Tomb raider

In this essay I’m going to apply semiotic analysis to both the tomb raider and Metroid video games covers. I firstly would argue that the tomb raider front cover is heavily influences you to buy the game because of the way the women is represented. It can be seen to show her in a reactionary and over sexualised way as a method of advertisement. Furthermore it displays certain body parts to be larger and have a more façade appearance. This has a link to the male gaze written by  Laura Mulvey, which depicts women in the world and represents them for masculinity for a sexual pleasure, for the male. This perfectly relates to the tomb raider, as most of its audience will probably be male.

On the other hand, since most of its audience would be male and a large majority of gamers would also be male, it would be stupid to not to this, as it would make you a lot of money for the games business. But since the tomb raider was made in 2007, a lot has changed, games now have altered their ways of looking at women and made a wider range of ways games can represent genders. In addition, the fact that they show her with guns in her hands and fighting monsters independently, shows that its not stereotyping females exactly.

Metroid game

As for the Metroid game, it resents females in a more radical style, because of the factors that make up a man, such as armour and broad shoulders, also shows big guns and strong muscles. Since the front cover includes lots of clothing and doesn’t show any female body parts, its clear that the publisher is not trying to persuade you to buy the game because of voyeurism. This is a counter-type and opposes the stereotype of females. The character in the game called Samus is hard to tell what gender it appears, which represents dominant ideology as it makes people create their own beliefs and ideas of what the characters personality and status just off the appearance of Samus on the front cover.