Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - blog tasks
Create a new blogpost called 'Metroid Prime 2: Echoes case study' and complete the following in-depth tasks.
Language
Language
Analyse the game cover for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (above).
1) How does the cover communicate the genre of the game?
2) What does the cover suggest regarding gameplay and audience pleasures?
Escapism - the game is si-fi, a totally different world- the audience can divert from reality.
Multiplayer - playing with other people.
3) Does the cover sexualise the character of Samus Aran? Why/why not?
Costuming does not concentrate on her type of body; however, it can be argued that it accentuates her curves in some respects, which identifies her as a female indirectly. Some may argue, however, that the designers minimise her femininity because she is presented as a maleTrailer analysis
Watch the trailer for the game:
1) What do you notice about genre?
It's very visible and highlighted in the game. This is clearly shown in the game because of the coding, sound effects, atmosphere, and gameplay. Adventure and adventure still exist because there is a lot of shooting and adventure going on in the film.
2) How is the character introduced? Is Samus Aran obviously female?
The character doesn't seem female at all. Although there is no clear denotation that Samus Aran is a female, watching the Metroid Prime 2 trailer, her character's design style points to a gender, like the almost angelic running that seems to have a ' prep ' in it's move.
3) How can we apply Steve Neale’s genre theory that discusses “repetition and difference”?
Gameplay analysis
Watch the following gameplay clips again:
1) What does the gameplay for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes involve?
The Metroid Prime 2 gameplay includes first-person action-adventure game developed for Nintendo GameCube (2004) and Samus Aran battling the Ing (another-dimensional destructive race) and a mysterious version of herself named Dark Samus.
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.
Clearly the game includes movie elements, camera movement such as jump cuts and fast pans- brings visual pleasures to the viewer. There's a lot of information on the screen displayed to the player-lots of pop-ups throughout the gameplay.
The feature ' scanning ' is an example of hyperrealism and emphasises the genre of sci-fi
3) Analyse the clips for audience pleasures, applying audience theory and considering media effects.
The first person shooter viewpoint also limits the player to seeing only what Samus can see from the inside of her helmet-this allows the player to play the game aggressively and push the helmet.
Audience
Research the audience for Nintendo and specifically the Metroid franchise, including Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. You may wish to start with the following pages:
Reddit discussion of why people play Metroid
Giant Bomb forum: Who exactly is Nintendo’s demographics?
Reset Era: Nintendo’s audience getting older
1) Who might the target audience be for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, based on your research? Discuss demographics and psychographics.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes was targeted at audiences aged 12-16 but the actual audience that played the game was much older considering the nostalgic aspect of this game.
2) How has Nintendo’s audience changed since the original Metroid game in 1986?
You can say that it's similar; it's the same audience but older. They basically became the 'adult audience'.
3) What audience pleasures are offered by Metroid Prime 2: Echoes or the wider Metroid franchise?
Nostalgia; this refers especially to people who played the original game in 1986 and now play the sequels as adults. The Metroid Prime franchise also gives entertainment gratification to the viewer (Blumler & Katz) and encourages the player to take a first-person perspective as a' hero' (Propp) and perform actions as they would see in films.
4) What effects might Metroid have on audiences? Apply media effects theories (e.g. Bandura’s social learning theory, Gerbner’s cultivation theory).
It may affect the way the media perceives women and it could have an affect on audience's perception of conflict.
Read this Gamesparks feature on gaming demographics and answer the following questions:
1) Who is considered to be the stereotypical gamer?
It's mostly young boys (teenagers).
2) What has changed this?
Nostalgia and gaming becomming a thing for all ages.
3) What role do women play in the videogames market? Quote statistics from the article here.
It has been revealed that more than 50% of the gaming audience is female. While some may argue that mobile games are not 'real games', experts believe mobile gaming will pull in $36.9 billion in revenue in 2016.
4) Why are older gamers becoming a particularly important market for videogames producers? How can you link this to the Metroid franchise?
Theyre finantially independant and while there has been extensive talk about how men and women play differently, as they age, there hasn't been much discussion about how the gaming preferences of people change. Some surveys suggest that age is in fact the biggest factor in various gaming tastes and motivations, particularly when it comes to competition.
5) What does the article suggest regarding audience pleasures and expectations for different generations of gamer?
The article suggests that games based on ' competition ' and ' rivalry ' are enjoyed more by younger gamers but the urge to compete is diminished when gamers reach the age of 40.
Industries
Read this Destructoid blog on the Metroid franchise. Answer the following:
1) Why has Metroid never quite fitted with the Nintendo brand?
