It is well known and commonly accepted that gaming is historically a predominantly male pastime. It can be stated with a degree of accuracy that early games mostly fulfilled the male fantasy (not that there is anything inherently wrong with this; to be clear). Super Mario Bros. is a classic tale of saving the girl, while early multiplayer games like Quake and Counter-Strike scratched the itch of totally dominating the opposition.

The case of The Last of Us (as presented in Murray’s chapter in How to Play Video Games, titled “The Last of Us: Masculinity) that is brought up is interesting because it subverts a lot of the masculinity tropes while adhering to some of them itself. For example, Joel is presented not only as a strong, aggressive, dominating figure; but he is also shown to be losing his touch as he is aging, as Ellie starts to fulfill more of a self-sufficient role as the game progresses. There is also an issue of the role that Masculinity fulfills in the overall narrative of The Last of Us. As the game goes on and Ellie becomes more self-dependent (with that storyline reaching its peak during the David section of the game, without giving spoilers), Joel’s role starts to become more and more diminished. However, right at the end of the game, the power balance ends up shifting right back into Joel, as he makes a decision to break Ellie out of the hospital, in a selfish and desperate attempt to hold onto the connection that the two of them have formed. Right as it seems like Ellie is starting to take control, Joel takes the reigns over Ellie’s life again. Also worth noting that in the trailer for The Last of Us, Ellie has grown into a full adult and it seems as if she is going to be the one taking over, with her being shown as the playable protagonist in the sequel.

As mentioned in the article written by our professor, Cody Mejeur, in collaboration with Amanda Cote, Bladezz in the Netflix series The Guild goes through a series of emasculating moments. However, as mentioned in the article, he is able to empower himself through the world of gaming. This goes to show that gaming can serve as a form of strengthening masculinity. The fact that you are completely separate entirely from your real person (a vast majority of gamers don’t even use their real names online; even at the professional level). The power of an identity can be a strong thing, creating two separate people (the in-person you and the online you) who come together to form a single, sharpened identity.

This, to me, is a large part of the power of online gaming (which is my primary emphasis). It allows you to empower yourself in a way that you can’t in the real world. Hopping into a server and showing that you’re the best in that server is a feeling that only gaming can provide, and there is absolutely a certain power in that.

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