Masculinity in Video Games

[KillerGremlin]

Here is my word-by-word deconstruction...feel free to disagree.

Older games prove we’re brighter than that. Uber-macho characters have always existed – series like Quake and Doom are an integral part of games history – but the art and writing style didn’t always dominate the big titles.

I always thought "Quake" and "Doom" were nameless and faceless. I'm not sure how this is hyper-masculine or hegemonic...Doom was practically a horror genre piece when it came out. These games are historically renown for their _LACK_ of story. Chug and plug; you shoot things. Quake kind of expanded on Doom...and you had games like Turok or Goldeneye. But it wasn't until Half-Life that we really went beyond the faceless hero. And Half-Life is not hegemonic.

For all we know the "Doom guy" was a "Doom girl." I remember the Doom days being especially turbulent with issues of violence...there was the Columbine shooting and people were up in arms about violent video games. I don't think Doom is a reflection on masculinity, even in hindsight. Doom 3 is pure horror genre. To me...Doom is cold, sterile, and sexless. I haven't seen Doom making anyone's dick throb, and the game itself is pretty nerd-culture. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Halo: Combat Evolved’s dialogue co-existed with No One Lives Forever, and Serious Sam’s jaw line was contrasted by Morrowind’s everyday proportions, but over recent years the testosterone levels have been creeping up.

This bitch hasn't played Halo...because last I checked Halo is about Master Chief working with Cortona (a hot, smart, sexy FEMALE) to save the universe. Also, despite his big muscles, Master Chief seems pretty levelheaded and a cool guy.

Serious Sam is a fucking parody. I mean it's an amazing, 10/10 game in terms of gameplay too. But it's like the Beavis and Butthead of First Person Shooters. If anything...Serious Sam is poking fun at hyper-masculine. Comedy is always excluded from being racist...or Richard Pryor suddenly isn't funny.

From blocky to realistic looking...that guy doesn't look all that bulky.

Why should I picture this guy naked? I'm picturing him kicking ass...which is the intent. If I want to see naked robots I'll go watch anime, but honestly I'm not into that shit.

The art style isn’t to my tastes, but that doesn’t necessarily make it bad. Unfortunately it often is, but where it gets truly painful is the writing. Action clichés get substituted for dialogue and ‘he’s a stoic sarcastic cynic’ is used to patch over the gap where a developed character should be. It’s an excuse for writers to churn out stale one-liners, and dramatic raaaaaage is easier to animate than genuine grief.

A premise without any support or examples! That is a heinous crime in writing.

Settings don’t get off lightly either. There are entire game worlds populated by grunting proto-humans1 who’ve never seen colourful clothing and would probably pronounce it gay if they did. Whether a pre-existing universe fits the new style is irrelevant; it can (and often will) simply be retconned or ignored, with varying degrees of brutality. Hence Max Payne inexplicably becoming a mercenary in Brazil, or the mythology-based political intrigue of Morrowind being replaced by the gritty dragon-fighting of Skyrim. (Which is great if you happen to like those flavours of grimdark, but the destruction of old properties to produce them seems a terrible waste of a world.)

I found this to be unclear and incoherent as well.

One reason might be that it’s a power fantasy seen in everything from comics to rock bands. Being unstoppably badass is an idea we can all get behind, and popular culture often links that with heavy musculature. Unless it’s a female character, in which case physical strength is symbolised by wedge heels.

Again...not true at all, and there are no examples. If anything, there are A LOT of females in gaming, which is predominately and stereotypically a male dominated genre. Lara Croft, Samus, Cortona, Kate Archer, Zelda, the women of Left 4 Dead. And there are a crop of KICK ASS female characters in the "video game" movie crowd....how about Milla Jovovich as Alice, or Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, or Uma Thurman as Beatrix Kiddo, or Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor...

Not to say that liking macho characters makes you thick, but developers often aim for what they consider to be the lowest common denominator and ‘guns, gore and none of that writing shit’ about sums it up. I don’t think gamers are sissyphobic dickwads who need to be placated with action film clichés, but how many companies do?

Diminished writing is a critique of a handful of popular, mainstream titles. Whereas many titles...ironically often on the PC or Nintendo platform...feature rich worlds with tons of text. Have you people actually read through all the logs in Metroid Prime? There is a fucking book's worth of material to read through in that game.

