Stereotypes in games

Definition of trope

1a :a word or expression used in a figurative sense :figure of speech
b :a common or overused theme or device :cliché 

 

Tropes and stereotypes are common i media.

In traditional media, gender and racial stereotypes are the most pervasive two. In mass media, compared to female characters, male characters appear more frequently, talk significantly more, and engage in noted behaviors more, such as achieving and showing leadership (Thompson & Zerbinos, 1995).

In addition, these media provide distorted representation of women and minorities (Aubrey & Harrison, 2004; Greenberg & BaptistaFernandez, 1980; Thompson & Zerbinos, 1995). Exposure to these distorted images can have a negative effect on users’ perception of women and minorities (Omi, 1989). For instance, women are usually perceived as subordinate and passive dependent to men, with sexual relationships as central in life (Cantor, 1987). Racial stereotypes widely exist in mass media as well.

For instance, Black men are more likely to be portrayed as criminals (Entman, 1992; Peffley, Shields, & Williams, 1996); Asian men are usually portrayed as culturally ignorant; while Asian women are portrayed as submissive (Park, Gabbadon, & Chernin, 2006).

A follow-up study by Downs and Smith (2005) demonstrated a similar result. They did a content analysis of 60 video games. Compared to male characters, females were more likely to be represented in a hypersexual way: being partially nude, featured with an unrealistic body image and shown wearing sexually revealing clothing and inappropriate attire. Similarly, Haninger and Thompson (2004) found that in the sample of 81 teen-rated video games, women were significantly more likely to be depicted partially nude than men.

Task

Do a content analysis of a game you like. Ask yourself questions like:

Are female characters underrepresented in popular video games? Are female characters portrayed in stereotypes in popular video games?  Are minority characters underrepresented in popular video games? Are minority characters portrayed in stereotypes in popular video games?

8 reaktioner till “Stereotypes in games”

  1. I would say most of the games I play do actually represent women aswell. Some games like Counter Strike are violent military games that are more adjusted to make guys want to play them more. I would say that women probably don’t get the same respect as men, but I think that they get the right amount of respect they deserve.

    I don’t see any problem with racism involved in the games I play. Except for the stereotypes some of the players have, none of the games have any sort of racism by themselves though.

    Gilla

  2. To be honest who cares who the heroic figure is? I don’t think any guys will get offended if the female is stronger than the male character, and it happens often that women are stronger than guys, since they are seen as assassins, being fast, strong and more difficult to use; while the male character is boring to play, more basic, weaker and receives more damage than they give.
    (League Of Legends)

    Gilla

  3. There’s one game in this world that would be considered ”fun” and that’s League of Legends. There are more than 100 champions in this game, most of them are guys however there are ALOT of females you can play. My favorite champion is in fact a girl assassin and the most played champion in the game is a girl. There are some muscular female characters in the game however there are also some characters with revealing clothes and that are THICCC as hell. This game is very balanced between the genders there are female tanks, male tanks, female assassins, male assassins and so on.
    So basically with this comment what i’m trying to get at is… Counter Strike fucking sucks.

    Gilla

  4. Yes in popular video games with a story we can see that the woman characters are underrepresented. Games like Mario, Zelda we can see a pattern that the guy or it’s typically a guy who saves a woman either it’s someone close or someone they love. However in some games like tomb raider the main character is a girl and that prove that some games don’t always follow the damsel in distress

    In some video games the minority people who help the guy who is helping the princess or the girl that his friend is always white and even the guy is always white and straight. The minority characters are always white it’s like the rest of the people with different skin color doesn’t exist. Also would like to point that sometimes when there is a ”black” guy in the game; he seems always to die.

    It dosen’t always have to be the characters for exempel in most of the popular games the layout of the map is always a stereotype if the games is showing a location I the Middle East they always show dessert and old houses that fit in the dessert and that sometimes the main character is walking trying to look for water. The way the people that lived the there is dressed in more of traditional arab cloths it like they always ever time they use traditional arab cloths and that they aren’t like rest of the world dressing casual.

    Gilla

  5. Call of Duty WWII

    The game is allegedly supposed to have female soldiers which has been critiqued as being accurate by the community as the big majority of soldiers in the war were male. But you can then go even further and ask why women didn’t fight in the war and why they only worked as supports during the war.

    Some have then pointed out that it’s just a game and that the developers should be able to do whatever they want with the game. So it shouldn’t matter if it’s historically accurate.

    Previous titles have included women but they have been set in a future setting which didn’t spark as much as a debate.

    Gilla

  6. I do not think female characters are underrepresented in this game series. In all games except for the first you have an ally who is with you in most of the game helping you for example fight aliens and open gates.
    There are also characters in the game who are minorities. The minority characters are not portrayed in stereotypes.

    Gilla

  7. Half Life 2:
    I do not think female characters are underrepresented in this game series. In all games except for the first you have an ally who is with you in most of the game helping you for example fight aliens and open gates.
    There are also characters in the game who are minorities. The minority characters are not portrayed in stereotypes.

    Gilla

Kommentera

Fyll i dina uppgifter nedan eller klicka på en ikon för att logga in:

WordPress.com-logga

Du kommenterar med ditt WordPress.com-konto. Logga ut /  Ändra )

Twitter-bild

Du kommenterar med ditt Twitter-konto. Logga ut /  Ändra )

Facebook-foto

Du kommenterar med ditt Facebook-konto. Logga ut /  Ändra )

Ansluter till %s

%d bloggare gillar detta: