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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

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