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Semiotics Essay

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In this essay I am going to analyse and evaluate the relationship between the two CSP game covers(Tomb Raider and Metroid). To do this I’m going to apply my knowledge and understanding of semiotics to aid my arguments and counterpoints.

I will be arguing the point that the over-sexualisation of women which can be seen to be directed to Lara Croft, the main protagonist in Tomb Raider, is exploited by game companies to appeal to their target demographic of straight males. Furthermore I will further explore this idea of the male gaze by using other examples from articles and feminist influences and point of views. I will go onto the game ‘Metroid’ and elaborate on the radical approach the game creators took with the narrative, this approach being the fact that the game left it open whether or not the main protagonist was female or male. The game did this by not revealing who was under the armour, that armour being seen as something that would be worn as a male, but that would be expected from the stereotypical and reactionary gaming demographic. For each of the CSP’s I will display a counterpoint to each of my original arguments.

On the Tomb Raider front cover the dominant signifier is clearly represented as the main protagonist Lara Croft, this means she is going to act as the focal point to the consumer. So of course, to appeal to the large majority of the gaming demographic, the game companies oversexualised Lara Croft, this can be seen with the posture used which emphasises her body. This iconic sign on the denotation of the cover creates a code, to the most likely straight male consumer, a code which implies to that consumer what the game is about. It could be said that the game companies, at least in some instances, rely on the male gaze

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Key Terms: Representation

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  1. Male gaze: when media tries to appeal to a straight male by trying to represent things as they would see it.
  2. Voyeurism: The act of prying into peoples personal lifestyle and affairs.
  3. Patriarchy: patriarchy is a term to describe a society which is controlled by men.
  4. Positive and negative stereotypes: a positive stereotype refers to a subjectively favourable belief held about a social group. Common examples of positive stereotypes are Asians with better math ability, African Americans with greater athletic ability, and women with being warmer and more communal. Whereas a negative stereotype a stereotype that describes the undesirable, objectionable, or unacceptable qualities and characteristics of members of a particular group or social category.
  5. Counter-types: a positive stereotype and emphasizes the positive features about a person
  6. Misrepresentation: a false statement of a material fact made by one party which affects the other party’s decision in agreeing to a contract. If the misrepresentation is discovered, the contract can be declared void and, depending on the situation, the adversely impacted party may seek damages.
  7. Selective representation: Selective Representation is only showing (representing) some events/conflicts, not all, sometimes chosen based on importance, proximity to home, and viewer preference.
  8. Dominant ideology: the attitudes, beliefs, values, and morals shared by the majority of the people in a given society.
  9. Constructed reality: Sociologists generally accept that reality is different for each individual. The term social construction of reality refers to the theory that the way we present ourselves to other people is shaped partly by our interactions with others, as well as by our life experiences.
  10. Hegemony: The process by which certain values and ways of thought promulgated through the mass media become dominant in society. It is seen in particular as reinforcing the capitalist system.
  11. Audience positioning: Positioning is the relationships between the audience and the text, how an audience receives, reads and responds to a text. Producers consider very carefully how an audience might react to, or engage with, their text, based on how the text is encoded and decoded.

12. Fluidity of identity– fluid identity has the potential to change in many directions.

13. Constructed identity– identity is something that is personally constructed

14. Collective identity– the different identity groups in society

15. negotiated identity– the way in which you agree with others about identity

Exam Prep, Representation

Essay prep

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I produced an Indiana Jones’s type game and I created a dominant signifying image that was essentially masculine  and stereotypical. Although the antagonist was not really a male character, even though it may appear as male. This corresponds to Toril Moi’s analysis of the distinction between female, feminine, feminist categories of representation (1987). Only in my production there is a clear focus on masculinity. This can be identified in the typical stereotype of adventure games, where the main protagonist(the adventurer) is a man and has two sidekicks(one of which typically a woman).

Further to this I have exaggerated the muscular attributes of my character with expanded arms, legs and torso. I also included clothing that would be efficient for the story and confrontational, including an antagonist – signifying combat, aggression, conflict etc – and ancient clothing. In some ways this inverts Laura Mulvey’s notion of the male gaze in that my main character is there to be objectified and looked at, in the words of Laura Mulvey he is a character “establishing ways of looking and spectacle” (Mulvey, p. 883, 1999). However, the notion of the male gaze is quite distinct as it relates to the sexualisation of the dominant signifier, which is not the case for my character.

Nevertheless, I believe that it is generally accepted in society that masculinity is seen as much more aggressive, confrontational and violent than femininity. So in this sense my product is a reactionary representation of masculinity.

However, I don’t think this is a positive representation of masculinity as I personally believe that an over-aggressive (toxic) masculinity is not healthy for males to aspire to. As such, if I was to create this product again, I would avoid the stereotypical representation of an over-muscular, over-physical man and look to create a character that was more radical in representation. Perhaps inhabiting a range of signifiers that would connote a more feminine (ie less masculine) character. I could do this by re-sculpting my character in terms of their physical appearance, their clothing, their posture and even their gender. Changing the protagonists gender to female would make the product radical but a game which has already explored this idea is the ‘Lara Croft’ game franchise, although it may sem like a positive representation initially the game art/cover oversexualises Lara which I think is the wrong approach to creating a radical game. As such, I would be sending out a much more positive message (for me) about masculinity, if I made a radical product, one that used a positive countertype to present a radical and challenging representation which could help gamers to adopt a new ways of thinking about gender representation, with more positive role models for young people to aspire to. As Keith Stuart notes ‘the power of video games [is] a reflective, empowering and emotional influence on the lives of players’. (Why diversity matters in the modern video games industry, Guardian, 18 July 2017)

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Pithy quotes for essay

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Why Diversity matters article:

“The issue of diversity in gaming has been a hot topic in recent years. The industry traditionally projects an image that is young, white, straight and male,”

“The industry has been improving its depiction of non-white, non-male characters for several years, but in the last three E3 events, there has been a real sense of momentum, belief and priority”

Levelling up article:

“A 2015 study showed that 83% of non-Hispanic Black teenagers play video games, compared to 71% of Caucasian teenagers, with 69% of Hispanic teens not too far behind.”

