Sexism in Video Games: GTA V

The recent release of Grand Theft Auto V has placed the spotlight, yet again, on sexism and how females are portrayed in video games. Face it, when you think about video games, you also share the same stereotypical view that they have a male-orientated target market; however, in a recent poll, it was recorded that 45% of video gamers are female. With growing options to play as a female protagonist, male orientated games may be a thing of the past.

It’s not surprising that the currently recorded sales for GTA V in the UK is over 2.6 million. This is no wonder, since it gives you the freedom to explore a huge map in any way that you like, doing anything from riding a motorbike off the top of a cliff to killing provocatively dressed females with an RPG. The one thing that GTA lacks, however, is a female lead. Instead, we’re presented with three strong male protagonists, a bank robbing ‘family man’, a town drunk and a man rebelling away from everyday life.

What GTA lacks in strong females, other recent games make up for. The hugely popular Tomb Raider, portrays Lara Croft as a physically strong yet vulnerable character that all players are able to relate to. Tomb Raider has been a successful franchise for over 17 years, creating a worldwide recognisable figure which fans have grown to love, resulting in films and merchandise being made.

Admittedly, this is rare for lead females—even though they may not be the main focus, they play a vital part in the storyline, which is evident in games, such as The Walking Dead. Clementine is an emotionally vulnerable young girl who is completely dependent on you, therefore making her vital to the storyline. Although she may not be the lead character, you end up becoming emotionally attached and caring more for her than you do for yourself.

These are just two examples where females are important to the storyline and bring more to it than just a pretty face.

Clementine – The Walking Dead

Nevertheless, if you long to play as female, you can! Recently, more games are breaking the mould, giving the player a choice of characters to play as, such as in Mass Effect 3, Dead Island and Resident Evil—just to name a few. However, at the E3 gaming convention, Microsoft unveiled a variety of games for their upcoming console, of which its developers have demonstrated doubt to risk making the lead character a female. Even so, it is proven to have been a huge money-making success.

Most female characters are aesthetically attractive—perfect for the male gamer; however, for the other 45%, seeing Lara Croft in tight wet clothing is really necessary. Maybe having the option could make everyone content?

In any case, does the sex of the protagonist really matter? It wouldn’t change the enjoyment of the game or its success If anything, it would make it stand out from the crowd and show that the developers are actually doing something about the growing sexism in games, which has so far been GTA’s biggest criticism.

 

Adam Turnbull

One less GTA convert

“Nonstop fun!” cries The Guardian. With rave reviews from almost all major games media outlets, and having set records for the amount of money it has made to date, Grand Theft Auto V is enjoying the praise of millions. But should we really be awarding such a shamelessly misogynistic game such high admiration?

Gamespot Editor,  Carolyn Petit, recently came under fire for marking the game down to 9/10 with her only main criticism being the lack of depth, and violence towards, female characters in the game. While no one can deny the quality of engineering, it’s variety of missions and the quality of gameplay, refusing to review such a massive piece of popular culture within it’s social context is blind and dangerous. And reviewing it within one and refusing to acknowledge it’s flaws in the final mark is even worse.

It’s like a lecturer giving you a first for an essay because it was beautifully written but you’ve thrown one random paragraph in the middle that argues in favour of throwing puppies off cliffs becoming a new Olympic sport.

Should we throw puppies off cliffs in the name of national pride and sportsmanship?

No. Just like we shouldn’t reduce female characters to archaic stereotypes in the name of being satirical to an audience who are picking up a controller to be immersed in a new world, and not necessarily to laugh upon and imitate the sad and harmful downfalls present in our own.

Rockstar Games missed out on an opportunity to do something new with GTA V, but all they’ve done is retell the offensive jokes that have become antiquated since 2001 when the series started. They were offensive then, and they are offensive now.

Perhaps if the series was able to develop it’s cultural awareness as much as it’s technical mastery it would be deserving of the titles so nonchalantly dished out by the reviewers with the most influence.  With female involvement in the industry being debated and sometimes rejected by a community often tarnished by the comments of trolls and bigots, GTA V, to me, gives an excellent example of a reason women are continuously put off the gaming world.

If you’re offended by the joke, you don’t get it. And if you don’t get it, you’re not welcome here.

 

Gemma Joyce

GTAverage

Grand Theft Auto V represents the manifestation of all the experiences and skills Rockstar have compiled over the years.  It’s an amazing, well-constructed game, and after playing it for many hours straight I sincerely believe that it will be my game of the year.

