Daily Archives: April 19, 2023

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Metroid

CSP Metroid & Tomb Raider & Sims

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Metroid

Genre

Metroid is an example of a hybrid genre… it mixes together First person shooter, Action and Adventure, Sci-Fi, Horror,

Interplay of codes

The animations and textures are inspired by science fiction futurism and the dark aesthetics of gothic horror.

Steve Neale argued we could classify films according to the “specific variations” of the “interplay of codes” the producers used to construct meaning

Metroid is hard to classify as it draws from many different genres.

Narrative

“Metroid Prime 2: Echoes” is an adventure narrative

the hero, Samus Aran, is on a search and recuse mission – “locate federation troopers and render assistance”. She travels to the coordinates of their last transmission, a rogue planet called Aether, but she soon discovers the soldiers were brutally murdered by evil creatures from a parallel dimension.

Samus encounters U-Mos, who begins to describe to her the evil darkness that has befallen Aether. She agrees to retrieve the “Light of Aether” and the save the planet, and the entire galaxy, from certain doom.

The threat posed is the disequilibrium of Todorov’s narrative theory. Your role is to travel across the three regions, collect the light and return it to the Luminoth temples. This repair will create a new equilibrium of peace and stability to Aether.

There is a simple binary conflict between the light and dark worlds. In terms of Propp’s character types and spheres of action, you are the hero.

Destroy the baddies in each level. Return the light to the temple. Save the universe. Simple.

Representation

original marketing material for “Metroid” did not identify the protagonist’s gender. For example, the first edition of “Club Nintendo” magazine referred to Samus Aran as a “highly trained and infamous space hunter” and avoided any gender specific pronouns:

Samus Aran is a feminist icon because she is not reduced to a passive stereotype, such as the princess who needs rescued, but is represented instead as the determined and brave hero in the narrative, keeping the galaxy safe from Space Pirates and other wicked villains.

she subverted the traditional gender roles found in many other computer games and her character could be considered a breakthrough moment for the representation of women in an industry that was dominated by men.

Young girls could now imagine themselves as their heroine going on incredible missions and battling evil forces rather than having to construct their identity according to representations of masculinity.

While Samus Aran is one of the most prominent female characters in computer games, her representation remains problematic because plenty of critics argue she is still being objectified for the male gaze.

The denouement was determined by how long it took you to complete the game. If you defeated the main boss in under an hour, Samus Aran would strip out of her exoskeleton and wave to the player in nothing more than a bikini. In fact, if you entered “justin bailey” (or a few other more obscure codes) as the password, you could play the entire game in a pink leotard and pink boots.

Judith Butler argued representations of gender that transgressed the traditional binary definitions would cause gender trouble. Since the producers knew they were subverting expectations, did they feel the need to offer this half-naked depiction of the character in a guilty attempt to emphasise her femininity?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/39a1b88f-79dc-4602-8207-f86918afd457

Target Audience

If you were to scan through the videogame magazines or the marketing materials for major releases, you would assume young boys were the primary audience because they feature so much in those media texts.

The game also appealed to young girls, statista estimated 45% of video gamers in 2021 were female. This figure has been fairly steady since 2008.

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Games Revisit – Tomb Raider + Metroid + Sims Freeplay

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Tomb Raider

Metroid

Sims Freeplay

GameTomb RaiderMetroidSims Freeplay
SummaryLara Croft is one of the most recognisable protagonists in computer games. Her agility and confidence offered a counter representation to the passive female characters that were found in most other titles, but some critics believed she was a negative role model for young people because her ridiculous body shape reduced her to an object that appealed to male gaze.
Key Facts…watching Tomb Raider… might encourage girls to become somewhat more independent and feisty, without them needing to directly copy an extensive fight sequence, embark on a perilous quest for ancient artifacts…
David Gauntlett
Key wordsJarod Lanier, Socialisation, Regulation, Utopian Possibilities, David Gauntlett, Henry Jenkins, Privacy, BaudrillardJarod Lanier, Socialisation, Regulation, Utopian Possibilities, David Gauntlett, Henry Jenkins, Privacy, BaudrillardJarod Lanier, Socialisation, Regulation, Utopian Possibilities, David Gauntlett, Henry Jenkins, Privacy, Baudrillard
Talking points
Introductions

Introduction.

Theorists such as Jarod Lanier, Baudrillard, Henry Jenkins all in one way or another have a say on New Media. I would also like to include David Gauntlett in the discussion on video games.