It's because Metroid is very different from other games that the Nintendo brand sells as the Metroid genre is sci-fi, action / adventure that Nintendo is not interested in.
2) What franchises have overtaken Metroid in the sci-fi hyper-realism genre in recent years?
Federation Force, Xeodrifter, Axiom Verge and Ghost Song.
3) Why does the writer link old boy bands from the music industry to the Metroid franchise? Do you agree with this reading of the brand?
Here is a direct link between boy bands in the music industry and the Metroid franchise, since the premise is that the audience's expectations will change over time.
4) What is an ‘AAA’ or ‘triple-A game’ in the videogames industry?
The term ' AAA ' refers to the game that a mid / major publisher produced and distributed.
5) Do you think there will be further Metroid games featuring Samus Aran? Should there be?
I think that there won't be any standalone Metroid game's, BUT Samus Aran will definitely be featured in other game's such as Super Smash Bros, as a playable character.
Representation
Read this BBC3 feature on Samus Aran and answer the questions below:
1) What was notable about the original Metroid game in 1986?
Metroid introduced the gamers to Samus Aran, intergalactic bounty hunter. Initially players were led to believe that the hero was a man-the accompanying booklet of the game referred to Samus as "he." But those who were quick enough to complete the game were in for a shock: Samus revealed herself to be a woman at the end.
2) What were the inspirations behind the gameplay and construction of Metroid?
Metroid developers were influenced by Mario and Zelda, as well as by the movie Alien.
3) Why are the endings to the original Metroid considered controversial?
These were considered controversial as the game gave five different endings depending on how fast the player finished the game.
4) What reaction do you think the reveal of Samus Aran in a bikini would have got when the game was first released in 1986? Have attitudes towards women changed?
It would make male pleasures pleasurable. It'll also give players extra motivation to finish the game even faster. But since then the attitudes have changed and women's roles in video games have improved.
5) How have later versions of the Metroid franchise sexualised the character of Samus Aran?
Super Smash Bros is a game all in one game with several famous hero characters.
6) How can we apply Liesbet van Zoonen’s work to Samus Aran and Metroid?
Liesbet van Zoonen believes gender is constructed by media words. I think that this can be applied directly to Samus Aran as our interpretation of her character stems from what is presented through the game development. The audience initially assumed that Samus was male due to the height of the hero, muscular physics, etc.
7) What did Brianna Wu suggest regarding the character of Samus Aran?
She's suggesting that Samus Aran is transgender, proving that even with other gender biases, Samus Aran can appeal to people.
8) Do you see Samus Aran as a feminist icon or simply another exploited female character?
I feel like she wasn't created as a feminist icon but the fact that she had to be sexualized to be exposed as a female could be argued to demonstrate that she is just another abused female character.
Read this Houston Press feature on Samus Aran and entitled male gamers. Answer the following questions:
1) What does Anita Sarkeesian suggest regarding Samus Aran?
She suggests the Samus Aran's female discovery at the end of the game is used as a reward for masculine abilities.
2) Why does Brianna Wu (and others) suggest Samus Aran may be transgender?
Hirofumi Matsuoka, said she was a "new half," a rather derogatory word similar to the English term "shemale." I've seen some fans claim that this relates to Samus getting blood in her veins from the alien Chozo race, but Wu and McGrody also note how Samus was originally described as being 6'3 "and more muscular in appearance.
3) Why is Samus Aran useful for male gamers trying to argue videogames are not sexist?
To address the concept of being sexist on video games. This is because although she is sexualised in many respects, in the video games she stars in she still portrays females.
4) Why are Lara Croft, Zelda and Peach not ideal examples to argue for female equality in videogames?
Bacause there were created for men and even though they may have some qualities of a strong, independant woman, it was created as a sexualisation of women.
5) What does the ‘SJW’ in ‘SJW-gender politics’ refer to?
Social Justice Warrior.
A person who supports socially liberal values of feminism, civil rights, multiculturalism and identity politics.
6) How can we apply Gerbner’s Cultivation theory to representations of women in videogames as discussed in the article? How might this lead to ‘entitled male gamers’?
The game sexualizes the woman in the game, which can lead the male players to assume that this is natural and socially acceptable. The constant viewing of women's images like this gives us the idea of how women should be, which means that we are creating a picture.
7) Does the videogame industry have a problem with gender? Provide evidence for your argument.
Most video games feature a male as the protagonist and this is understandable because for many years males were the target audience for video games before it was discovered that females are playing games as well.Stereotypical manner as representations are quite traditional, especially female representations-it is assumed that this may cause people to object to the way in which gender is portrayed, but some people argue that viewers are sufficiently educated to prevent a video game from affecting their gender viewpoint and care.
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