Women in Classical Video Games

by Jane Draycott (editor), Filippo Carlà-Uhink (Series Editor), Martin Lindner (Series Editor)

Despite the prevalence of video games set in or inspired by classical antiquity, the medium has to date remained markedly understudied in the disciplines of classics and ancient history, with the role of women in these video games especially neglected. Women in Classical Video Games seeks to address this imbalance as the first book-length work of scholarship to examine the depiction of women in video games set in classical antiquity.

The volume surveys the history of women in these games and the range of figures presented from the 1980s to the present, alongside discussion of issues such as historical accuracy, authenticity, gender, sexuality, monstrosity, hegemony, race and ethnicity, and the use of tropes. A wide range of games of different types and modes are discussed, including platformers, strategy games , roguelikes, MOBA, action RPGs, and story-driven romance mobile games. The detailed case studies presented here form a compelling case for the indispensability of the medium to both reception studies and gender studies, and offer nuanced answers to such questions as how and why women are portrayed in the ways that they are.

Genres: Nonfiction

284 pages, Hardcover

Published September 8, 2022

Reviews

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

不是全女作。整体来说涵盖面还可以，从横版过关到策略类再到3A大作，都有女性角色（可操控角色、boss、不起眼的npc）分析。但能感觉出大部分作者对于游戏的了解一般，为了这个选题才去进行系统了解。整体讨论比较浅显，大部分集中在热门游戏，议题主要关于历史还原和真实女性生存空间的矛盾上。神话中的女神还是难以逃脱被性化的描述，从她们的外形设计再到故事线书写，创新还是非常少的，更别提女性主控都还算比较有突破性了……我自己玩过的游戏而言，Senua其实还是一个比较新颖的设计，来自凯尔特神话的Senuna融合北欧神话背景。编者那一篇有个很好的点我觉得展开不够，就是游戏更独特的沉浸性，玩家与角色可以共同打造出属于自己的故事和体验，这点对于很多女玩家来说非常重要，也是近几年对于女性主控角色呼声渐高的重要原因。