Since the introduction of Tomb Raider video games to the world in October 1996, Lara Croft has proved to be a laudatory heroine within the world of gaming. The strong, determined, and fierce character provides her audience with the opportunity to immerse itself in an environment of mystery and daring triumph. Although traditionally Lara Croft is portrayed as an unfaltering adventurer, her most recent performance demonstrates the human and vulnerable side to her character. Tomb Raider (2013) reimagines the familiar heroine through her origin story; one filled with tragedy, sacrifice, and wavering morals. Through the strife now discovered within Croft’s history, one may question whether Lara Croft still portrays a character of great heroism. Lara Croft’s portrayal in Tomb Raider’s storyline and gameplay influence her transition into a dynamic, relatable character; thus it is through the obstacles faced in her backstory that she becomes a laudatory heroine.
The storyline of Tomb Raider (2013) contributes to Lara Croft’s depiction as a dynamic, believable character. Previously, Croft bravely dived into unknown locations and ruins unflinchingly; the same cannot be said about her portrayal in 2013. Croft is unwillingly tossed into the dangerous environment of the island of Yamatai and must fight for her survival without the opportunity to doubt her instincts. The plot opens with a shipwreck onto an uncharted island, with Lara and her acquaintances immediately exposed to the savagery of its natives. It is the spontaneous struggle between staying alive by any means and maintaining old morals that does not play a part in the old Tomb Raider series, yet plays a crucial role in the growth of Lara within her latest installment. Lara...
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...n, regardless of gender. For the entirety of the game, players will find their courage within Lara rather than watching and admiring her triumphs from the sidelines. The interaction between heroine and gamer revolutionizes the standard at which video game heroes and heroines must live up to. Rather than an image of sophistication that ordinary people may have difficulty reaching, Lara’s newfound vulnerability humanizes her struggles into a culturally accessible archetype.
Works Cited
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Courage is not simply about how well you deal with fear, how many noble deeds you accomplish, or how you overcome life threatening situations. Courage is the practice of determination and perseverance. Something like, an unwillingness to abandon a dream even when the pressures of society weigh down on your shoulders; society will make you feel tired, humiliated, broken, and confused. Actually, it can be effortlessly said that daily courage is more significant than bouts of great deeds. Since everybody undergoes demanding circumstances on a daily basis, and most of us will not be called to perform a great deed, courage comes from those daily struggles and successes. However, Kate Bornstein is one person who has been able to transform her everyday life into a brilliant deed of courage. She threw herself into an unknown abyss to discover truth that many others would never dare tread. Ingeniously combining criticism of socially defined boundaries, an intense sense of language, and a candid autobiography, Bornstein is able to change cultural attitudes about gender, insisting that it is a social construct rather than a regular occurrence, through here courageous writing.
Paulson, Ken. “How obscene is video game violence?” USA Today. USA Today, 2 November 2010. Web. 24 October 2011.
It is no secret that there is an obvious difference of how women are portrayed in the media versus men. This movie discussed female characters never having lead roles and stated that when they did it ended in the women depending on, loving, or having to have a man. One young high school girl said, “Women never play the protagonist. The girls are
Clashing swords, miraculous survivals, pain of loss, and heroic sacrifice are all terrifying yet thrilling moments in a battle. The strong possibility of death and the frailty of human life add into the suspense of battle. Yet the reasons behind the wars, death, and suspense can be overlooked. The stories behind the warriors who have died will not be told again, but the stories of warriors still alive are what give the men strength to continue fighting against impossible odds. Ultimately, the reason of why a man would risk his life in battle is for someone, or something, he loves. Like in Gilgamesh and the Iliad, women help encourage and influence the protagonists to be the heroes and protectors they are meant to be.
Joseph Campbell describes the hero’s journey as a quest where the “hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man” (Campbell 7). The heroine’s quest, according to Valerie Estelle Frankel includes “battling through pain and intolerance, through the thorns of adversity, through death and beyond to rescue loved ones” (Frankel 11). Contrary to the hero’s journey, the heroine’s journey focuses on the “culture on the idealization of the masculine” while the hero’s journey focuses on the adventures. In the inspiring autobiography, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, Malala Yousafzai represents a heroine because she goes through the stages of the heroine’s journey as she refuses to be silenced and risks death to confront the Taliban on behalf of the young Pakistani girls that are deprived of education. The stages of the journey include the ordinary world, the call to adventure, the supernatural aid, the crossing of the first threshold, the road of trials, the ordeal, death and rebirth, and the return with the elixir.
If you were to ask many video game enthusiasts about their favorite female video game heroines, the answers you’d get would be very varied - some will say Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider series, others say Alyx from the Half-Life series, few say Jade from Beyond Good & Evil, a handful will vouch for Chell from Portal, and a lot of old-school folks might just say Ms. Pac-Man. However, there is another video game heroine who has managed to reach into the hearts of gamers, both male and female, proving that she was just as awesome as any celebrated male hero. However, for gamers who were sitting tight in front of their television sets, exploring the desolate planet of Zebes via their Nintendo Entertainment in 1986, it was widely assumed that the famed bounty hunter was male. At the end of the adventure, the big reveal was made - removing her helmet to signify a job well done, Samus Aran, protagonist of the Metroid series, was indeed female. For the purpose of this paper, we’ll analyze the heroics of Samus through three distinct analytical lenses: The Hero’s Journey (from Joseph Campbell), Carl Jung’s archetypes, and through feminist analysis.
