This week, we discussed the normalities that have been brought about by the first person shooter, and the roles that female characters have played in video games in the modern era. To begin, the First Person Shooter genre has become somewhat bloated in the past decade as the genre finds new popularity due in part to new releases, such as “Valorant”, and with the battle royale genre creating buzz as well. This genre can be quite diverse in its content and create fun, new worlds to explore, such as with “Overwatch”, “Team Fortress 2”, and the “Borderlands” series, but the most popular of the genre are the gritty and realistic takes, such as “Call of Duty” and “Battlefield”, with developers and advertisements claiming that the games are as close as you can get to real armed combat. However, this rhetoric is somewhat harmful to its own audience, as it paints an unrealistic picture of warfare and somewhat glorifies the armed combat of the military. While the army or navy have never officially endorsed any of these games, they do like to use the idea of  “You like the games so much, why don’t you come live the dream?” in their marketing quite a lot. I know from experience that recruiters will try to use any kind of persuasion that they can to try and get you to sign up, and this massive outlet does nothing but benefit their cause. The popularity of gritty, realistic shooters also reinforces the false and testosterone fueled idea that “women do not belong in combat”. These games have very few female characters, if any, and usually put their female characters into side roles or more passive roles, such as healer. This idea once again reinforces the idea that “women do not belong in gaming environments” and can make the female audience feel isolated in the community. Games such as “Overwatch” break these “realistic” norms by putting female characters in every role, from healer to tank. Another topic that was touched in the discussion of female representation in video games was the topic of oversexualizing characters. During the 80’s and 90’s, women in games were treated more like prizes or goals rather than characters. However, as time progressed, we began to see more female leading roles, such as with the “Metroid” and “Tomb Raider” series of games. Specifically, when we discussed “Super Smash Bros.” we talked about how the members of the community usually stray away from talking about the female characters in a sexual way, but rather simply talk about how they play and how to play the game to the best of their ability. The Smash community is very competitive yet friendly in nature, so it makes since that this banter of females is kept to a minimum. However, if all communities treated their games like this, wouldn’t that be nice?

Mohammad Farraj

DMS 448

Blog Post Week 12  

Within the gaming world, players can escape to whatever realm they desire and transform into any entity they please. This world is welcoming to anyone with a passion of video games and would not turn anyone away no matter their gender, identity, sexual orientation, etc is. Unfortunately, even within the gaming world, there are members/individuals that making an intended bright and opening world dark. That is why writers such as, Webster and Condis portray in their writing how in the gaming world, members unfortunately bring bigotry and hate and brain wash targeted players that they know how unaware they are on such issues. Thus ultimately having a driving force in which society needs to understand that game developers/companies need to improve the quality of their gaming servers. Writers in the gaming world have proven to society that members within the gaming world have brought bigotry and hate speech which ultimately corrupts society.

            With the use of dark humor and bigotry, members are able to enter gaming services and ultimately brain wash young and even innocent members into hatred towards other groups such as people of color, members of LGBTQ, etc. In the text, it is stated how individuals who are opposed to any alt-right members values are taught how such angry and hatred are normalized. Ultimately, disguising such beliefs an humorous manner to prevent such bigotry from being detected. The text states, “Those who exhibit curiosity about white nationalist talking points or express frustration with the alt-right’s ideological opponents such as feminists, anti-racism activists and “social justice warriors” are then escorted through a funnel of increasingly racist rhetoric designed to normalize the presence of white supremacist ideology and paraphernalia through the use of edgy humor and memes” (From Fortnite to Alt-right). By using this tool of memes and dark humor, targeted audience members that the alt-right prey on are and can be oblivious too. Thus, not realizing what is truly happening to them (i.e being brain washed). From this quote, it is imperative to understand how a simple curiosity can take a dark turn. Members of the alt-right recognize such curiosity in young individuals and take advantage of not only their innocence but ignorance as well. As well as, use anger towards other groups and fuel it for their own agenda. This is controversy becomes even worse when such individuals start to harass other. In the text, “ How League of Legends could make the internet a better place”, by Andrew Webster, it states how reducing/banning “toxic players” barely impact the overall negative behavior in such games. The text states, “The conventional wisdom at the time was that most abuse came from a few particularly toxic players, and that if you simply banned them from the game, the problem would be solved…Those kinds of overly toxic players only account for about 1 percent of the community, and even if you ban them all, it still only reduces negative behavior like harassment by 5 percent” (How League of Legends could make the internet a better place). What this shows is that not only the percentage of this negative behavior barely made an impact within the community, but shows how there is a larger issue at hand. To analyze this even further, game developers can only ban players for so long, such manner can become mute. If this issue was to be resolved, then these developers need to implements rules and regulations that eliminates such issues at its source. Thus, fully understanding how this issue in the gaming community needs to be addressed.

