A Comparative Study of the Representations of Gender, Ethnicity and Class in the Console Fantasy Role-Playing Games Lost Odyssey and Final Fantasy XIII
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
THE LIMITS OF FANTASY: A comparative study of the representations of gender, ethnicity and class in the console fantasy role-playing games Lost Odyssey and Final Fantasy XIII Master’s thesis Marianne Ekman University of Jyväskylä Department of Languages English October 2013 JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO Tiedekunta – Faculty Laitos – Department Humanistinen tiedekunta Kielten laitos Tekijä – Author Ekman Marianne Työn nimi – Title THE LIMITS OF FANTASY: A comparative study of the representations of gender, ethnicity and class in the console fantasy role-playing games Lost Odyssey and Final Fantasy XIII Oppiaine – Subject Työn laji – Level Englanti Pro gradu-tutkielma Aika – Month and year Sivumäärä – Number of pages Lokakuu 2013 92 + 3 liitettä (95 sivua) Tiivistelmä – Abstract Peliteollisuuden suosio kasvaa jatkuvasti. Ihmiset pelaavat yhä enemmän, joten on aiheellista tutkia itse pelejä. Niitä on tutkittu monelta eri näkökannalta, kuten millaisissa rooleissa mies- ja naispelihahmot ovat toisiinsa verrattuna, miten hahmot kuvataan ja miten ne vastaavat todellisuutta. Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkoituksena oli tarkkailla pelien keskustelukohtauksia ja havainnoida miten pääpelihahmojen sukupuoli, etnisyys ja luokka rakennetaan kahdessa japanilaisessa konsoliroolipelissä Lost Odyssey ja Final Fantasy XIII . Tutkimuksen perustana käytettiin identiteetin intersektionaalisuutta. Tutkimuksessa verrattiin edellä mainittuja pelejä keskenään ja tutkimustuloksia verrattiin olemassa oleviin tutkimustuloksiin. Tämän tutkimuksen tuloksia voidaan mahdollistavan lisätutkimuksia aiheeseen liittyen. Tutkimuksessa keskity in pääpelihahmojen ulkonäköön, vaatetukseen, ääneen, käyttäytymiseen ja rooliin. Analyysia varten pelien elokuvamaisista kohtauksista otin esimerkkejä, jotka toivat hyvin esiin miten pelihahmojen identiteetit on rakennettu. Tutkimuksen vertailevan luonteen takia molemmissa peleissä keskityin samoihin asioihin, jonka jälkeen tu tkin, että minkälaisia yhtäläisyyksiä peleissä esiintyi. Tulokset osoittivat, että ulkonäkö ja ääni ovat oleellisia hahmojen identiteettien luomisessa. Lisäksi oli selkeää, että molemmat sukupuolet ja eri yhteiskuntaluokat olivat tasapuolisesti edustettuina peleissä. Voidaan kuitenkin havaita, että peleissä esiintyy vähemmän eri etnisten ryhmien edustajia. Tutkimuksen rajallisuuden takia tutkimustuloksia ei voida soveltaa kaikkiin konsoliroolipeleihin, saati muihin peligenreihin, vaan lisätutkimusta tarvitaan. Tutkimuksen tuloksia voidaan soveltaa jatkotutkimuksessa. Tutkimusaihetta voi laajentaa roolipelihahmojen identiteettien analysointiin ja kenties eri roolipelien vertailuun. Asiasanat – Keywords console role-playing games, gender, ethnicity, social class, discourse Säilytyspaikka – Depository Kielten laitos Muita tietoja – Additional information Table of Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 7 2. Gender, Ethnicity, Class, Intersectionality and Discourse .................................................... 9 2.1 Gender and sex ............................................................................................................ 10 2.2 Ethnicity and race ....................................................................................................... 11 2.3 Social class .................................................................................................................. 12 2.4 Intersectionality ........................................................................................................... 13 2.5 Discourse and multimodality ...................................................................................... 14 2.5.1 Discourse, gender, ethnicity, social class and power ........................................... 16 3. Game Research ................................................................................................................... 17 3.1 Research on gender in video games ............................................................................ 18 3.2 Research on ethnicity in video games ......................................................................... 30 3.3 Research on class in video games ............................................................................... 32 3.4 Summary of the studies on gender, ethnicity and class in video games ..................... 33 4. Data and Methods of Analysis ............................................................................................ 38 4.1 Console role-playing games ........................................................................................ 39 4.1 Lost Odyssey ............................................................................................................... 40 4.2 Final Fantasy XIII ....................................................................................................... 41 4.3 Research question ....................................................................................................... 42 4.4 Collecting the data ...................................................................................................... 43 4.5 Methods of analysis .................................................................................................... 46 5. Analysis............................................................................................................................... 47 5.1 Game character description ......................................................................................... 48 5.1.1 Lost Odyssey character description and analysis ................................................ 48 5.1.1.1 Summary of the analysis of the main characters in Lost Odyssey ............... 56 5.1.2 Final Fantasy XIII character description and analysis ........................................ 58 5.1.2.1 Summary of the analysis of Final Fantasy XIII main characters ................. 63 5.1.3 Comparison of Lost Odyssey and Final Fantasy XIII characters ....................... 64 5.2 Powerful women ......................................................................................................... 67 5.2.1 Evolving into strong female characters in Lost Odyssey ..................................... 67 5.2.2 Opening up in Final Fantasy XIII ....................................................................... 72 5.2.3 Summary and comparison ................................................................................... 77 5. 3 Summary of the analysis .............................................................................................. 78 6. Results ................................................................................................................................. 79 6.1 Findings related to the research question of this study ............................................... 79 6.2 Comparison of the findings of the present study to previous studies .......................... 80 7. Discussion ............................................................................................................................ 83 8. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 86 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 89 Appendix I: Main Characters of Lost Odyssey ............................................................................ 93 Appendix II: Main Characters of Final Fantasy XIII .................................................................. 94 Appendix III: Lost Odyssey and Final Fantasy XIII Main Character Voice Actors ................... 95 7 1. Introduction Technological developments have revolutionised our lives, especially in the industrial countries. Machines perform the bulk of tasks that in the past we had to do manually. Moving from one location to another takes less time nowadays than before as transportation has also developed enormously. All these developments have resulted in us having more spare time on our hands. We have a vast array of leisure activities to choose from, one of which is playing video games. There is no question that the video game industry is huge and keeps on growing. Even though the recent economic situation has influenced the gaming industry as well, the total money spent on the games industry in the US alone amounted to almost $21 billion in 2012 according to the Entertainment Software Association (2013 Sales, demographic and usage data 2013), an American association which takes care of public affairs of companies that publish computer and video games. It is clear that people spend a lot of time playing video games. Some play games only occasionally while others play them daily. In the past video games were mostly considered to be the interest of teenage boys; however, nowadays it is known that the demographic of the video game audience is much more versatile. In fact, according to ESA, the average player is 30 years old. 32% of the players are under 18 years old, an equally large percentage is formed by the players of 18-35 years while 36% are 36 and above. Female players are also quite common as 45% of players are reported to be female. (ibid) Based on this it is easy to state the player spectrum is quite wide, thus the games reach a versatile audience. Thus there is a vast array of games available to suit the various demands of the market. Many, both researchers and laymen