In my blog post I will address character identification and the erotic triangle as mentioned by Mia Consalvo in “Hot Dates and Fairy-Tale Romances: Studying Sexuality in Video Games”.
I agree with Mia and Stephen Poole when they argue that players identify with their characters. Their arguments of player- character identification differ in terms of how the character is drawn and/or portrayed. From Mia’s perspective by having characters such as Zidane drawn with the bare minimum of details, players are presented with a better opportunity to imagine themselves as the character. This identification allows players to imagine the characters personality, actions, and how they relate to other characters. From Poole’s perspective players are more likely to identify with realistic characters than with abstract ones. Based on my limited experience of playing video games, my perspective of player-character identification is similar to Poole’s. When I play Pac-man or any other game where the characters are just shapes with smiley faces, I do not feel bad when they die because I think about the additional lives that they have. Now when I use realistic characters and have been able to grow attached to them, I feel so bad when they die because I think that the characters depended on me and I just let them down. Regardless of how a character is drawn, players will identify with them to varying degrees.
The erotic triangle involves two men who have homosocial feelings towards one another that are displaced onto a woman, who “serves as a placeholder for their heterosexuality”. Examples of the erotic triangle appear in male-buddy action movies such as Superbad, Wedding Crashers, and even Shrek. I have never thought much of the male- buddy relationship as being part of an erotic triangle. In my opinion, the men are really good friends who can identify with the other as a brother. It’s strange that it’s “normal” for girls to be best friends but out of place for guys to be best friends. The latter statement has been recently addressed by the newly created term “bromance”. Society is slowly accepting these intense male friendships.
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Similarly I have had limited experience with video game, but I understand you synthesis about player-character identification. I have found it difficult to really identify with the charcters that I have played because they are either strange charcters such as Pac-Man, or males. I mostly would play video games that belonged to my brother most of which had male characters. Sometimes I would purposely choose a male character because I found the limited female characters to be somewhat degading in the way that they were dressed and just their overall appearance. Which kind of, relates to the whole sexuality in video games that we discussed earlier. I never really seemed to take the games seriously, which is probably due to the fact that I couldn't completely identified with the characters that were supposed to be me in the video game.
ReplyDeleteI also have very very limited experience with video games but still I feel very attached to the characters in a game because I feel as if I am stepping into their shoes for the time given to try to complete whatever task is given by the game. I don't like wasting lives as I feel that my character is getting less strong, which isn't true but it is the way I feel. Katie, I really like how you incorporated examples into your argument. I agree that bromances are becoming more popular and widely accepted. People like to develop relationships with other people and friendships are some of the most important and longlasting relationships that we will make in our lives. Guys and girls both need and have friends, and now at least its being recognized that guys can have close guy friends as well.
ReplyDeleteKatie: You do make a good point about the relative acceptance of female friendships over male friendships, though I think we could drill deeper and consider the kinds of male friendships society tends to find acceptable (manly pats on the back, firm handshakes, good-natured mockery... vs. gestures of affection).
ReplyDeleteI think this article was very interesting and was one of the few about gaming that I could totally understand and in some ways relate to. I want to bring up this old story and hopefully explain how it ties in to this idea of gender establishment via games:
ReplyDeleteBack in the day (5 years ago) when the Xbox has just come out, I remember playing this game: "007 Nightfire". In one of the games you could play within the game, there were only two characters you could be: one was a male while the other was a female. My brother who is seven years younger than me and I would always argue about who got to play the girl and who got to play the guy. I don't remember if the girl was better or the guy. But one thing I do remember about the girl was that you could see her nail polish while she held the gun. She wore red nail polish and had (if I remember correctly) distinctly large nails. Thinking about it now, seems so impractical, why would a lady who is going to go on a mission to kill people (hopefully) and not die herself would take the time before to put on red nail polish? However, I remember that no matter in which you played, whenever, the female character was used; she would always be wearing the nail polish.
In terms of what I have learned through readings, like this one, it makes sense why she was wearing nail polish. Stereotypically, I think guys are attracted to girls who find themselves predisposed to the female gender stereotypes things like: having pretty nails is probably one them. Therefore, I now can finally understand why that girl (I think name was Aurora or something) wears nail polish. For even though she kills people, she still is a woman and in such ways follows the gender stereotypes which guys generally attribute to women.
I actually feel quite the opposite when it comes to feelings toward non-realistic characters. Just because the character itself may not look realistic, i.e. a troll or dwarf, it can still be connected to the gamer. Mostly in MMO's like World of Warcraft, the character often becomes and attachment for the player who does not actually look anything like an actual human being. It seems to me to stem from the fact that connection to the character isn't so much concerned with the resemblance to the player but to the progression and improvement the player puts into the character. An attachment in this case is built by watching the character level and improve at the player's hand, not because the player and character look alike.
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