By now you've probably heard somewhere, like a noisebriar sticking to your clothes in the digital wind, that Eidos would like to make the Tomb Raider franchise and its heroine more "female friendly." Trina of ladybusiness-focused site GamingAngels recently collected some thoughts on this from game industry gals she knows, and I contributed.
Decided to share here what I wrote to her, and see what you guys think. I know there're plenty of gals who read SVGL, but an utterly unscientific population sampling suggests that my audience, like most gaming audiences, is majority male. Still -- and maybe one day I'm owed a deck in the face from Gloria Steinem -- whenever we as a society discuss gender issues and "what women want," I get a pang of concern for the dudes. I'm probably fortunate to grow up in this era instead of in a previous one, but I don't like that we're allowed to discuss what's "female-friendly" and yet generally feel comfortable already assuming what's "male-friendly" (guns! explosions! boobs!) -- and permit girls' club attitudes while boys' clubs are conceptually frowned upon.
I also think the idea of "female-friendly" is by itself a little bit cringeworthy, because it assumes that all women have the same taste, and all women are interested in the same ideals. But I'm hammering on semantics here -- largely to make the point that this is a discussion in which I hope SVGL's entire audience feels comfortable participating.
Semantics aside, look. I think I get what Eidos wants to do, here. Lara has a reputation as a bombshell -- okay, okay, sex object. She's perhaps the game biz's most famous piece of eye-candy, and somehow over the years she's become iconic of the concept that 18-year-old boys drool over pixelated boobs. I can see how this has made some women feel as if Tomb Raider games are not "for them."
But when it comes to why women don't feel comfortable with this or that video game, I think it's a way bigger issue than just one character's looks and body. They could overhaul her completely in some kind of extreme way and I still doubt that it will be some magical cure for female perception of the brand -- and they might even alienate existing fans, which won't help their ends.
Eidos is trying to widen the franchise's appeal because Tomb Raider: Underworld didn't sell like they wanted it to. I also suspect Eidos is trying to clean lingering skeletons out of its closet so that a strong company will want to buy it out, but that's just a guess. Finally, when releasing a title in a franchise that's sucked for years during a packed, starkly hit-driven recession holiday, I think weak sales are to be expected no matter how great this installment is.
But if they think that making their larger-than-life heroine look mundane and conservative will make the game appeal to more women, that seems pretty dumb to me.
People often point out the implausibility of Lara wearing hot shorts in the snow, or having bare legs when she plans to be climbing stalagmites or obelisks or something. Well, I've been noticing game characters' implausible clothes for ages -- none of the FFVII crew bundled up at the Icicle Inn, Solid Snake didn't mind lying belly-down in the snow at Shadow Moses and I've watched shirtless musclemen brave the elements for over a decade with nothing more than a chuckle and "that's video games for you." The argument that we're not trying to desexualize Lara, we're just trying to make her realistic doesn't hold water.
I was really impressed with Underworld. I thought Lara's physicality was enjoyable and amazing -- far less to do with how her body looked, and much more about how she used it . Not once did I sit there feeling bad because I don't look like her, and I don't like the idea that women are so fragile that sexy fantasy women should never be allowed in video games -- especially when we allow sexy fantasy men. Please, Big Boss, do not put a shirt on.
I'm pretty sure all us gals are smart enough to know that Lara is a video game character and not a real person. Maybe her body proportions are unrealistic -- but, uh, the fact that she leaps across chasms in the Amazon, balances on hairline ledges and discovers mysterious artifacts with ancient powers is acceptably grounded in reality?I don't believe that women have a problem with Lara, other than that we've been conditioned to blame her. I think it's Lara's social context -- Lara's audience that makes them feel unwelcome (and stuff like this). And once again, this comes down to the longer-term history of the video game industry, which marketed itself for years as a toy for teenage boys, and now will probably take years more to get rid of that stigma.
You can even say it's the fault of society, fond of judging which kinds of things are "for girls" and which kinds of things are "for boys", that makes women feel like they ought not to try something like Tomb Raider. Maybe it even makes women feel like they are *supposed* to be insulted by Lara, even without having taken a look at their own feelings around the issue.
I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that when it comes to the relationship between women and games, much broader things need to change than the long-established aesthetic of Lara Croft.
48 comments:
Like you said, the idea that Lara Croft is what's standing between hordes of anxious female gamers and this series is ludicrous. It's just another case of "we failed to make the money we wanted, who can we blame?" "Hey, let's blame the fans!"
Ironically, just a few years ago Hollywood famously blamed the failure of the second Tomb Raider movie on the crappy game that came out around the same time.
