Female representation in computer games - Essay Example

Images of Women in Computer Based Gaming: Sexualized Images of Male and Female Heroes Created in Contemporary Art for the Purpose of Game Play Gaming has become a pass time that has engaged men and women of all ages into challenges that are built in alternative worlds with representations of female humanoid forms that are sexualized and exaggerated. In creating gaming images, contemporary artistic renditions of characterizations integrate the form with the activity of the character, an instance where art comes alive. One of the first representations of the sexualized heroine in a video game was Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider (Fig. 4) series that was later played by Angelina Jolie (Fig. 5) in two films. The game World of Warcraft allows the player to create their own representation, but most of the females and males have sexualized representations that engage the user in very real objectification of the human form. In a discussion of the theories proposed by John Berger, the nature of the consumer to art can be seen through the examination of the art and imagery that has been developed in the gaming world. The nature of gaming is such that it creates an alternative space in which female and male objectification is engaged so that not only is the concept of the human shifted into a different space, the actions that are taken as representations of heroic are placed within the sexual fantasy space. Images that are used for gaming are representations of contemporary art, created through different mediums used for different purposes. Most of it is created through computer generation, but there is a great deal of art that is done through the traditional medium of canvas and brush with either oils or acrylics. These pieces are used for promotional value, although computer generation of images has advanced to the point where artistically rendered work is very similar to that which used to require canvas and paint. As an example, Fig.1, Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 are a female and male characters from World of Warcraft, rendered artistically as an emotive piece which is intended to engage the consumer by creating envy. Berger discusses the role of envy in glamour, the nature of plying the consumer with attributes of a representational figure that can never be achieved, thus maintaining an envious connection which is never transferred to the consumer. La Grange paraphrases Berger and states that “The imagine themselves transformed by buying the product and envy this transformed self. In effect, the publicity image has lowered the spectators’ self-esteem and offers it back if they buy the product” (8). Gaming literally offers the experience of becoming the enviable figure, the consumer able to manipulate the actions of the character, achieving goals and setting a course through that image. Berger discusses the way in which the identity and the self are interlaced with the concept of ownership and envy. In owning a thing, the desired effect is to have become the representation of how that thing creates the identity of the self. In owning something, there is never a pay-off of real happiness, but a movement towards acquiring the next thing. La Grange states that Berger proposed that “The individual is trapped between what he is and what he would like to be” (9). In choosing what to buy, the individual seeks to find happiness, but because happiness cannot be achieved by the acquisition, the individual is essentially powerless. In some ways, gaming fills this gap as the manipulation of the image that has been chosen becomes an extension of the self, the individual placed within the space of the game as that image and acquiring through the choices that are made about the actions of the image. La Grange explains the relationships of the ownership of art as it is relevant to the identity. She states that through Berger, it can be seen that “oil painting celebrated private property; it expressed the idea that you are what you have” (La Grange 9). In owning the art, in defining the self through what has been chosen in regard to ownership, a part of the identity is defined. This can be extended into the realm of the gaming representation, the creation of a character and the actions that the character takes an extension that contributes to definitions of the self. In image representations, especially in games where latitude for consumer creation is allowed, the nature of the creature becomes an extension of the self. According to Barlett and Harris, media images that promote large muscles for men and thin bodies for women negatively impact the self-esteem of men and women. In regard to the images that are created for online gaming experiences, the characters, as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, are created to have exaggerated and enhanced physical forms that represent ideals of sexual attractiveness. Bartlett and Harris conducted two different studies with hypotheses that asked whether or not participants who play video games had less self-esteem after playing than before playing. Their conclusions suggested that “the results showed that after playing such games male and female participants had a decrease in their body esteem” (598). From a theoretical perspective, this contributes to the discourse on body image and the media, the reinforcement of unrealistic ideals through media imagery having an impact on social constructions about how a male and female should look and what defines attractiveness. In