 

 

 

                                                            WORK CITED PAGE

Condis, Megan. “From Fortnite to Alt-Right.” The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/27/opinion/gaming-new-zealand-shooter.html.

Webster, Andrew. “How League of Legends Could Make the Internet a Better Place.” The Verge, http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/6/8161955/league-of-legends-online-happy-place.

 

One of the topics we talked about this week was the fighting game genre, namely Super Smash Bros. and the way gender is perceived and acted upon in the community. In the study Female Fighters: Perceptions of Femininity in the Super Smash Bros. Community, it aims to determine the perception of femininity, the treatment of female players and the performances of gender within the community. The study found that “with nearly half (46.64%) of the posts analyzed containing [vague feminine positivity], it seemed that there was not an overwhelming amount of negativity within the community’s perception of femininity, nor was there a strong preference for any particular performance of gender” (Adams, 106). It seemed that many of the players within the community seemed to pick their characters based on other reasons like playstyle instead of purely on gender. I believe that this is because of the way Smash Bros. is fundamentally designed. 

One of the biggest appeals of Smash Bros. is the large cast of characters in its roster. Other than mii fighters, there are no original characters in the series. The entire roster of Smash Bros. are all characters from their own respective series created by Nintendo or one of its second-party developers. These beloved characters are already a part of their own popular series and with that comes a higher level of recognizability. New players can pick up a controller and still be able to participate because even if they don’t know all the characters in the game, they can still recognize familiar faces in the roster like Mario, Pikachu, etc. Many players gravitate towards a character simply because they enjoy the series that the character originates from. 

Another conclusion that the study came to was that players seemed to pick their characters based solely on playstyle. “There did not seem to be a particular gender preference in the [tier list] and it seemed to be based on a character’s merits alone… A handful of female characters were near the bottom, but overall they were dispersed fairly evenly, and the presence of three female characters near the top of the list indicates that the community’s perceptions of character viability did not appear to be colored by gender” (Adams, 107). A big difference in Smash Bros. from other traditional fighting games is that Smash Bros. provides a much greater degree of control over character movement than most fighters and as a result, combat is much more free-form. Stages are larger and the camera is pulled further out allowing more options for players to take during play. As a result of this, many characters are given some ranged moves as well as gap-closing melee moves to allow you to still attack opponents if they choose to stay far away. This has given rise to different playstyles and character archetypes. Smash Bros. is ultimately (haha) a competitive arcade fighter with a highly competitive community of players who choose their mains not because of how attractive the character is but because of the player’s playstyle and their relationships with that character.

Playing games has been an interest held by many for decades. While there is much (understandably and deservedly) talk about the games themselves, I think it is important to place emphasis on those who directly engage with them, as well. Just looking at the demographic of those who play games is telling in itself. Those who play games include young kids, teenagers, adults, and old people. It is something which resonates deeply with a lot of people whether they only played games when they were younger, play them only a little bit due to being busy with work, or play them nearly every day. For many people, playing games is a kind of escape from real world troubles despite what the game itself is about. This is where the importance of being able to interact with different digital worlds comes into play. For me personally, I’ve been able to find tranquility in the most post-apocalyptic, dangerous game universes. This is due to the fact that they are places totally different from the ones I find myself in every day. The issues of those inside these worlds, then, are also distinct.

