June 13th, 2012 by Nickie Williams
“Do you like the suffering of women? Oh boy! Will you ever enjoy the new Tomb Raider!”
The above was a quote I saw in the last few days on Twitter. It refers to the extreme, brutal mature content in the new Tomb Raider game. As we know from E3, Lara is shipwrecked on a tropical island with poachers and down-right evil bastards who seem to only want to do harm to her and her friend. In fact, there is a scene in the game where Lara will be subjected to an attempted rape.
Now. This all stems from a quote that Crystal Dynamics made. They stated that:
“When people play Lara, they don’t really project themselves into the character. They’re more like ‘I want to protect her.’ There’s this sort of dynamic of ‘I’m going to this adventure with her and trying to protect her.’”
This makes me so many kinds of angry. Like women need to be protected. I just find it to be insufferable crap when the men designing these games think with atypical Hollywood stereotypes and believe that women need to be protected from the general world. Oh my! A nasty man! Please save me! And since when was Lara Croft was the one to be protected? Isn’t she usually the one protecting everyone else?
Read my lips. Lara Croft is not bloody Olive Oyl. There is no Popeye and there is no need to put a hero type in a video game just so you can save the damsel in distress. If that’s your kind of thing, just go the hell back to Super Mario and save Princess Peach from her many castles. There is a reason Lara has done so well as a character over the years. Men wanted to marry her. Women wanted to be her. She was strong and sexy, capable and independant- and the best thing? She was kick ass! I grew up with Lara and she made me into the woman I am. This sounds a bit retarded, but before Lara came along there were no strong female characters in video games. They were simpering idiots who wore pink and giggled like immature schoolgirls. Then came along Lara with her twin guns and her shorts ‘n’ vest top combo. Every teenage girl wanted to be Lara Croft just so they could garner respect from everyone for being bad ass and never saying no to anything.
According to CD, the idea behind this game is to make Lara Croft more human so people can understand her better. One of their other quotes are:
“The ability to see her as a human is even more enticing to me than the more sexualised version of yesteryear. She literally goes from zero to hero… we’re sort of building her up and just when she gets confident, we break her down again.”
Is there absolutely any need for that? What the hell is wrong with building up Lara to be the best and just leaving her there at the top of the pile? Why do they feel a need to break her down again? Breaking down any woman, never mind a video game female is the worst idea in the world. I have personally been subjected to a lot physical and mental abuse over the years and as a woman that has been through this- the fact that Crystal Dynamics is doing this in a game makes me spittingly angry.
The company also talks about Lara being a ‘cornered animal’ and that you will feel like Lara has to literally fight back or die. Now, I understand that’s what life is like. If you want something bad enough in life, you will fight tooth and nail for it. But is there really any need for it in a video game? A lot of people in the world play video games to escape the doldrums of every day life. To escape their issues and the horrible things currently in their lives. They don’t want to put in this game and possibly be reminded of the issues in their life. If that’s the case, they’re going to put the game straight back in the case and demand a refund from the store they bought it from.
And here’s parting, yet amazingly stupid quote from Crystal Dynamics once again for you, readers:
“Her skin is still bare on the arms and there are going to be rips and tears on her clothes, but it won’t be about being revealing. It’s a way of saying that through these tough situations, there is a beauty and vulnerability coming through. I think that is sexy in its own way.”
So to see the beautiful side of a woman, you must break her down to a point where she is vulnerable. Oh yeah CD, just sow the seed into all those immature minds who will see this game and think it’s okay to abuse, rape and beat women. Do we need more idiots like this in society? I don’t think so.
Either make this game a strict M/Mature/18 rated game or ban it all together. We cannot allow atrocities like this game to even be on the market. It’s disgusting, wrong, vile and outrageous. Crystal Dynamics is shooting themselves in the foot. The only way I will buy this game is if they turn down the rape and abuse. Because with that, it hits a little too close to home for me.
Game on Girl is a weekly podcast hosted by Regina McMenomy and Rhonda Oglesby. New episodes premiere every Thursday. We interview gamers and discuss games, gaming, and game culture. We also have a regular segment, Games in Pop Culture, where we talk about representations of games and gaming in mainstream media.
