Lesson 9-Sex and Games Flashcards
Which game genre was earliest to introduce sexuality?
Adventure Games
Like RPGs, puzzle games, educational games, where do adventure games borrow their ideas from?
MUDs, or multi user dungeons and tabletop RPGs
What was the earliest influential adventure game?
It was a text adventure game called Adventure. Adventure began as a text game themed around caving. It was created by Will Crowther who took the basic layout from a cave and added some fantasy gameplay elements. A year later, programmer Don Woods modified Adventure’s code, and added story elements puzzles and a scoring system to Adventure’s exploration mechanics. Wood’s version became Colossal Cave Adventures.
What became a critical gameplay element in adventure games, because of Adventure and Colossal Cave Adventures
Inventory management
Which game in the 1980s finally made text adventure games, affordable and popular?
Zork in the 1980s published by Infocom. It did a great job of expanding adventure’s rudimentary gameplay elements
While America was building fantasy text adventure games, what was Japan creating? What game was the earliest?
end of 9-1-Sexuality and Adventure
In Japan, graphic text adventures were also growing in popularity. Many if these were erotic games with sexual imagery.
Night Life, released in 1982. The game was marketed as a tool to improve couple’s sexual lives. The game was kind of a sexual simulator
These are called eroge games
There was a resurgence for text based games in the mid 2000s. What game?
Pheonix Wright Ace Attorney (combined traditional adventure game and novel visual elements
Which game brought adventure back? What other game did it inspire?
Telltale gave us Walking Dead which brought the Adventure genre back to public consciousness. This was made possible by new distributions like Steam and new funding opportunities like kick-starters
What happened in the 1970s in arcades?
Arcades during this time used sex, usually in the form of a scantily clad female to market games.
Some had print ads and cabinet graphics that included female models as eye candy to promote the game
Let's think about the kind of audience game marketers were targeting in games such as Gotcha. When creating a game, designers usually assume something about the lifestyle, gender and interests of players. Most early video game designers assumed that their audience was A, male, B, single, C, heterosexual, or D, all of the above.
The correct response is D.
Many games assumed that the player
was a single, heterosexual male.
>> Let's talk about two words we're going to use a lot in this lesson, sex and gender. It is important to keep them clear in your head. Although often used interchangeably in everyday conversation, the word sex means the reproductive differences between males and females. Generally, sex refers to biology. In contrast, gender generally refers to A, the same thing. There is no difference between sex and gender. B, the sociocultural construction of sex roles in society. Or C, the fact that we're all the same regardless of our sex.
The correct response is B. Gender refers to how societies and cultures construct ideas and representations of femininity, masculinity and all other gender conceptions. This takes the form of gender roles and gender politics. It is important to remember that gender is a fluid and ambiguous concept, even in cultures that have very traditional roles for men and women. Gender is more a process that is built, learned, negotiated and renegotiated. Given this fluidity in the conception of gender, it should not be surprising that there was some exploration of gender roles involved in game environments.
What is cybersex? What was the article that brought attention to cybersex?
Involves in-character sexual role play between anon players
A Rape in Cyberspace, describes how one character in an online site(LambdaMOO) sexually assaulted several other characters in-game
Some online games like the MMO Maple Story even have complex marital game mechanics
Remember that language
shapes perception and
gendered language shapes how
gamers perceive themselves.
Think about stereotype designers assume of the player: white, heterosexual, single.
In the fall of 1993,
two significant things happened.
One was the release of Doom,
which heralded the start of the
male-dominated first person shooter genre.
The second event was the launch
of the adventure game Myst,
which was the number one selling game for
about a decade.
Women played Myst far more often than men.
Interestingly, Myst would lose
its top sales spot to The Sims,
another game known for
its substantial female audience.
And yet the media and
the public rarely characterized
games as something for women.
Why the persisting view
that games are for boys?
For game scholars like Ian Bogost, the
answer is one of language and perception.
