Videogames: Tomb Raider Anniversary

Our first videogames CSP is Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007).

This is an in-depth CSP so will require significant work and research for an extensive blog case study.

The basics

• Released in 2007 on multiple consoles, PC and Mac. 
• The Wii version had active features; on Xbox it was the first game to be offered on Xbox Live Marketplace.
• 11th version of the Tomb Raider franchise.
• Marked 10th anniversary of original 1996 Tomb Raider game.
• Sold 1.3m copies – good but nowhere near original (7m+ copies).
• Game was based on original (offering nostalgia) but with updated graphics and gameplay – faster and more agile; more realistic visuals.
• Genre: Action adventure
• Protagonist/avatar (character player controls): Lara Croft
• Quest narrative driven by enigma and action codes and culminating in a final confrontation with antagonist. Lara Croft is dispatched to New Mexico to recover part of the Scion of Atlantis
• Gameplay involves: Exploration; Overcoming physical obstacles; Puzzles; Fighting; Gunplay.

Tomb Raider Anniversary: blog tasks

Language and Audience

Analyse the game cover for Tomb Raider Anniversary (above).

1) How does the cover communicate the genre of the game?

2) How does the pose and costume of the character appeal to primarily male audiences?

3) How might the cover be read as empowering for female gamers?

Gameplay analysis

Watch the following gameplay clips again:

1) What does the gameplay for Tomb Raider Anniversary involve?

2) Write an analysis of the media language choices in the construction of the game: e.g. genre, narrative, mise-en-scene, camera shots etc.

3) Analyse the clips for audience pleasures, applying audience theory and considering media effects.


Representations

Read this NME feature on the evolution of the character of Lara Croft. Answer the following questions:

1) Note the statistics in the opening paragraph.

2) How does the article describe the cultural change in society and the media since the early 00s?

3) How was the original 1996 Lara Croft received by audiences and critics?

4) What did the 2013 re-launch do differently – and how successful was it?

5) How is ‘woke Lara’ defined in the conclusion of the feature?


Now read this feature – Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft: feminist or femme fatale? 

1) Why is Lara Croft considered a “polarising figure among gamers”?

2) How did the limitations of game construction in the 1990s help to establish the way female characters were animated?

3) Why were Lara Croft’s physical attributes emphasised in the original games?

4) How does Anita Sarkeesian describe Lara Croft?

5) Why has Lara Croft’s appearance and characterisation changed over time?

Industries

1) Why is Lara Croft such an iconic figure in the gaming industry?

2) What products and spin-offs have featured Lara Croft or the Tomb Raider brand?

3) Why might Lara Croft be considered a postmodern icon?

4) Why is Tomb Raider Anniversary a 'case study in conglomerate ownership'?


Grade A/A* extension tasks

Link Tomb Raider Anniversary to our work in the unit so far:

1) What examples from the Tomb Raider franchise are included in Anita Sarkeesian's video series 'Tropes vs Women in Video Games'?

2) How can we apply Liesbet van Zoonen's work to Lara Croft and Tomb Raider?


Complete for homework - due date on Google Classroom.

Coursework: Print magazine research and planning

The Print aspect to our coursework brief is as important as the video work have been focusing on so far. 

It is crucial that you research, plan and design print work that could comfortably hold its own alongside professional examples. You will also need to include a short paragraph regarding your print magazine work in your redrafted Statement of Intent. A reminder of our coursework brief is here, with the key tasks as follows:

Print
You should create 4 pages from a music magazine. The magazine targets a mainstream music audience.

You should create a front cover, a two-page feature interview with your music artist and a one-page tour advert for your artist that would appear in the magazine. 

You can choose the focus of the feature article but it needs to promote the tour and music video. It should also reinforce the brand image of the artist/band and integrate some reference to the headphone manufacturers who are sponsoring the band/artist.

What do you need to produce?

