Identity Gender In console games

Recently I read an article on a popular gaming website that explored several characters that are widely known in the “gaming world” the article was titled Fake or Gay and was written by Jack DeVries who is an editor at www.IGN.com.   The article received mixed responses from the gaming community.  What the article explained was the underlining hints of homosexuality of game characters, the things that would suggest or be rumored about a game character but wasn’t fully confirmed.  Jack DeVries sought to find definitive facts that would confirm rumors or debunk misconceptions about game characters. This was done in a light humored way but not at all in an offensive way, if you bothered to read the article and choose to find out more about the person who wrote it.  

The article is on here for people to read:

DeVries, J. (2011)'Fake or Gay', IGN, 28 April [online] available at: http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/116/1164533p1.html (Accessed: 10 may 2011)

So the article most interesting point is the character of Yoshi from the Super Mario games.

Sato, M 'Yoshi' [digital image] Nintendo Co., Ltd. [online] Available at: http://jcooltech.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=100383865(Accessed: 10 may 2011)

The Article explains that Yoshi has been dating another character called Birdo shown below.

Sato, M 'Birdo' [digital image] Nintendo Co., Ltd. [online] Available at:
Image of Birdo from: http://fantendo.wikia.com/wiki/Mario_Kart_Super_Speed (Accessed: 10 may 2011)

(1993) page from Super Mario Bro 2 manual,  [online]  Available at: http://gamingfreeks.com/?p=1764 (Accessed: 10 may 2011)

 

DeVries explain that in the first game the character appeared, the Manual for the game explained that Birdo was  a Male who believes that he is female. Transgendered is the technical term DeVries used to explain Birdo’s circumstances. The article was interesting in Gamer Nerd Value, by that I mean completely trivial to those who may have heard of the character and utter pointless by those who don’t even care about computer games at all.  But Sophie mentioned in the last lesson on how we could apply the subject of the blogs to an interest we have as long as it tied into out courses discourse in some way.  Sophie mentioned games and how the identity, gender and race are shown in this popular media.  So from this I was curious on how Sexuality and gender identity are shown in the gaming world.

with men and women. In the gaming world these simpler character deployments or paradigms of sexuality are harder to come by.  To see lesbian characters in games is more common and mainly I feel this is due to male interested over story and character development. For example The Game Fear Effect 2 hinted at its main characters ‘Hana Tsu Vachel and Rain Qin’ were in a lesbian relationship to the adverts before the games release shown below. Both characters were seen as strong independent females something seen in many other games such as Lara Croft in the Game Tomb Raider or Samus Aran in the game Metroid. But as far as Lesbian relationship went Fear Effect 2 was probably one of the first MORE popular games to hint as the main characters being in a lesbian relationship.

 Fear Effect 2 poster advert (2001) [online] available at: http://stopgame.ru/files/wallpapers/5659/fear_effect_2-8.jpg (Accessed: 10 may 2011)

 Fear Effect 2 poster advert (2001) [online] available at: http://www.gossipgamers.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/5538.jpg (Accessed: 10 may 2011)

You can see this as objectification or simply as true as any lesbian couples display of affection.  The point is that lesbians are more accepted openly in the gaming world compared to any other forms of homosexuality or gender identity.

A game called Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of liberty had a character called Vamp who was a villain in the story and if you played the game you would eventually fight him in a Boss Battle. When exploring some of the optional conversation in the game you can come across a conversation that your character has with another about Vamp where you eventually talk about vamps sexually orientation of being bisexual something that doesn’t get mentioned or explored beyond this point. I wouldn’t class this as much of an exploration of a characters sexual orientation but more of gossip and rumors between two characters in the game. You can say there is more to it but that’s solely left to the gamer playing the game. 

