Introduction
The use of video games has been on the rise with the increased use of computers and the internet. Video games have grown to form one of the most popular entertainment industries in North America. The sale of entertainment software in the US grew to 6% in the United States while that of North America grew by 3.4%. There is a growing concern of the use of use of video games amongst the youth. Majority of the video game enthusiasts are aged on between 6-17 years. This has raised concern amongst researchers. There is the concern of the content that video games have on teenagers. There is the issue of stereotypes that is portrayed with the use of video games. Traditional media has been known to portray racial and gender stereotypes. In mass media, males are seen to be more aggressive than females. The males tend to appear frequently, and are seen to get engaged in significant behaviors. There is a misguided and distorted representation of women in video games where they are portrayed to be weak and dependent on men. Video games have been critiqued to be biased towards gender-bias, identity and stereotyping. This has been due to the fact that many video games are meant for the males. This has shown females have been ignored in the development of video games. It has been used to show identity of the players. The issue of gender is seen to be dominant in most video games where female characters are seen to have diminishing roles. There is also the aspect of stereotyping where female character is seen to be having a bias towards the females. This paper will focus on the themes of gender bias, identity and stereotyping in video games. These have negative effects on the youth who are found to be the main players of these games. With the development they are undergoing, these effects are likely to be ingrained in their development.
Gender bias
In most of the video games, gender was portrayed in a manner which shows that there was no equality. Male characters are seen to be the leading characters in video games. This is evident, especially, with the use of White male characters that are seen to portray leading roles in most video games. The only part that female characters in video games are seen to have a leading role is in sports video. Video games have been known to portray a bias towards one gender. Even though it is observed that female characters are increasing ion video games, their roles are still stereotypical. Their roles are seen to be supporting the characters of males or they are seen to be in need of help in the videos. They are also seen to be not used as opposing characters. This is because in most cases, they are villains. This can be seen in the way the female gender is being portrayed. Both violence and stereotypes have been analyzed and researched although not in depth. The research that was undertaken was grouped into four groups. These groups include women portrayed as sex objects, females portrayed as victims, females portrayed in roles that are feminine, and females portrayed as action heroes. It was found out that most of the video games, 41%, were devoid of female characters. It was only 5%of video games which portrayed females as heroes. In the same note, 28% of these videos portrayed women as sex objects with the use of clothing and appearance. The image that was portrayed by video games regarding women was based on the cleavage image of the breasts, the neckline and the lower clothing. With the representation of women in this image, it is common to see more women seen to expose their bodies than men. They are represented in hypersexual manner. Women were seen to be wearing nude clothing and portraying their bodies in sexually revealing manner. In most videos that are watched by teenagers, women are more likely to be portrayed to have nude clothing than men.
The results in the research show that female characters have been portrayed to be the weaker ones and have roles that are deemed to portray weakness in the society. This has shown that video creators have managed to create some form of gender biasness. The teenagers watching these games will take the message that one gender is weaker than the other gender.
Video games have been part of our society for a while now. Today’s games as compared to the 1970’s video games have exhibited increased graphics and violent scenes. The ever evolving technology has made it possible to equip players with better graphics that present a more realistic virtual playing experience. Video games have immense impacts on the lives of many teenagers. However, exposure to aggressive content as studies shows increases the player’s probability of developing aggressive behavior.
Stereotyping in video games
Video games have been known to portray a lot of stereotypical messages. This has been an issue for many youth playing these games. There have been research on stereotypical portrays in video games. There is racial stereotyping in video games that are portrayed in the ones that are played by youth. There is the creation of vague and ambiguous characters that have ethnic implications. In these circumstances, it is hard to get the real ethnic group that the characters belong. The limited research that has been undertaken regarding racial stereotyping is that of the fact that there is minimal representation of minority groups in video games which serves to show racial stereotyping. To be specific, the minority characters of black and Hispanic are rarely seen in video games. A research analyzed the content of computer and video games in five platforms of PlayStation2, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PC, and Xbox and showed that the main characters on watching the first part of the games showed that most characters were either white or too vague to tell their real ethnicity. The analysis of most computer games shows that the leading characters are white males. In these games that were analyzed, only 10% were seen to be female characters. This shows that most computer games bring about the issue of stereotyping. Minority characters are rare in most computer games and their roles are diminished. In the researches, the percentages of minority groups show that 21% of the characters were Black, the percentage of the Asian were 7, and that of Hispanic were shown to be 3%. The roles that the minority groups portrayed were that of violence and criminal activities.
Video games and identity creation
The representation of characters in video games contributes a lot to the identity shaping of the teenagers watching and playing these games. This is because they are in the stage of developing, and are trying to create an image that they can identify with. They will have a different perception of the role and capacity of the other gender with the use of these video games. During the stages of adolescence, most boys and girls are known to explore their identities either in a direct manner or in a vicarious manner. The identity formation of most teenagers can be seen in fashion, and activities. Media figures form a significant role and image identity to many teenagers. This is because these media figures are regarded and portrayed to be role models. Game characters form a special type of media figures and the characters that are portrayed in these games. It has been found out that stereotypical characters have been portrayed in many video games. Many teenagers playing these games will develop their own identities with the people of the opposite gender. Boys will have the notion that women are thin and weak.
With the emphasis by many educators of using video games as a learning tool, this will have immense effect on the teenagers. Even though the educators are aware of the dangers of the effects that these games will have, they have not take stereotyping to be a major problem.
Conclusion
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