this was simply a reaction to the market ( being mostly males). If it was, instead of developing better gender attitudes, I guess the game is merely trying to increase its target audience?
Post a Comment