This isn’t the only reason I play games, though. Being able to mentally travel someplace different is definitely a factor, but I also get deeply invested in the plots similarly to the way that I do with t.v. shows, books, and films. The themes of the titles I’ve played or watched, along with the things they’re trying to tell people, have been something I’ve deeply identified with. The difference is that this particular outlet allows people to directly interact with—or even influence—the plot, pacing and outcome. For instance, watching the protagonist of a horror film stumble through their environment as the terror unravels is one thing, but being that protagonist is a totally different perspective. Suddenly, everything is much more personal and increasingly terrifying as you traverse through dark hallways without knowing what will be behind the door at the end. You don’t get to tell the protagonist of a book or tv. show what do to, but you do get the decide certain things in games. For instance, in open world games it is often left to the player to decide if they will immediately continue the main quest or, instead, take breaks to tackle side quests or simply journey through the impressively designed world. These are things which have directly impacted me in all the time I’ve spent playing games over the years. For some people, playing games is as trivial as turning the t.v. on for background noise. For others, it is something which makes a sizable different in their daily lives. They can be transformative, in a way–games can and do leave undenial impressions on people, impacting the way they think, talk and even view the world around them. They could even be deciding facts in the direction of one’s life. Despite the identity of the person playing, there tends to be something there for them that they can personally dive into. The games people play are definitely important, but the ways they personally interact with them or are influenced by them are just as important.

This week in class, we took a look at Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. and its representation of female characters and the player community’s attitude towards female players and game characters. In Adams’s article, he discusses the hypermasculinity that is often seen in other mainstream gaming circles is not as present within the Super Smash Bros. gaming community. The playable female characters present within the game have various ranges of femininity present in their designs, as well as a diversity in agency in each character’s respective games. The roster of female characters in Super Smash Bros shows off some diversity in character and design that can be not as present in other games that contain female characters. 

Within Super Smash Bros.’s gaming community, Adams describes the community as “vaguely positive” towards feminine subjects, and how players within the community may express positive attitudes towards female characters in the game in ways that do not denote a sexual preference. It is also important to note that these attitudes may also be influenced by character arcs a particular female character undergoes in their own games, such as Adams’s example of a player expressing why they liked Lucina. The community also emphasized a character’s mechanics and playstyle over their gender or character, as shown in tier lists developed by the community. However, female sexualization of characters’ appearances was still present within the community, which seems to also be seen in the game itself with characters such as Zero Suit Samus, whose design includes heels and a skintight suit emphasizing her body. Adams noted that instances of sexualization were largely present in a group dynamic, which may play a part to have other members of the community take part in the action in order to better fit in within the group. 

Attitudes towards female players were also less toxic in comparison to other mainstream game communities according to the study. This is shown in many forum posts in the SmashBoards where women were more open in mentioning and expressing their gender, whereas in many other communities female players would often hide their gender in order to avoid facing toxicity from the community solely due to their gender. Many interactions in the SmashBoards forums also show a lack of negativity or comments towards a female player’s gender. In our discussions, we bring up the possibility of this community’s attitude to be tied up with Nintendo’s image of promoting their games as family-friendly. Indeed, the rules of the SmashBoards forums emphasizes that the community is meant to be family-friendly. I think it is worth noting that the expectations of having more younger kids within the player sphere would also change the conduct of some players in regards to interactions with others. 

I think that the lower levels of toxicity within the Super Smash Bros. community in the study does make a point to show that how a game’s and its company’s image also influences the player community. This could show that while gaming companies may not have full control of its consumer community, it should also still go out to create an image that promotes the positivity that it wants to see in its player community, as it no doubt still serves as an influence to the players.

Sources:

Adams, John. “Female Fighters: Perceptions of Femininity in the Super Smash Bros. Community.” Vol. 3, no. 1, 2016.