Think of the ways that the language of mass media linked games and maleness. Mass shootings, as an example, almost are always perpetrated by young men and are frequently linked to the play of first person shooter video games. The extreme nature of these crimes, the gender of the criminal and the kinds of games that the shooter played are tied to the crime's terrible imagery. And so, when people think about video games, they think about young men playing Doom, Mortal Kombat or Call of Duty.
this problem of perception is rooted in the language players use to describe their culture and the manner in which the media adopts that language without consideration.
casual game Sims, Farmville and Words for Friends are played by much larger audiences than violent FPSes yet, nonsensically, These games are dismissed by real gamers as things played by women over 40.
Before we continue with our exploration of sex and sexuality, let's review an important concept. In this lesson, we'll be drawing on Robin Hunicke and her co-authors' MDA Framework for Understanding Games. They use the term aesthetics to refer to a player's experience. That's the sense of fellowship, fun, challenge, discovery and defeat that takes place in a game. Aesthetics only make up one piece of the MDA framework. The other two pieces are A, mechanics and design, B, materialism and dynamics, C, motivations and decisions, or D, mechanics and dynamics. end of 9-2-Sex in Games
The answer is D. The MDA framework consists of mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics. These three elements are in balance. Mechanics belong in the domain of the game developers, while aesthetics are in the domain of the players. And dynamics exists somewhere in the middle between the players' experiences and the game's mechanics.
What are the five different ways in which sex is used or appears in video games?
sex as abstraction, sex as a game goal, sex as a mechanic, sex as an aesthetic and sex as emergent gameplay
What is Bogost’s idea (this was from lesson 6
Bogost’s ideas as of procedural rhetoric both introduced back in lesson 6
Sex as abstraction:
What do we mean by abstraction?
Game developers need some kind of abstraction to represent sex and sexuality in a game.
By abstract we mean a conceptual means for representing something that is concrete. So abstraction works through simplification. It’s a means for representing a concrete and usually complex human activity
We use the term abstraction to discuss the representation of sex and sexuality in video games. By abstraction we mean that, A) the aesthetic design visually represents sexual themes differently depending on the game's ESRB rating. B) The sexual content is often a superfluous addition, separate from the game's concrete purpose and game goals. C) The complex nature of human sexual relationships is simplified and represented in another way. D) The game's mechanics are unable to represent any human experiences.
C is the correct answer. Sex and sexuality are incredibly complex, it is not possible to accurately and concretely represent sexuality in video games
What is structuralism?
an abstraction that is meant to simplify and yet still capture some of the richness of everyday life.
Similarly, video games abstract sex and sexuality to represent human experience in a simplified yet meaningful manner.
Take Rod Humble's indie art game The Marriage. It's a deceivingly simple game. Your goal, if there is one, is to have your pink and blue square survive as long as possible. If either the blue or pink square disappears, the game ends. Your only means for interaction are by hovering near or over the two squares. Or, clicking on one of the many moving circles. When the pink and blue squares are further apart, the blue square becomes more opaque and the pink square becomes more transparent. And when the squares overlap, the blue square becomes transparent and the pink square becomes opaque. When the squares bump into each other, the pink square gets larger and the blue one gets smaller. And there are dozens of other rules, and interactions that influence the lives of the two squares. The question, of course, is what does this all mean? We're given very little interpretive context. The game's name suggests a deep commitment between the two squares, and blue and pink suggest masculine and feminine partners, but even that is interpretable.
What are the colors if pink and blue means feminine and masculine?
The colors are abstractions that simplify sex and gender. Two things that are almost infinitely complex. To make sense of the game, we have to dig in our own experiences or those of others.
So in summary, sex as abstraction in video games does a lot of things at the same time. It simplifies certain aspects of human sexuality in a rational and repeatable manner. Simultaneously, it represents much more complex and rich human experiences. It allows for adult issues to be represented in non threatening ways.
The Marriage's simple interface reveals a fairly complex interpretation of marital relations. The longer one plays the game, the more it encourages such interpretations.