Exam Prep, Metroid, Sims, Tomb Raider

Sims, Metroid, Tomb Raider

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Sims – Freemium model – casual audience – more try out the game – more impressionable
Sims literally depicts life – good medium for propaganda/hyperdermic needle
imagined communities – sims creates communities of virtual people – allows differing/similar opinions and viewpoints/ideologies to mix
Banned in certain parts of the world – China/UAE/Saudi Arabia due to possibility of establishing a homosexual relationship – goes against Skinner’s concept of “free will” and shows strict regulations of the game and goes against Livingstone and Lunt’s theory that powerful media companies (i.e EA) are commonly able to waive regulation policies.
Game is quite literally a simulation of life – Baudrillard

Tomb Raider – Cultivation – repetitive products – violence
patriarchy – Laura Mulvey etc – appeal to stereotypes – reactionary content – Curran

Metroid –

Essay Starting Sentence

Audiences of video game products such as Sims or Tomb Raider could be argued to reject or accept ideologies conveyed by media products, and this process is often the product of industrial strategies to mitigate risks as identified by Hesmondhalgh, and the representations of products appealing to the concept of Postmodernism.

Audiences of video game products such as Sims or Tomb Raider could be argued to reject or accept ideologies conveyed by media products as a result of media effects theories, and this process is often the product of industrial strategies to mitigate risks as identified by Hesmondhalgh, and the representations of products appealing to the concept of Postmodernism.

Revision

Tomb Raider, Sims and Metroid Re-Visit | Day 3

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The Sims, Theory, examples and their links:

Hesmondhalgh Theory, Risk/Profit:
The Sims FreePlay follows the freemium business model. This is a free game available to everyone who uses an app store, however the game can be progressed quicker by using in game purchases, EA uses addiction methods like making things take time within the game, therefore players want to skip these things, doing that requires points which cost money.

Gauntlett Identity theory (constructed):
For instance, the choice of skin tones available at the start of The Sims FreePlay in the character customisation screen is a recognition of the racial diversity of the audience. In this way, the town becomes a place which reflects the player’s identity and values.

Gauntlett Identity theory (Collective) &  Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities:
The Sims FreePlay has a dedicated group of players who call themselves Simmers. They exchange tips and ideas on forums such as the fandom page – a wiki platform for fans to celebrate and engage with their favourite media products.

Postmodernism within “The Sims”:
The game is seen as a “simulacra” of the real world and is a “pastiche” where people can live whatever life they like.

Metroid:

Hybrid Genre, Steve Neale:
Firstly, we have the First Person Shooter Genre, this is seen by the genre repeated visor features, these being a heads-up display (HUD) where you can check your ammunition count and health status.
Secondly, we have Action and Adventure, In terms of action, Samus Aran is a bounty hunter so most of your time will be spent with the combat mode activated on your visor. And in terms of Adventure, the game has lots of puzzles to solve. As you work your way through Agon Wastes, collecting the important upgrades to your jump and beams, you also need to find three keys to open the boss door.

Judith Butler, Male Gaze, Patriarchal society and feminism:
In the original Metroid game, we can see that if you defeated the main boss in under an hour, Samus Aran would strip out of her exoskeleton and wave to the player in nothing more than a bikini. The developers received backlash from this oversexualisation, however they knew they would be “subverting expectations” if they didn’t include a over-sexualised version of “Samus” in Metroid 2, so in this case they added a reveal unlocked if you gathered more than 75 items, in this reveal she is wearing a skin tight, dark blue suit which defines and over sexualised the female attributes like breasts, thighs and glutes.

Hesmondhalgh:
“Metroid” was created in 1986 by Nintendo’s own research and development team, known as R&D1. If you wanted to play any of their original titles, you had to buy their system. The independent Retro Studios was granted the license to develop “Metroid Prime” for the GameCube. When they struggled to deliver the game, Nintendo secured $1 million worth of the company’s stock and it became one of its subsidiaries.

Tomb Raider:

Gauntletts theory of empowering women from “Media, Gender and Identity”:
In 2002, he suggested the representation of the Spice Girls and their “Girl Power” was a terrific example of how gender identities were more complex than the binary definitions which reduced women to passive housewives.
Tomb Raider game was released just after the Spice Girls topped the UK music charts with their single “Wannabe” so the representation of Lara Croft fits in with that new wave of female empowerment.
Gauntlett: “…watching Tomb Raider… might encourage girls to become somewhat more independent and feisty, without them needing to directly copy an extensive fight sequence, embark on a perilous quest for ancient artifact”

Hybrid Genre, Steve Neale:
Tomb Raider is (like metroid) an “action Adventure” game.
The third-person perspective allows the player to rotate the camera and view their surroundings without having to move the character. This gives a better sense of the 3-D space and discover solutions to the puzzles.
The player actions, attacks and weapons displays the Action genre where Lara fights enemies to get to the final gem within the game.

