When Ninja Gaiden came out for the Xbox, it was hailed as an achievement in action games. Drawing its gameplay from games like Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden entertained the hardcore gamers with difficult enemies, fast action, and big boobs. Although fairly one-dimensional in terms of plot, the game garnered a relatively large fanbase (mostly guys) and great critical praise. Consequently, Tecmo, the developers of Ninja Gaiden decided to port the game over to the Playstation 3 with one added gameplay, the ability to play as the big-breasted female side character, Rachel. This was met with more praise as gamers claimed the character provided a change in pace and aesthetics. But again, the admiration was coming from the males. The developers knew they had a "guys'" game and they also knew that putting a playable female character would not attract females but rather sweeten the deal for the guys.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma, and its predecessors, have become perfect examples of what Fron et al have described as "Hegemony of Play". Even a quick look at the game's trailer will tell you that the game is chock full of "highly stylized graphical violence, male fantasies of power and domination, hyper-sexualized, objectified depictions of women,". The game's mechanic of fighting hordes of enemies by slicing and dicing through limbs and brains panders to this set video game culture of allowing males to express their animalistic instincts virtually. Henry Jenkins states that these depictions of violence are ways for boys to distance themselves from maternal regulations. He also states that typically females are taught by society to stay within these maternal regulations which would explain why such gratuitous killing is unfavorable for females. In fact, this relentless, nonstop action, with the overflowing enemies is what Jenkins describes as conventions of the 19th century boys adventure stories that have crossed over to the video game genres.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma is also notoriously hard, requiring fast reflexes and the ability to "solve complex spatial rotation problems in real time" as Fullerton et al puts it. This mechanic of providing a challenge and hard-earned goal is what makes games so attractive for males, says Jenkins. There is a "boy culture" where they must compete with each other and show others their competency in beating particularly hard levels. This is evident in Ninja Gaiden Sigma's Challenge mode where the player is placed on a map and attacked by waves of enemies, with the goal of beating them all in the fastest time. YouTube will testify that there are plenty of males putting in the effort to show off their elite skills on these levels.
The game doesn't just cater to the males culture of video game with its gameplay. Much of the spatial design is created in a way that males typically find "cool" and "gritty". In slight defence of Ninja Gaiden Sigma, there is a subtle level layout that allows for a slower pace, more exploration, and hidden treasure, elements that Jenkins lists as favorable mechanics for females. But much of this is a side story to the main action, and one look at the landscapes will tell you that there is nothing remotely feminine. Fullerton et al describe the male conventional layouts to be " rectilinear, typically manmade spaces, often the bruised and embattled remains of an urban environment, warehouse, office building, space ship, space colony, or high tech laboratory gone horribly wrong." While the game does vary itself in terms of locales, all of it is in some sort of disarray, beset by monsters and henchmen, and always contested. The few puzzles and free-roaming that exist are not enough to claim that Tecmo considered the wants of females when designing their game.
Tecmo's idea to add Rachel's levels is very much similar to Tomb Raider's concept. Use a visually pleasing female model who conveys a sense of masculinity through its actions. As Jenkins states, the conventions of females are to stay on the beaten path, aim for more maternal futures. Although he advises that games should challenge girls more, make them ready for the professional world, Ninja Gaiden Sigma does not aim to satisfy these advices. Instead, it creates this independent, strong-willed female character in order for guys to mentally place their male instincts into a model they can drool over. Rachel ultimately becomes the "Kombat Lingerie" toting, male defined role in the male universe.
So why do shallow games like Ninja Gaiden Sigma succeed and Brenda Laurel's Purple Moon games crash? It goes back to the "Hegemony of play" or rather the safe conventions of video games based on gender that are safe and make money. Laurel admits these businesses are simply out to make money and that taking out these age -old mechanics of violence and sex is not what investors believe in. Until a non-Barbie, video game manages to transcend the stereotypical pomp of "girly" games and be successful, the business and principles of video games will keep on churning out the same male driven games like Ninja Gaiden Sigma.
Bibliography
Laurel, Brenda. (2001). Utopian Entrepreneur. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.
Fron, J., Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (aka Ludica) "The Hegemony of Play." In Situated Play: Proceedings of Digital Games Research Association 2007 Conference. Tokyo, Japan, September 2007
Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (aka Ludica) (2007). "A Game Of Ones Own: Towards a New Gendered Poetics of Game Space." In Proceedings, Digital Arts & Culture 2007, Perth, Australia, September 2007
Jenkins, Henry "Complete Freedom of Movement" Salen, Katie and Eric Zimmerman. (2005). The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
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