1) The front page (A4 portrait) for a new, original music magazine aimed at a mainstream audience that you have created:

• Title and masthead
• Selling line (slogan)
• Cover price
• Dateline
• Main cover image and at least two further smaller images related to the content of the magazine (all original images)
• At least 5 cover lines

2) A double-page spread feature interview with your artist (A3 landscape - i.e. two A4 pages next to each other):

• Content that is appropriate to the conventions of the genre of magazine being created
• Original copy (at least 400 words)
• Each page to use original images as illustrations (the main cover image must not be repeated but can come from the same photoshoot)
• Internal pages should reflect the design codes and conventions of the genre of magazine being created

3) A single-page advert for the artist/band's tour (A4 portrait):

• Original photography - NOT from the same photoshoot as the other pages
• Link/reference to headphone manufacturer sponsorship
• Tour dates and other conventions of tour posters must be included

Print brief - overall minimum requirements

• A clear house style should be used in the presentation of the magazine pages with a separate house style and branding for the tour poster.
• A minimum of 7 original images should be included in the submission.
• All copy should be original and a minimum of 400 words should be submitted
• Work should be presented on pages that are an appropriate size or in proportion to the size of paper used by magazines

We recommend that all of the above should be A4 portrait page size (with the double-page spread doubling up to A3 landscape).

Research and planning blog tasks

Create a blogpost called 'Print brief research and planning' and complete the following tasks to plan and prepare your print work:

1) Research music magazine cover key conventions. Look over the magazine cover key conventions notes sheet and write which of these you will use for your magazine cover. (This is a film magazine example but the conventions still apply).

2) Find at least five music magazine front covers (either current or former magazines as many have stopped their print editions) aimed at a similar target audience to your project (mainstream music audience). For each one, pick out one design idea or convention that you could use in your own print work. A few examples to start you off:

3) Find at least five double-page spread features from music magazines on Google images. How are they designed? How are text and images displayed? What design tricks can you borrow from your examples?

4) Find at least five band/artist tour posters on Google images. How are they designed? What conventions do they all feature? How are text and images displayed? What design tricks can you borrow from your examples?

5) Read at least three example music interview features from newspapers and magazines to learn the format, writing style and content for a music magazine interview. You may wish to use the following to help you:

'I'm an alchemist': Nova, the unknown MC with the Scottish album of the year (900 words)

Rapper SL: ‘When I was coming up, there was nobody else on my level’ (500 words)

Davido on his song ‘FEM’ becoming an #ENDSARS anthem: “It’s amazing to see” (1,500 words)

Tom Vek tells us about his surprise album ‘New Symbols’ (1,300 words)

Interview: 'There's something to scream about': Bring Me the Horizon's pandemic political awakening (1,600 words)

Planning, sketching and writing

1) Plan a title and slogan (sell line) for your new, original music magazine. Sketch out possible designs for the masthead - font, style, colour etc.

2) Plan the content for your magazine front cover. Your double-page spread interview will be the main story and image but what other cover lines and smaller images will you include on the cover?

3) Plan the content for your tour poster. What image will you use? (Remember it needs to be from a different photoshoot). What cities and venues will your artist play in the UK? This may take some research into venues that are associated with your chosen genre and the right size for your artist.

4) Create a spider diagram or bullet point list of all the issues or topics your double-page feature interview could cover. Remember it needs to include reference to the music video, tour and headphone sponsorship. 

5) Write the text for your double-page spread feature. This needs to be a minimum of 400 words and be completely original and include reference to the music video, tour and headphone sponsorship. Make sure you include a headline, subheading and any pullout quotes or sidebar contents. 

6) Produce an A4 sketch of your front cover including the key conventions and design tricks you have studied in existing magazines and then planned in planning task 1 above.

7) Produce an A4 landscape sketch of your double page spread design now you have chosen the subject matter and planned the photoshoot.

8) Produce an A4 sketch of your tour poster including the key conventions and design tricks you have studied in existing tour posters and then planned in planning task 3 above.

Photoshoot

1) Who do you need to photograph from your artist/band that will appear on the front cover of your magazine? This is vital for planning the location and time for your photoshoot (note: if it is you or someone in the class it will make things a lot easier in terms of running the photoshoot)

2) What image or images do you need for the double-page spread interview feature?

3) What image or images will you use for the tour poster? Remember, you need seven different original images across the print brief in total and the tour poster images(s) need to come from a different photoshoot.

