My project looks in-depth at some of the problematic aspects of games culture, and probably the most controversial of them has been, and will be, violence.
Video games have always been violent. Right from the days of Space Invaders played on arcade cabinets, depictions of violence have always been a selling point of the medium.
But, as games media and culture has evolved, there have been questions whether this promotes a harmful image to impressionable youngsters.
Whether it was the scare in the 1990s about video games being banned for their violent content (which even led to testimonies at the US National Congress), or the recent public debate about violence after terrorist incidents, whether violence should be included in a visual medium is an never-ending debate.
What has not been explored is whether this violence is linked to the rise of toxic masculinity, especially online. Video game protagonists are often gruff and stoic, and the violent acts that they perform often litter billboards and bus shelters. Some have said that this creates a harmful image for young boys, and that they need more realistic, non-violent depictions of men.
I posed a question about violence and masculinity to Makenzie*, a former games journalist who wished to stay anonymous. She spoke at length about the issue.
She said: "I think promoting more violent aggressive games is fine, it's when the marketing is specifically along the lines of "Be a man - play this manly game!" It's insulting to everyone. Patronising to men and belittling to women.
"The idea that violence is inherently linked to masculinity is a pretty dangerous one. To try to twin the violence with more serious subject matter as Rockstar (creators of the bestselling Grand Theft Auto) does just makes the whole message very jumbled. Not that there haven't been any of these kinds of games for women; there have been some amazing games recently that twinned good characterisation with skilled violence, and they were marketed as games for everyone: Horizon: Zero Dawn and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice spring to mind. And then we also have things like Life is Strange and The Walking Dead. Different kinds of games but a real variety of protagonists and gameplay mechanics. Sadly, it doesn't seem like there's as much nuance out there in games for men that don't want to go the Call of Duty/Battlefield route of aggression-based wish fulfilment. Perhaps there's not the market for those, but it's hard to say considering that there isn't much to base that on."
She is of the opinion that young minds might well be affected by on-screen violence. "On the nature of violence specifically, I love violent movies and games and as a grown human I'm capable of separating the violence inflicted from real life. It's fun and cathartic, but I don't know what kind of effect that might be having on more impressionable people or those of a younger age. Maybe nothing, but maybe something, and all I know is I don't want to accidentally contribute to the kind of nastiness that is so prevalent in certain areas. I'm not a part of those online communities so I don't know how much of it is genuine and how much is for show or attempted humour."
She also calls for more realistic portrayals of men in games. "I think it's an incredible shame that so many of the games for men about men are inextricably linked to aggression. It's not what the men I know in my life are like, and it does them as much of a disservice to have their stories told primarily with violence as it does to the women who rarely get to see themselves in those tough, aggressive roles. If games with characters in them are a means of both story-telling and wish fulfilment, which I do think they can be, then it makes sense to me to see a wide range of roles for everyone across the board.
"Sometimes I'm going to want to play through an emotionally-charged story and sometimes I'm going to want to control an army and gun down the enemy and feel powerful. Sometimes I want to do some puzzle-solving or live on my lovely little farm or just shoot bad guys in the face."
Production and marketing for violent games might actually be more harmful than the in-game content, and may ultimately be the reason for the negative stereotypes. Makenzie says: "I've been around enough gamers to know unequivocally that what games you like is not based on the sex you are. That's not a gender-specific thing, so it doesn't make sense to me that it's presented as such. Paying serious attention to anything that tries to put people into boxes and demographics so they can then be sold the things that people in that box are then told they should like seems illogical."
"It's not representative of how varied people actually are, but I suppose it must work sometimes, in terms of making money, or it wouldn't keep being the way certain games are sold."
"The games industry as an industry is certainly fuelled in part by providing fantasy outlets for players, and it does concern me that so many fantasies revolve around brutal violence. Then again, if that's what people want to buy and play, that's entirely up to them. The worrying part for me comes from when production and marketing tries to cater to those demographics for sales by reinforcing these stereotypes around aggression and masculinity. I don't want to say that trends don't exist, because clearly several violent games do very well financially by appealling solely to young male gamers, but how much of it is based on nature and how much of it is socially formed is impossible to say. The only fact we know is that it is a lie to ever say "Men like [this], while women like [that]", because there will always be a spectrum of humans and there will always be people who don't fit in the box they've been assigned.
"Advertising that reinforces that lie always makes me think about who benefits from telling it. It's certainly not individual gamers or the gaming community as a whole."