When you spend day after day looking at these images your sense of reality quietly shifts until Solid Snake becomes your pattern for a standard male body type, so when you want to make a character look strong and imposing you make him a little bigger than the ‘norm’. Over time, the baseline standards creep up and up like an arms race; each competitor inflating his biceps a little more each round.

I don't see any truth in this...and by truth I mean science. This is an intangible generalization, and carries the weight of a fart with all the nasty smells of something from the sociology cellar. Support this shit with facts, or shut the fuck up.

As for the writing? I don’t know. I’m hoping you can tell me, friendly readers, because my best guess is a mixture of a common enough power-fantasy that developers can coast by on it, how easy it is to write, and an inexplicable worship of brainless power tops.

Halo has a book...you can supplement many of the war games by actually reading about the wars. Call of Duty's roots are World War II and many of the game's fight if not all of them are actual battles. Maybe the current generation has a handful of titles that feature big explosions over big writing, but many games are also rich with pop culture. Look at Grand Theft Auto. There are more cultural references in Grand Theft Auto than in 10 seasons worth of the Simpsons. That game is rich with movie culture, pop culture, music culture, and inside jokes that would make even Ken Jennings blush.

[KillerGremlin]

Originally Posted by Vampyr

I think that the dealio here is that big boobs aren't what makes a character feminine, but I think that's what you mean when you say characters have gotten "more feminine."

Another big cop out when designing female characters that game designers tend to take is to, as you said, just load them up on stereotypically male characteristics. Want a strong female character? Load them up on tattoos and make them rude to everyone, that should do it (case in point: Jack from Mass Effect). They failed so spectacularly with that character. The person who designed her actually said she was supposed to be a strong female character...it's madness. They managed to do everything wrong with her - totally male characteristics (down to the name), plus a sex addiction and skimpy clothing. Jesus Christ.

Games need "strong" female characters that that aren't strong because they represent male stereotypes. A good example is actually Anya, from Gears of War. Her character is almost motherly towards others, especially Marcus, but she's also a fierce fighter and intelligent.

Motherhood is actually a theme that could really be explored in video games that could actually add a ton to female characters. And I don't mean that every female should have a child - exploring the negative of motherhood (women who don't want children, and how they interact with them) is another possibility. As of now it's not really commented on either way in video games.

Feminism hates motherhood. Good luck. Being motherly is fitting in the hegemonic male culture. Why should a female be motherly when she can fight it up or go all slutty. I love feminism...it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

Not all feminism is horribly written. But 98% of pop feminism is trash. A lot of it masquerades behind constructs that don't exist in real life. A lot of it hides behind fancy words and lengthy books that would take a scholar to deconstruct.

Most scholars are off doing things worthwhile though...like becoming lawyers or physicists or doctors. It's a great irony.


EDIT: And as a huge Halo fan...HUGE HUGE Halo fan...Cortona saves Master Chief a few times, and he rescues her. I love Cortona, and she is an awesome, strong, female lead. Is she motherly? Maybe...I dunno. To me she is kind of sexy and like a companion.

[Vampyr]

Well, that's why I said characters who don't want to be mothers would also be interesting.

But yeah, maybe the reason game stories haven't gone there is because they would inevitably screw it up.

[KillerGremlin]

Assuming that video games are on par with books or cinema...and they are with an ever expanding library...

You are going to have some pop trash, and some good stuff. We can accept that there is a "strong man" mytho....as per the Greek stories Prof S mentioned, or movies like Conan the Barbarian, 300, Commando, and Die Hard. But maybe people just like watching stuff blown up. I get the homoerotic nature of the strong man mytho...but I'm not empathizing or envying these guys. I don't want to look like a beefcake.

If anything, the emergence of these "strong men" in video games is a retort to all the guys in skinny jeans. Big beefcake guys are on the decline these days, with a curving upward group of metro-sexual males.

This issue is much more complicated than that badly written article, and video games as a medium deserve some love. I enjoy the occasional manly man movie where shit is being blown up and they are cranking out the cheesy as fuck one liners. If you can't appreciate what Gears of War is....polished testosterone and blowing shit up...then how can you appreciate something like No One Lives Forever or Metroid Prime?