4) Write a shot list for your photoshoots. Make sure you plan a variety of camera shots you will look to capture - medium shots, close-ups etc.

5) What costume, props or make-up will you require for your photoshoots?

Use the next week of lessons plus homework to complete these planning tasks - due date is your class's photoshoot (confirmed by your coursework teacher).

Videogames: Further feminist theory

As part of our study of women in videogames, we need to develop a deeper understanding of feminist theory.

We have looked at a range of feminist ideas earlier in the course including Laura Mulvey, Judith Butler, Liesbet van Zoonen, the concept of post- or fourth-wave feminism and more. We now need to explore this further with a deeper understanding of bell hooks and van Zoonen.

Notes from the lesson

Watch this short extract from Orange is the New Black star Laverne Cox interviewing bell hooks at The New School in New York:



bell hooks is a highly influential radical black feminist.

She sees feminism as a struggle to end patriarchal oppression - it should be a serious political commitment rather than a fashionable lifestyle choice. “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression”

bell hooks also points to the importance of race and class when studying oppression.

Intersectionality

Intersectionality is defined as the common point of two forms of oppression and how they work against a particular group of people. For example, black feminism addresses both gender and race discrimination.

bell hooks suggests that race is so significant that the experiences of gender, class or sexuality-based discrimination cannot be fully understood without also considering race.

This is important when analysing power in society. For example, men generally have more power then women – but white, middle class western women generally have much more power than women from BAME backgrounds.

Liesbet van Zoonen

Liesbet van Zoonen is an influential feminist academic and linked gender roles and the media explicitly in her 1994 book Feminist Media Studies. Some of her key ideas:

• Gender is constructed through media language
• These constructions reflect cultural and historical contexts
• The objectification of the female body is a key construct of western culture (building on Mulvey – male gaze)
• If women have to be like men to be treated equally, then equality itself is repressive

Further feminist theory: blog tasks

Use our Media Factsheet archive on the M: drive Media Shared (M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets) or here using your Greenford Google login. Find Media Factsheet #169 Further Feminist Theory, read the whole of the Factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) What definitions are offered by the factsheet for ‘feminism ‘and ‘patriarchy’?

2) Why did bell hooks publish her 1984 book ‘Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center’?

3) What aspects of feminism and oppression are the focus for a lot of bell hooks’s work?

4) What is intersectionality and what does hooks argue regarding this?

5) What did Liesbet van Zoonen conclude regarding the relationship between gender roles and the mass media?

6) Liesbet van Zoonen sees gender as socially constructed. What does this mean and which other media theorist we have studied does this link to?

7) How do feminists view women’s lifestyle magazines in different ways? Which view do you agree with?

8) In looking at the history of the colours pink and blue, van Zoonen suggests ideas gender ideas can evolve over time. Which other media theorist we have studied argues this and do you agree that gender roles are in a process of constant change? Can you suggest examples to support your view?

9) What are the five aspects van Zoonen suggests are significant in determining the influence of the media?

10) What other media theorist can be linked to van Zoonen’s readings of the media?

11) Van Zoonen discusses ‘transmission models of communication’. She suggests women are oppressed by the dominant culture and therefore take in representations that do not reflect their view of the world. What other theory and idea (that we have studied recently) can this be linked to?

12) Finally, van Zoonen has built on the work of bell hooks by exploring power and feminism. She suggests that power is not a binary male/female issue but reflects the “multiplicity of relations of subordination”. How does this link to bell hooks views on feminism and intersectionality?

Extension task

If you’re interested in some of these ideas, there is plenty more reading and watching you can do. For example, watch this TEDx talk by renowned Nigerian/American novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ‘We should all be feminists’:

The Factsheet questions must be completed for homework if you don't finish in the lesson - due date on Google Classroom.

Videogames: Introduction - Women in videogames

Our final in-depth media topic is Videogames.

Our Videogames CSPs are Tomb Raider Anniversary, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and The Sims FreePlay.

These are in-depth CSPs and need to be studied with reference to all four elements of the Theoretical Framework (Language, Representation, Industries, Audience) and all relevant contexts.

This will be tested in the Media Two exam with a 25-mark essay question.

