Masculinity in games

Recently I read Ryan Perez’s article about the “misconception of masculinity in games”. There are a lot of valid points made in this article. There are unrealistic examples of females and men, and how they are supposed to look/act. In today’s technology, there are so many ways you could make these games realistic and not have this really modified look. Perez, also talks about the aggression of men in games, the “shoot first ask questions last mentality”, these games are affecting kids growing up looking at these images of how they should possibly act. Blahh blahh blahh, Perez is super judgmental in my eyes on a lot of different levels.

First of all if you’re a gamer, the first thing you do before you play a game is make the selection of what game you play. The cover and/or previews of the games will most likely give you a perfect idea of what you’re about to play. That being said, why would you play a game that you know you do not agree with. A person or a group of people made that game with the intentions of attracting a certain audience; that audience was probably not Perez. It really bothers me that people want to point the finger at different games for how they were put together. There was most likely a reason for each intricate detail. If they were marketing the game as something that it is not, that would be a completely different story.

As far as the image of males and their masculinity in the games, there is a reason for it. Games are not always realistic because realistic is boring to some people. Some people do not want to play a game of what they already live; there might not be any entertainment in that for some people. Animated characters with abnormally large muscles are a preference of the creator. There is a chance that the muscles are used because that character is supposed to have abnormal strength… just a chance though.

The male image was also touched on by Perez. He mentions Grand Theft Auto and all the crimes the characters make in the game. Perez goes on to say that it tarnishes the male image; which is completely false. IT IS A GAME, there are ratings on the games if your kids are the one that you’re worried about misunderstanding the image of males; then they should not be playing. But as far as adults thinking the image of men is directly correlated to a video game is absolutely absurd.

Perez’s article is probably the worst read I have encountered in a long time. I respect his opinion but it is just not valid enough for me to agree with.