To be quite honest, the Tomb Raider franchise has been consistently good, despite it's public perception. Apart from the blip that was Angel of Darkness, every game has been at least Solid. Legends was brilliant, Anniversary more so, and I thought Underworld was utterly breathtaking at creating a beautiful level. The fact they got rid of boss fights and QTEs is even more to be lauded. The problem is that 80% of people still think it's all about Lara's 'assets' and nothing to do with an incredible solid puzzle platformer. I mean, look at Underworld, and then look at the new Prince of Persia. I know which I'd rather play.
Not much to add, other than this was a good piece, as always... and to say that Angelina Jolie blamed the failure of the second movie not on the game, like the execs did, but on the fact that they airbrushed out her nipples on the poster.
I actually sort of liked the Tomb Raider movie. It often surprises me when people are disappointed by video game movies -- just how deep do they think the source material really is?
Film games can't seem to decide whether they want to be wholly true to the game or to stand alone as genuine cinema. The movie wasn't any more ridiculous, convoluted or shallow than the plot of Tomb Raider itself.
I think the camera turns off way more casual gamers (male or female) than Lara's hilarious physique. There's such a high learning curve for modern 3D games in general that broadening your audience is gonna be a lot harder than lengthening some short shorts. Maybe Eidos should start making a Wii version of Tomb Raider if they want more female gamers to play it, for starters.
Great writeup, both yours and the others on the GamingAngels site. I liked it enough to sign up there to post my piece.
Thanks to you and the others there for giving the finger to out-of-touch execs who think girls only want romance and pink ponies.
Leigh, I doubt anyone expected them to make a good movie out of it, it's just that it was rather stupid to try in the first place. The fact that it was always going to be bad does not excuse it's badness, although it means it hurts less than some games that actually could have made decent movies.
It's interesting that you speculate that women might feel they're 'supposed' to hate Lara, sometimes I feel like I'm 'supposed' to like her and her ilk (and it's not like there aren't many worse out there, most of them from Japan) when really I find the whole thing rather embarrassing.
Still, depictions of men in games aren't that much better I guess. No-one brings up the idea that men might feel they can't 'measure' up to the ultra grizzled muscle bound cubic death dealers that populate Gears of War. And it's right they don't talk about it, because we just think they look stupid.
Perhaps that's it? The conception I mean. That when men see a ridiculously out of proportion character they think he looks silly that he's the one that's wrong, but when women see one they think they are the ones that are the wrong shape. Is that it? That truly, deep down this all stems from the belief that women are fragile damsels, to be protected from a world they don't truly understand?
Is it all just a more insidious form of sexism after all?
Now I often disagree with Leigh about these issues finding myself more on her left to put it simply if perhaps a little bit unfairly. That said Lara Croft's image in the game isn't the problem. Her image in the zeitgeist might be more of a problem though. So while I think the idea that the Lara model is a problem is really wrongheaded, a PR campaign saying that their fixing this non-problem might actually work to some degree.
That said it may already be too late for Tomb Raider to become a top title.
I get the feeling that saying "we want to attract women to our franchise" is starting to be used interchangeably with "we want to attract casual and non-gamers to our franchise." That's how I took the publisher's comments, anyway.
I think a spotty camera, difficult combat, and coming to grips with the controls all have more to do women/non-/casual-gamers not being attracted to the game than Lara's cup size. I've only played the demo for Underworld, but really enjoyed all the past games (even Angel of Darkness!) and will pick it up eventually. However, I certainly wouldn't use it to introduce someone to gaming.
In a strange way I think they have the right idea, but for the wrong reasons. Initially I liked the idea of a redesign, not because I'm offended by her copious "assets" but because a move to more realism might serve the series possibly in the same way it has served Grand Theft Auto. At least for the sake of creating something interesting, or making the character more compelling. A beautiful, intelligent woman with a posh accent and blue blood is pretty compelling on a superficial level, but it would be nice to have a compelling character to go along with it. I like the idea of a (somewhat) believable female in a lead action role... the two best that come to mind are Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, and Patricia Tallman as Barbara in the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead, but really, there should be more. That being said, I can't help but remember the fan "reimagining" of Faith from Mirror's Edge. Perhaps it's my Y chromosome to blame, but I couldn't help but feel that the "healthier" proportioned, anime-styled character was more visually appealing. That doesn't mean I would find her more believable as an anti-establishment messenger of the future, but on some level, I couldn't help but feel that the more unrealistic appearance was satisfying in the context of that game somehow. Maybe we shouldn't care what Lara is feeling while she's shimmying along columns or why she's there in the first place, but it would certainly increase /this/ particular player's involvement. ^ _ ^
Also, on a completely unrelated note, as someone who has links with RPS, the Espcapist and Offworld, who will you be cheering on in the Planetside Blog War Leigh?
