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Males

  • Over represented in games
  • Driven by consumer demand: games tend to attract more male than female consumers
  • The difference of male and female characters in games are 85.23 male, 14.77 female
  • Compared to the actual population which is 50.9/49.1

'Race' in

Grand Theft Auto

  • Popular video games play on racial stereotypes
  • Many images of black youths committing and reveling in violent street crime
  • Some people unable to discern between reality and satirical depictions
  • Impacts real life racial understandings

So it can be seen that racism is an issue and people should be cautious and perceptive when playing their games

Representation and Stereotypes

in

Before we answer that,

let's watch this quick

30 second video...

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What games have you played that you've noticed lots of stereotypes in?

2. What do you think are some explanations as to why game characters are disproportionate to the general population?

3. Do you think characters in games should be representative of the real population or the gamer population?

And the point

of that was?

GENDER

AGE

RACE

Why are these terms

important?

THE END

DO exist in video games!

Stereotypes

By: Ariana, Jordan, Jordana and Shannon

14 Lightbulb

13 Basketball / Tennis Ball

12 Soccer Ball

9 Giraffe

7 Football

6 Rain Cloud

4 Caterpillar / Bug

2 Umbrella

1 Pig

1 Clover

1 Ice Cream Cone

and

With more and more people playing video games today we have to be aware of what ideas we are internalizing without realizing it.

Representations

so it's clear to see that

A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing

Stereotypes:

The description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way or as being of a certain nature

Representation:

"Knowledge Stores"

What do these terms mean?

Viewing/playing media creates 'constructs' in our knowledge stores.

Constructs are more easily recalled by a person when they are reinforced repeatedly and recently.

GTA: San Andreas

  • City of LA in 1990s
  • Cast of African-American and Hispanic men
  • Goal is to drive around city hitting pedestrians

AGE

When characters of different ages than the norm are available,

they usually fit one of a few stereotypes:

-the old grizzled soldier - Always white, and always around the age of 50-60.

-the wise old helper – often male, often some kind of wizard

-the old villain – male or female

-the old witch – female, often a villain but sometimes a helper or shop keeper

-the old crazy person – male or female

-the young naïve child

-the young annoying child

-the young adventurer

In other words, we internalize what we are exposed to most often.

Despite the wide range of ages present in the video game player demographic, the age range of characters available in most games is surprisingly limited.

For example:

There are over 100 playable characters in League of Legends, and almost all of them range from 20-40.

Exceptions include: Annie – an 8 year old girl

Zilean - who is over 100

  • Recognized and identified negative

stereotypes present in game

  • Said colour is used to make things more

obvious to the player

  • Didn't impact their relation to the game

Cultural Models of Race

The Gamers

cross overs of age and gender

more older characters are men

more younger characters are woman

in a set of four characters, never more than one is of an age below or above the average age, and you never have the choice of either an exceedingly young or exceedingly old character in the same game

Thought depictions of race were bad but didn't think about it when playing

With a list of 1737 game

characters arranged by age, I

could create the following stats:

10 and under 3%

teens = 25%

20’s = 33%

30’s = 17%

40’s = 10%

50’s = 5%

60’s+ = 7%

The Casuals

And if most of us

regularly engage in playing

video games, how are the

representations and stereotypes

present in them affecting us?

RACE

highest individual age = 16/17

highest category = 20s

Williams

Character demographics and portrayals of males and females in video games may effect players' perceptions and social reality of these groups

In GTA games, running over, shooting, or injuring another is not required but game's narrative often mandates said actions

  • Thought depiction was realistic depending on where you are from
  • Considered fact that black man could buy a house was unrealistic
  • Used their own experiences to comment on ideas of race
  • Liked game that featured some of their culture

GENDER

Game characters almost always

go without any change in age, but in

rare cases, the character will change ages.

The Zelda games are an example – Link is a child through all of windwaker, and is older in twilight princess and in skyward sword, as well as the jump back and forth in age when playing ocarina of time. In Metal gear solid as well, the characters age throughout the series.

The Athletes

The age of the characters is generally known to match the age of the target audience; books and movies about pre-teens are designed to be read/watched by preteens. Yet, the average video game character is now younger than the average video game player – this could be the industry trying to target the younger market, or perhaps they like to see their characters as immortal, and that players enjoy the stability of a forever-young character.

  • People worried racism in these games doesn't teach kids anything about respect, validates a much-too accepted stereotype
  • GTA earlier versions - players rewarded for killing prostitutes and brutalizing Haitians

Females

Dietz (1998): 4 categories of women in video games

  • Females as sex objects or prizes (28%)
  • Females as victims (21%)
  • Females in feminine roles
  • Females as heroes (15%)
  • Whites and Asians over-represented in games
  • Blacks mostly represented in sports
  • MMORPGs increasingly give players multiple options to explore in regards to race

Studies Conducted:

  • Dietz (1998): the most common portrayal for female characters was complete absence (40% of games)
  • Heintz-Knowles et al. (2001): studied 70 video games.
  • Out of 874 characters that were coded
  • 73% were male
  • 12% were female
  • When female characters did appear, they were mostly secondary characters.

Grand Theft Auto

  • Males: male thug working his way up in the organized crime system
  • Get rewarded for illegal activities
  • Some women are prostitutes
  • Little to no respect for women in the game
  • unflattering female role
  • content is demeaning

Females are more likely to be represented in a hyper sexual way.

  • partially nude
  • unrealistic body images
  • sexually revealing clothing/inappropriate attire
  • Dill (2005): studied 20 video games and found
  • 70% of the primary characters were men
  • 10% of the primary characters were women
  • 55% of the secondary characters were male
  • 31% of secondary characters were female

Breast size and and body cleavage also coded

  • Exposing more skin than males
  • More likely in low cut clothing with bare arms
  • 41% big busted

Sex Objects

Beasley and Standley (2000): studied the appearance of female characters and found 3 categories:

  • Sleeve length
  • Neckline
  • Lower body clothing

Lara Croft

  • An example of a strong female character yet still has a supermodel physique and a skimpy outfit
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