Propp Stock characters:
Lara Croft is obviously the hero because she goes on a quest to defeat the villain, the Queen of Atlantis, who wants to remake the world in her evil image. Natla could also be considered a dispatcher because she sends Lara to Peru in search of the first Scion of Atlantis.

Jean Seaton and James Curran, Conglomerate domination:
Some critics would also argue this business model enables the creation of increasingly complex and financially risky games. For example, Core Design needed substantial funding to complete “Tomb Raider” or the game would never have left the design board. Core design is owned By “Square Enix” who have a net worth of close to 30 billion JPY.

Exam Prep

Openings

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PAPER 2 LONG FORM QUESTIONS:

1. Metroid, Sims, Tomb Raider (Gaming / New Media) – Paper 2

As Jaron Lanier writes in his book Who Owns the Future, “right now is the time when people are learning how to live with digital networks”. So, when considering the effect of new media on society what does this future look like?

In this essay, I want to draw on ideas by Jarod Lanier, Benedict Andersen and David Gauntlet in an analysis of Tomb Raider, Metroid and Sims, to establish just what kind of effects new media gaming technologies have had on society. In particular, I want to look at the impact of mental wellbeing (Lanier), identity (Gauntlet) and our the way in which our society is more imagined than real (Anderson). I want to reference these theoretical approaches as they will provide a focus for traditional ideas of audience behaviour. In particular, I want to consider if audiences are active or passive.

Lanier suggests that we are passively consuming new media, and particularly gaming technologies, passively. He argues that  . . . .

2. Men’s Health and Oh (Magazines) – – Paper 2

Although magazines sales are declining rapidly in the age of new media with a decrease of 38.56% within the last three years, according to an on-line article written by Dean Talbot. As such, an analysis of Oh and Men’s Health provides an interesting focus for this type of media form. In particular, the notion that masculine and feminine identities are, what Roland Barthes would call ‘myths‘ created by modern day society, that still expose the patriarchal nature of society that still exists today. However, more radical notions of identity around multiculturalism, which challenge the notion of ‘Orientalism’ as theorized by Edward Siad, may now be found in a new wave of magazine production.

3. Teen Vogue and The Voice (on-line, participatory journalism) – Paper 2

In his book ‘We Media’ Dan Gilmor celebrates the rise of grassroots journalism, which provides a more participatory experience, of which Clay Shirky advocates. This new form of media production and consumption has given rise to a blurred line between those who produce and those who consume (the prosumer), which The Voice and Teen Vogue both illustrate. Clearly Teen Vogue is an example of mainstream, traditional media expanding into the digital era, which can be compared with The Voice which exemplifies the concept of grassroots journalism of which Gilmor writes as it attempts to challenge the established orthodoxy and prevailing social, political and economic viewpoints. As such, much of this essay will be underpinned by theoretical perspective presented by Gramsci (cultural hegemony), Chomsky (the Manufacture of Consent) to argue that new media journalism has had a beneficial impact on the media landscape of society.

To begin it would be worth looking at a couple of stories from both The Voice and Teen Vogue which I found pertinent from my own research . . . .

4. TV – – Paper 2

The production of what we may call television drama has dramatically changed with the advent of new forms of digital distribution and exhibition. New platforms of consumption, new modes of production have had the result that domestic television drama is now produced in consortium with a range of intereseted parties and as a result is seeking new transnational audiences.

However, although the nature of production, distribution and exhibition has radically altered, the content of contemporary television drama appears to have changed very little.

Therefore, in this essay I will be looking TV SHOW 1 and TV SHOW 2 to show how the process of manufacture is both complicated and intertwined, whereas the content of production remains generic, conventional and familiar. A notion of genre production characterised by Steve Neale‘s concept of ‘repetition‘ and ‘difference‘.

For instance, looking at TV SHOW 1 it is clear that . . .

PAPER 1 LONG FORM QUESTIONS:

Score / Boss Life (Advertising, Marketing) – q. 4 Paper 1?

