Gender game doc and analysis (14/2/2013)

Task 1 
(Three games and two movies with negative stereotypes):

• The Mortal Kombat series (1992-2011): The genders in this series have always had clear visual differences to one another as all the male characters are overtly muscular with six packs etc, whereas all the women appear slim and wear revealing outfits. Whether this is a indicator of the time it was first made in I don't know, but during the 90's it was common for video games and comics to be rather 'over the top' so as to appear 'bad ass'. However, why the developers haven't changed the appearance of the characters to be more gender appropriate for modern times I don't know, as the only changes seen are further details in the outfits the characters wear. Perhaps this because the developers wanted to stay faithful to their over the top series as most fans don't like change. Plus, as Mortal Kombat is set in both our world and a fantasy world the designs of the characters can be more elaborate as a result of the lore and history of the game worlds. 

• The Call of Duty series (2003-2013): Originally I was going to talk about the Gears of War series, but since that has females taking part in the war as well as men I thought the Call of Duty series would make more sense to talk about as not only are women almost completely absent from their games, but the male soldiers are merely exaggerations of 'the real American hero'. Granted the Call of Duty series started off in World War 1 and 2 and therefore they wanted to be historically accurate by not having female soldiers, but this doesn't excuse the fact that you don't fight alongside any female soldiers in their Modern Warfare franchise. I recall a female pilot in Call of Duty 4 although, even then her role was to get rescued by the player when her helicopter is shot down. How a series can continue to have a lack of female roles seems to suggest that its popularity is mainly male, although I do personally know of one female friend who plays it constantly. The male characters seem to lose more and more humanity with each installment as they start to become 'tough guy' stereotypes instead of the jokey and loyal team based soldiers seen in the earlier World War settings.

• The Final Fantasy series and other RPG's (1987-2013): I have always been a huge fan of RPG's of any sort, but a recurring theme that I just can't seem to avoid noticing is the fact that in nearly every RPG the first female character in your party is nearly always the healer. Thus, whenever the first female character has joined my party all I can say is "Oh good! The healer has arrived!". This isn't me being sexist in any way, but out of knowing the troupes and stereotypes of such a genre.This is especially so in the Final Fantasy series as all the first female party members are healers. And whereas in the first couple of entries you could change your class, the White Mage (healer) was and still is most associated with female characters. Now having the ability to heal is greatly appreciated in games and nearly all players will make sure to have one in their party to keep them alive, thus making them a valuable asset to the team. However, it is a shame to see that the role of support and 'nursing' is always a female role. Of course, later female party members can usually fight better, but the most powerful hitter is generally a man. This is a shame as the first female party member never appears as a fighter nor is the role of healer given to a male character. Therefore, I hope one day that this changes as it would be nice to see a RPG being less stereotypical in terms of gender roles.

• Mortal Kombat The Movie (1995): A guilty pleasure of mine, Mortal Kombat the movie isn't great, but it is still a lot of silly fun and entertaining to watch. And, whereas the movie puts the characters into more appropriate clothing than the video games it is based on it doesn't always treat the female characters entirely fairly. For example, one of its plot holes which I recognised the first time I saw it was how the character Sonya ended up having almost a complete change of character near the end of the movie. Throughout the film Sonya is portrayed as a hard as nails cop, however, by the third act of the movie she is grabbed by her hair and dragged into a portal leading to another world screaming "Let me go!". This is odd considering we see her throughout the rest of the movie holding her own in numerous fights and winning. Granted this is only a video game based movie and they aren't sadly known to be very good. However, to have her character change so dramatically and suddenly need rescuing is nothing short of head scratching as it completely ruins her character, thus demoralising and demoting her to a mere 'damsel in distress'.  

