Case Study Project
This project is informed by and continuing from the research conducted in my case study ‘How are character design principles used to objectify female video game characters?’ (Appendix A), as well as my primary research (Appendix C), which I have broken down here:
Introduction
For this project, my main goal was to combat the desensitisation (Międzobrodzka et al., 2023) to the objectification of women that is commonly found in video games (Lynch et al., 2016). I had already found in my case study that this was a serious issue, not just because it was making women uncomfortable and unwelcome in gaming spaces (Lynch et al., 2016), but because it has the power to effect real word perceptions of women (Gabbiadini et al., 2016).
The main solution to this problem, that I outlined in my case study was to hire more women into gaming spaces. A lot of the time, the sexualisation of fictional women seemed to be encouraged by male colleagues, who often joked about their own sexual preferences and then included them in the character designs (Tompkins and Martins, 2021)(Lynch et al., 2016). According to one of the anonymous game designers interviewed by Tompkins and Martins, he and his colleagues were going to include a scene of a female character in her underwear in their game until a female colleague spoke up about how the scene was objectifying women and had made her uncomfortable (Tompkins and Martins, 2021).
To enable more women to enter the games industry, it is important that they get the education necessary to excel. This is why it is important to consider Sustainability Goal 4 ‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’ (United Nations, 2023). If more courses were available at a younger age for key game development and design skills – like 3D modelling, coding, character design, and game design – it would give more women the option to pursue a future in games. To consider ‘lifelong learning’, these courses could be made more readily available to people of all ages and genders, allowing them to continue to learn and thrive from any background or starting point. More variety in people in the games industry is important, as allowing more voices to be heard will help to combat outdated or inappropriate representations of marginalised people, including women and people of colour.
On a smaller and more manageable scale, I would combat the desensitisation of male gamers to the objectified representations of female characters (Appendix A). I decided I was going to redesign female video game characters from existing games, to give them more practical, less sexualised and more appropriate outfits.
In my case study, I had referenced a graph from Lynch et al’s study, in which they had plotted data onto a ‘sexualisation index’. This graph focused on four ‘time blocks’, Block 1 (1983 to 1991), Block 2 (1992 to 1998), Block 3 (1999 to 2006) and Block 4 (2007 to 2014). Lynch et al’s graph tracked the level of sexualisation from each time block, to investigate when the issue worsened or improved over time.
I decided, as an interesting comparison, that I would select one character from each of these time blocks to redesign for my project. This meant that I would be redesigning four female characters in total. I wanted to make sure there was variety between them, but also elements that I felt could be improved in terms of combating the male gaze (Mulvey, 1975).
Time Management
In my original plan, I allocated myself eighteen days to write the analysis, with the draft to be completed three days before the finished write up. I felt that this left time for contingencies and possible risks, as I allowed myself three whole days to make any amendments to my finished work. I also knew that if I finished the designs earlier than expected, I would have even more time to work on the analysis itself. As I have found this method useful in many other projects, I used a weekly planner to write out deadlines, which I had broken down into smaller and more manageable tasks. This made the character design process easier to track than in the Gantt Chart, as it tracked every stage of the design process for each character. This helped me to stay on top of my progress on the project, and to avoid as many contingencies as possible.
As I made this Gannt Chart at the beginning of the project, it also accounts for the primary research elements, which now can be found here:
I also decided to utilise my Instagram account for this project. I would allow my followers to vote on their preferred designs from my Instagram story and used this feedback to influence my final illustrations (Appendix B).
Block 1 –
(1986)
Athena is the titular character from the Japanese arcade game released in 1986 (Kalata , 2018). The character spends the beginning of the game running around in her bra and underwear, as her dress happens to fall off while she is being transported to the fantasy land hidden behind a magic door in her basement (www.arcade-history.com, n.d.) (Wikipedia, 2024).
The game was praised at the time of release (1986) for being one of the first arcade games to feature a female protagonist (Potvin, 2022) (Wikipedia, 2024), however, this does not excuse the game’s more problematic elements and half-naked character.
