Gaming

I've been playing Tomb Raider: Legend since Sunday, and I'm addicted again.

This particular Tomb Raider is less violent/bloody than previous ones (yay!), there are more "back to basics" like more puzzle solving, and her body is back to a semi-decent proportioned size, although according to fan-sites, her waist is proportioned at 24" - but at least her boob size is smaller now. Anyway, I haven't gone too far in the game, though, seeing that I just started on Sunday. There's a really cool move where she can jump off some guy's head, and then in slow motion, shoot 'em up. A cruel move, but effective, and neat to watch.


In any case, I've been surfing to find out what the die-hard fans have been saying about TR: Legend, and I came across an article discussing why TR is so popular among boys/men. According to the writer, it's because men like to control women (i.e., control Lara Croft with the controller). Men like to "protect" women, and by controlling Lara by killing, shooting, kicking, etc., they are protecting the damsel in distress. Say what???!?

I don't understand why people like to analyze stuff like this so much. Who cares why men/boys like to play a game with a female protagonist? Does anyone care why women like to play games with male protagonists?? I like playing games with men as protagonists! Does that mean I want to be a cross-dresser, or that I'm a masochist, or that I have a secret desire to control men, oggle them, delve into their psyche, and that I have a secret yearning to punch and kill the daylights of everything? Not really.

Sure, I have an aggressive side in me, sure I wish that all women were treated equal and regarded equally, but playing a male protagonist in a video game doesn't make me identity-confused. It just means that I like the game and that perhaps there are no other character options for me to play.

Sometimes gender and psychology studies can get a little off-hand. People choose to play a game for a variety of reasons - graphics, game-play (1st person, 3rd person, shoot-em game, war game, strategy game, puzzle game, role-playing game, etc), reputation, story-line, creator/manufacturer...

I choose to play a game based on game-play, graphics, reputation, and creator/manufacturer (for the most part, in that order) - not based on whether I'm playing a male or female character.