As I write my final blog, I reflect on how it’s been a memorable semester with you all. Although we’re going through unprecedented times, and things didn’t end the way we envisioned I still enjoyed being a part of DMS 448. Learning from each and every one of you was a valuable experience. As we continue to put the finishing touches into our creative game projects, I’ve took some brief time to reflect on the journey of my project. Indulging in livestreams for my project about NBA 2k20’s Mycareer mode made me feel like I was commentating my own NBA career. The Mycareer mode is a personalized detailed narrative tied to every user’s player who pursues a career in the NBA. As a draft pick to the Boston Celtics I experienced the journey from the business, marketing, and playing perspective of an NBA athlete. I commentated on the relationship between my character and his agent as they convey the pressures of off-court endorsements that came with financial responsibility. This financial responsibility made me realize the pressures that NBA players have to deal with due to decisive off-court decisions worth millions and billions of dollars.

            According to Emma Witkowski and James Manning “In 2011, the National Basketball League (NBA) entered a lockout. Over 149 days, league representatives, owners and the player union negotiated new terms for the collective bargaining agreement, during which time players filed antitrust lawsuits and took their personal brands and expert play to other international leagues. Beyond collective organization, many (but not all) players showed they were able to buffer the short-term pay loss, and NBA stars (mostly mature players with widespread sporting capital) stepped in to represent their profession. Jointly, the players exposed what forms of player provision were in place within a 70-year-old media sports industry not necessarily designed for their collective care or welfare (Staudohar, 2012). The lockout revealed that playing power and player rights, beyond fair revenue distribution, were buoyed by well-established sociotechnical infrastructures; from international athletic visas, recent histories of other sports player union practices, to player distributed professional sports knowledge networks” (Manning & Witkowski). With that being said, it’s quite evident the colossal impact that NBA players possess in games. Because they’re the catalyst of NBA game products it’s essential to recognize and acknowledge the leverage that players have in potential revenue deals. I remember anticipating the end of the lockout in 2011 due to the lack of top tier basketball available. With that being the case, many people all across the basketball world didn’t know if there would even be a 2k video game available. Amidst all the uncertainty that came with the game 2ksports still managed to be creative and released NBA 2k12 with a narrative that revolved around old school all-time NBA players. Overall, it’s essential to acknowledge that without NBA players there can never be an NBA game.

Works Cited:

1. Witkowski, E., & Manning, J. (2019). Player power: Networked careers in esports and high-performance game livestreaming practices. Convergence, 25(5–6), 953–969.

As I started to read more about game studies I started to notice how it plays the same role of media that rap music and the news does. These forms of media are heavy impactful on the masses. As I mentioned before the same way that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ can influence their consumer’s perspectives is the exact way rap music can with identical context. One example where both forms of media narrates history is the Los Angeles riots. Many different opinions were developed throughout these incidents, and the depictions of this content effect how history portrays cultural backgrounds. Gerald Voorhees article explores the impact of different media depictions of American culture turmoil.

Voorhees mentions in his article, “Monsters, Nazis, and Tangos”, that “What they found is that concern about novel media forms is a historical constant, a phenomenon attributed to uncertainty regarding the potential of technologies that “embody the possibility that accustomed orders are in jeopardy” (Marvin 1988, 8). And while these studies point to concerns about how media technologies reconfigure communication processes, a similar set of issues arises regarding innovations in the communication norms that constitute genres. For instance, Springhall’s (1998) work on moral panics examines public fears manifest in response to a variety of media forms: the penny dreadful, gangster film, horror comic, and rap music. Notably, it is not the book, the film, the comic, or the record—in other words, not the technology of the medium—but the genre and its conventional contents” (Voorhees). Voorhees’ take on this matter conveys the impact rap music has as a form of media the same way a blockbuster movie does. Depending on the time and place of history music can have the same impact on millions of people just like war propaganda. Furthermore, the impact of the rap song “Fuck da Police” by music group N.W.A(Ice Cube, MC Ren, Eazy E, Yella, & Dr. Dre) was revolutionary in the minority communities in Los Angeles. Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s tensions grew between police and minorities. The N.W.A’s song narrates the police brutality and racial profiling that black men had to endure all over the city. This led to public outrage and riots that resulted in a state of emergency. Their usage of rap as media influenced their listeners so much that even law enforcement began to blame the lyrics of the song on the increase of violence towards police officers. Tensions grew and police were trusted less by the black communities in Los Angeles & nationwide.

