Williams, Dmitri, et al.
“The Virtual Census: Representations of Gender, Race and Age in Video
Games.” Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 21 July 2009,
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444809105354.
Summary:
In this article, a study
has been made on how, when, and if genders, races, and ages are being
represented in video games. Although the study was published in 2009, the
actual data they used was collected a lot earlier. Here, the authors go in
depth into how society affects video game production/consumption. They go on to
say that what people see in video games/media causes impressions on real world
society. Additionally, not seeing your ethnicity in video games/media makes you
think you’re not important because you’re not being represented. In their conclusion,
they find that there is an over representation of white adult males.
Response:
I both agree and disagree
with what the article was saying about this topic. The disagreements aren’t
much but they’re enough for me to wonder how differently this article would be
written if it was written using data collected from today’s gaming standards as
things have changed. Albeit, the change wasn’t as big as one would want, but the
important thing is that there is a change being made.
What I find interesting
is that different types of games cater to different races, ages, etc. For
example, in one instance, the article talks about sports games. I immediately
think of the Madden franchise and it
makes sense. In games like these where the characters are based on real-world
athletes, of course they would include different races. In this discussion of
the type of video game, African Americans are the predominant race.
I agree that the authors
are correct in saying that what we as the consumers buy dictates what game
producers are going to make. If you think about it, it makes complete sense. These
companies want to make money, not lose it. Thinking about it this way, are we
the consumers making our races more/less important without realizing it? It’s a
great thought and argument.
Quotations:
“The results show a
systematic over-representation of males, white and adults and a systematic
under-representation of females, Hispanics, Native Americans, children and the
elderly” (815).
“Cultivation theory
posits that the world of media exerts a broad, ‘gravitational’ pull on the
viewer, systematically shaping their worldview to match that of the symbolic
one on TV” (819).
“…the presence (or
absence) or a set of images in media causes a set of impressions in viewers (or
players) through well-studied cognitive mechanisms” (819).
“This is also relevant to
the populations themselves, as representation can have identity and self-esteem
effects on individuals…” (820).
“…this lack of appearance
is a direct signal to Latinos that they are relatively unimportant and
powerless compared to more heavily present groups” (828).
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I read the date of publishing I thought to myself "there's probably a huge difference now in 2018" and then you addressed that. I think though the article is a bit dated, it can at least provide readers with some ways to approach the same topic but in today's standards. I think an interesting way that you could begin to think about things is through the female perspective, not sure if it was talked about in the article or not. But, female representation is present (in games) but, the women are usually hyper-sexualized, even in the armor they wear. I can't help but think to myself 'how is she protected from enemies when her stomach and cleavage is exposed like that!!' I digress. But yes! representation is important. Because as you mentioned, what is represented creates, at times, a false sense of what is real and not.
ReplyDeletePriscilla,
ReplyDeleteI feel that even though this article was written in 2009, not a whole lot has changed in the world of video games. This article touches a personal topic for me; I am very into open-world role-playing video games and often feel so frustrated that I can only choose a male character to play through. Except for a few games (like Skyrim and Fallout), male-only characters seems predominant. Furthermore, many video games pull the extremely sexist and annoying costume inequality. The male characters always have amazing armor options while the women are forced to wear tiny sexualized attire. It drives me crazy. Furthermore, your article brings up a good point; there is a “systematic under-representation of females, Hispanics, Native Americans, children and the elderly.” Practically every leading character is a white male.
Priscilla,
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you that there are ethnic misrepresentation in most of these video games. I do want to say that even though this article was composed in 2009 I can agree with you that little has changed but it has changed in many aspects because I am a big time gamer. I happen to own a gaming computer with all the updated specs that can run any game that is being released as we speak now. Like I mentioned before, there is still a lot of changes that can be done in the gaming industry in order to make their games more inclusive, but I would like to add a game that has achieved that goal. For instance, there is a very memorable game that I still play up to date which is Overwatch. It is a strategy based first shooter game. Many different characters can be chosen and there are many characters who are females, males, and come from different ethnic backgrounds which is Mexico, Japan, China, Australia, The United States, Germany, Egypt, Africa, Brazil, and many more and it is a combination of males and females, and I could be missing some of the nationalities. The point is that there is a lot that can be done in the gaming industry in order to make it more inclusive to male and female genders and different ethnicity, but this game name Overwatch is a huge stepping stone into making games diverse due to the success and popularity of the game.
Great analysis, and keep those articles coming I love them!
I think this is a super interesting article. Representation is vital to feeling validated as a culture, race, gender, and individual. I find what you said very thought provoking: "Are we the consumers making our races more/less important without realizing it?" I think it's a yes and a no. Yes, because we continue to purchase and play games that confirm these representations (such as your example with Madden). However, you quote the author saying, “The results show a systematic over-representation of males, white and adults and a systematic under-representation of females, Hispanics, Native Americans, children and the elderly” (815). Now, if I am playing a zombie killing game, Grand Theft Auto, or games with those types of mature themes, I don't want my game avatar to be a kid. Likewise, I don't want to be an old person. So the elderly and children underrepresentation arguments seem unreasonable to me. Games are where you get to be a version of yourself that's better and stronger and able to do things that we can't do in reality. Thinking in that sense, however, race and gender must be represented equally. If there aren't strong female characters or racially diverse, then is that saying that those particular genders/races cannot be strong? I think that a lot of our Western ideals have shaped our thoughts on this. This reminds me of the episode of The Office where Toby is trying to by a doll for his daughter. He's too late but Daryl offers to sell him his for a higher price. He agrees. After the exchange is done, Toby looks at the doll and realizes that it is the African-American version of the doll and his face shows his disappointment. Daryl then firmly asks if there is anything wrong with the doll. So maybe we kind of just assume that the hero should be a white male so game creators make either no diverse characters or very little diverse characters in comparison. Obviously people are taking notice and protesting for change but for a long while, maybe that's been the subconscious reality.
ReplyDelete