“Over time, representation has become more frequent, and more importantly, more authentic within the realm of video games.”

Laura Mulvey Quotes:

“Once he actually confronts her his erotic drive is to break her down and force her to tell by persistent cross questioning.”

“In herself the woman has not the slightest importance”

Feminist Frequency:

“The Damsel in Distress predates the invention of video games by several thousand years”

“The gruesome death of women for shock value is especially prevalent in modern gaming”

Production

Games Cover

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Intent:

I’m going to make a games cover based around Indiana Jones Film and Game franchise because it’s a heavily reactionary and stereotypical concept which is very popular so when I transform it into a more radical and counter-stereotypical concept which would challenge consumers perspectives and assumptions much easier since the ‘Indiana Jones’ franchise since it’s very popular. I predict my radical product will be perceived as similar to the ‘Lara Croft’ game franchise

Media Language:

After analysing and describing CSP 1&2 I can assume that I can produce a reactionary and radical product which will look professional with the use of similar indexical, symbolic and iconic signs. After looking at CSP 1&2 I now understand what signs game covers typically use and how, knowing this is going to help me make my games cover since I know what signs to use.

Representation:

I’m going to be designing both: a radical cover, one which introduces and explores counter-stereotypical ideas which challenges the consumers reactionary response to a game which has the same concept of the one which I plan on making and a reactionary design, a design/concept of a game which is stereotypical and what the consumer may expect from a game with the concept of the one I plan on producing.

I feel a large, mainstream company would distribute/produce the reactionary version of the game since they’ll know/expect that a mass market will enjoy the game. Whereas I feel a smaller, maybe niche marketed games company would distribute and/or produce the radical version of the game.

Exam Prep, Notes, Representation

Representation

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The ‘Male Gaze’ is a very popular point of view used in media, this is mostly used in Film and Video Games. The ‘Male Gaze’ is essentially the interpreted way a male character would see the world depicted in the narrative, for example the ‘Male Gaze’ commonly over-sexualises any female character whether that be the costumes available for the genders or just the simple movement which may be exaggerated or iconic to that gender

“Ways of Seeing is a 1972 television series of 30-minute films created chiefly by writer John Berger and producer Mike Dibb. It was broadcast on BBC Two in January 1972 and adapted into a book of the same name.

The series was intended as a response to Kenneth Clark‘s Civilisation TV series, which represents a more traditionalist view of the Western artistic and cultural canon, and the series and book criticise traditional Western cultural aesthetics by raising questions about hidden ideologies in visual images. According to James Bridle, Berger “didn’t just help us gain a new perspective on viewing art with his 1972 series Ways of Seeing – he also revealed much about the world in which we live. Whether exploring the history of the female nude or the status of oil paint, his landmark series showed how art revealed the social and political systems in which it was made. He also examined what had changed in our ways of seeing in the time between when the art was made and today.”

The series has had a lasting influence, and in particular introduced the concept of the male gaze, as part of his analysis of the treatment of the nude in European painting. It soon became popular among feminists, including the British film critic Laura Mulvey, who used it to critique traditional media representations of the female character in cinema.”

The extract pulled from Wikipedia gives a short insight to the book ‘Ways of seeing’ by John Berger, published in 1972 it expertly explains the ‘Male Gaze’ and what it commonly means in the sense of using it in media.

Exam Prep, Induction, Semiotics

Key Terminology (semiotics)

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Semiotics: The study of signs

  1. Sign, stands in for something else
  2. Code, used to construct meaning in media forms
  3. Convention, the accepted way of doing something
  4. Dominant Signifier, the main thing that stands in for something else
  5. Anchorage, words that go along with an image to give meaning of context

Ferdinand de Saussure: Saussure believed in a concept, that can be described as “the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.” Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, one of the two founders of semiotics, introduced these terms as the two main planes, these terms being the ‘signifier’ and the ‘signified’.

  1. Signifier, stands in for something else
  2. Signified, thing or idea trying to be evoked
  3. Syntagm, a sequence or length of things in order to form meaning
  4. Paradigm, a collection of similar signs

C S Pierce: Pierce believed that there were only 3 signs ever, Iconic, Indexical and symbolic. Furthermore this implies that everything is made up of these 3 signs.

  1. Icon, a sign that looks like its object (think of camerawork, sets, props, and Mise-En-Scene)
  2. Index, A sign that has a link to its object (Think of sounds, props)
  3. Symbol, a sign that has an arbitrary or random link to its object (think of colours, textures, shapes, sounds)

Roland Barthes: Barthes semiotician work focused on the signs in the news and how to read them, he would take apart scenes in the news to analyse them more easily and find out what the news is actually saying.

  1. Signifcation, process of the construction of meaning from the signs
  2. Denotation, first level analysis (what a reader can see on the page)
  3. Connotation, meanings or associations we have with the image
  4. Myth, naturalizes events turning history into nature
  5. Ideology, a world view about how society should function
  6. radical, something you wouldn’t expect / out of the ordinary
  7. reactionary, what you would expect/ follows stereotypes