Video+Games+from+1990-1998

During the time between 1990 to 1998 we had an era of gaming from the Sega Genesis to the end of Playstation (PSX). The biggest console company were Nintendo, Sony and Sega. Games coming from these consoles has heavily influenced the gaming industry of the time. These consoles includes:

Sega Genesis (US: 1989) Super Nintendo (US: 1991) Sega Saturn (US:1995) Sony PlayStation (US: 1995) Nintendo 64 (US: 1996)

In 1995 there was a study done by Tracy Dietz* to study gender portrayal in video games, which featured many popular games from two of the most popular systems of all time: the Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. The results of this study were published and the findings are truly remarkable as they closely resemble trends present even in today's latest video game installments. Some of the findings are as follows:

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"Of the thirty-three video games included in this sample, only 15% (5) portrayed women as heroes or as action characters. However, one might note that in many instances these heroes were dressed in stereotypical female colors and/or clothing. For example, the female power rangers wear pink and yellow and at the beginning of the game are positioned behind the male power rangers. Similarly, the hero princess in Super Mario 2 (1988) is wearing a long, pink dress and a tiara atop her long hair. Meanwhile, the female fighters in Mortal Kombat II (1994) are wearing thigh boats, gloves, and revealing leotards while their faces are hidden by “harem masks”. In all of these instances, there are fewer female heroin characters than males. The most common portrayal of women was actually the complete absence of women at all. The games Tetris (1985), Sonic and Knuckles (1994), The Lion King (1994), Ecco The Dolphin (1994), and Mickey Mania (1994) have no human characters at all but several games did have human characters, but no female characters. In ten of the videos that have characters, there were no women. Thus, 30% of the videos did not represent the female population at all (Base Wars, 1991; Dr. Mario, 1990; Ren and Stimpy, 1993; Mega Man 3, 1990; Blades of Steel, 1985; PGA Golf Tour III, 1994; NHL 95, 1994; NFL Quarterback Club, 1994; NFL 95, 1994; and Mutant League Hockey, 1994)"=====

These findings provide further backing to the very real fact that we have been portraying gender inequalities for quite some time now, and the only thing that has really changed are the characters, settings, and consoles on which we play them on. Women from this angle come in two major forms: the damsel that must be saved by the male lead, and the temptress who is put in place to lead the hero off of his path and lead him to his downfall.

We have seen many changes during this current era, including the transition of two dimensional games to three dimensional games. The extra dimension has led character designs to become better to imitate our world, since we live in the three dimensional realm. This has added a whole new game play element, since depth is now involved.

With the advance in technology, it is easier to see that character will have more details and it will be easier to spot their body features. Breast, muscles, ect. are easier to spot, because of the higher resolution and detail the more recent consoles could produced. While the 3D graphics was not perfected during the time, but we have seen that it has made companies build better character models to try to imitate actual people today. While three dimensional games do depict characters easier with visuals, two dimensional games also do show gender depiction.


 * List of popular games of the era

Street Fighter II (1991) Here are two pictures of fighting scenes in Street Fighter II. The one to the left is Chun Li. She is the only girl in Street Fighter II. The men are bigger as you can see on the right with Ken and Sagat. The men are sculpted where Chin Li is shown in bun pig tails, big breasts, and exposed legs. As early at 1991 women are starting to be depicted with big breast. This idea that women must have big breast took off with the installment of Street Fighter II

Mortal Kombat (1992)



Mortal Kombat is one of those games that have progressively become popular in the gaming world. It has also become highly sexualized. When Mortal Kombat started in 1992, it had only sever character. Six guys and one girl. They were all strong but the men were the ones that looked stronger. The men were built better than the girl Sonya was. Sonya did have big breast and her stomach was showing, but is was only the beginning of the sexualizing of female characters.

