Letting the team down?

As it is the release of Resident Evil 5 today and I have spent the last few hours hovering over my friend's shoulder watching him play it, I unfortunately found myself disappointed at what could of been a potentially good female game character. It's not the way Sheva is dressed, nor how she looks or or the way she speaks. In fact, it's absolutely no fault of her own. Let me explain... Within only a few minutes of play, my friend had already formed a hatred towards this woman. Because she is an AI partner to the playable character 'Chris Redfield', she will obviously have drawbacks. Getting in the way, shooting when you don't want her to, using health spray when you don't want it etc. This is usually the norm when having a partner in a game, but unfortunately she's setting the example for the female species. And from what I heard emit from my friends mouth the past few hours, she's not doing a good job.

A few examples:

"Move out the way, b***h!"
"It's like working with a special person!"
"F*****g b***h!"
"Can she be any more stupid?"
"Don't use it now you daft b***h"

etc.. etc..

And not too long after, another friend game to visit and they both exchanged angry words regarding Shiva.

I'm sure the intentions of using a female partner were good, but I think instead of portraying a strong, willful, respectable character, she has been observed to be an annoying, daft, stupid, waste-of-space woman. I hope that in meeting more Resident Evil 5 players, I will find someone who holds a different opinion.

Reference:
http://www.shinohan.com/images/review_images/resident-evil-5-01.jpg

The Size 16 Heroine

Whilst browsing the forums of www.womengamers.com I came across this post in an article that is discussing women in power. The user posted:

“…it's been proven that women make up a huge percentage of the game market but I suspect that game manufacturers are far too scared that they'll have to 'stick ponies in' to make games for appealing to the woman gamer- but that is ridiculous, women like a lot of the games that men play they just don't appreciate the sexualisation of the female form, that constantly appears in games. When was the last time that a female heroine was a good ol' (UK) size 16? Mind you, there are similar problems with the representation of women in mainstream film.”

The sentence I’m interested in I put into Bold. Now I do agree with what this user has to say, I don’t think I’ve ever played the character of a size 16 heroine in a game. However, (and this depends on the genre) characters need to be in good physical condition. Would the game be any more believable watching the size 16 heroine run for hours at a time without getting tired, fighting off other characters/creatures. Surely by the end of the game the character would of lost weight and ended up looking similar to the females already starring in current games? The problem I have with the way most women are portrayed in games is their appearance and attire (I thought it would be interesting to mention the avatar of this poster was the face of a beautiful female character).

Just to make sure this applies to all genres, I browsed for a full list. Looking at each one, I questioned what shape the character must be in, in order to believably act out the story. 3 out of the 21 genres mentioned came across as not needing a character to be in peak physical shape. These were adventure, racing games and sport.

Adventure games mostly involve story and puzzle solving. Therefore the character can pretty much be any shape or size (within reason) in order to do this.

Racing games such as Mario Kart already include larger characters. Mario isn’t buff, nor is Wario. However, I can’t say the same for the blonde, beautiful and slender Princess Peaches. Despite this, physical shape would make little difference when driving a car (unless the game is a serious driving game where weight may slow the car down).

Sport games depend on what sport it is. Football is obvious, if the games are serious. And usually base their characters on real footballers, which are always in good physical condition. The same applies to Basketball. However, my 78 year old grandma and 80 year old grandpa plays golf and they aren’t exactly muscled out to the max. Real life golfers don’t need to be either, unless they choose to of course.

Introduction

In creating this blog, I hope to achieve a further understanding of the issue of Gender in both games and towards gamers themselves. In order to do this, I will conduct research using books, websites, articles, lectures and discussion with relevant others.

It came to my attention recently that representation in games is a sensitive topic. With the release of the Resident Evil 5 demo containing the potentially racist and/or sexist content, debates have cropped up between those who believe it is indeed racist and those who don't. Although the major issue here is racism, which I won't be covering, the scene they are referring to was also claimed to be sexist.

Despite being female, and a gamer, the main reason I chose this topic of discussion is my enthusiasm and interest in gender differences. Since studying Psychology in A Level, I became aware of the issue of gender differences, stereotypes and bias. I plan to apply this knowledge throughout my study as I believe even though the syllabus did not cover games, it does not mean it cannot be applied.

In completing my study and thus ending this blog, I hope to not only enlighten myself but others who stumble across it.