Let's review what we just discussed. Sexuality is abstracted in video games for specific purposes. The reason is, A) To attempt to represent the complexity and richness of human sexuality. B) To make games more family friendly, through symbolism and metaphor. C) To simplify the complex nature of the topic so it can be expressed rationally in the game. D) To permit thoughtful interpretation of human relationships. Or, E) All of the above.
All of these answers are correct,
so the answer is E.
Video game designers are not the only ones who use abstraction in an attempt to explore, simplify, or confound the topic of sexuality. We see these themes emerging in film, literature and advertising. The next time you're in a media saturated environment, try to identify incidences of sex as an abstract concept.
Abstraction used as a game goal: A second way to view sex in video games is to see it as a game goal
An example would be Leisure Suit Larry, where at the back of the box says” the object of the game is to help Larry overcome his jerkisms and lose his you know what.”.
So in this game, the goal and
motivation for play is to get Larry to
lose his virginity to a female character.
Another game to demonstrate this is strip poker, where you keep making the female character lose, and she removes clothing. You win when she is bare.
Sexuality and presumably lust and
compliance is expressed as a female nude.
That’s the abstraction.
There are many other complexities in the concept of male gaze. The most significant is that such perspectives negatively affect our perception of ourselves. Let's explore this idea. Mulvey's theory of the male gaze assumes that, A) It is only men who view sexualized content, be it in a film or a video game. B) The viewer both objectifies and identifies with the sexualized portrayal of a character on screen. C) All video game designers primarily design games for a heterosexual male audience. From the perspective of a heterosexual male. D) The avatars available to play in video games are always male. If the avatar is male, so is his gaze
The correct answer is B. Laura Mulvey's theory is an attempt to explain the societal imbalance of power between men and women. The theory suggests that the consumption of media makes women passive objects for the pleasure of others. It also makes us active viewers who objectify those we view for our own sexual gratification. This would be the traditional male gaze
A is Incorrect. Mulvey's theory assumes that most media is framed for male consumption, but more than just men view them. The theory assumes that all viewers are affected by sexualized content. For the same reason, C might have seemed like the right answer on the surface, but game designers do build games for other intended audiences, as we'll see in a few minutes. For D, there are more playable male characters in video games especially in leading roles. But for our purposes here, we're not referring to the gaze of the character within the media itself. The theory describes the gaze of the audience. Try to keep the concept of male gaze in mind when we complicate the discussion later in the lesson when we talk about game mechanics and aesthetics
What are three sub-genres of the dating sims games in Japan(where there is sexual content as game goal, while also featuring complex narratives and rich character development)?
end of 9-3- representations of sex
Bishouji game-usually assume a heterosexual male player who tries to romance one of a handful of female NPCs
Eroge games- features quite explicit sexual content as a goal and reward for progression
Yoai games-predominantly female audience interested in male homosexual couples
sex used as a game mechanic.
Brings us back to lesson 6 on Bogost’s procedural rhetoric. The game’s mechanics are making an argument about sexuality. There is no distinction between gay and straight couples(in The Sims)
What is an example in which sex has a role in game mechanics?
Other games make explicit differences between men and females and the roles they play through their game mechanics**
In many early tabletop role playing games, female characters were given an extra point of dexterity(skill with hands) and male players given a point in strength.
In Super Mario Two, Princess Peach is one of the four playable characers. Each character has slightly different abilities: Mario can jump and lift, Luigi can jump higher but lift weaker, Toad jumps poorly but lifts things quickly and Peach is the only character who can float for a short period in time.
This is balanced by the fact that she is slower at pulling vegetables out of the ground than a Toad, she has a shorter jump than Luigi and Mario.
If we compare the characters, the male characters are represented as being stronger and faster than female characters.
So gender is both visually represented in the game and expressed through the game mechanics that involve physical strength and movement
Let's examine how game mechanics and sexuality interrelate. The abstraction of sex and sexuality through game mechanics, creates meaning because, A, mechanics are created by the developer. The developer determines how the player experiences sex and gender. B, mechanics determine the player's experience of sex and gender. Sexist mechanics create sexist players. C, mechanics are unimportant. Visual style and graphics matter more than gameplay in determining the sexual content of a game.
