My topic is how the portrayal of woman in video games affects
how woman as a whole are seen in popular culture. My research question is as follows:
how do lead females in video games represent woman in positive and negative
ways? Video games are a great influence over pop culture so if women are portrayed
in a bad way in a video game it affects public views if woman, in the same way if
women are shown positively public views will be positive. I believe that the for
the most part the females that the gamer plays as are very strong characters
which portray woman as such, however there are a lot of stereotyped games that
degrade woman. Plus female non-player characters range from very good to awful,
I will touch on non-player characters but that is a topic for another day. As a
female gamer I already have a pretty good knowledge about a lot of popular
video games with a heavy impact on pop culture. I know a lot of very good and
bad video game examples and how this subject is really important to some
people. There are several very important games that I have never played which would
be very valuable to the essay, as such I will need to research them in depth.
Like I said before I really like your topic and still do. Your topic is somewhat specific but not too specific to where you can only say a little. I like how you are looking at both positive and negative aspects. I think looking at specific video game both positive and negative with make your paper stronger. I feel that there are more negative aspects than positive aspects. Do you think this will ever change? Does the image portrayed affect only gamers or all women? I think you have a good start and are staying on topic.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is an interesting topic. I feel that you have a good start and a clear goal for your paper. Maybe you could touch a little bit on the difference of views of male characters vs. female characters and the reasons for them being the way they are. I imagine them being very different. But this is just some food for thought.
ReplyDeleteI think your paper will be well balanced because you have specific positive and negative examples. I understand you think minor characters are for another paper. However, I have a question, in the games where the main female characters are strong, are the minor characters still falling into the stereotype roles? In the games where the main characters are male, are the minor female roles improving?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think is driving this positive change? Is the gaming industry recognizing the growing number of serious female players? Are they trying to capture this available group? Or is it more of a top down effect where the executive positions are beginning to be filled by women?
Total Biscuit, The Cynical Brit is a popular youtube personality and somewhat of a gamers' spokesperson. He has touched on females in videogames before, and in fact interviews Rhianna Pratchett who is a well known writer in the gaming industry. The interview is about females and diversity in gaming. I took the time to skim through all of the boring introduction questions so you won't have to waste your time. The questions that actually talk about females in games start at 16:30 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJUHm9v6uOQ) You obviously don't have to watch it all but the interview does act as a source that isn't academic, and it is credible as the person being interviewed is a well known professional writer.
ReplyDeleteIt might be a good idea to mention the whole Gamer Gate controversy going on right now since this falls straight into the whole topic. Also, mention the change that has been going on in the way women are portrayed in games in comparison to earlier games. For example, the female characters in the newest Mortal Combat game are wearing more clothes now and seem less busty.
ReplyDelete