@Chrono Trigger (1995) Chrono Trigger is one of those timeless classics that has been ported to many consoles from it's Snes (Super Nintendo) version. It can arguably be the best role-playing game ever made. Some extra content has been changed or added, while graphics are relatively the same. Since their were graphical limitations it is hard to see the finer details of the character, but that is where story and artist books comes into account. We can see on the left picture that there are 4 male characters, and 3 female characters. While characters might not necessary be completely normal, we do see the classic princess and how little clothes the stereotypical cave women wears. (click here for a more in depth review)

Final Fantasy 7 (1997)

Final Fantasy is one of those games that came, saw, and conquered for many years to come. In total there are 9 central playable characters. There are 5 male gendered characters, 2 females, and 1 genderless. The 5 males possess the strongest attacks, and the coolest-looking limit breakers (or special attacks), the 2 females possess weaker attack power and one of them is a healer; the other is a fighter whose only weapons are her own hands, and her special is among the trickiest to do (mostly leading to weaker and often ineffective damages). The more or less genderless character is of average strength. The strongest is named Cloud, whom is the pivotal protagonist in the story. The others are named: Barret, Cid, Vincent, and Red. The two females are name: Tifa and Aeris (she is the healer). The last characters' name is Cait Sith.

The plot is as follows: there is an evil corporation, named Shinra, sucking the life blood out of the planet and channeling it into machines and services to help the rich lead easier lives. There is a group of outlaws that opposes this misuse of the world's called Avalanche, a faction which 3 of the protagonists (depicted below in the first screen shot) are a part of. There are other smaller forces at work that both aid and hinder our heroes goals as they try to stop Shinra, until another larger and more dangerous threat is discovered. Sephiroth emerges as the antagonist and he unleashes a force of evil (which manifests as a gigantic meteor) that will destroy the earth if our heroes do not stop him. The only hope against such an evil is a magic called holy, a power which only Aeris can wield. The journey is a long and arduous one, and there are casualties everywhere, Aeris becomes one of them near the end. She is the story's damsel in distress and it is up to Cloud to save her, though he ultimately fails and her life is ended at the hands of Sephiroth. In the end it all comes to a head as the battle for the future of the planet is fought solely by our group of warriors and in the end they are triumphant; Cloud and Sephiroth come to a final battle in which Cloud annihilates Sephiroth in a pure display of power but even though he saves the day, he is haunted by his failure and Aeris' death. Just another case where a woman brings a hero down.

One of the most important things to notice is that all of the male characters wield weapons that are simply more powerful and dangerous than those of the women and Cait Sith. Cloud wields a giant sword, Barret a gun-arm, Cid a spear, Red his fangs and claws, and Vincent a gun. Aeris wields a staff, Tifa wields a variety of gloves, and Cait Sith wields a microphone. The black and white lines of gender inequality are turned into less-discernible shades of gray in this video game, but make no mistake it is there in all of the little details, and even in some of the bigger ones. The story centers around a male hero, with a male anti-hero, and a damsel in distress. The most powerful combination of characters involves 2 or more males and there are only 2 instances in the game in which Cloud is not included in the party; he is the most powerful character in the game hands-down, and it is upon his shoulders that the fate of the world rests.



This is a shot of of 3 of the 8 characters from the game, and you can see that even in the mid-90's video games were starting to "sexualize" their models. Tifa, the only female in the shot, is wearing a stomach-revealing shirt and very short shorts; in contrast the two men are muscular, one extremely so, and are pretty much fully-clothed. Notice also that the only woman in the shot has the least impressive weapon; the main protagonist has a gigantic sword, and the other male a gun-arm.


 * [[image:FF7_3.jpg width="384" height="288" caption="FF7_3.jpg"]] ||  ||

Here you see three characters, facing a monster of epic proportions. The group is comprised of all males and though the monster is somewhat difficult it is not impossibly so, and it falls. Just an example of the things that men can accomplish when they put their weapons to it.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)



The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time use the classic formula that the hero have to do a lot of task to defeat the last boss at the end. The player's plays as Link, a child that lives in a village away from Hyrule castle, and is asked to be seen by the Great Deku Tree who was cursed by the evil Ganondorf. Link eventually breaks the curse, but the tree dies anyways. The Great Deku Tree's last request was for Link to to search for Princess Zelda in the castle. Being a princess is a common female representation for video games, and later Zelda orders Link to defeat the Evil Ganondorf, acting as the innocent princess asking the hero to save Hyrule for her. This makes Zelda looks weak and of course Link accepts the challenge and have to accomplish many nearly impossible task to finally defeat Ganondolf, making Link a heroic character. (Click here for a more in depth review)

Gender Socialization and Aggressive Behavior" Sex Roles. Volume 38. April 7, 2011 ([]).
 * Dietz, Tracy L. 1998. "An Examination of Violence and Gender Role Portrayals in Video Games: Implications for