http://sonzero.com/news/wp-content/uploads/resident-evil-5-box-art.jpgThis is the box art for Resident Evil 5 (Capcom, 2009), it shows the two main characters standing back to back, guns raised and at the ready.
The predominant male archetype is very obvious here, the man has a very seroius face and a very muscular build made all the more obvious in the way he holds his gun, flexing his arm.
The woman is depicted in a rather confident manner, standing back to back with the man, with a very large gun at the ready, she has a rather confident expression and stance. This is a change from the common archetype of women being dependent on the male leads for help, she is shown here to be aiding the man, standing back to back to cover each other, rather than standing behind him, peering over his shoulder to see if it's safe.
http://loot-ninja.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/folklore-box-art.jpg
The predominant male archetype is very obvious here, the man has a very seroius face and a very muscular build made all the more obvious in the way he holds his gun, flexing his arm.
The woman is depicted in a rather confident manner, standing back to back with the man, with a very large gun at the ready, she has a rather confident expression and stance. This is a change from the common archetype of women being dependent on the male leads for help, she is shown here to be aiding the man, standing back to back to cover each other, rather than standing behind him, peering over his shoulder to see if it's safe.
http://loot-ninja.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/folklore-box-art.jpg
The box art from Folklore (SCEI, 2007) shows a collection of character, with the two main characters in the foreground.
The main male character to the right of the image is tall and well dressed, if a little untidy. His clothes make it a little tricky to determine his physical build, but I would say he appears to be rather slim. He has a very defined jaw and a slight grin on his face, overall appearing quite comfortable and at ease.
The main female character in the bottom left of the image appears to be a relatively young girl, she seems shorter than all the other characters, possibly mainly due to her positioning relative to the other characters. She has a rather round face and large eyes, adding to the image of a young, innocent girl. She seems to be wearing very casual clothes, suited to spending time outdoors.
The characters depicted here don't adhere as strongly to the archetypes we've seen in previous game characters, there seems to be little, if any, attempt to use sex appeal and neither of them seem particularly heroic or daring. The only similarities to the previously seen archetypes here may be that we see a confident, at ease male role with a young, innocent female role, possibly implying that, due to her youth and inexperience that the older, wisened man will be required to help her along her way.
A lot of this image seems to draw your attention to the creatures in the background and the world they are in, more so than the characters themselves. The focus of this game may be more on the setting and the strange inhabitants thereof rather than on daring, strong, epic heroes.
Perhaps the representation of characters within games is somewhat dependent on the games context or genre. High action games have more demand for muscle bound, gun toting characters be they male or female, more laid back and relaxed games have less need for these sorts of main characters and so these archetypes are not used.
If this is the case, then the male and female archetypes we have seen of the strong heroic male and sexy independent female may only seem so dominant due to a lot of high action games being produced rather than a concious choice to display the characters in this way regardless of the game.
The main male character to the right of the image is tall and well dressed, if a little untidy. His clothes make it a little tricky to determine his physical build, but I would say he appears to be rather slim. He has a very defined jaw and a slight grin on his face, overall appearing quite comfortable and at ease.
The main female character in the bottom left of the image appears to be a relatively young girl, she seems shorter than all the other characters, possibly mainly due to her positioning relative to the other characters. She has a rather round face and large eyes, adding to the image of a young, innocent girl. She seems to be wearing very casual clothes, suited to spending time outdoors.
The characters depicted here don't adhere as strongly to the archetypes we've seen in previous game characters, there seems to be little, if any, attempt to use sex appeal and neither of them seem particularly heroic or daring. The only similarities to the previously seen archetypes here may be that we see a confident, at ease male role with a young, innocent female role, possibly implying that, due to her youth and inexperience that the older, wisened man will be required to help her along her way.
A lot of this image seems to draw your attention to the creatures in the background and the world they are in, more so than the characters themselves. The focus of this game may be more on the setting and the strange inhabitants thereof rather than on daring, strong, epic heroes.
Perhaps the representation of characters within games is somewhat dependent on the games context or genre. High action games have more demand for muscle bound, gun toting characters be they male or female, more laid back and relaxed games have less need for these sorts of main characters and so these archetypes are not used.
If this is the case, then the male and female archetypes we have seen of the strong heroic male and sexy independent female may only seem so dominant due to a lot of high action games being produced rather than a concious choice to display the characters in this way regardless of the game.
No comments:
Post a Comment