Grewel and Kaplan, an explanation of the concept of race as it relates to a recreation of a female image as it has been created through computer generation to represent a cross section of racial characteristics is made with important points about the act of creating the image. Donna Haraway is quoted as arguing “SimEve excites a desire that cannot be fulfilled and as such is an example of the dream of technological transcendence of the body” (Grewel and Kaplan 73). The combination of art and interaction creates a world in which users can seem to have transcended themselves, becoming the embodiment of the characters they have created. La Grange states that Berger “The whole world is a setting for publicity, and it is a world beyond conflict, able even to translate revolution into its own terms. Yet, there is a harsh contrast between the real world and the publicity’s world”. La Grange quotes Berger for having written “Publicity is essentially eventless…situated in future continually deferred” (10). The space of the envied self is that of the future, the hope for what one feels they could be in contrast to the identity in the present. The desire for acquisition, to be the person who owns this item or that, the need to be the person who would have the ability to live within the space that is created by publicity is fulfilled through the interactivity of the gaming world. The image can be attained, the space of that image evolved into a future that will never be, but can be fantasized about and ‘live’ through participation. In this sense, the nature of the self becomes transcended through the will of the user, the act of participation a space in which the future self is imitated by those who fin a fulfillment within the alternative universe of the game. Grewel and Kaplan describe the nature of computer manipulation as it impacts the concept of race. Computer morphing allows one individual’s physical appearance to be change to represent an enhanced or completely altered appearance of race. They state “Morphing,” a computer software term for “making one thing appear to turn into another,” denotes shape-changing while carrying along with it a change in identity” (70). In this age where the computer provides a space in which to create the self through choices that are outside or reality, but within the grasp of the consumer, the identity can be created through the exploration of the functions available, while exploiting the consumer through their innate desires to become someone that fulfills their sense of envy. Computer games attract certain types of individuals. While it would be presumptuous to classify them, it is necessary to see that those who engage in playing are often seeking accomplishments that they cannot achieve in real life. In testing themselves, pushing their goals into an unrealistic realm where achievement can be attained where it cannot be achieved in real life, allows for the sense of envy to have a modicum of fulfillment. While in the time period that Berger wrote his work that fulfillment was not available, in modern society entertainment has seen growth into industries that seek to further the search for identity while still keeping it out of reach. After all, one can never fully assume the characterization of an elf lord, but through gaming, the achievements of the elf lord can be simulated. The positions that Berger has taken on the nature of envy, possession, and the self have become deeper and more relevant as modern society has created technologies that further the envy/glamour dynamic in engaging the consumer on the desired self over the actual self. As positioned by Grewal and Kaplan, the nature of technology has provided a resource in which the morphing of an image can provide an idealized version that promotes envy and unattainable perfection. In gaming, the individual is allowed to make choices in which the identity is extended into the alternative world, the objectification of the image becoming part of the self through gaining status and achievements as that imagined self. While Berger could not have imagined that worlds would be created in which the consumer could simulate the future self, that unattainable self that remains out of reach, his theories have provided a framework in which to understand how the consumerist nature of the dynamic between the player and the creators of the game has developed. The images that are used to define the nature of the play reflect the needs of the consumer to reach for that never attainable self that is beyond reality. (Fig. 1) (Fig. 2) (Fig. 3) (Fig. 4) (Fig. 5) List of Figures Fig. 1. Unknown Creator, World of Warcraft. Accessed at http://unboundedpower.com/ Fig. 2. Unknown Creator, World of Warcraft. Accessed at http://unboundedpower.com/ Fig. 3. Unknown Creater, World of Warcraft. Accessed at ttp://vixenfiles.webs.com/mmoman ymoreonline.htm Fig. 4. Tomb Raider, 2011. Accessed at http://precktazman.blogspot.com/2011/01/tomb-raider- trilogy-dated-for-ps3-and.html Fig. 5. Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft. Accessed at http://www.coronacomingattractions. com/node/20374 References Bartlett, Christopher P. and Richard J. Harris. The Impact of Body Emphasizing Video Games on Body Image Concerns in Men and Women. Sex Roles. 59 (2008): 586-601. Grewal, Inderpal, and Caren Kaplan. An Introduction to Women's Studies: Gender in a Transnational World. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002. Print. La Grange, Ashley . Basic Critical Theory for Photographers. Amsterdam: Focal, 2005. Print. Read More