Video Games considered Sport?

The popularity of videogames has excelled as a large part of new media technology, especially with prominent interest amongst youth. These games are continually becoming the socially acceptable outlet for physical play, and this is becoming more acceptable and is infiltrating more households, especially those with children. My arguement is not if videogames are appropriate, (although I think many are not, as they construct and play into generalised gender roles) but instead if we consider them a fully fledged extracurricular activity, to the point where as a culture the lines of technology and sport have become so blurred that we begin to associate values of sporting achievement with those of achievement in the undefined realm of videogame activity.

The clip below is an advertisement for Nintendo Wii which does just this. The game is a multiplayer format, which includes various simulations of sports, as played by a stereotypical nuclear family. The game offers various adaptors and controllers to perform the functions of such sports to a more realistic degree; just a few of these include car racing, tennis and boxing. As children grow into this obscure realm, where now sporting achievement is able to be simulated in a fun family environment, we look at the youth of today and their personal choices and they reside in a world full of technological choices, and it is not before long that they may begin to choose technology over the real thing. It is interesting that this product is marketed at the typical household or family, but without realising the potential results. The seriousness and popularity of this game is one which deems it successful and profitable to have made enough of an impact on a the present generation, and in doing so redefines sport, and demeans it to pressing buttons over competing in a physical game.

Apparently video games can save the world...

I was listening to an episode of the Guardian's Tech Weekly podcast last night and the final item was an interview with a games designer, Jane McGonigal, who seems to believe genuinely that the key to "saving the planet" lies with video games. I'm personally very averse to her whole perspective: it creeps me out, actually. But she is getting a lot of exposure, including a slot earlier this year on the TED Talk circuit. Whether you watch the video or listen to the last part of the podcast, I'd be really interested to hear your views on all this... especially if you can give me some reasons to tone down my cynicism and distaste for the views expressed by McGonigal!

Don’t Blame the Genders, Blame the Console!

In our recent tutorial for week 3, we looked at how gender’s play a part in whether or not they participate in video games. Luke said something along the lines of “… boys will be involved in more immersive games whereas females are more into browser based games that they can dip in and out of”. While that much is true, I also believe it is the game console manufacturers who decide which gender(s) to target.

In particular is the Nintendo Wii, if we look at the consoles & its controllers’ design and colour scheme we can say that it’s quite gender neutral. Compare this to the Playstation 1, 2 & 3 or Xbox & Xbox 360, their consoles are often black, grey or grey-ish white and sleek with a futuristic-ish design. Even the controllers are loaded with buttons that require time to learn all the functionalities possible for the controller and for each game. In contrast, the Wii is a simple white, the console itself is rather simple looking, small and compact and the controller looks more like a remote, an already well established household object.

The gameplay on the Wii is also quite natural itself, rather than learning button combinations, the Wii opts for physical movements that are easy to pick up and learn. And the Wii taps into all of these facts to market itself. Look at TV ads for Playstation or Xbox, they are generally quite high-end looking and flashy, the Wii ads are of people just playing with the Wii in a social context.
It's because of all this that the Wii attracts more female gamers than any other console. The actual content of the games also help to break down this barrier to entry for potential and current female gamers with games that are violent for those females who like it and for male audiences and games that are simple, perhaps with cute graphics, realistic in the sense that it might be something they like to do/play (eg: Tennis).

So whilst we might generalize that females just aren’t into video games, it’s more the console manufacturers and their marketers which are pointing the consoles more at the male gender. If Sony or Microsoft started designing their consoles at females in terms of console and controller design, the types of games available and the price of the console itself, the amount of females participating in video games on those consoles may increase also.

Kill or Be Killed: Negative Representations of Males in Video Games

The 21st century, although in its early stages, has given birth to a new era of gaming where players are immersed in story lines saturated with graphic violence, sexual content and offensive language.

It is these story lines that we the gamer find ourselves addicted to as they are vehicles for which we can participate in acts which would certainly not be accepted in mainstream society.

We find ourselves sucked into a virtual world governed by its own rules and regulations and as a result leave the digital world having witnessed and/ or accrued labels and stereotypes not befitting to our real selves but rather to the gender groups to which we belong.

The Grand Theft Auto franchise has certainly opened up a big can of worms in the sense that it adheres to everything I have touched on so far but also may be considered in a positive light in that it also gives us things to ponder and critically analyze that we may have not done so previously.

Yes, the female is portrayed negatively, for example as a crack head, as seen by my recent experience when playing Grand Theft Auto IV where I had to fetch a female characters coke back from an abandoned hospital. But it is the decisions I made and the actions I had to take in this mission which made be think that females weren't the only ones being portrayed in a negative light in the virtual world in general. Males to, whether some like to admit it or not, are equally if not on a larger scale portrayed negatively as well.

Hell, the male character I was playing had to kill about 30 people and outrun a 3 star wanted rating to even complete the mission while also having to steal numerous cars violently throwing its occupants from them to acquire them.

If that doesn't constitute a negative representation of a male then I don't know what does. What this blog has tried to make readers understand is that although it is the negative representation of females that we largely pay closer attention to, the negative representations of males do deserve as much attention and analysis than ever because if we the gamer go on ignoring it any longer it could spiral out of control to depths which it may not recover.

BY KYLE REDPATH

DATE: 02/08/2010

Gender barriers in video games - A core issue

Image source: Author screen capture

More females are playing games than ever before, but they aren't necessarily playing the same games as males. Is this a problem?

More female video gamers means that more females are engaging with new media technology. In this sense, the gender split between casual and core games should not matter, so long as players feel comfortable playing the games that they want to play.

Whether your personal preference is for the social, easy to learn gameplay of Farmville or the complex strategy-based warfare of Starcraft, if you're female and you're engaging with the technology, then more power to you.

 In reality, the casual-core split does matter. Problems arise when females encounter barriers that stop them from playing certain video games.

At a workshop in 2005, game designer Sheri Graner Ray was shocked to discover that the group of female game developers she was speaking to had never played the five games that she had selected to discuss. All five games were critically acclaimed best sellers. All five featured male avatars and were played mostly by males.

Once the women played the games, they thoroughly enjoyed them. It wasn't the gameplay that had prevented them from enjoying Warcraft (a real-time strategy game) or Halo (a first-person shooter). There were other gender-related barriers that had prevented them from playing the games.

Female gamers may now be more common, but gender inequality prevents them from having equal access to core games. If players encounter a gender issue (hypersexualised characters, lack of female characters, hostile cross-gender play) that makes them uncomfortable playing a game, they may be prevented from experiencing gameplay that they would otherwise enjoy.

Moreover, if this inequality prevents females from gaining the skills required to use the digital technologies that are becoming increasingly important for work and play, the stakes are much higher.

Elena Bertozzi's recommendations make an excellent starting point for changing gender inequality (see the week 3 tutorial reading). Whether we see her suggestions incorporated into male dominated core titles is another matter entirely.