In the presentation, we have proven that heterosexuality is portrayed as norm in both virtual world and reality. For example, in the Japanese game Neon Genesis Evangelion: Ayanami Ikusei Keikaku (新世紀エヴァンゲリオン 綾波育成計画), the image of female character are being portaryed at submissive and having good body shape. The duty of the player is to protect the girls. Althought there are more and more homosexual elements inserted into some new games, such as Sims and Boys Love, the culture is not very popular. There are still some restrictions on these games such as gay couples cannot get marry and having babies, they could only live together and could not enjoy the same treatment as heterosexual couples.
During the discussion part, students agree that although there are homosexual characters in the games, heterosexuality is still the norm. On the other hand, the games of portable games such as PSP are target at male players, while the games of NDSL are target at female players. Is there a change in the male-dominated game world? No. We can see the answer in the games of NDSL. For example, the most popular games such as cooking mama and Nintendo dogs, stereotype the representation of women as patient and mild. I think it still need some time for changing the role of sexuality.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Reflection of the presentation (Playing Games, Simulating Worlds & Having Divine Powers!)
We used a Japanese game, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Ayanami Ikusei Keikaku as an example to examine the sexuality in the game. It showed that heterosexuality is portrayed as norm in the game just like traditional media text. Also, we have gave out the example of The Sims and Japan BL game (Boy Love game) to show LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) characters in video game have increased after the company find out that the dominant group of players who are young white heterosexual male are willing to play a strong and powerful female character, e.g. Tomb Raider and Resident Evil.
From the discussion, we discussed about the nowadays trend of homosexual element in the video games and the example of Japan BL game. In fact, the companies want to earn pink dollars. So, they start to design and promote homosexual element in the game. But, it is not popular among the dominant trend. From The Sims, we can see that there are discriminations about homosexual pairing. They cannot marry and cannot have a baby. Also, for the example of Japan BL game, it is not really a game about homosexual. Because these games are mainly targeted at female players and the male characters in the games are always have feminine-looking, it is hard to distinguish the gender of the characters. So, female players can get involved into the central characters and easy to identify with the character.
Actually, different subject position can be challenged the sexuality in the video games such as female players acted as male central characters in the game and homosexual players. Nowadays, NDS, PSP and Wii become more popular which change the trend that young white heterosexual male dominated the game market. There are different games which targeted at different players. So, there are still have a lot of spaces to explore the role of sexuality played in the video games.
From the discussion, we discussed about the nowadays trend of homosexual element in the video games and the example of Japan BL game. In fact, the companies want to earn pink dollars. So, they start to design and promote homosexual element in the game. But, it is not popular among the dominant trend. From The Sims, we can see that there are discriminations about homosexual pairing. They cannot marry and cannot have a baby. Also, for the example of Japan BL game, it is not really a game about homosexual. Because these games are mainly targeted at female players and the male characters in the games are always have feminine-looking, it is hard to distinguish the gender of the characters. So, female players can get involved into the central characters and easy to identify with the character.
Actually, different subject position can be challenged the sexuality in the video games such as female players acted as male central characters in the game and homosexual players. Nowadays, NDS, PSP and Wii become more popular which change the trend that young white heterosexual male dominated the game market. There are different games which targeted at different players. So, there are still have a lot of spaces to explore the role of sexuality played in the video games.
Self.org II: Playing Games, Sim(ulating) Worlds & Having Divine Powers!(Before Presentation)
Our presentation topic is "Self.org II: Playing Games, Sim(ulating) Worlds & Having Divine Powers!", which is based on the reading" As We Become Machines: Corporealized Pleasures in Video Games." by Martii Lahti. Video games are not only games that we play by vision, but there are also interaction and it is corporeal in nature.
Video games were developed from two dimensions to three dimensions, lack of bodily movement to full of bodily movements. He explained that why players' bodies are not just sitting in front of the computers or television monitors, but also travelling through the virtual space in the game world. For examples, shooting games in game arcades are games that players sit astride a motorcycle and using their whole bodies to control the game world.
We agree the point of Martti and we use several examples of such kind of games like Dance Dance Revolution, Initial D and Wii to explain how players are interacted in the game world.
Video games were developed from two dimensions to three dimensions, lack of bodily movement to full of bodily movements. He explained that why players' bodies are not just sitting in front of the computers or television monitors, but also travelling through the virtual space in the game world. For examples, shooting games in game arcades are games that players sit astride a motorcycle and using their whole bodies to control the game world.
We agree the point of Martti and we use several examples of such kind of games like Dance Dance Revolution, Initial D and Wii to explain how players are interacted in the game world.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Playing Games, Sim(ulating) Worlds & Having Divine Powers! (Before Presentation)
Our presentation topic is studying sexuality in video game. We are based on the reading, “Hot Dates and Fairy-tale Romances: Studying Sexuality in Video Games” which is written by Mia Consalvo. In this article, she focused on the construction of sexuality become an integral element of characterization and storyline in games and explored the presumption of heterosexuality is portrayed as social norm in the video games.
She analyzed with two perspectives which are concept of “game” and concept of “play”. Concept of “game” referred to the representation of the characters and heterosexuality. Concept of ‘play” focus on the activity of gameplay. It explored that how a player manage his desire for the main character. She used Final Fantasy IX as a case study. The game represented ideal heterosexuality through the central character’s sexual orientation and the female character image. We will use Evangelion Chinese as an example to reflect her analysis. From the video games, we can see that heterosexuality is portrayed as norm which is similar to traditional media representation such as film.