Athena is clearly represented as a young girl (Wikipedia, 2024). She still lives with her parents, and her official biography on the Sega website – when translated from Japanese – references child-like elements of her character, like being scolded by her father, and being described as ‘mischievous’ and ‘playful’ (Sega, n.d.).
Sexually charged depictions of young girls are commonly found in Japanese media and they are often recognised as problematic by western audiences (Gül, 2023). This is likely the reason that the western version of the game created new artwork, which depicts the character as much visually older.
Initially, I was going to use the western artwork as my inspiration and redesign the character to be older. However, I felt this would be ignoring one of the key elements that made this design problematic, which was the combination of the sexualisation of the underage appearance of the character. I instead decided to demonstrate that young characters can still be included in video games, but with more age-appropriate outfits.
Finally, I also drew inspiration from ancient Greek fashion for this redesign. The game itself is ‘very loosely inspired by Greek mythology’ (Kalata , 2018), something that I would include more of, considering the name of the protagonist.
The character Athena has two main outfits, and I wanted to recreate designs for both.
She has a ‘casual wear’, and a golden armoured look, both of which I experimented with in my sketch book.
Once I had an idea of what direction to take the design, I moved onto digital experiments. Digital design A was most accurately ancient Greek inspired, digital design B was more ‘cutesy’ and fantasy based, and digital design C was more elegant and fantasy based.
I used similar colours to the original design, except I made the purple darker and more muted, as well as making the gold appear less yellow. I also decided to darken the skin slightly, as the Greek character had previously appeared ‘white-washed’.
I posted this concept art to my Instagram story for voting, and digital design A won on both the casual and armoured designs. I feel that this worked well, as they were both based around the same theme, and would look good together.
For the final design, I did make some changes to the outfit. This involved making the helmet fully gold, to better resemble ancient Greek armour, rather than Roman, and making her periskelis purple. I made these changes as the purple colour was almost completely absent from her armoured design, due to her hair being covered, and I wanted to keep her colour pallet consistent.
Reflection – Athena
If I were to tackle this redesign again, there are a few things I would do differently. Firstly, I feel that my version of the character does not completely reflect the original style that I was attempting to recreate. I feel that my versions were slightly too realistically proportioned, and that I should have made the head larger and the body shorter. I typically draw in a more realistic / semi realistic art style and I believe that this is demonstrated in my illustration.
Other than my issues with the style, I feel that this design included all of the key elements as set out. Seeing both designs side-by-side it becomes clear how problematic the original was. Even on the protective golden armour version, the skirt is very short and looks very impractical for battle.
I also feel my designs were successful in keeping key elements that made the character recognisable, mostly from the colours, but also from more subtle features. The golden skirt has two rows of patterns, which I tried to match in the Greek periskelis by making it have two layers. This is not found in actual ancient Greek armour, and was a detail I added to further resemble the original.
Block 2 –
(1996)
It is indisputable that Lara Croft is one of gaming’s most iconic female characters, but she is also very clearly tailored towards the male gaze, shown by her revealing clothes and ridiculously proportioned body. According to Lynch et al ‘the ample bust of the original Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft in 1996 originated as an office joke that was encouraged and remained her most recognisable feature for years’ (Lynch et al., 2016).
The main flaws that I would change in my design of Lara, were her body proportions and her outfit. I did some research into what archaeologists wear while working to make sure my designs were practical and realistic. Ironically enough, one article specifically brought up Lara Croft’s outfit, which was described as ‘the tight teal tank top and itsy-bitsy hot pants’ (TrowelBlazers, 2022). The reasons cited for her outfit being ‘not the most practical’, were the ‘exposed legs! And arms! It’s a recipe for all sorts of scratches and sunburn.’ (TrowelBlazers, 2022). Some better alternatives included ‘pockets galore, sturdy shoes, hats for sun, waterproofs for rain, trowel-belts, high-vis, and trousers and t-shirts’ (TrowelBlazers, 2022). I made sure to keep all of these elements in mind when creating my designs.
