I really haven't kept up with Lara
1, and am not even sure I ever saw the second film in the franchise. But I was in at the beginning with the original (coverdisk demo, and then purchased) and it was somewhat revolutionary in graphics, I thought. "Alone In The Dark" was a prior vectored-avatar attempt (but was a bit clunky, or maybe the machines of the time were), the Doom/Wolfenstein precursors did 3d environments (better? ...it was obviously TR was based upon a strict plan-grid, imaginatively but restrictively 'coloured' only by vertical deformations and sheerings of squares and imaginative 'special' decorations), the puzzle element was often just a super-Sokoban (more forgiving, with pull as well as push, but mingled with 'live enemies' often enough to make it an FPS too).
The use of a female protagonist
was new. To me. I was never a beat-em-up player, where they (if not abounded) had at least a plurality of choosable female player-protagonists, it seemed, in any decent implementation, and Miss Pacman barely counts. For my own part, playing as Elizabeth I (i.e. the English) in Civilization was the main example, where it was
obvious.
And I recall complaints (that, in the depth of difficult gameplay, I would not have considered a factor in my concentration) that the "running into a wall" Ooomph! of Lara was much like the apparently distractingly 'orgasmic' Wimbledon Grunts of the Ladies' singles matches. But I never disconnected enough from the gameplay to succumb myself to the alleged deliberate repetition for personal gratification, because
I was always trying to play the game. (I'm fairly sure.)
Lara being female was, to me, more a sign that this was not a gung-ho rush-game. Capable of attacking (or speeding, helter-skelter, upon speedboat or snowmobile or even on foot through a 'collapsing' cave) when necessary, that still wasn't the main focus of the game
all the time. Maybe an Indianna Jones-like male character could have embodied this philosophy, too, but we were plainly discouraged from barging (possible) or wrestling (not part of the movement/interaction possibilities, outside of cut-scenes) or punching (I
think) in ways that the Doom Marine did not, even where similarly code-limited.
From the cut-scenes, I never really thought that there was any
weakness in her character, just 'different strengths'. Her first main adversary (Pierre?) was smart, but not Lara-smart, and used ruthlesness to cover the deficiencies. The wildlife enemies cared not one jot that this walking foodsource was female (whatever their normal prey, in the absence of intruders!), and the mystical stuff had no care (the thing that mirrored Lara across that platform just made sure that it was
exactly like Lara, down to making tit-for-tat projectile shots as they circled each other in a psychically-synchronised dance of death, until you discovered the means to make
them take a fall and thus you to triumph). The environment was generally unforgiving (though I suspect Lara may have somehow had a better lung capacity, despite her pinched rib-cage, by reasons of plot).
And, at least until me and the franchise departed company, for the reasons I already stated, I never really noticed any exploitation of the character (maybe some backplot relationship hints, but mostly to show how she was
now her own woman) that weren't actually fem-positive things that I
expect the girl videogamers would have found endearing.
Of course, I was a boy (or, rather, a man, whether that's better or worse), so I can't be sure I was entirely unlinked from my own biases and misconceptions, and
subconciously prefered the sound of Lara falling heavily off a ledge or being struck by a projectile, to that of Doomguy in similar circumstances.
And, while writing this, I also recalled that the Carmageddon driver could be set to a woman's head, in the Doomguy-like 'what are you like' portion of the decorative console surround. I probably played as her a few times. Took effort to change, and didn't change gameplay (car colour, maybe, from red to yellow?), and didn't consider it necessary. (But it seems that was afger Lara, anyway, and
she was 14?)
And I've no idea what happened in 2013. Do I want to know, above the small hints already given?
1 Having been there at the begining but as a non-consoler been deprived of games that never (or only after the hype) came to PC, then stopped being a bleeding-edge gamer. I think GTA: San Amdreas marked the point where I started to wait, and my other computing interests (leisure and professional) drowned out the need...
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Topic: Gender/sexuality etc. - What Even Is A Gender Anyway (Read 140005 times)