Aesthetically speaking, a lot of what helps me enjoy a game is the look of it. This may be superficial, but it's a visual medium and it's important for today's games to look good, not just in terms of resolution and framerate but for the design itself.
Some games have gone the "realistic" route, and there have been games done very well in that regard. Some are more stylishly done--despite its flaws, watching the new Prince of Persia as I play it is invigorating in that regard. Even if a game's visual design is going to be realistic, it has to have some style.
In the case of Tomb Raider, most heterosexual males find Lara attractive, and thus the main attractive element of the games is her. I don't think women are any different in their tendency to like pretty things, but I would say most are interested in different kinds of pretty things. To speak stereotypically for a moment, a lot of female gamers I've known count the Final Fantasy games as their favourites, and they have a very distinct visual style--bright colours, sweeping architecture, and a cast of characters ranging from realistically proportioned pretty boys and girls to cute fuzzy creatures to dark, intimidating and handsome villains. Guys like these games too, and probably for the same reasons visually speaking, but it's more even ground between the sexes.
So what I would say is, don't try to force a character to be a role model. Assume superficiality from women as well as men, and make things appealing for both.
I borrowed Underworld and the new Prince of Persia from a friend recently. I finished Underworld this weekend, and have barely touched Prince of Persia. I haven't played a Tomb Raider game since the first one, and wasn't impressed by the demo for Underworld, but once I got into it, I couldn't put it down.
They made a fun adventure/platforming game. However, while it isn't necessarily bad for them to change Lara's look, I think they are focusing on the wrong things. Her image isn't the problem.
I think the reason I didn't like the demo is because of the learning curve. Since I hadn't played Tomb Raider in a long time, I wasn't used to the visual clues in the level design that told what I could do, and where. Crappy camera angles don't help either, and sometimes I swear they were more interesting in showing me a nice view of Lara's ass, than with showing me what I need to see. The biggest problem I had was the consistency of the design. The devs seem to have a very clear idea of how to solve the puzzles and anything outside of that is verboten. On most ledges, you can walk to the edge, and she'll jump down and grab the ledge. However, on a lot of ledges, that event never fires, because they apparently don't want you to climb there. Instead, you fall to your death. Also annoying we spots where it looked like you could chimney kick, but you can't. It's like they didn't bother putting physics on anything that wasn't essential to the puzzle at hand.
If they had fixed these bugs, then it might have sold better.
Leigh, while I agree that most movies are more or less the product of their source material, I do have two words : "Silent Hill"
Haven't they changed Lara's look like five times already? Why? What's the point? It's not like they can erase the past ten years and pretend like they never intended for her to be a sex symbol. This is just sad. I feel sorry for Lara. Her creators won't accept her for who she is. How's that supposed to make women feel? "Change who you are to make others like you" I wonder why that sounds familiar. Kinda reminds me of that game company that rhymes with Nintendo....nope it's not comin to me. This makes me wonder if Zelda sales were to drop, would they change the way Link looks? They've basically named their console a dick, nothing in the future would surprise me.
Oh and I approve of Big Boss never putting on his shirt. "Yeah, burn them leaches off. Nice and slow." Hmmm, I'm not gay...but now I'm starting to wonder. Nah, fictional characters don't count. Paul Rudd on the other hand...
In all of the long years that the Tomb Raider franchise has been around, I have not heard one single complaint from a female gamer of Lara Croft not being accessible due to her...physique/image. Unless of course it was because of one those wonderful little MODS that came out in the 90's where you could play Lara topless. What was it called, Nude Raider?
Anyhoo, any rant that I ever came across about the Franchises accessibility was always due to the games utter crappiness. And that's it. I never once heard someone say "Well I rented the game, it was fine, and I would've purchased it if only the main Female character was dressed in more appropriate attire for the fictional scenario for which she found herself in. Will there ever be a more accessible lead character for the female demographic?".
I find the whole statement to be an excuse for poor sales for a sub-par game.
I think that this "redesign" has less to do with lara's hyper sexulization and more to do with the fact that for better or worse, Soccer Mom's are the biggest group of video game consumers at this point. Don't be suprised when the next tomb raider's lead SKU is the Wii and it's a series of spelunking mini games.
I don't agree that desexualizing Laura will make her mundane. I have no idea what Eidos has planned for her revision, but I know that I have no empathy left for Laura. She moves and looks like an inflatible doll. It's not the size of her breasts or the narrowness of her waist line it's the aggregate of idealized features which do little to convey a character underneath. She could be naked in the next game, but she remains so mechanically symetrically, bulging in all the predictable places, that I don't care about anything that's happening to her. To contrast, I felt a lot more connected to Nariko, in another mishmash game because she had scars, blemishes, bruises. She still had big boobs and walked around in a slinky rag, but she looked like a character and not a doll. It would be nice to see Lara become a character, even if it means compromising on her cup size.