One key area of Media Studies is the focus on representation. David Gauntlet (drawing upon ideas originally established by Anthony Giddens) is a key thinker around notions of identity. Giddens talks about the concept of the reflexive Self in his book Modernity and Self-Identity (1991). The notion that identities can be changed through individual agency and through specific institutions seems applicable to Boss Life in comparison with Score. Boss Life challenges the notion of marginalisation, it takes on board and plays out the concept such as, intersectionality as expressed by feminist critical thinker bel hooks and double consciousness as articulated by academics such as Paul Gilroy most notably in his book There ain’t no Black in the Union Jack (1987).

For instance, in Score we can see . . . .

Ghost Town and Letter to the Free (Music Videos) – q. 4 Paper 1?

Antonio Gramsci made it clear in his Prison Notebooks that political action is inextricably linked to cultural change. Music provides an inspiration and starting point for both political and cultural change, which Gramsci termed a battle for ‘hegemony’.

Clearly both Letter to the Free and Ghost Town present music video as a challenge to mainstream culture and political thought. As such, looking at these videos in terms of both how they are structured ie narrative and genre as well as what they mean ie representation will help to support Gramsci’s notion of hegemonic struggle. In particular, both videos seek to explore identity in terms of postcolonialism and what academics Franz Fanon and Paul Gilroy would term double consciousness.

For instance, in . . . .

Daily Mail and The i (Newspapers) – q. 7 Paper 1?

An exploration of newspapers reveals a number of key ideas, however, in this essay I want to focus on 1) the significant role a free liberal press can play in the transformation of the public sphere – ideas explored by Jurgen Habermas, Noam Chomsky and James Curran (among others) and 2) the extent to which media literacy demands a reading of news / newspapers to ensure that we are all aware of the specific individual bias that each newspaper or news outlet reproduces either deliberately or just a result of its’ organisation and mode of production.

Defining the political compass of both the Daily Mail and The i through a comparative analysis of their editions from Monday June 6th 2022 will help me to explore the 5 filters established by Noam Chomsky and to argue that while we still need newspapers (and in a new media environment) established news production agencies, to ensure that the Transformation of the Public Sphere into a vibrant, engaging and relevant space continues. This must be tempered by a clear understanding that news and news agencies are neither wholly ‘truthful’ or with prejudice and bias.

To start with, I would like to contrast and compare the front covers of both papers which are reporting on the celebration ceremony for Queen Elizabeth II’s jubilee.

Looking at the Daily Mail it is clear that . . .

Newsbeat and War of the Worlds (Radio) – q. 7 Paper 1?

The relationship between media producers (institutions) and media consumers (audience) remains complicated. As David Hesmondhalgh makes clear, the culture industries – unlike other manufacturing industries – is ‘a risky business‘. Cultural production is not as straightforward as the production of other ultilitarian products – pens, pencils, tables, chairs etc – because cultural consumption rests upon taste (Bourdieu) and individual uses and gratifications (McQuail, Blumer and Brown et al).

An investigation into Newsbeat and War of the Worlds provides an opportunity to explore some of these issues and in this essay I want to advocate the need for some form of regulation and control exerted over the BBC by it’s Charter and supervision by Ofcom, as opposed to a less regulated, commercial model of cultural production which allowed CBS to broadcast its’ Halloween Special in 1938. Indeed, as we move towards a less regulated, new media environment that will become increasingly dominated by A.I. we may need to be mindful of the need for a public sphere (what Elon Musk calls the ‘Town Square’) that from the invention of the printing press onwards has provided the possibility of a ‘transformation’ of public interaction and a growth in Media Literacy.

In this essay, I will draw upon the ideas of Jurgen Habermas and James Curran to argue for the need of some regulatory framework to ensure that media production, in this instance, radio production, maintains a focus on ‘truth’, ‘authenticity’ and ‘public interest’ to guard against what postmodern thinkers such as Jean Baudrillard would see as an ‘implosion’ of society into a world of shocking simulations that seek nothing more than commercial gain for the institution and offer little more than irresponsible escapism for the audience.

To start with, it is clear that although we cannot really know ‘the truth’ that surrounded the claims of moral panic as a result of the War of the Worlds broadcast, this particular media production clearly had the potential to misinterpreted by those members of the audience didn’t have the media literacy skills to take on board its’ ironic and artificial content. For instance, there are claims that . . . .

