Virtual Bodies: Game Gender as Style and Structure

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Virtual Bodies Game Gender as Style and Structure

• Laurie N. TaylorUniversity of FloridaLaurien_at_ufl
  .edu

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A Brief History of Gender in Gaming
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Gender and Gaming

• History of gender and technology
• History of gaming arcades, home computers (text
  and video games), consoles, Internet games,
  mobile gaming
• Games and gender girl games, female characters
  in games, overall context of gender in relation
  to gaming

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Girl and Women Characters in Games

• Background images of women
• Damsels in distress
• Enemies
• Non-playable Helpers
• Playable Characters

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Non-player Characters

• Pauline in Donkey Kong
• Daphne in Dragons Lair
• Multiple princesses in Wizards Warriors
• Zelda in The Legend of Zelda
• Angie Thompson in Trauma Center
• Nastasha Romanenko and Naomi Hunter in Metal Gear

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Gender as Style, and Structure

• Games offering a choice of male and female
• player characters traditionally have two
• changes between the characters
• Appearance
• Skills

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Gender as Style
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Gender as Style
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Gendered Gaming

• Not only a matter of aesthetics
• Must also play like girls
• Supporting roles,
• Sexy,
• or, Weaker

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Dead or Alive (DOA)
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Rumble Roses DOA Beach Volleyball
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Gender as Play and Narrative Structure
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Game Balance

• Andrew Rollings and Dave Morris, Game
  Architecture and Design player/player balance
  is the art of making the game fair so that each
  player gets no other special advantage but his
  skill (73). While symmetry may be the fairest
  solution ... its rarely the most interesting
  (74).
• When games offer female and male characters, the
  female characters are not only as feminine in
  appearance, but also according to culturally
  sanctioned roles for women.

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Roles for Women Characters

• Faster, weaker
• Healer
• Information gatherer

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Coercive Mimeticism

• Rey Chow argues that ethnic subjects are expected
  to both wear and perform the mark of their
  difference.
• Hayot and Wesp The predetermined methods of play
  in colonial games, use logic that leads players
  to perform as an ethnic identity (Mongols as
  horseback-riding archers, Chinese more easily
  outnumbering enemies) and this performance is
  encoded in a genetic game logic that situates
  race as determined and determining factor for
  appearance action.

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Gender as Style Structure

• Visual aspect of games appearing feminine or
  masculine characters
• Game play balance characters equal, but without
  perfect symmetry
• Female characters as weaker, supporting, healing,
  attractive helping the stronger male characters
• Playing as a female character requires playing as
  a gender stereotype

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Gaming Media

• Video gaming as a media also follows coercive
  mimeticism.
• Marketing labels certain games as feminine and
  others as masculine.
• Different gaming platforms have been similarly
  labeled and depicted in marketing campaigns and
  in the media.
• Game designers are also represented as male.

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Games for Girls

• Tend to follow stereotypes of femininity for
  types of play and types of characters.
• The positives of innovative games like those by
  Purple Moon also gather problems due to the
  separation from normal gaming.

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Game or Play (Activity)

• Game A competitive activity or sport in which
  players contend with each other according to a
  set of rules Winning event.FPS Doom

• Play The playing, action, or conduct of a
  gamefreedom of movement within a space loose
  rules.Sims

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Game Studies Gaming Industry

• Delineation between play and game in order to
  classify for analysis or for marketing purposes
• Sims
• Barbie Fashion Designer
• Playing tag in an FPS like Halo

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Game Boy
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Who Needs Girls When You Have a PS2?
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Here are some things you might want to tell your
wife this thing does
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Educational Games

• Write your ideas, share your feelings and keep
  your secrets with this journal that has 500
  juicy questions that will get you thinking and
  writing.
• Writing prompts, like Ooh-dish alert! What's
  going on? and What are you so jealous about?

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Coercive Mimeticism

• Gender stereotypes exists in games and gaming
  media, which function with coercive mimeticism to
  continue those stereotypes.
• Changes must also come from games and gaming media

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New and Upcoming Changes
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Game Studies the Gaming Industry
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Gender Inclusive Gaming
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Changes in Gaming
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Girl Gaming
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Past Innovations that Need to be Recognized
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History of Gender and Gaming
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Game Designers

• Problems of Attribution
• Roberta Williams, Jane Jenson, Sheri Graner Ray,
  Megan Gaiser, Tracy Fullerton, Mary Flanagan,
  Jane McGonigal, Elonka Dunin, Brenda Braithwraite

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Game Characters

• Kings Quest IV VIIs Princess Rosella Tomb
  Raiders Lara Croft No One Lives Forevers Cate
  Archer Metroids Samus Aran Perfect Darks
  Joanna Dark, Phantasy Stars Alis Landale,
  Tenchus Ayame, Resident Evils Rebecca Chambers,
  Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine, and Ada Wong,
  Fatal Frames Miku Hinasaki, Mio Amakura, Mayu
  Amakura, and Rei Kurosawa The Longest Journeys
  April Ryan, Dreamfalls Zoë Castillo, and Her
  Interactives Nancy Drew games with Nancy Drew
• Street Fighters Chun-Li, Cammy, Sakura, and
  Elena Soul Caliburs Sophitia Alexandra, Taki,
  Isabella Ivy Valentine, and Chia Xinghau
  Tekkens Angel, Anna Williams, Asuka Kazama,
  Christie Monteiro, Julia Chang, and Lili (Emily
  Rochefort)
• Role-playing games offer even more women
  characters because so many allow players to
  choose a characters gender.

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Current Gaming

• In order to change, needs
• New characters and games that arent
  weaker/lesser by virtue of gender
• More recognition of women players, designers, and
  characters
• Recognition of the commonalities between game
  types and play styles within games and within the
  contexts of play
• More aesthetic stylesnot just attractive women

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Conclusion Gender Gaming

• Connects to issues of diversity across gaming
• Age
• Ethnicity
• Religion
• Serious games movement
• For credibility as a media form, games need to
  address multiple concerns

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Bibliography

• Douglas, Cad, Molly Dragiewicz, Angie Manzano,
  and Vanessa McMullin. United States In Video
  Games, Black Women are Victims, Latinas Don't
  Exist. Off Our Backs 43.3/4 (Mar. 2002) 6.
• Hayot, Eric and Edward Wesp. Style Strategy and
  Mimesis in Ergodic Literature. Comparative
  Literature Studies 41.3 (2004) 404-423.
• International Game Developers Association
  http//igda.org/.
• Jenkins, Henry. Complete Freedom of Movement
  Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces. From Barbie
  to Mortal Kombat. Eds. Justine Cassell and Henry
  Jenkins. Cambridge MIT Press, 1998. 262-297.
• Kennedy, Helen W. Lara Croft Feminist Icon or
  Cyberbimbo? On the Limits of Textual Analysis.
  Game Studies 2.2 (Dec. 2002) 1 Sept. 2005.
• Ray, Sheri Graner. Gender Inclusive Game Design.
  Hingham, MA Charles River, 2004.
• Rollings, Andrew and Dave Morris. Game
  Architecture and Design. Scottsdale, AZ
  Coriolis, 2000.
• Salen, Katie and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play.
  Cambridge MIT Press, 2003.
• Women in Games International www.womeningamesinte
  rnational.org

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Virtual Bodies Game Gender as Style and Structure

• Laurie N. TaylorUniversity of FloridaLaurien_at_ufl
  .edu