Here is the first “proper” episode to our new series, The Red Rings of Redemption Play! Please take a look and let us know what you think!
In today’s episode, the gang “jacks in” to the wonder of Enter the Matrix, a movie tie-in game for the Nintendo Gamecube. Enjoy!
On February 18th of this year, the video game world received shocking news: Irrational Games is closing. To anyone out there familiar with the industry, this was an unexpected announcement. Irrational Games was a developer responsible for hits like System Shock 2, BioShock, and most recently, BioShock Infinite. Everyone out there today with a console has at least heard of two of those games. In a statement to the press, Irrational Games co-founder, (and lead writer for BioShock Infinite) Ken Levine stated that while Irrational Games would be closing, he and fifteen other former employees would be creating a new studio to create smaller, more narrative-driven games.
Levine was one of (if not the most) driving forces at Irrational Games. In a market dominated by uninspired, unremarkable, triple-A gaming titles, Ken Levine’s writing shown as the most intelligent presence out there. Sure, there is debate on the ending of BioShock Infinite but at least people are still talking about it. I have yet to hear anyone declare: “Bro, that ending to Call of Duty: Black Ops II really blew my mind!” If anything, the triple-A market has been dealt a critical blow by Levine’s departure. It seems like more and more true that the upcoming exciting games of tomorrow are less graphics driven and more story compelled. There are already many people looking forward to the smaller experience that Ken Levine will deliver next. True, no one person makes games but one person can sell them.
That being said, Levine’s artistic desires are all very well and good but what about everyone else who lost their job? Did Ken Levine really just lay off nearly everyone who worked for him just so that he could “express himself”? Answer: no, while Levine’s public statement indicates his desire for growth, it does not reflect the reality for Irrational Games. The truth has already started leaking out: this closure surprised no one at the company.
Few people understand just how cutthroat the video game industry is. It isn’t just companies that make poor product that go out of business. Irrational Games isn’t even the first to fall prey to this hard truth. Anyone remember Team Bondi, the developer who made the hit game, L.A. Noire? That studio closed the same year as their most successful game’s release. But wait, you say: aren’t they developing Whore of the Orient (great title), a game that will be released next year? That is Team Bondi in name only. The company name was bought up in an effort to increase excitement (also not an uncommon practice in the video game industry).
So what does Irrational Games closing really mean for anyone outside of Irrational Games? Nothing. Ken Levine will get the opportunity to make the games he wants so the industry isn’t losing him. As for BioShock; it will go on… at least for another game. Again, this wouldn’t even be the first time someone else made a BioShock game. Remember BioShock 2? That was… it was…. a mechanically sound game.
This article is a tangent off of the Special Address on misogyny and rape culture in the media world. Specifically, I aim to address views that I did not agree with in an article I read (there are links in the first part of my special address) that declared that video games promote misogyny. The article’s author based this declaration on the fact that women are depicted in a strong sexual manner in video games. I’m not going to waste time arguing that point because it is true. Anyone who doesn’t think women are sexualized, take a look below at Ivy:
Now Ivy is a character in the Soul Calibur fighting game series. Yeah, she wears that outfit when she’s in physical combat and yes, there are physics applied to her ample chest as she bounces around the screen. Characters like Ivy aren’t unique in video games, if anything they are the standard. It’s not just video games from the Japanese market either.
So yeah, not contending the point that video game women are highly sexualized. This issue, however, has nothing to do with any misogynistic intent on the part of video game developers or the video game community. It is a much larger issue that encompasses both genders and their portrayals in the media world. These video game aren’t being sexualized to reduce their integrity, they are being made in the “ideal” image of a woman (according to marketing). That is what needs to be changed.
Look online, open a magazine, watch a movie, play a video game. Everywhere you look you will see the “ideals” for both genders. Me, I just google-imaged the perfect woman, here’s what I got right on page one:
Apparently the perfect woman should be in a bathing suit, how else would you appreciate her body, right? Anyway, let’s see what google-image search returns for the ideal man:
So the problems exist for both. Really when you think about it, having an ideal image is always going to create problems. Why: because no one out there is “ideal”; it’s impossible to be so. Being perceived as perfect is just that, a perception. Everyone’s going to have it, it’s going to be different for everyone. There are clearly similarities in the “ideal image”, if people were too diverse on the issue then it couldn’t be marketed. Yet the goal remains a fantasy. No one will ever be “perfect” by society’s standard. Anyway, bit of a ramble but at least slightly relevant.
The concept itself is flawed and its application is even more so. Look at those two images, both are attractive (I guess, that Frankenstein-style face on the “perfect woman” honestly terrifies me) but in different ways. For the woman it’s all about the sex appeal and the pure beauty aspect. For the man, yes there is sex appeal but there is power too. He is in better shape. While the woman is merely skinny (yet with curves), the man is chiseled by muscle. So while the ideal image of a woman is only sexy and visually appealing, the ideal image of a man conveys strength. Is this the case in video games, absolutely. Perfect example:
Clearly Bioware (and the rest of the video game industry) do not exist in a bubble. They are part of the media machine. Is this “ideal” image of woman misogynist in itself: absolutely, she looks unhealthy. I am not backtracking on my initial point. Yes while the created image is misogynist, video games are not. They are simply using the tools that the media world has provided them. Commander Shepard (female version) is a strong character in every aspect outside her body. If the marketing perception of the “ideal” woman changes, expect video games to follow suit.
Not every video game will, there are some developers out there whom I would label as misogynist. I will address them soon, I promise: that second part is coming. However I’m a little tired of hearing video games slammed simply because they are the newest medium. They are a marketed media platform and not exempt from the rules created in our society. Will the perception change: it is constantly changing. Anyone who disagrees with that, check out this image:
Guess what though: there will still be a problem. When society tells an individual how he or she should look, there is a problem. Will they always do this: of course. And there will always be people who listen to them. The good thing about the world (educated nations at least) is that with a little knowledge, this manipulation can be understood and protected against. The marketing world exists to tell individuals that they need things, they will never, ever say that anyone is “just fine the way they are” without including a but immediately afterward.
Now, unfortunately society is not simple as my little inspirational cat friend there. There is enormous peer pressure on every individual, I don’t mean to discount that. Is the “ideal” image of woman currently worse than the “ideal” image of man: absolutely. It is incredibly stupid how thin women are being told they have to be, while still maintaining weight in the right places. This image does feed into the rape culture as well. It creates problems and it always will.
Thoughts? Comments? Am I full of it or onto something? Let me know now in the feedback section of this article.
Further reading:
On women – http://newyorksociologist.org/11/Berberick2011.pdf
On men – http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cpb6666/pubs/Barlett%20Vowels%20%26%20Saucier.pdf
Colin McMahon 