• The Transformers Movies (2007-2011): Being a huge fan of the cartoon series that the movies are based on I couldn't be more disappointed with these films. There are countless problems with them one of which is the fact that is uses the main female character played by Megan Fox as merely fan service for the audience as the camera angles around her in sexualised poses on bikes and car bonnets. In a way it is no different to black and white movies seen in the past that merely used the female characters for such reasons, something you would think most people would have moved on from in the 21st century. Probably Megan recognised too late that people were now only seeing her as as a sex object (she still gets type cast into these roles) went on to compare the director Micheal Bay to Hitler for his work on set! Of course hearing this didn't make him happy and therefore he fired her and replaced her in the third movie with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Rosie was meant to be a new love interest and character but ended up playing the exact same role as Megan Fox had before her. Therefore to see the actresses in these movies portrayed so inappropriately for both modern films and a franchise based on a child's toy just seems wrong in so many ways. I have never been one to like reboots, but if they ever thought about doing it for Transformers then I would say yes in an instants as so far these movies give the franchise a bad name and along with other races portray women very stereotypically.

Task 2 
(Two hundred word game doc that portrays the stereotypes positively):

Below is the two hundred word game doc.

Set in modern times and following an earthquake, the player plays as a couple who are geographically on opposite sides of the country when the disaster occurs. They make their way out of rubble and towards evac zones where they both look at photos of missing persons and enquire if anyone has seen their partner. Unable to simply wait for their partner to save/reunite with them they both decide to search for the other. 

My reason for choosing the above idea was to enable both genders to be equally active and motivated to find each other which better reflects a real life relationship; especially since it’s established that the couple are married and love one another.

I did not want to represent a weak woman in need of rescuing by a macho male.

The husband would be a nurse (traditionally seen as a female role) and the wife would be a fire fighter (usually a male role), thus the normally associated gender occupations are reversed.

Gameplay would be a side scrolling plat former in which the player swaps between the partners and uses their occupational skills and tools to complete puzzles such as healing wounds and fighting fires. 

Below is my explanation on the above image.

I wanted to get across both of the characters' careers in their designs and therefore dressed the wife in fire fighter gear as if she were on duty during the earthquake. I wanted to give her long hair so as to make it flow when she runs, suggesting fire flickering in the air. I gave her a fire axe in her left hand so as to psychically show she is able to use it and also uses a preferred left hand which most video game characters don't. I decided not to show damage to her clothes as I felt her uniform would protect her and she would most likely know survival skills in order to protect herself.

On the other hand, I dressed the husband as if he was off duty with only his nurses shirt under his jacket to identify him as such. I decided however that he should have at least a health pack on his back in order to show people that he knows first aid. I deliberately choose not to give him a stethoscope and/or a lab coat as I felt that would be too stereotypical. I also gave him glasses so as to show that he is an everyday man and made his clothes and hair look untidy as a sign of the event. 

As for the pictures themselves, I wanted to tell a sort of story with them as you would see in a comic e.g. the couple standing next to one another, the couple then separated by the disaster and finally the couple reunited and holding hands.

Task 3 
(Exploring gender aspects for my own game project):

As my game is set in a film noir world in the 1930's - 1940's, I could explore a lot of gender themes as it could cover how women were treated compared to men during this time.
As it is my game will have a female character who I plan to be a mysterious woman that you would usually find in such a setting e.g. able to hold her own and has a love/hate relationship with the main male role.

To contrast the above character I also plan on including another female character who whilst friendly works hard as a waitress taking orders from her customers who are mostly male. This isn't meant to be taken as sexist, it is only meant to be a sign of the times she is in.

I could further explore these themes in my game with how the NPC's react to one another within certain areas. For example, gentlemen in richer parts of the city would be more courteous towards woman, whilst say dock workers would wolf whistle at them and only see them as objects of desire.
Some of the women could be seen as traditionalists who don't want things to change whereas some could be more daring feminists in order to show a time of rising women's rights. 

I understand that gay relationships would have been considered dangerous and unnatural by many people at that time, but I have no intentions at the moment of including this issue in my game, yet alone a gay support character unless their inclusion can be made relevant and not just thrown in for the sake of including that demographic. After all, if you are going to include gay characters then they should at least be treated with respect and not just added for the sake of it.