I gave Lara long trousers with lots of pockets, as seen in the TrowlBlazers blog, as I felt that it was much more realistic and suited the occupation. Design A included more realistic elements such as a hat and longer sleeves to protect her from the sun. In design B I gave her a short-sleeved top for hotter weather, and changed her ponytail to be high, rather than low. I felt this would be more practical and would cause less sweating around her neck. I also gave her a scar on her arm as an extra detail, as she is always fighting animals and monsters, so I wanted to reflect some of that in her design.
I decided to go with design B, as I felt it had a stronger silhouette and was simpler and more readable. I created several versions of colour experiments, which I uploaded to my Instagram story for a vote.
Out of these colour variations, design B won with a 73% of votes, so I used it going forwards (Appendix B).
Reflection – Lara
This style was challenging to capture; however, I feel I was much more successful with Lara Croft than I had been with Athena. My design seems to be more realistically proportioned, but I felt that making the head smaller gave the design more harmony with the new body.
One thing I particularly like about this finished piece is the shading on the hair of the larger image. The face shading was much harder, as Lara Croft’s art style is very animated, which I feel made my illustration look a slightly like a cartoon.
Seeing the original Lara, and my version of Lara side by side definitely helps to highlight the issues with the original design.
Looking at both body shapes, illustrates how very thin Lara’s waist originally was and how large her breasts were, which were designed to appeal to the male audience. The character is obviously stylised, but realistically in her anatomy there would be no space for her internal organs. Her waist was about as thin as her neck.
This rule of stylisation does not apply to male characters from the same game, who are much more realistically proportioned (shown left).
Block 3 –
(1999)
For my third character, I chose Jill Valentine from Capcom’s Resident Evil. This was very interesting, as the game was remade as recently as 2020 (original version 1999). This brought several revisions to the character design, including giving her jeans instead of a skirt, and a more practical top.
A few scenes from the original game were also remade for the Wii game (a 2010 release) Umbrella Chronicles, which depicted iconic scenes from the original game. This included a controversial scene where Jill Valentine – a well trained and highly skilled police officer – is cornered by a zombie. She jumps up and attempts to smother the zombie with her bare thighs while wearing a skirt. She is then saved by a man. This scene is completely unnecessary and sexually degrading, but if anything, it highlights the impracticality of her outfit and the motives of the creative team.
Although I believe the 2020 Jill to be an improvement on the 1999 version, I tried to make my redesign different from the 2020 remake. I recognise the vast improvement over the twenty year evolution of the character, but also wanted my design to be as original as possible.
I tried several different designs for Jill, taking into account her story and personality. I had played the 2020 Resident Evil 3 Remake, and studied footage of the original version on YouTube, to gain a better understanding of her character.
Jill is a police officer, so I experimented with a uniform in design A, note the colouring and the police badge. Design B had more similarities to the original design, but with the addition of trousers and a small ponytail for variety. For design C, I incorporated the white jacket (that was previously only ever tied around her waist in the 1999 version) into a wearable, practical garment rather than an accessory.
Feedback that I received from my peers showed a preference for design B. I received compliments regarding the practicality of her outfit and subtle nod to her original design.
I moved on to further experiments, making small changes to the design in each version. Such as adding knee pads and other combat gear for addition as the character progresses through the game. The beret in design D was inspired by the character’s debut appearance in Resident Evil 1. More peer feedback showed a preference for design G.
I did a few more variations, this time with colour, but G was still the preferred design. I used this going forward.
Reflection – Jill
Overall, I think this piece incorporates many elements of the original design, but in new and interesting ways. The grey knee pads on the second version are a visual link to the grey band at the bottom of the skirt in the original, and I gave the top a similar style, but with straps for more practicality and less exposure.
Jill’s story at the beginning of Resident Evil 3 was that she was not prepared for a zombie outbreak, which required the outfit to have a casual look. This element is important to the plot of the game, so I felt it necessary to keep it in mind while designing. The style of this character was also difficult to replicate, but I included many elements found in the reference, like cool-toned shadows and lots of blue bounce-light.
