The 'Gamer'

Anti-gaming discourse perpetuates the image that a gamer is a sloth; a person who sits at home on their couch and does nothing except play video games and eat. They are unsociable and should be out in the real world, socialising with their peers and doing more active activities. They are also thought of as predominantly a young, male demographic and the image of a pale ‘geek’ arises semantically. Forgive me for the blunt words, but this is the stereotype of a gamer in popular culture. There are numerous media outlets to be blamed, such as representations of gamers within film and television, where the film has a short amount of time to communicate the character’s interests and personality to the audience and this is perpetuated by various new articles and items on televisual news on the subject and the concerns of the older generation with their children who are sitting at home in their rooms playing video games.

Of course, any gamer will know that playing multiplayer videogames provide numerous opportunities to interact with other people in the ‘real’ world and it promotes discussion amongst friends. However, this stereotype gets perpetuated over and over again in mainstream media and discussion that it can affect the people who actually engage with these games. Girls may be duped into thinking that it is not a suitable activity, or boys lean towards sports because they don’t want to be seen as fitting into the ‘geek’ stereotype.

Recent Australian based studies reveal that 79% of households have a device for playing computer and video games; 41% of all gamers are female and that on average, these gamers are 28 years old. (http://gamerstereotype.wordpress.com/) This denotes that the stereotype is not true - as all stereotypes are not. People are not to be oversimplified or put into categories; something which semantically people in society do. Especially in a post-modern society, where media and the citizens themselves are obsessed with re-mediation and surface values.

The image of a girl gamer reflects a certain stereotype within society as well. When talking to my brother about girl gamers, Callum admits that a girl who plays games is automatically hotter. I wanted to discuss further, and he said that it was because it was awesome when a girl was interested in similar things to him and he could share it with her. Now, my brother is typically a romantic and although I can see how this works for him - I wanted to focus more on the fact that he automatically associates a girl gamer as ‘hot’. Now the study above proves that there are more girls than we think playing online, but are they openly engaging. A lot of girls feel the need to disguise themselves in the form of a male avatar to be taken seriously as a gamer, and to avoid objectification within the game itself. There are fewer representations of women protagonists within the gaming designs and therefore when a girl avatar appears, they get a lot of attention within the seemingly male dominated world. The avatar designs are generally designed to represent or evoke the erotic, as they are attempting to appeal to a male audience.

Tomb Raider is a good example of a game whose protagonist is a woman, the heroine named Lara Croft, who partakes in activities of action and puzzles (apparently a more male orientated genre). This suggests an aim at a male demographic and judging on her inappropriate apparel for such activities (tight clothes and short shorts) and her sexual body design. The fact that Angelina Jolie acted out the movie role only adds to the stereotypes of women protagonists taking part in a male genre of film or game. They must be strong, but soft. Toland (2004) suggests that games position and situate us to accept, in many cases old fashioned and simplistic representations of gender and ethnicity.

The following website describes (in a humorous? way) the stereotypes of boy and girl gamers. Take a look and you will recognise these popular culture representations of the ‘gamer’ being perpetuated here.

http://www.gamesradar.com/the-top-7-girl-gamer-stereotypes/?page=1

http://www.gamesradar.com/the-top-7-stereotypical-gamers-we-hate/?page=1