Videogames: an introduction

The videogames industry is a huge media market – bigger than video and music combined. It is worth £3.86bn – more than double its value in 2007. Remarkably, these figures do not include mobile and free games such as Fortnite (which has over 200 million players worldwide).

With FIFA, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 each selling more than 1m copies, it is important to consider the influence games can have on audiences and society.

Women in videogames

The representation of women in videogames has long been considered sexist. Female characters are rarely playable and usually reinforce traditional gender stereotypes. Games that did feature female characters presented them as damsels in distress or sex objects.

Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider series is one of the most iconic characters in videogame history. But while she is a strong, independent playable character, her appearance and costume turned her into a digital sex object.  

Tropes vs Women in Video Games

Vlogger and gaming expert Anita Sarkeesian has produced two series of YouTube videos documenting the representation of women in videogames.

Vlogging as Feminist Frequency, the series are an important example of digital feminism (and a superb resource for Media students). However, as a result, she has been a target for online abuse and threats – most notably as part of the #gamergate controversy.

Women and videogames: blog tasks

Work through the following blog tasks to complete this introduction to women in videogames.

Part 1: Medium article - Is Female Representation in Video Games Finally Changing?

Read this Medium feature on whether female representation in videogames is finally changing. Answer the following questions:

1) How have women traditionally been represented in videogames?

2) What percentage of the video game audience is female?

3) What recent games have signalled a change in the industry and what qualities do the female protagonists offer?

4) Do you agree with the idea that audiences reject media products if they feel they are misrepresented within them?

5) What does the writer suggest has changed regarding recent versions of Lara Croft and who does she credit for this development?


Part 2: Tropes vs Women in Video Games – further analysis

Visit Anita Sarkeesian’s ‘Tropes vs Women in Video Games Series 2’ YouTube playlist and watch ONE other video in the series (your choice - and feel free to choose a video from season 1 if you prefer). Write a 100 word summary of the video you watch:

Title of video: 

100 word summary: 


Part 3: Anita Sarkeesian Gamespot interview

Finally, read this Gamespot interview with Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency and answer the following questions:

1) What reaction did Anita Sarkeesian receive when she published her videos on women in videogames? You can find more information on this on Sarkeesian’s Kickstarter fundraising page.

2) How does Sarkeesian summarise feminism?

3) Why do stories matter?

4) How does Sarkeesian view Samus Aran and Lara Croft (the two protagonists from our upcoming CSPs)?

5) How has the videogame landscape changed with regards to the representation of women?

6) Why are Mirror’s Edge and Portal held up as examples of more progressive representations of women?

7) What are the qualities that Sarkeesian lists for developers to work on creating more positive female characters?

8) What is the impact of the videogames industry being male-dominated?

9) What did Sarkeesian hope to achieve through her ‘Tropes vs Women in Video Games’ series?

10) What media debates did Sarkeesian hope to spark with her video series?

Optional extension task
To find out more about the online backlash and #gamergate, this Guardian feature links the online abuse to the American alt-right movement also credited with electing Donald Trump.

Deadline: Complete for homework - due date on Google Classroom.

OSP: Final index

We are now at the end of our Online, Social and Participatory media unit and need to create an index to ensure we have completed all the work set. 

You'll have an assessment on this topic next week and need to be able to make specific reference to both OSP products in your 25-mark essay.  

Online, Social and Participatory index

This process is an excellent start to your revision for the Media Two exam in the summer as well as your January mock exams. It will also highlight if you've missed anything through absence or self-isolation and allow you to catch up before the assessment. 

Your index should include the following:

1) OSP: Clay Shirky - End of Audience blog tasks
2) OSP: Teen Vogue - background and textual analysis
3) OSP: Teen Vogue - audience and representation
4) Baseline Assessment learner response
5) OSP: Teen Vogue - industry and social media
6) OSP: Gilroy - diasporic identity
7) OSP: The Voice - blog case study

For your index, the text should link to YOUR corresponding blogpost so you can access your work on each aspect of the case study quickly and easily. This also means you if you have missed anything you can catch up with the work and notes and won't underperform in the assessment due to gaps in your knowledge.

Index due date: next exam lesson.