But I am not writing here to exuberantly praise the game – there are plenty of reviews which do that already. Rather, I want to dedicate this review to all the flaws this game has, which most reviewers seem to skip over as they gush about the game. If you want a happy, positive review of the game, look anywhere else on the internet. But right now, there are several problems which hadn’t really been addressed by most other news sources.

Firstly, there is no option to instantly appear near mission givers. While the massive, vibrant world is a joy to explore, it soon became a hindrance. Every time I needed to go to a mission, I needed to drive for 5-10 minutes just to get there, then perhaps a further 5-10 minutes to get to the mission’s objective.

Secondly, there is no GTA Online at launch day. I am aware that they had problems with the online portion before release, so they decided to delay it to improve the service. However, I find it unacceptable that they have developed a game for five years with the biggest budget in video gaming history, yet they can’t give their consumers the full product on release day. No matter which way you look at it, it’s a case of poor planning. No-one should accept this as being fine and normal, especially when most people are paying full price.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the gunplay is average at best. Most of the time you will be bracing against some sort of cover, then popping up like a jack-in-a-box to kill any enemy senseless enough to poke their head out from cover. The guns also lack any great impact, feeling more like pea shooters at the best of times. While Rockstar had added more variety to their missions, you are still expected to hold a gun in most cases, and they are an absolute bore to use. Give Infinity Ward some credit; while they get bashed for repetitive gameplay, at least they designed their gunplay much better than Rockstar over the years.

Please understand that I absolutely adore this game. I could have rattled down all the amazing experiences I had with my flatmate as we explored the world, and you would have walked away satisfied. But most reviewers seem to skim over these important flaws, and I feel that it is vitally important for you all to hear about its virtues as well as its vices before you purchase it. I can only hope that future reviewers will do the same.

 

Tom Ffiske

Gunning for Greatness: The Game of the Year Race

Hey now Rockstar, get your game on, go play.

 

Even with three months left on the calendar it would be safe to assume that the race for Game of the Year 2013 will be a three horse race, and boy, what fine stallions they are.

With Bioshock: Infinite, The Last of Us and now of course the sensational Grand Theft Auto V all ranking up there as some of the best games of the now waning current console generation, you would think that deciding on a definitive winner would be a near impossible task.

The strange thing however, is that it has always been clear cut who the victor would be, and always has been ever since the first trailer rolled out nearly two years ago. People will of course always have preferences as well as a diverse range of opinions when it comes to games, but the atmosphere produced by the sprawling city of Los Santos will continuously place Rockstar North’s magnum opus firmly above nearly all competition.

Before we can truly come to grips with why GTA V’s game world is such a success, a closer look needs to be taken at both Bioshock and The Last of Us.

When stepping into either universe, one is faced with a nuanced, finely tuned style that clutches the player’s head and heartstrings in such a way that you are guided throughout the action by one single overarching thematic vision. This results in a carefully controlled environment for the story to unfold in relation to the gameplay, and while of course this rigid approach is responsible for some of the industry’s most memorable creations, Grand Theft Auto V manages to take it one step further and evolve it into something truly unique.

With a map larger than that of San Andreas, Red Dead Redemption and GTA: IV combined, Rockstar have fashioned a world where the atmosphere can be both tightly constructed and freely twisted to form a setting where a character’s, and indeed the player’s, personality can evoke numerous different contextualised impressions of each location.

Take the psychotic Trevor and the barren, dusty countryside on the outskirts of the city. To him, it is his home, a space for him to drink, race, fly planes and *cough* kidnap and kill people. Where he lives and acts paints a perfect picture of who he is as a person, giving the player a certain sense of identity when they take control.

Put Franklin into this position however, and things become more jarring. For a humble street hustler raised in the dense, working class projects of Los Santos to be exploring small, filthy trailer parks in the middle of nowhere, it makes the environment all the more alien, even though nothing has actually changed.

All of this points to a near perfect relationship between gameplay and atmosphere that truly encapsulates the unruly sense of liberty and freedom that the series is famous for.

While its rivals may have built brilliant living worlds of their own, Grand Theft Auto V’s universe lives, breaths, maims, and jokes its way to the very top.

 

Rob Harris, Screen Editor

Review: Saints Row IV

Rob Harris, Screen Editor, becomes President of the United States, rocks a flourescent pink afro and wields a dubstep gun…

Take a moment and try to name a game in which you can disarm a nuke, cure cancer and punch a guy in the dick all within a ten minute window. No luck?

Well, if any of the above activities sound at least a little appealing, then Saints Row IV may just be what you’re searching for.

As the new President of the United States, apparently elected through uncompromising badassery alone, right from the get-go it becomes apparent that developers, Volition, Inc., have upped the stakes. After all, why be the head of a street-gang when you can be the head of the most powerful nation on Earth while sporting a fluorescent pink afro?