When looking at the two designs side-by-side, I think the design was very successful. It still very much feels like the same character, but just modernised and less sexualised.
Block 4 –
(2015)
This character fell slightly out of Time Block 4 (2007 to 2014), as Metal Gear Solid V Phantom Pain was released in 2015, but I felt the design was a particularly relevant example of objectification, and would be a great character to focus on.
The character named Quiet wears a bikini throughout the game, despite being a military soldier. The reasoning for this given is ‘because she sustained serious injuries while trying to kill [the] protagonist Big Boss at the beginning of the game. These injuries can’t be seen, but mean she can only breathe or drink through her skin, so wearing too much clothing would lead to suffocation’ (Dinsdale, 2023).
Not only is this image an extreme example of sexualising a female character, the reasoning behind the design decisions given, were ridiculous.
It has received criticism, as the team could have created a more plausible backstory for the character, rather than invent one only to excuse her being half-naked for the entirety of the game (Dinsdale, 2023). It is commonly believed among critics, that the reason for Quiet’s objectification was a marketing ploy, both to sell the game and merchandise. Hideo Kojima himself even advertised a figurine of the character which, as he describes, has breasts made from a ‘soft material’ to allow them to be ‘pushed’ and ‘lifted’, even ending his tweet with a ‘lol’ (Dinsdale, 2023) (Appendix D).
In Metal Gear Solid V, Quiet is the victim of an attempted sexual assault. The plot did not require an attempted rape. This story line – written by mostly men – was irrelevant and unnecessary. The character’s name being ‘Quiet’ makes this even more sinister, as she also does not have the ability to talk about her attack, or in fact at all, as she is a mute. The unfortunate turn of events for an already sexualisaed character is nothing short of perverse.
I would have to keep elements of her backstory, including the breathing through her skin, as they were key points of the character and her plot. However, I was definitely going to be more deliberate with where I used fabric. In the original design, I find it particularly noticeable that she decided not to cover her chest, but restricts her ‘breathing’ by wearing one large latex glove on her left arm, that covers her from her fingertips to her mid-upper arm.
I designed three versions of Quiet’s outfit, each with different levels of skin on show. Looking at the difference between the original and my designs, highlights her state of undress. Quiet was clearly not designed to be realistic at all, favouring sexual appeal over any form of practicality. Even if we were to consider (as per the plot) that she needed to breathe through her skin, there would have been looser fitting fabrics that allowed this nonsensical concept to work.
I posted these versions of Quiet on my Instagram story and waited for the results. The results were much closer this time than for the other character designs I had created. Ultimately, it ended in a draw between designs A and B (Appendix B). Although I thought A was a significant improvement from the original, I chose B as the SWAT vest added a necessary level of protection to the character’s torso.
Reflection – Quiet
Overall, I am very happy with how this design turned out. There are still many areas of skin for the character to breathe through (her stomach, her arms, her neck, and her chest), but it feels much less objectified and sexualised.
I am also pleased with the look of this piece. This character was from a realistically styled game, so I was able to shade and render it within my usual style. I also was able to draw it with more realistic proportions, which I feel translated much better than my attempt at the other characters.
Seeing the original Quiet and my version side by side makes the issues of objectification very apparent. The character design before was very sexualised, with a poorly narrated reason to justify it. The impracticality becomes very obvious when placed next to my version of the character.
Conclusion
Overall, I think this project was effective in tackling an issue that I am passionate about. The desensitisation to the objectification of female characters has been a problem plaguing the gaming community for a long time, alienating women who may have pursued a career in game design and development. As I previously mentioned, life-long learning opportunities would provide these women with the skills necessary to find positions in the industry, having their voices heard and discouraging the discrimination of minorities within video game production. That is why Sustainability Goal 4 is so important, and has the potential to change the industry for good.
I hope that my redesigns of these characters can show gamers these principles and highlight that they may have unknowingly become desensitised to the sexualisation of females. This may allow them to look at future objectified character designs from a new perspective.
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