In her essay, Mikula makes the claim that male gamers prefer
to feel like they have control over their female avatars while females prefer to
identify with their icons. She goes on to say that within the context of the
game Tomb Raider, Lara allows both males and females to play out the game in
the context that they see most fit (the women choosing to identify and the
males choosing to control). Because Laura is physically attractive, this compels
males to want to look at her, “spend time” with her and control her. Mikula
argues that women appreciate the fact that Lara is so worldly and tough. I have
to disagree with her idea; I think that men are much more comfortable
controlling Lara than women are identifying with her. Her “hotness” outweighs
her intellect in terms of where the attention of the gamer is going. If she
retained the same “personality” but she wasn’t hypersexualized, I doubt that
males would have much interest in the game. Since male customers make up most
of the game’s profit, I think the game is much better tailored to suiting male fantasies,
no matter what the makers claim.
I agree with Colette's post because games are absolutely tailored to suit male fantasies with the aspect of control and the physical attractiveness of Lara. I think colette proves a point when she says that the maker's really only targeted men having made this game because as a woman myself, I'm not a gamer, and therefore I don't buy games.
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