Before you even get a chance to comprehend the possibilities that being the guy with access to the big red button could bring, Earth is enslaved by an alien empire led by the evil and charmingly camp Zinjak, a warlord with a fondness for brutal murder and Shakespeare. With all the captives now living trapped inside a computer simulation of the city of Steelport, it is up to the Boss and his crew to find a way to break free and rescue the human race.

At first glance, things don’t seem too different from the shenanigans of Saints Row: The Third. There are cars to jack, bad guys to shoot and squishy pedestrians to make your bitches.

However, all of that changes when you find your first glitch in the system. By hacking the electronic universe around you, the player eventually builds up a diverse array of powers that range from super speed to explosive fireballs, all of which can be ranked up by collecting data clusters scattered around the city. As soon as you are let loose to smash, freeze, stomp and burn everything in sight, it becomes immediately clear that this is no longer just a goofier, coarser imitation of Rockstar North’s Grand Theft Auto series, or even a traditional sandbox game.

The freedom, the intensity, and the mania, all band together in one resounding realisation – Saints Row IV is one of the best superhero games ever created.

By brushing off the label of ‘GTA-clone’ and taking further steps to embrace true mayhem, it has formed its own special niche in which it alone is king. Unfortunately, in amongst all the laughs, blasts, and tentacle-bats there are more than a few niggling annoyances that can at times yank you firmly out of the fun.

Whilst many of the story and character missions contain some remarkably hilarious scenarios, to unlock some of the more insane weapons like the vortex gun, a rifle which shoots black holes, you must also complete side-missions such as hacking shops, stealing vehicles and racing around the city.

Despite being fun at first, repetition and lack of challenge soon becomes tiresome. To be given so much control over making your own fun, only to slow you down to a gruelling pace, undermines the very freedom the game works so hard to create.

Of course, once you are handed back the reins, thrown over a dubstep gun and get sent on your way you can’t help but forgive it for its weaknesses. As a delightfully riotous love letter to gaming tropes laced with a wicked dose of pandemonium, Saints Row has grown up in the most immature way possible – and it is all the better for it.

4/5 Stars

Rob Harris, Screen Editor

My Life in Gaming: Change of Taste

As I look on and bite my nails at the arrival of 8th generation of video game consoles, I suddenly realize that 8 is a lot of generations.

40 years and 8 generations ago we were looking at a very altered set of games, and a wildly different industry and market.

You could attribute a lot of these changes to faster processors and advancements in graphics cards, and although these factors helped,  it was not the main driving force for the change we have seen.The industry evolved around an aging market, moving from children to teens to adults, with each age bracket wanting something different or more out of the games they played.

The Grand Theft Auto franchise is a pertinent example of this.

Before GTA IV hit the market, the Grand Theft Auto series was best described as a wacky open world sandbox, with a story to simply serve the progression of further mayhem. The games were filled with crime, sex, violence, drugs and zero consequences. I personally loved these games and enjoyed their over the top nature and satirical jokes towards American pop culture.

I, like many people, could not wait for the next instalment of ridiculousness to hit the shelves. But GTA IV, although similar in gameplay, was not really what I was expecting.

It was dark, dreary, and somewhat depressing. Your character isn’t there to kickass and chew bubblegum. He wants to make a new life, in the land of opportunity, but instead finds himself needing to protect his family and slowly being sucked into the underworld. No one seems to be happy in this world either.

The choices these people made are often catching up to them and although life seems to get better, it is subtly getting more stressful and dangerous.

This major turn in the franchise was certainly a risky move, but was executed so well that they escaped becoming another repeated sequel. In the previous games I would often skip large chunks of narrative, having no reason to care for the characters or the progression of the story.

But now the only reason I played was to reach the next episode of Niko Bellic’s life. This tonal shift was something, that in hindsight was much needed. If the sequels of GTA kept to the old style, I would probably not be excited or consider not buying GTA V at all. 

In the same way that individuals choose to read different literature, or watch different films, they have also chosen to play different games.

I have noticed as I have gotten older that I direct my attention towards games that have novel ideas or explore unique or controversial topics.With the explosive expansion of Indie games due to lower development costs, more people can tell more stories with a variety of original mechanics.

In my opinion it has turned the video game medium into more of an art form, with autocratic design allowing people’s visions to become reality.

At the same time I find some larger titles which have superb mechanics and graphics, but are lacking in overall direction as the hands of publishers and executives dirty the original design. A camel is a horse designed by committee is a proverb that I find applies well to this.

*

Tom Seaman