Game Representation
Monthly Archives: September 2021
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The male gaze is the theory that men sexualise and objectify woman and portray them as sexual objects
Laura Mulvey, a British film theorist, challenged the centrality of the male viewer and his pleasure. This is called ‘The Male Gaze’. She wrote ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ which exposed her views an opinions. she was well known as a strong feminist and believed in equal rights between women and men.
The concept of ‘The Gaze’ was first used by John Berger, an art critic, in ‘ways of seeing’. This was a documentary that analysed the representation of women.
statement of intent video game cover:
Statement of intent.
I am gong to make an inlay sheet for a new video game. My video game is based around a female character, based on the star wars movies. I will have two representations of her, one being reactionary and sexualised by wearing revealing clothing and quoting stereotypical ”blonde” comments. The other being a strong and non gender conforming. A realistic picture of what a female fighting ‘bad guys’ with appropriate and realistic outfit would look. This representation of this character would be smart and quick thinking like a male character would be defined in a video game. I want to focus on the characters being no different other than their actual gender.
I want incorporate both reactionary and radical aspects. The female characters will be dressed as closely as possible to what a male would wear which is radical since females are stereotypically dressed in much tighter clothing which is contrasting to males. The character dressed in Tighter clothes will be reactionary since it is stereotypical for a female to dressed in. This will make her look like the ‘damsel in distress’. I will use a Paradigm, lots of signs that have a connection. Such as Tie fighters, The Millennium Falcon, and well known settings in the movies, on the print product.
I would like my final print product of my cover to be eye-catching and interesting. (a lot to look at), but neat at the same time. I want it to immediately communicate star wars and the aesthetic of fighters, star ships and well known characters, i.e.: Darth Vader, obi-wan Kenobi and Padme.
My age rating will be 15+, in order to be able to show the reactionary outfit of one of my characters as her breasts and bottom will be exposed slightly to promote the ideals of media sexualising and why is it obviously wrong. This would be inappropriate for anyone younger. The language of my radical character would be intelligent and intuitive which younger audiences wouldn’t understand.
Game inspection
representation
statment of intent
A FBI agent has to capture a fugitive there will be loads of clues on the way and the player will have choices along the way to decide the ending of the game all choices will lead to a different ending. Throughout the levels the FBI agent will have many encounters and obstacles to face, the ending will be decided by the choices of the player. Different levels will unlock different locations unlocking different clues to uncovering the location of the fugitive.
statement of intent- game cover
I am going to make a game cover based off of the film ‘mean girls’ as I will portray the characters differently, one will be stereotyped as a ‘dumb ditsy blonde’ who’s outfit will emphasise her upper and bottom half of her body and the other as ‘strong hard working woman’ who is wearing baggier clothes which don’t hug to her physique claiming she does not feel the need to fit in to todays media based stereotype.
Key language
CS PIERCE
Icon: A sign which looks like a symbol
Index: A sign that has a link to its objects
Symbol: A sign that is more random look to its objects (colour, shape)
RONALD BARTHES:
Myth: how words and images are systematically used to communicate cultural and political meaning
Radical: something that challenges dominant ideas
Ideology: System of ideas which form basis of economic or political theory or policy
Reactionary: something that confirms dominant ideas
Signification: Structural levels of signification, representation or a specific meaning
paradigm: a typical example or pattern of something
syntagma: an orderly combination of interacting signifiers which forms a meaning of words
Denotation: The most basic or literal meaning of a sign
connotation: Secondary meaning cultural meaning of signs or signifying signs, signs that are used for a secondary meaning.
Semiotics:
code: symbolic tools that are used to create meaning
Convention: A way that something is done
Dominant signifier: any material that signifies words on a page or facial expressions
Anchorage: Words that go with an image that provides content and information.
Sign: Something that could stand for something else (words, drawings or photographs)
Ferdinand De Saussure:
Signified: The idea being evoked by signifier.
Signifier: Stands in for something else
Statement of intention
My intention of my game I will create a female character who isn’t objectified like most games. It will be set in the jungle where she runs away from a group of criminals .The cover will be a girl dressed with camouflage bottoms and a black top with survival gear. In the background there will add a jungle setting and the main character right in the centre with her pet tiger who she befriends along her travel/hiding. The games aim is survival from running away from the group of men.
Statement of intent – Games cover
The game I have created is a first-person role-playing game, where the video game player has complete control over the storyline of the game.
The basic premise of the game is:
After a disastrous misunderstanding with the police, Andre Baker has to flee his hometown as a fugitive. The decisions and paths he takes whilst on the run are completely up to the game player, and there are hundreds of potential endings / paths which Andre could go down, contingent on the decisions the player makes. One storyline could feature Andre becoming a hardened criminal, whereas another could feature Andre turning himself in and facing the potentially serious charges posed against him in a court case.
My target audience will be men and women aged 15-30 , who are looking for a realistic, thought-provoking playing experience which focus’ on real-world issues such as racism and police brutality. By making the main character a minority, you give non – straight, white, male gamers a more relatable player to play with. Also, it allows the makers of the game to explore more unique storylines. This would be considered a radical approach because the main characters of video games are usually straight, white, men.
The dominant signifier is a car. I made this my dominant signifier, because a car symbolises ‘freedom’ which is the title of my video game. The colour palette of my video game cover will mostly consist of blue’s and blacks