[Typhoid]

Wait, it's not like male leads in games in the past weren't war-mongering muscle-having gun-toting women-fucking machines.

It's just that when games first started coming out that the graphics were dirt-poor, so you couldn't have definition. Everyone was a block regardless of how beefy they were supposed to be. So when going back, you have to rely on the glorious box art to portray your characters, and let the imagination turn the blocks into those muslce-laden destruction-Gods who love to fight.

I present to you Sean's first annual nothing's-really-changed awards.




























However, like I said, it's not like certain companies haven't made their leads more feminine as the years have gone on. Even just starting at FF7, you have Cloud, a cocky masculine male lead in the army. Then a slender egotistical college kid. Then you have a monkey-boy with a tail. Then whatever the fuck Tidus was. Then you have Vaan and Penelo - but considering the main character of the story is technically Asch, it's already a girl. Then you get Lightning, which has seemingly come full-circle where they just removed Clouds dick and gave him tits.

I'm not saying that's a problem, or bugs me. I was just bringing it up.

[Angrist]

So what about Half Life 2's Alexis, does she count as a strong female? I really loved the game because of her. She was so realistic (graphics and emotions).

[Bond]

I stopped reading after the third grammatical error, but this tells me everything I need to know:

Mariel Hurd is a console-shunning queer feminist with too much time on her hands. She likes to fill it with wargaming, RPGs and forming unpopular opinions.

[Blix]

Originally Posted by KillerGremlin

EDIT: And as a huge Halo fan...HUGE HUGE Halo fan...Cortona saves Master Chief a few times, and he rescues her. I love Cortona, and she is an awesome, strong, female lead. Is she motherly? Maybe...I dunno. To me she is kind of sexy and like a companion.

As a huge halo fan you should know it is Cortana, not Cortona.

Edit: Don't take it personally, it's just you made the same mistake many times and it got to me. XD

[KillerGremlin]

Originally Posted by Blix

As a huge halo fan you should know it is Cortana, not Cortona.

Edit: Don't take it personally, it's just you made the same mistake many times and it got to me. XD

lol, correction definitely noted. I still stand by my opinions on the issue though. Cortana is hot...not motherly.

[TheSlyMoogle]

Originally Posted by KillerGremlin

No. More like a stereotype. Like...all males fart and itch their balls, and think women should be in the kitchen.

Well all males do fart, and I've yet to meet a guy who doesn't scratch his balls occasionally. Those motherfuckers do itch.


ALPHA AS FUCK!!!

[Teuthida]

Originally Posted by Typhoid

However, like I said, it's not like certain companies haven't made their leads more feminine as the years have gone on. Even just starting at FF7, you have Cloud, a cocky masculine male lead in the army. Then a slender egotistical college kid. Then you have a monkey-boy with a tail. Then whatever the fuck Tidus was. Then you have Vaan and Penelo - but considering the main character of the story is technically Asch, it's already a girl. Then you get Lightning, which has seemingly come full-circle where they just removed Clouds dick and gave him tits.

Yup, it's the exact opposite in Japan. I've seen articles about how there are no longer any strong male leads in most of their recent entertainment.

Probably very different for video games where you need a lot of approval for the final design of a character (I'm guessing) but in terms of comics, at least for me, big muscly guys are just more fun to draw.

And I prefer my video game characters to be cute, colorful and barely humanoid. The only game of this generation I've played is Portal 2. I would say that's a strong female character.

The body types just seem to make sense for the type of game they're in. Going by the character roundup Earl did at NOTR, the only thing these male characters are guilty of is being boring. Looks like could swap in most of them for any of the games. Sev is basically Drake with a beard and baggier pants. And what is Cole MacGrath's deal? Other than the scar, he's a normal dude. If I had to guess based on the picture...he's a forest ranger? Scar's from a raccoon but he tells everyone it was a bear.

[Professor S]

FYI - I have engaged the bitch in debate. Fun!

[Combine 017]

The one who wrote the article?
Do post.

[Professor S]

It's in the comments section of the blog.

[Typhoid]

Would you care to post the transcript in here, simply so those interested in potential hilarity can read along, without having to click any extra pesky links.