Also, as Consalvo has mentioned about homosexuality in video games, we has used some examples to examine homosexuality factor in video games. Although The Sims can let the player to choose the character’s sexuality, homosexual couple still has many limitations when playing the game such as they cannot marry and have a baby. On the other hand, Japan BL (boy love) game is about gay male which included sex scene. However, these games are not targeted at gay male, but female player. It is not a game which specific to homosexual players.
We agreed that heterosexuality portrayed as norm in both video games and traditional media text. However, there are still spaces to explore the homosexual issues in video games.
She analyzed with two perspectives which are concept of “game” and concept of “play”. Concept of “game” referred to the representation of the characters and heterosexuality. Concept of ‘play” focus on the activity of gameplay. It explored that how a player manage his desire for the main character. She used Final Fantasy IX as a case study. The game represented ideal heterosexuality through the central character’s sexual orientation and the female character image. We will use Evangelion Chinese as an example to reflect her analysis. From the video games, we can see that heterosexuality is portrayed as norm which is similar to traditional media representation such as film.
Also, as Consalvo has mentioned about homosexuality in video games, we has used some examples to examine homosexuality factor in video games. Although The Sims can let the player to choose the character’s sexuality, homosexual couple still has many limitations when playing the game such as they cannot marry and have a baby. On the other hand, Japan BL (boy love) game is about gay male which included sex scene. However, these games are not targeted at gay male, but female player. It is not a game which specific to homosexual players.
We agreed that heterosexuality portrayed as norm in both video games and traditional media text. However, there are still spaces to explore the homosexual issues in video games.
Self.org II: Playing Games, Sim(ulating) Worlds & Having Divine Powers! (Before Presentation)
Our presentation topic is “Self.org II: Playing Games, Sim(ulating) Worlds & Having Divine Powers! Our content is base on Mia Consalvo’s reading “Hot Dates and Fairy-Tale Romances: Studying Sexuality in Video Games.” The reading told us heterosexuality is not only a norm is our real world, the concept of heterosexuality and patriarchy is also reinforced in the video games.
As Mia said, the representation of the female character is being stereotyped and there is a presumption of heterosexual desires. The female character, like the princess, is always shown as submissive and need the protection from the hero. The reason of creating a erotica triangle is further explain.
We agree the point of Mia and we have provided two examples, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Ayanami Ikusei Keikaku and the Sims to support his arguments – heterosexuality is normalized and presented as a “regular" part of life.
As Mia said, the representation of the female character is being stereotyped and there is a presumption of heterosexual desires. The female character, like the princess, is always shown as submissive and need the protection from the hero. The reason of creating a erotica triangle is further explain.
We agree the point of Mia and we have provided two examples, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Ayanami Ikusei Keikaku and the Sims to support his arguments – heterosexuality is normalized and presented as a “regular" part of life.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Reflection on the presentation of "Online Communities" (After Presentation)
We discussed some reasons of obsession with online communities, for example, playing online games and finding new friends on the internet after the presentation. We believe that everyone has one or more than one ideal image of ourselves and our fantasies can also be achieved by establishing a virtual identity. These fantasies can be accomplished by those characters in online games, for instance, you could be a magician, dealing with evil by witchcraft; or became a king who fought for honor and territories, which is unable to achieve in the reality but it is a supplement to our dream and illusion. The options of meeting some new friends on the internet and telling them about your secrets are also understandable. Sometimes, you may feel safe and relief by sharing your secrets with strangers as they have no reasons to expose your thoughts and they won’t judge you like what your real friends may do. Therefore, we think online communities are attractive, and even addictive because of the reasons above as well as the theories of scholars which we had illustrated during the presentation.
Reflection on the presentation (Online Communities)
It can be said that dangers exist in virtual communities. Online information is actually not reliable enough. The e-mails you received may be just some of the rumors. You even do not know the writers of those e-mails and whether they lie or not.
Online dating has never been as popular as it is today. However, many teenagers venture on meeting their friends who are from the match-up websites. They like doing that because they think it is exciting. Moreover, they do not have to pretend themselves in front of their net friends as those net friends do not know them so much. As a result, there are always predators who will take advantage of new ways to meet victims.
Some real life examples including both positive and negative were raised in our presentation. The purpose is to ask our classmates to pay attention to and to aware of those incidents. Such incidents make explicit the imaginary fantasy level of all these interactions. When it comes to cyber-love, what is most shocking in these incidents is the realization that it was only a fantasy – which has now been ruined.
Online dating has never been as popular as it is today. However, many teenagers venture on meeting their friends who are from the match-up websites. They like doing that because they think it is exciting. Moreover, they do not have to pretend themselves in front of their net friends as those net friends do not know them so much. As a result, there are always predators who will take advantage of new ways to meet victims.
Some real life examples including both positive and negative were raised in our presentation. The purpose is to ask our classmates to pay attention to and to aware of those incidents. Such incidents make explicit the imaginary fantasy level of all these interactions. When it comes to cyber-love, what is most shocking in these incidents is the realization that it was only a fantasy – which has now been ruined.
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