Or, D, mechanics create opportunities for interaction. Players interpret such opportunities through their experiences.
Most of these answers seem right on the surface. If you picked A, there is something to the idea that the developer has some authorial control over the game. But remember that the player's experience is his or her own. And that's not something under the developer's control. B suggests something similar, that game mechanics can somehow determine a player's experience or social behavior. Mechanics can give the player a context for action, but it cannot determine it. C might be true as a personal opinion for some players, but as you'll see in the rest of the lesson, mechanics matter a great deal for how players experience gender. So, that makes D the correct answer. Mechanics give the players a context within which they can act. The player's experience matters just as much and helps to shape the meaning sex has within that context.
A protagonist’s personality develops through gameplay, which game?
Plundered Hearts which features the pirate Miss Dimford. As her confidence increases, so does the things she is able to do. In the end of the game, Miss Dimsford saves her father and her love interest Captain Falcon. So in this game, the heroine of the story undergoes personality changes that are expressed in both story and game mechanics.
>> Good, innovative games try to break out of traditional stereotypes. Such games can use sex and gender as a game mechanic to foster a sense of A, Goodwill. B, Agency. C, Ownership. Or D, Excitement.
This was a tricky question. All of the above might be true in certain games. Some games build good will between the player and the protagonist. So the player cares about the character. Sometimes this even produces a sense of ownership in the character. Some game mechanics are built to be exciting as we see in the action genre. But the best answer is B. When sex and gender are used well as mechanics, they can create a sense of agency in the player.
Agency-
Agency is the level of control that a player feels they have in a game world.
Agency refers to the player’s ability to control and manipulate the game. Not control like controller inputs, but does the player’s actions have consequences in and effects on the game world. Usually the more scripted and linear the game, the less agency the player possesses.
It is worth mentioning that a few games have tried to mimic or replicate sex acts through controller input. The player controls the pace and progression of sex through the controller.
What can you say about this in a few words?
examples of sex as game mechanic deserve a few words. And those words would be terrible and awkward and awkward again. In truth, video games have only recently started to handle themes like love, friendship, and affection well. Games are still miles from meaningfully replicating and representing sex itself. For now, sticking to abstractions might be wise.
sex as aesthetic. In Mass Effect, there is an optional coitis scene. What does this emphasize in the game between protagonist Shepard and an NPC?
The game emphasizes intimacy. Sex is implied but is never explicitly shown(structuralism-an abstraction that simplifies but still captures the richness of everyday life). Most games represent coitis implicitly like Mass Effect, where during the intimate scene, the camera cuts to the ceiling when appropriate. In doing so, they’re actually expressing and representing gender roles.
What is the 1986 adventure game that begins with the avatar at its infancy, and lets player have their agency, making decisions in the avatar’s life until they are old? (additionally the player is given the option of playing a male or female protagonist)
Alter Ego. The developers sold two version of the game- Alter Ego Male or Alter Ego Female
The male version had rock throwing competitions while the female had dress up competitions. Slashing the teacher’s new tire became a risky new hair-do in the female version.
In summary, the both Alter Ego versions express gender stereotypes. The the game heavily oriented on heteronormative
What is heteronormative?
is the assumptions that there are specific roles, relationships and identities normal to men and females
Let's do a quick review. Heteronormativity is a concept that asserts A, Men and women differ inherently in terms of their physical characteristics. B, There are many normal ways of expressing sexuality, regardless of gender. C, Men and women have specific personality traits or interests that align with the societal perceptions of what is normal for their gender. Or D, It is impossible to assign gender-based personality traits or interests to individuals due to the large number of people in the world.
end of 9-4-Sex as mechanic
The correct answer is C.
Heteronormativity describes a social
perception of what is normal behavior for
men and women.