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Metroid, Sims & Tomb raider – CSP Revision

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  • David Gauntlett
  • Feminist Frequency
  • Male Gaze
  • Fluid Identity
  • Imagines communities
  • Simulation
  • Semiotics
  • Baudrillard
  • Lanier
  • Bandura
  • Gerbner
  • Cultivation Theory

“Metroid Prime 2: Echoes” was released in 2004 for the Nintendo GameCube

  • Samus Aran puts on her power suit, gets her weapons ready and protects the galaxy from the evil Space Pirates. She is the hero. – Relating to feminist ideas and how women are presented in the media like said by Van Zoonen and Judith Butler
Pages: 1 2
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tomb raider – metroid – sims

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Key words:

  • male gaze
  • semiotics (icon, symbol, sign)
  • risky business (hesmondhalgh)
  • Jarod lainer
  • gender performance
  • simulation
  • hyperreality

tomb raider:

  • Lara croft outfit not suitable for her adventures which suggests the character is there to be objectified to satisfy the male gaze
  • Sexualised body however does not ‘perform’ her femininity
  • Judith Butler – “masculine and feminine roles are not biologically fixed but socially constructed” – shown in tomb raider as Lara croft doing as what society would expect a male to do

metroid:

  • As of december 2021 Metroid franchise has sold over 20 million copies globally

sims freeplay:

  • Released for BlackBerry 10 in July 2013 and Windows Phone 8 in September 2013
  • 77% of women surveyed ages 35-54 said they played the game to “help them relax”. For women aged 55-64 the game provided “mental stimulation” – creates escapism and a hyperreality

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Sims, Metroid, Tomb Raider rev notes:

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  • self esteem
  • richard dyer
  • gender perfomativity
  • Jean kilbourne
  • risk
  • judith butler
  • constucted identity
  • mainstreaming.

stats and facts:

Sims 4 has received 36 million players worldwide across all platforms as of 2021, and has generated over $1 billion of total revenue as of 2019.

Tomb Raider games have sold over 95 million copies worldwide by 2022. while the entire franchise generated close to $1.2 billion in revenue by 2002.


As of December 2021, the Metroid franchise has sold over 20.19 million copies worldwide.

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Tomb Raider, Sims and Metroid – CSP Revision

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Key words/Ideas:

  • Simulation/ Hyperreality (Baudrillard)
  • Personal needs (Escapism, self esteem) – Uses and Gratifications (Katz, bloomer)
  • Interactivity
  • Risky Business (David Hesmondhalgh)
  • Male Gaze (Laura Mulvey)
  • Gender perfromance (Judith Butler)
  • Encoding and Decoding (Stuart Hall)
  • Semiotics (Barthes)
  • New Media (Bandaura, Skinner)
  • Mean World Index (George Gerbner)
  • Transformation of the Public Sphere (Jurgan Habermas) – becoming more anti-social and almost reversing the communication process that we have learnt as a society. People would rather text then talk to one another.
  • Jarod Lanier

Tomb Raider

Article: Why Diversity Matters – Links as to why media should include more diversity in their representations. These quotes are referring to the gaming industry.

  • ‘ The industry traditionally projects an image that is young, white, straight and male’
  • ‘Most games feature white protagonists’
  • ‘A scene in Pakistan displays shop signs written in Arabic, even though Pakistani people speak English and Urdu, not Arabic’
  • Links to male gaze as the way it objectifies Lara Croft
  • Links to Gender performance as she is posing as a radical representation for the the activity of women

Sims

  • Developed by EA Mobile and Firemonkeys Studios in 2011  (Nick Balaban, Michael Rubin) 
  • December 2011 – released for iOS
  • February 2012 – released for Android
  • Released for BlackBerry 10 in July 2013 and Windows Phone 8 in September 2013
  • The global mobile games market size is expected to reach $172.10 Billion in 2023.
  • Video games are rated in the UK (Pegi Rating System)
  • Sims construct their characters based of the functioning stereotypes within society
  • Sims seem to reflect individualist values and opinions
  • Broad target audience 12-40+
  • 77% of women surveyed ages 35-54 said they played the game to “help them relax”. For women aged 55-64 the game provided “mental stimulation” – Links to Katz with uses and gratifications. Creates escapism.
  • Freedom to customise the character to look a certain way – helps to create a wider range of diversity where audiences can feel represented
  • “It is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real” – Baudrillard, this applies as the game is still being constantly updated to create a more effective simulation

Metroid

Article: Why Diversity Matters – Links as to why media should include more diversity in their representations. These quotes are referring to the gaming industry.

  • ‘ The industry traditionally projects an image that is young, white, straight and male’
  • ‘Most games feature white protagonists’
  • ‘A scene in Pakistan displays shop signs written in Arabic, even though Pakistani people speak English and Urdu, not Arabic’

Opening Paragraph:

Baudrillard claims that our society has replaced reality and meaning with signs and symbols and that human experience is a simulation of reality. This can be seen in Sims Freeplay