            In contrast, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’, depiction of this historical time held an impact on me years well after the incident took place. Personally, I noticed the hostile interactions between the African-American main character Carl “C.J” Johnson and the police officers. The narrative of this made me feel like police officers were crooked and infamous. Growing up to be a police officer was a dream of mine until I started to become exposed to this type of media. As a kid I started to think it wasn’t cool to be a police officer anymore, because of how they portrayed in the game. Overall, this conveys the similar impact that video games and rap music possess.

Works Cited:

1. Guns, Grenades, and Grunts : First-Person Shooter Games, edited by Gerald A. Voorhees, et al., Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/buffalo/detail.action?docID=1078336

Prior to registering for DMS 448 I never had the opportunity to indulge in rhetoric or even discussions regarding video games in school. Having the opportunity here at the University at Buffalo’s media studies department makes me extremely grateful and appreciative. Since I was young kid I have always been intrigued by various different aspects of video games. I have always been intrigued by the effect of gaming algorithms, story-telling narratives, and historical factors. To actually notice these same aspects being addressed in game studies helped me understand video games from a broader perspective. Dr. Cody’s lecture style gave me exposure to scholarly excerpts, content, and debates about the games we all know well and love. His discussions throughout lectures actually helped me develop my own opinions about gaming as a media, and the various political aspects that I never paid much attention to before. According to TreaAndrea M. Russworm “In my experience, so many of our students come to video games classes with the expectation that we are going to transcend the discussions about “identity politics” and “political correctness” that are fodder for Internet forums and bifurcated online debates. Our pedagogical approaches to games should absolutely be more rigorous and comprehensive than these types of discussions, but in demonstrating that we are invested in the serious scholarly treatment of games” (Russworm). I admire Russworm’s take regarding this issue, because she reminds me of how Dr. Cody’s course holds the same rigorous agenda when addressing the gender and culture aspects of video games. Whenever we partake in discussions we intertwine our opinions with scholarly evidence that generates our credibility. I agree that it’s quite essential for educational institutions to continue to treat game studies rigorously, because it should be perceived the same way other forms of media does.  

Furthermore, TreaAndrea M. Russworm continues to mention that “while scholarship that is invested in the representation of characters and in overt themes in story and plot are essential to game studies and must continue to flourish, we also know that gamic systems are influenced by things like algorithmic bias and that even the most seemingly abstract digital simulator is both encoded and decoded ideologically” (Russworm). This statement does a great job conveying the reality of video game production. Although the reasoning behind some scholarly game studies is based on characteristics of narrative, it’s essential to notice the root of most game production. Every code and every algorithm is controlled by developers and the individuals behind the scenes at organizations such as Activision, 2ksports, and Rockstar games. We mentioned earlier in the semester the impact of 2k’s Bioshock and the hurtful representation of women that was caused by the coding joke by one of the developers. This made me open my eyes to the potential bias that could’ve been imposed on games all along. It’s also important to emphasize the impact of the biases of game production, because if we’re not careful we can be allowing discriminative actions to occur. When we let things like this blow out of control it can lead to community of problems for various different cultures and genders.

Works Cited:

1. Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Video Games, ed. Jennifer Malkowski and TreaAndrea M. Russworm (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017), 4

League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed by Riot Games for the PC. The game is a competitive team game where players are split into two teams. The object of the game is to destroy the enemy team’s nexus using the various abilities each champion (playable characters) have. I actually loved League of Legends and began playing it at the beginning of middle school. Unfortunately, I decided to quit after seeing how toxic the community had become. Unfortunately, League is only one example of a game with a toxic community of players. The question is why are people toxic in video games and is there anything we can do?

What is toxicity? Is it when people troll, act like jerks, or spew profanity? According to the article “How League of Legends could make the internet a better place,” Andrew Webster states that it’s all of this and more. However, Webster argues that these toxic players only account for a small percentage of overall players in a game community. Jeffrey Lin, a Riot developer, states that “More than 90 percent of the vitriol comes from normal players who occasionally act out while playing.” The problem Lin says he’s trying to solve is “how do you get them, when they have a bad day, to not rage in the middle of the game.” In my personal opinion, the simple answer is you can’t. Many people, myself included, enjoy settling down and playing video games after a long day. The reality of the situation is that people play videogames as an escape from reality or a stress reliever. In a way, videogames create a virtual world that allows the player to be in control. When players begin losing in a game they become frustrated as they lose the feeling of control. As I’ve discussed in my second blog, “trolling breeds trolling” (Cook 3331). This means once a toxic player goes off on another player, there is a possibility this negatively is passed onto that player turning them “toxic” as well.