The history of video games began in early 1950s, and it continued in development until today. video games gained popularity as movies and T.V shows, and like movies which producers focus on the story plot, each character role, and the way they are being represented, videogames have the same concerns, especially character 's role and, representation, because most of players will not care about the game’s story, they just want to have fun playing the game, but the player will play as a character, or meet other characters from various gender, and that what make game designers care about the gender and, characters representation. and by the way of presenting gender, it will control the number of players of both genders, because it could connect to their life. games industry made researches about what both genders want in their game,
Since the humble origins of the video gaming industry, individuals used it as a challenge of their abilities. In modern day, this industry is just a popular as any other media which exists in the mainstream world. Video games reflect society’s changing views of the normalities of which individuals and/or groups must abide to. This is exemplified in the evolving representation of the queer individuals within the virtual world. As the video game industry came into focus, so did the LGBT rights movement. This illustrates that society’s views on the LGBT community were reflected in the video games made, however, it was rare that such characters existed as protagonists until the twenty first century. Due to the extreme lack of asexual and non-binary
For over 60 years, Wonder Woman has filled the pages of her magazine with adventures ranging from battling Nazis, to declawing human-like Cheetahs. Her exploits thrilled and inspired many young girls, including Gloria Steinem. Through all of this, she has had to pilot her invisible jet through territories that her male counterparts have never had to. She is constantly pulled in two directions; her stories must be entertaining and non threatening to the male status quo, while simultaneously furthering her as the original symbol of 'Girl Power.' She is praised for being an icon of strength to women everywhere, but chastised for wearing a skimpy costume and tying men up, as if she were no more than a male fantasy. No comic book character has had to endure as much scrutiny as Wonder Woman. That's because Wonder Woman represents an entire gender, at a time of important social flux. Although she was created by a man to influence a male audience, Wonder Woman has evolved into an important symbol of the feminist movement.
Kulling, Matthew. “GTA:Link between violence and video games lacks a smoking gun.”. marquettetribune.org. 15 Nov 2013.
Zoltak, James. "Video Game Violence Makes for a Double-Edged Sword." Amusement Business 15 May 1995: p. 28 (1 - 4).
As we evolve into a more advanced species, so does our technology, and along with our overly advanced technology, comes video games. They’ve have certainly come a long way since they were first introduced to the main stream audience and have been slowly creeping its way into many daily lives, making them a lot more entertaining and less dull. Video games’ one and only purpose is to entertain. However, it is indeed true that everything is fun and games until somebody gets hurt, and that is exactly what has happened over the years in video games. With the help of our technology, being more developed than ever, video games have also become increasingly sophisticated and overall more close to reality than
The issue of sexism in video games has been going on for a long time. Similarly, Fox talks about how “Research has indicated that many video games and virtual worlds are populated by hypersexualized and unrealistic representations of women.” This shows how women have been sexualized in media which represent women as self-objective. Jess explained in his research that, “as a result of hypersexualization of women in videogames, it would lead to an increase in rape myth acceptance.” In one of Jess’ experiments, he focused on the effects of avatar features on women’s experience of self-objectification.
Also, the film revealed women empowerment and how superior they can be compared to men. While demonstrating sexual objectification, empowerment, there was also sexual exploitation of the women, shown through the film. Throughout this essay, gender based issues that were associated with the film character will be demonstrated while connecting to the real world and popular culture.
The day was April 20th, 1999. During an otherwise peaceful day at Columbine High in Columbine, CO, two seniors—Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold—finally committed an atrocious act. That act had been in the planning for a long time, perhaps even since Harris designed a website for popular, controversial, extremely violent video game Doom in 1996. The Columbine High School shooting is known as the deadliest high school shooting ever, with its death toll of twelve students and one teacher, as well as twenty-four people injured. But little known for some is the fact that the Columbine shooting was what kick started the nationwide controversy over violent video games. Harris, for one, was an avid player of Doom, and some believe that’s what caused him and Klebold to even think of murdering all the people who had, according to Harris’ diaries, simply ‘annoyed’ him. The fallout of this incident was massive, but one of the long-lasting effects has been the worry in people’s minds that there is a connection between video games and violent acts performed by teenagers. Those who do believe that may claim that before the digital age, violent acts—at least those performed by teenagers—were few and far between. (This is an obvious rumor, not a fact.) If that were the case, it’s understandable why some believe that games are causing more violence in today’s youth. Teachers are worried about the issue, as are parents and government officials, and teenagers and game producers are involved in it as well. The issue itself raises many questions: are teenagers so easily affected by images on a screen? Is the world merely a product of its pastimes? If video games really do cause increased aggression in youth, what are people supposed to do about it? Despit...