I can see the boardroom conversation:
Exec: Our franchise is flailing.
Game Designer: We could fix the crappy cameras, questionable controls, recycled story lines, and terrible combat.
Exec: I have a better idea. Let's change the character model and market it to women! We can sell "Lara Croft: Tomb Shopping!"
Game Designer: *Jumps out the window*
I think Eidos expecting a franchise that has been around for more than a decade to elicit the same level of enthusiasm as it did when the first title was released is somewhat naive. The problem with Lara Croft isn't her physical appearance, or whether she can appeal to female gamers, the problem with Lara Croft is that she's saddled to a series of games with "Tomb Raider" in their titles. And as such, all of those games involve the raiding of tombs to some degree. How many games about the same woman traveling around the globe, raiding tombs, do we really need? Or want?
I know it would be naive of me to suggest that Eidos just move on and let the character die a relatively dignified death. While Lara may not enjoy the popularity she did in the late '90s, she's still a well-known character. Her games may not be flying off the shelves anymore, but they do still sell. However, I think it would be an exercise in futility to try to raise Lara Croft back to her former glory. She lacks the versatility that a truly iconic video game character requires in order to thrive. She's not a Mario. You can't send her go-cart racing, or throw her into a tennis match. You can't slap a jetpack on her and launch her into space. If the opportunity to go that route ever existed, it certainly doesn't now.
To look at what's wrong with their franchise, I don't think Eidos need to go any further than looking at their closest competitor, gameplay-wise, during the holiday season. The new Prince of Persia, I understand, met its sales targets during a period that very few games can claim the same.
What does it do differently? It offers an engaging story which is integrated into the gameplay, it has genuinely well-written dialogue, it has a unique art style, and it's (mostly) driven by gameplay that focuses on rewarding achievement rather than punishing error. Not only is this just solid game design, it's specifically what research tells us is key to attracting female players.
That said, I haven't seen any stats for the gender breakdown of PoP purchasers, if such data even exists.
Poor old Lara - I always kinda liked her, and I'm perfectly happy to play a game with a drop-dead sexy female protagonist. I did think she looked awful in her weird polygonal chest-football period, though - I felt bad for her! Nah, I just avoid Tomb Raiders 'cause I can't do platformers to save my life.
Most video game-based movies are awful. Super Mario Bros. is the worst of all. But I agree that the original Tomb Raider is solid, and so are Resident Evil Apocalypse and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.
Excellent post. I'm a woman, I don't like the Tomb Raider games because, well, they aren't much fun. Too much jumping and dying. That said, its interesting that Eidos is suddenly realizing that there are girls in the world and they too play games. I would hope they did more than dress down a tired franchise, but I guess we cant have it all.
Forgot to add this:
I actually love the character Lara, in spite of her overdone assets. Her rendering is so obviously borne of the male-centric game industry, but she's got heart and soul. And I enjoyed the first film, not so much the second.
Back when Legend came out, I was looking for a game on the 360 that my wife and daughter would enjoy playing together in the same way they enjoyed Zelda: Wind Waker on the Gamecube.
I finally decided that Legend would really kind of fit. When I brought it home, my wife was pretty unimpressed, at first. She is not really an avid gamer, but does like games that have interesting puzzles. But all she knew about Tomb Raider was that it was aimed for teen boys. The look of Lara really turned her off, and she went so far as to call it inappropriate for our daughter, who was about nine at the time.
I really didn't think it was inappropriate, as I think Lara comes off as a strong, independent woman. So I played through some of it with my daughter, who really took to the game. So my wife gave it a try.
Pretty soon, she came to really love the game, and the stigma of Lara's looks faded away. Since my wife is not really an avid gamer, she likes to play games like this with our daughter, where they work together to solve the puzzles, and take turns getting through sections.
But there is no denying that her looks do get in the way of some acceptance of her among a more family oriented gamers.
In this way, I don't think it is such a bad idea to tone down the boobage, and the short-shorts. It shouldn't change the game.
I'm not even sure what "female friendly" even means anymore other than a PC buzzword to say, "we're listening to you, and we're trying. Buy our game."
You'd think a game like Okami, where you play as an asexual, sun/wolf goddess and go around blooming flowers would be "female friendly," though I have yet to meet a woman who has actually played it. Conversely, I've met several who are into Gears of War. Go fig.
