RESIDENT EVIL

WHAT IS IT?• Resident Evil is an action, adventure, horror fiction video game based media franchise

created by Shinji Mikami and owned by the video game company Capcom.

• Game first released in 1996.

• The franchise focuses around a series of survival horror video games, but has since branched out into comic books, novels and novelizations, sound dramas, a series of live-action films and animated sequels to the games, and a variety of associated merchandise, such as action figures.

• The overarching plot of the series focuses on multiple characters and their roles in recurring outbreaks of zombies and other monsters.

• Five live action films have been released under the title of Resident Evil. These films do not follow the games' premise but do include game characters.

• 2012 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition described it as "the most successful movie series to be based on a video game.”

THE WEBSITE• http://www.residentevil.net/en/ • When the site opens, the user is asked to input their date of birth. This is because the

website has an 15+ rating so it rejects the user access if they are younger than 15.• This feature is also used on other game websites such as Grand Theft Auto and Bioshock

Infinite.

Website Homepage

DARK COLOURS &

GAME GRAPHICS

BACKGROUND

SOCIAL ASPECTS: ONLINE COMMUNITY (FORUMS etc)

GAMES AND

DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT

Although it is assumed that the majority of Resident Evil players are male, it is proved that the female audience is becoming more and more predominant in the online video gaming community.

On the PlayStation3 World Record

leaderboard, there are 2 female players in the top

3.

GENDER STEREOTYPES IN VIDEO GAMES

• Compared to female characters, male characters appear more frequently, talk significantly more, and engage in noted

behaviors more, such as achieving and showing leadership.

• In addition, these video games provide distorted representation of women and minorities, therefore exposure to these distorted

images can have a negative effect on users’ perception of women.

• For instance, women are usually perceived as subordinate, passive and dependent on men, with sexual relationships as a

central aspect in life.

Resident Evil magazine cover This magazine cover adheres to the stereotype of female game characters being subordinate and passive, as we can see the woman is positioned behind the male character and is looking away, therefore the readers attention is drawn more to the man in the foreground.

Bioshock Infinite magazine cover

Similar to the Resident Evil cover of the PlayStation magazine, XBOX 360 feature a cover of the Bioshock

Infinite game, which also appears to adhere to the female character type - the female character seems less important

as she is positioned behind the male character.

RESIDENT EVIL: REVELATIONS 2 -GAMEPLAY TRAILER

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpsAYj3PwM4

SHINJI MIKAMI - CREATOR OF R.E

• "I don't know if I've put more emphasis on women characters, but when I do introduce them, it is never as objects. In some games, they will be peripheral characters with ridiculous breast physics. I avoid that sort of obvious eroticism. I also don't like female characters who are submissive to male characters, or to the situation they're in. I won't portray women in that way. I write women characters who discover their interdependence as the game progresses, or who already know they are independent but have that tested against a series of challenges."

• The initial female characters that Mikami created abide by his description of how he wanted to portray the characters; they are strong, independent etc.

• However, as the game has progressed through the years and social expectations have changed, the characters have been more and more influenced and have therefore become more sexualised and fallen into the stereotype of appearing to be weak and dependent.

STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS

Jill Valentine and Claire Redfield

prime examples of Mikami's mandate for strong, independent protagonists.

- goes against gender stereotypes of video game characters

- masculine, dominant and active characters

- dark, practical clothing- neutral hair and make up

COMPARISON TO OTHER GAMES (STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS)

• Lara Croft - Tomb Raider

Although Lara Croft's characters has previously been portrayed in a sexualised manner in the older versions of the Tomb Raider games, the newest representation of her character has changed in a way to suggest that her character is now taken more seriously: she is wearing a lot more clothes, less make up and there is less emphasis on her chest/cleavage.

SEXUALISED FEMALE CHARACTERSAda Wong and Excella Gionne

- highly sexualised characters-glamourous dresses and heels

-perfect make up and hair- still appear to be independent and capable

of fighting (always have guns)

These types of characters support McRobbie's Post Feminist Icon theory,

suggesting that although the characters are strong, independent and in control, they also

utilise their sexuality.

The characters sexualised representation also appeals to Mulvey's theory of the 'Male

Gaze'.

COMPARISON TO OTHER GAMES (SEXUALISED FEMALE CHARACTERS)

• Women used to represent Grand Theft Auto V

WEAK FEMALE CHARACTERSAshley Graham and Rebecca Chambers

- Weak and submissive- Subordinate (often irrelevant characters, with

very little/no dialogue)- Dependent on male characters- More emotional and sensitive

"If I had to name the woman character I most disliked in my games it would be Rebecca Chambers. She's submissive,

she's not independent. I didn't want to include her but the staff wanted that kind of character in the game, for whatever

reason. I'm sure it made sense to them." Shinji Mikami, Creator of the Resident Evil Game

These types of characters can be used as examples to support Propp's narrative theory that 'women in video games are passive and should be portrayed as

damsels in distress'.

COMPARISON TO OTHER GAMES (WEAK FEMALE CHARACTERS)

• Princess Peach - Super Mario games

Princess Peach's character in the Super Mario franchise video games often plays the damsel in distress within the series, being kidnapped frequently, leaving the predominantly male cast to rescue her from the evil villain.

THEORIES & VIEWPOINTS• Anita Sarkeesian (Feminist view): "An overwhelming number of computer games

seem to paint a picture of a video landscape populated almost entirely by male heroes and passive female characters who are there to be rescued and romanced."

• Angela McRobbie (Post Feminist Icon theory): Although the female characters are strong, independent and in control, they also utilise their sexuality to appeal more to a male audience.

• Steve Neale (genre theory): Genre as Repetition and Difference - "Genre is familiar to audiences through the repetition of conventions like a physically strong, dynamic, violent, male hero in Action Adventure Video Games like Assassin's Creed and GTA 5 but is challenged by a female lead character in Tomb Raider and Beyond: Two Souls. Other conventions are the same however, despite this key difference and serve to maintain interest in an apparently evolving genre".

• Propp (narrative theory): 'women in video games are passive and should be portrayed as damsels in distress'.

• Mulvey (Male Gaze theory): female characters are there to look at - 'the tendency of works to present female characters as subjects of implicitly male visual appreciation.'