Despite all of this, Lin and Riot have still tried many things to combat toxicity in League of Legends. For example, Riot games have developed a machine algorithm that can “find racist, homophobic, and otherwise abusive language in the in-game chat” to find toxic behavior and send these players a warning. I was surprised to hear that this actually prevented toxic behavior about 50 percent of the time as I always thought a warning would be useless. In addition to this, League has also developed an honor system where players can choose an award to give to someone in the game. These awards range from “they’re a good teammate” to “friendly.” Lin says that “reputation means a lot” and this honor system gives players an incentive to be nice to strangers. From my own personal experience, the honor system isn’t all that great. Most of the time when I’m playing League, I usually play with a friend. After a game, we usually honor each other instead of other players. I’ll admit, people like me aren’t making the game better by doing things like that but the point is the honor system doesn’t work as well as it ideally should.

Although Riot games have really tried to make an effort to stop toxicity in League of Legends, toxicity will also be part of gaming culture. Just like in real life, bad and mean people exist and they aren’t going away anytime soon. The best thing that we all can do is stay positive, not let toxic people ruin our enjoyment, and keep doing what we all enjoy- playing video games.

Work Cited:

Cook, C., Schaafsma, J., & Antheunis, M. (2017). Under the bridge: An in-depth examination of online trolling in the gaming context. New Media & Society, 20(9), 3323-3340. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817748578

Webster, A. (2015, March 6). How league of legends could make the internet a better place. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2015/3/6/8161955/league-of-legends-online-happy-place

There are those who look down upon user-generated content, but it’s impacts definitely shouldn’t be ignored. User-generated content can be a great way for players to identify with the games they’re playing along with the characters they’re playing as. It’s something which often stems directly from peoples’ excitement or interest in the games they play. A lot of the time, this content manifests as mods to outfits or environments with the idea of increasing immersion, creativity and personal control. However, user-generated content can exist outside of the game’s digital world, as well. One example of this is fan art. I’ve seen a lot of drawings/tributes to a lot of different games on twitter, and the dedication people put into their work is deeply impressive. This goes to show how impactful games can be. Another example of user-generated would be fan made merchandise sold on websites like Etsy. This can include physical drawings, keychains, and figures, amongst other things. All of these things share the purpose of enhancing the experience of the player. Lots of people, including myself, get invested in the world, plot and design of the games they play to the point where they want to engage with it in other ways. I don’t personally make a ton of user-generated content, but I definitely pay attention to the things made by others. It something which tends to deepen the investment I already had in different games, making me think deeper about them.

This gets into why user-generated content is such a big deal in the first place. User-generated content is important because of the way it empowers people who play games and wish to either enhance things or experience them differently. Being able to say that you contributed to something you care about, whether directly or indirectly, is a positive feeling. I’ve seen peoples’ mods being used and subsequently made popular by players, including lets players on YouTube. PlayStation recently put out a game that’s all about user-generated content called Dreams. This game allows you to make your own creations, from games to movies to music. Not only can you make a myriad of different creations, you can play those made by others, as well. This is potentially a way for future game developers to discover their talents and/or passion. It could be the things that gets them through the door in the industry. These are only some of the things brought about by the existence of user-generated content along with the outlets for it. One of the most important things in the gaming community is people coming together to talk about the games they play, and user-generated content can increase this tenfold. Mods are something which are not only growing in popularity, they are being encouraged. Whether it’s a tiny adjustment like changing a character’s outfit or a big one like totally transforming NPCs, it’s bound to make a difference. User-generated creations outside of the games, including drawings/tributes, are also a big deal because they draw people in and increase their degree of investment. I don’t think user-generated content should be looked down upon, but instead viewed in a positive light.