If you picked A, you might have been thinking of sexual dimorphism. A phrase describing the physical sex differences between males and females of the same species. But this isn't a biology course. B is incorrect because it describes a more pluralistic or inclusive way of thinking about sexuality. Which heteronormativity is not. And D is not correct, either. Heteronormative thinking still persists today. It continues in gaming culture, perhaps because of the way games are designed.
helpless, naive women need rescuing by a male hero which plays off fairly static heteronormative roles for both men and women. What do these designs impact?
They impact game aesthetics
Which character in which game, became the world’s first sex symbol in a video game?
What was the conflict between the developers and publishers about this character?
Lara Croft from Tomb Raider
The developer worked to render a more realistic body
But the publisher continued to sexualize Lara’s body through suggestive ads
This hints at a deeper aesthetic level, what was Lara’s appeal to game audiences? Were the gamers enamored by her acrobatic prowess or was the audience comprised of males who objectified her?
The final way that we want to tlak about how sex manifests in games is sex as emergent play
Sex as emergent play: some games intentionally create a play space for players to explore gender, sex and sexuality. What are some examples of these?
in MUDs during the 80s and 90s, there were playspaces where online players could have online weddings, which is an interesting form of emergent play. They import a rather ubiquitous social and cultural institution into the virtual world.
Are online weddings play spaces that designers usually create?
Online weddings are usually players constructed(sex as emergent play). The game only exists as play space to facilitate the process.
Can you think of ways how players might facilitate a wedding in a play space?
They have to recreate traditions for the ceremony within the constraints of what they could do in the game.(creating traditions). For example, they would have to create a dance, invite guests etc.
They had to fabricate the entire ceremony from wedding rings to flower arrangements and flowers.
Players can use ordinary objects like candles, shields, dyed carpets and make them special items suitable for a ceremony.
all of these activities reflect how individuals perceive and represent their personal relationships. These activities implicitly express or reject gender norms and traditions. And serve as a form of emergent sex play.
Staging an event like a marriage ceremony inside a multiplayer video game can be considered emergent play. When A, the game does not have a specific mechanics or or rules devoted to allowing in-game weddings. B, the wedding is between a real player, and an NPC, or, between two NPCs. C, one of the players does not consent to the ceremony. Or D, the marriage ceremony is required to move further along in the narrative of the game
The correct answer is A. This is practically the definition of emergent play in video games. Gameplay is emergent when an in-game activity occurs without the pre-determination of specific mechanics or rules to support that activity. For B and C, although these are both possible, neither of these situations describes unexpected events in the context of the game mechanics. If you chose D, you are probably confusing emergence with progression. If the narrative dictates that something must happen in a game, that is an example of progression, not emergence.
In real life, some erotic acts are seen as dangerous and inhumane. But in second life, the play space allows anyone to commit any kind of fancy the player desires in full view of other players. So how would you describe this? What is interesting about this?
It's a space where players are free to explore forms of sexuality that are socially prohibited off line. And perhaps that is the most interesting aspect of sex play in virtual worlds. These play spaces exist because of real life social proscriptions against many kinds of sexuality. In other words, sex play in second Life, is driven by gender norms in the real world.
According to statistics, there are 45% of females who game, but how many are in the gaming industry?
11%. That means 89% of the people making the games are male, who make games for an audience that is half female. The statistic is worse for the females who actually make games. That is 4%.
About 16% are animators. Men receive 29% more salary.
11% of game desginers are female but they are paid only 80% of their male counterparts.
Which, if any, of these classic games were created, designed or directed by female developers? Select every answer you think is correct. The options are A, Centipede, B, River Raid, C, Gabriel Knight, D, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, E, Uncharted and or F, King's Quest.
The correct answer is all of them.
Also, Roberta Williams co founded Sierrra Onlinie and created King’s Quest IV, the Perils of Rosella. She established many of the conventions for Role Playing Games that we see in modern games. Her work on the King’s Quest series was revolutionary.