I think the Tomb Raider series in particular has always been misjudged by the media. They see the narrow waist and big boobs and think that it's a shallow, testosterone-driven action game, but it's a slow, thoughtful, puzzle game. Lara is supposed to be a female version of Indiana Jones crossed with a smidgen of James Bond. Not exactly an everyman (er, everywoman) now, is she?
Also, I reviewed the game here: http://www.thegamereviews.com/article-930-Tomb-Raider-Underworld-Video-Game-Review.html It was quite good, even if the script was cack.
I remembered something I find WAY more of a turn-off than crazyboob.
When a female protagonist NEVER engages in any kind of heterosexual love interest type thing, as it would be too unsettling for insecure male gamers. The gal has to remain either a BADASS BALLBREAKING BITCH or lipstick lesbian titillation. Sometimes both.
I don't demand romance subplots in my games, let alone ones that look horribly tacked on, but sometimes it's just so obvious that they would have done it with a male protagonist, and that bugs me.
How does Lara fare in matters of the heart, out of interest?
on the topic of how males are affected by women in games, i was interested in soul calibur 4, but i thought that purchasing the game would support the way the women are portrayed in video games and i didn't like that feeling at all, far too over sexualized.
I think I need to ramble for a bit...
Lara may be a bombshell, and I, like you, don't have a problem with her design - it's basically on par with the presentation of male heroes in video games and movies. In fact, she's kind of conservative; she may have zero body fat (outside of her breasts), but her body could be the body of a real human being.
But when I start playing Japanese games, well... Lara is a completely average human being compared to many Japanese-made female characters. I shouldn't pick on Japanese developers without qualification (other developers are certainly guilty of this as well), but I've never seen such consistent of *fetishistic* representation of women in as general a group of developers. I love the gameplay of Soul Calibur, but I actually feel a pang of discomfort when seeing Taki, Ivy, etc. It kind of crosses the line of what I consider "pornography" - their designs seem to be defined primarily by their ability to sexually arouse the viewer. I don't have a problem with pornography, but I don't want to be sexually aroused, I want to have fun playing a game (whether via its story, gameplay, or visual art).
Maybe my concept of art is skewed against that which is sexually arousing. Sex has practically always been a significant part of art, and I do appreciate various art with sexual themes. Even that art which portrays sexually arousing elements is okay, but context is everything; I don't expect to see a naked woman in an evocative pose in the middle of a painting depicting a battle. In the same way, I think these fetishistic characters in video games stick out like a sore thumb.
Not much to say, other than that I think you're right.
And perhaps, if Eidos wants to attract female gamers, maybe they should start mass-producing games for Wii.
/sarcasm.
Hello, Leigh. First post here but a longtime reader.
I can appreciate Eidos and their perspective - for most female gamers, the perception that Lara amounts to nothing more than virtual silicone eager to please male gamers is still prevalent - but the problem is trying to shoehorn this newfound awareness of the character into their design methodology.
It's not like such criticisms haven't been around the character's inception into the videogame pantheon, with the promise of Lara's more salient features being revealed through a code becoming one of the more widespread videogame rumors in the past twenty years - definitely impressive, considering the medium is only about ten years older than that. Taking that into account it's not hard to symphatize with Eidos's position to work on the character's perceived flaws and reputation.
And it's not that uncommon in the medium, really; Mario had to fight hard to establish itself as a powerful franchise and likeable character amidst recurring claims that it was too childlike in appearance and themes, particularly since the 16-bit days thanks to how Sega marketed Sonic and themselves – some of the Sega Genesis’ most recognizable ads use the line “Sega does what Nintendon’t”. And nowadays, the "hedgehog with an attitude" is the one that lost all its charm and staying power, often being just a secondary or tertiary character in Mario games.
But to think this is the cause, and that an overhaul is the solution... It could have been, years ago. Maybe. I've seen stranger things happen. But the presentation alone is hardly the culprit. I think this is happening more and more with several games. On one hand it's not too different from, say, how Medal of Honor: Airborne played out to past Medal of Honor titles. Many journalists were dazzled with the method of performing jumps into levels, with different landing points to provide different starting and vantage points. But it was by and far, as other journos pointed out, the same as all other MoH titles. Conceptually it may be brilliant, but if all you’re doing is slowly and ever so lightly incrementing the game with new play mechanics while leaving everything else to rot, it’s not going to do wonders for your game, unless it’s a franchise that sells by name alone (ie., Final Fantasy, which is a counterpoint to it).
On the other it may just come down to a series becoming stagnant. Whether one enjoys or dislikes Lara's videogames I think it is hard to disagree that over the years, the series itself has grown stale. Ellie Gibson and Stuart Campbell, for instance, have both talked about how jarring the design behind the latest games can get.