 

ZarlaSheenaza (2006) Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty - Vamp is Bi. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpx5TW1A68I (Accessed: 10 may 2011)

My point is that there will be game devoted to exploring lesbian relationships but you will only mention in passing of male homosexual rumors in other games. This feels kind of biased in one way to have games that show straight relationships and the only homosexuality shown is lesbian relationships or female bisexuality.  From that you get the sense that there is a prejudiced against male exploration of sexuality.  A good example of this is a game called Mass Effect 1 and 2 which is a role playing game on consoles that allows you to take control of you own character and customize them however you want. The game allows you to choose your gender, male or female.  You can play through the game and choose to have romantic relationships with other characters in the game. So if you choose to be a woman you can have a relationship with men or other women but if you choose to be a male you can only have a relationship with men.   This show that for women its more acceptable to the masses to for a women to explore her identity. The Creators of the game could argue that this was a result of the demographic audience for the game.  However the creators of the game have mentioned that in the next installment of the game ‘Mass Effect 3’ the game will feature  more equal same sex relationships for male and female character.  This caused many fans to be outraged and argued many different reasons why this should not happen. The article was called  ‘Mass Effect Fans Worry That Expanded Gay Options Will Create Inconsistencies, Alter Canon’ written by Drew Cohen on a site called www.Kotaku.com.

Cohen, D (2011) 'Different Ways of Loving', Kotaku, 16 May [online] Available at: http://kotaku.com/5802371/mass-effect-fans-worry-that-expanded-gay-options-will-create-inconsistencies-alter-canon (Accessed: 10 may 2011)

The article outlines several arguments used against allowing this change and arguments for this change. So even though game developers wanted to change games to add more option for people to explore things equally when it comes to “artificial” premises of sexuality or gender there is still the conflicts from the people that make up the audience of the game for what they want and what they don’t want.

To move back to the subject to identity I want to finish off by saying as far as Gender wise Women are more explored in this media than men. in terms of there sexuality but in terms of leading roles for games I would say that more games are adapting the create your creature feature at the beginning of the game which allows you to select  your preference for Gender, Race  and how you look in the games

Mass Effect character creation screen (2007) [online] available at: http://firsthour.net/first-hour-review/mass-effect (Accessed: 10 may 2011)

Mass Effect character creation screen (2007) [online] available at: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/251/masseffect2201002131717.png/ (Accessed: 10 may 2011)

This feature is being used widely already. Also another feature used is having multiple characters the gamer can control through out the game this feature is also widely used in many games as well.
  
sourse:

Hooks, B. (2005) The Will to Change Men, Masculinity, and Love. USA: Washington Square Press


Gauntlett, D. (2003) Media, Gender Identity An Introduction. London: Routledge


Friedan, B. (2010) The Feminine Mystique, London:  Penquin books Ltd


Butler, J (2008) Gender Troubles, Reprint, Oxon: Routledge


DeVries, J. (2011)'Fake or Gay', IGN, 28 April [online] available at: http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/116/1164533p1.html (Accessed: 10 may 2011)

Cohen, D (2011) 'Different Ways of Loving', Kotaku, 16 May [online] Available at: http://kotaku.com/5802371/mass-effect-fans-worry-that-expanded-gay-options-will-create-inconsistencies-alter-canon (Accessed: 10 may 2011)

ZarlaSheenaza (2006) Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty - Vamp is Bi. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpx5TW1A68I (Accessed: 10 may 2011)

Sato, M 'Yoshi' [digital image] Nintendo Co., Ltd. [online] Available at: http://jcooltech.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=100383865(Accessed: 10 may 2011)

Sato, M 'Birdo' [digital image] Nintendo Co., Ltd. [online] Available at:
Image of Birdo from: http://fantendo.wikia.com/wiki/Mario_Kart_Super_Speed (Accessed: 10 may 2011)

(1993) page from Super Mario Bro 2 manual,  [online]  Available at: http://gamingfreeks.com/?p=1764 (Accessed: 10 may 2011)

 Fear Effect 2 poster advert (2001) [online] available at: http://stopgame.ru/files/wallpapers/5659/fear_effect_2-8.jpg (Accessed: 10 may 2011)

 Fear Effect 2 poster advert (2001) [online] available at: http://www.gossipgamers.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/5538.jpg (Accessed: 10 may 2011)

Mass Effect character creation screen (2007) [online] available at: http://firsthour.net/first-hour-review/mass-effect (Accessed: 10 may 2011)

Mass Effect character creation screen (2007) [online] available at: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/251/masseffect2201002131717.png/ (Accessed: 10 may 2011)