At first I was somewhat dismissive of this notion of feedback dissonance – of how what you are shown visually does not always correspond to what you can physically do in a gameworld – but I think it may also be one of the reasons. Games like MGS4, for instance, take it to the extreme while still managing to enthrall many gamers; but it was one sound criticism that gamer and journalist alike made. As studios become increasingly proficient with technology, you become disenchanted with the few good bits of gameplay lost among the cutscene fetishism and photo-realism. It’s great to see Lara move about highly detailed ruins but what exactly is the game offering compared to other contemporary action/adventure titles? It succeeded in becoming a reference in the genre, yes, but let itself be outclassed on a number of things. There’s a reason – other than supposedly appealing to teenage hormones – that games like Prince of Persia or God of War are fast becoming more memorable, and it’s no longer that they are made by, and sold to, men.
Well, my post seems to have gone everywhere and nowhere, my apologies. To summarize, I think Eidos’ attitude is commendable but it’s not just the perceived sexism around Lara that hurts the series. Before you need to convince female gamers that Tomb Raider is worth playing, you need to do a good job convincing those gamers that still resist the series that it’s worth it.
Regards,
~DR.
I think the biggest problem with the franchise is (as some have mentioned before) the stigma associated with the series.
On one hand you have the people who don't really follow gaming news and associate the series with eye candy for teenage boys and the game is immediately written off.
On the other hand you have people who are more aware of the series and associate it with crappy game play and the game is immediately written off.
Getting people to buy the Tomb Raider games is going to need a serious rebranding campaign from Eidos. They have to get people to stop associating the franchise with its poor history. I fall into the second group and even following news and reviews that say the game play has improved over past iterations, I can't get past it. In addition to that, I may not see the game as eye candy for immature boys, but I don't want people who do think that to see me playing it (the same thing goes for Soul Calibur IV - I don't want someone to walk in on me playing when Ivy is on screen).
Eidos can change Lara's proportions, but that's not the biggest problem the series is facing.
My big problem with Lara Croft's appearance, and it does contribute to my ability to connect with the character, isn't precisely that she's ridiculously proportioned.
It's that she's a Barbie doll.
Lara is traditionally rendered in a very specific way -- she has plastic-smooth skin, simplified facial features (including Angelina Jolie lips), and her clothing is always either so skin-tight as to appear painted on or incredibly strained, with much texture attention paid to the way her ample breasts and hips are trying to burst the seams of her shirt and pants.
The same character with the same size breasts wearing a slightly looser shirt and with less plastic skin would produce a different impression. Half-Life 2's Alyx has, uh, idealized proportions, too, but her skin has pores and her jacket isn't one millimeter thick.
It all comes together to produce the impression that Lara Croft just a toy; she's an action figure. I don't care about anything she does. She has no real presence as a personality within her games and I can't connect with her on any level. She has no soul. She's literally objectified in that she's an object, not a person.
I don't have any problem connecting with, say, Yuna in FFX-2, who also wears a ridiculous getup and has two handguns. At least she looks a bit like a person wearing clothes, and not a painted plastic figurine.
The suck play mechanics and average storytelling and voice acting don't help, either -- they all need improvement. Just redesigning Lara wouldn't be enough. But I disagree that her visual design isn't a factor.
tomb raider may be a franchise that has seen its better days. all things lose popularity and end,just because you bring tomb raider to a next generation system does not mean the franchise is suddenly reborn. unless you make some drastic changes for the good, like resident evil did with resident evil 4 and even that franchise will soon end. how many games do companies think they can wring out of concept isn't there like 30 final fantasy games.
Hi Leigh,
I always feel this topic of “What women gamers want” is so strange! I don’t think I’ve ever factored anything but story and game play controls into my video game purchases. If you told me that the new Tomb Raider had “the most compelling story in the world, ever” and also had controls that didn’t make me want to hurl a brick at my TV, then I would play it. I’m not really insulted by the fact that Lara’s a sexy video game character or that men would find her appealing. If that’s the case, then every guy should be insulted by Solid Snake or Dante or new fancy “straight out of a Prada ad” Leon Kennedy.
If anything made me skip over the Tomb Raider franchise, it wasn’t because of what Lara looked like, it was just that the game itself didn’t appeal to me. It simply didn’t look like something I wanted to invest any time in. I thought Mirror’s Edge had a “female-friendly” looking protagonist and after playing that demo, I knew I wasn’t going to bother playing the full game because the controls felt awkward to me.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you wrote “…maybe if we look closely at what the average female likes to play on the console, or is attracted to at retail, we might be able to pick out a rule or two we can learn from – besides "make it pink."”
All they have to do is ask.
On a side note, my favorite game series is also Metal Gear. That being said, I am surprised your blog does not already have the Sunny Camera:
http://boktionscript.blogspot.com/2008/08/metal-gear-solid-4-sunny-camera.html
On the point that female gamers aren't bothered by unrealistic figures, I've been a lifelong female gamer, even attracted to the hobby when I lacked any consoles of any sort and had to huddle at my pc with the fire of doom and hexen shareware to keep me warm. I was exposed to Lara Croft, Mortal Kombat, etc, before I hit puberty and although most women wouldn't have the problem distinguishing art from reality like I did, I really did think that was what a female body was supposed to look like, much to my dismay when I ended up being petite and relatively flat chested. Even though I am very fit and people say I am attractive I still struggle with hating my body.
Having said that, on a rational level it's Lara's sexually available body language in the advertisements that bothers me more than her physique. More often then not, even when she's armed you have the arms to the sides, the eyes sort of lazily focused with a knowing smirk as if she is aware of the presence of an audience. A Marcus Fenix will usually have his gun brandished blocking his body with a grim expression that either ignores any potential audience or actively threatens it. Unfortunately this tendency to pose women as if they are actively flirting with the audience exists in every form of entertainment but it still annoys me, especially with videogame characters since I want a female action hero who I can identify with, but sometimes I can't get around the fact that she was clearly designed for someone to want to have sex with her, not for someone to want to be her.
I’d like to see video game heroines modeled after Sarah Connor or Ellen Ripley (which a previous comment already mentioned). They aren’t sexy kick-badass because they run around in low cuts but because in part they emote and are appropriately clothed; the latter cuz, for me, a woman is much more sexy in what she doesn’t reveal, and the former, even though this is coming from an actor, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say this can work in digital - female Commander Shepard is a good example, Alyx Vance the better.
Appearances aside, they need a trajectory. From a case study perspective, the story of Aliens is the relationship between a mother and a child. Ripley starts off going to the colony to make sure the aliens are destroyed; she isn’t going there to kill them herself because she isn’t a trained like the marines. Then she finds a survivor, and from this point on, this child is her mission. Yes, killing the aliens is still a part of it, but again, she is still relying on the marines to get back to the Sulaco and nuke the planet from orbit. Ripley steps out of the passive when she drives the APC, and once Newt is taken, steps up to become the killer, the mother of all mothers willing to run into the worst situation imaginable to rescue a child. The head-tilt Ripley does when that egg opens, it’s an attitude more badass than the action that follows it.
Sarah Connor’s trajectory in T2 is a role reversal, in that she becomes Kyle Reese to John, and when she goes after Dyson, she becomes a Terminator.
The premise and setting are way out there, but the characters’ emotions respectfully bring it down to our level of understanding and appreciation. Explosions can make me happy, but a well-placed, well-expressed character action, that’s what blows me away.
I think Sean Beanland was on the right track:
I get the feeling that saying "we want to attract women to our franchise" is starting to be used interchangeably with "we want to attract casual and non-gamers to our franchise."
The sales figures I could find [link] suggest that PS3 sales were half of the game's market and 360 a third, leaving the Wii with about a sixth of the sales, or about a quarter-million if my math is right. It didn't help that the Wii version was buggy to the point of being broken. If you're Eidos in this market, and you see the Wii expanding not just market share but the overall size of the market itself, then you need the Wii to grow. As many of the comments indicate, Tomb Raider's controls and gameplay are not intuitive or accessible enough to draw in first-time gamers, such as women new to the industry through the Wii. I think any redesign will focus on that, rather than Lara's dimensions.
Well, I really need to say something here, even though i believe the post was about something different. I dont want to run to far away from the topic, so lets just say that this whole idea of getting females to play the game its just another way of saying that the game didnt sell well and they want casual gamers to play the game. But others have said that already, so i will move on.
Now the topic about lara´s body, wich i find more interesting. Indeed her body doesnt need to be realisticaly, videogames doesnt need too and also art never did. Yes, she´s an object, a sexual one by the way, and thats not a big problem for me, great movies had sexual objects; what would be of hitchcoock without his blondies? But why great artists use that kind of character in their works? Thats a complicated question and doesnt have only one answer. I could analyse a work by different perspectives, i could use a freudian look or a structuralist one. I could find many answers even using only one school of interpretation. That is a really fun part of art.
And then we arrive at the end of my logic. Whats the reason of lara croft body be so, hum, lets say, unreal? I hope you agree with me in this one, because i believe the reason its simple, its money. Lara is like that because it sells, this is obvious, she was made at a time when people didnt need to think about the female audience and making a hot chick for young boys was a great call. But why im saying this? I know its just a videogame, and im not reaaally offended by her body but i just cant look at it and say it is okay. Its pure escapism. If we want games to grow and become a midia where artists wanting to get to the depths of humanity with their works are not exceptions i think its important to have and attitude. Yes the games can be fun to play and etc but the character is a babydoll whos only reason to be like that is to please male gamers so that they can buy the game. And thats reaaly not the kind of art that i enjoy seeing.
The in-game environments in Trunderworld are gorgeous, but the character models are kind of a turnoff, and Lara is no exception. I played on the PS3 and I noticed the frame rate dip down consistently. And the control hints, the camera angles are just downright horrible, but it ain't such big a deal 'cause it lets you take your time during most platforming sections.
The autosave feature and the various levels do impress though. Overall, the game isn't something out-of-the-box, but not that bad either.
This is more of a statement on Eidos' incompetence than anything; various recent events have made it obvious they throw blame at everything except what they themselves had caused.
Polish (encompassing camera, control issues, bugs etc) is the consistent issue that shows up in pretty much every review of the game; if Eidos hadn't of rushed the game out for christmas most of its main issues would have been fixed AND it would have came out in a far less active period (giving it much more attention).
At this point I think a reinvention (a gameplay one that is) is the way to go, but if Eidos had handled the game better they wouldn't have dug this hole in the first place. If one good thing comes out of this it's Eidos staying in that hole and Tomb Raider (and Crystal for that matter) being dug out and given to a publisher that can handle it right and give it the time it needs.
I'm so sick of people talking about girls looking "realistic." Is Faith what they wanted? Someone skinny? There's just as much of a problem with the portrayal of women as popsicle-stick creations in magazines geared toward them. Actually, probably more so, since it's bit more eating disorder-inducing.
I know a few girls with a natural form similar to Lara's. Yeah, it would be tough for them to climb stalactites or jump from cliff to cliff while shooting bears. It's also very tough for them to find decent-fitting clothes in this obese-or-stick society. When these so-called feminists and PC marketing wizards start acknowledging diversity in the female body, maybe - just maybe - I'll start listening.
To I <3 Suikoden:
I don't think there should be no busty women in videogames, I just think there should be some variety.. just like you said. Most western games have a minimum D-cup for female characters. You find more variety in japanese games than western ones, but the girls with smaller breasts almost always seem to be trying to appeal to a lolita aesthetic.
However, I don't demand realistic women in my videogames. Stylization is fine, but I would like some female characters to be stylized more like the male characters, where their strength is emphasized instead of their sexual characteristics.
They rarely design male characters with 'must be super sexy and turn gamers on' as their top concern. It's not that the characters being attractive bothers me, it's that they look like they were designed to be appealing as a sexual partner first and interesting/cool as a character second.
I don't think mundanity is the key to making a character more relatable, just as I don't think it's Lara herself that puts off potential women but the leering, slackjawed commentary some of my brutish brethren might level at her during play. Some women might be put off by Soul Calibur's Ivy and certain significant others of the fairer sex might relate to the sultry dominatrix sex appeal (names are omitted to protect the happily guilty).
That said, I think game characters are about ideal elements grounded in enough realism to make them relatable. The key to making them appealing is identifying what those ideal elements are. Alyx Vance isn't some ho-hum girl-next-door despite being a grounded, well written character. Metal Gear Solid 3's Eva is sensual, manipulative and in-control without being outlandish, but she's far from plain. 4's Big Mama is a powerful continuation of the character which goes to break one of Japan's cardinal rules (no realistic depictions of women over 30 in male-targeted games) while struggling to lace her sex appeal with a maternal attitude (or vice-versa). The highly stylized and memorable characters of Folklore are hardly ogres. So does attractiveness override characterization? Not necessarily (back, ye swarms of Tidus fangirls!)
Lara, however, never has been and was never meant to be one of these girls. The 'woman-empowering femme Lara' was nothing more than empty, reactionary statements toward very accurate accusations that Miss Croft is nothing more than sex appeal in a bucket - something we don't mind staring at the back of for 12-odd hours, conceived at a time when first person and over-the-shoulder views instantly meant Space Marine.
Thou shalt not post long ramblings at the end of a work day.
TL,DR Version: Lara doesn't scare women. Female characters can be compelling without turning down the appeal-o-meter to moist cabbage. Lara has never been about balancing these two elements and likely never will be.
Great article! Coming to the party a little late - my thoughts got so long about Lara's dilemma that I splintered off to a new blogpost in my own space.
My bottom line is I think that Tomb Raider needs a bad guy. Oh, and a better camera I guess wouldn't hurt.
well well well, what we have here? the first one sexy girl in the video games, after this one there some many others, like Johanna Dark from Perfect Dark, Jill Valentine and Claire Redfield and Shiva from Resident Evil, viagra online from Life is Life.
Post a Comment