Women in classical video games / [edited by] Jane Draycott and Kate Cook.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Cook, Kate, editor.

Draycott, Jane, editor.

Series:

Imagines - Classical receptions in the visual and performing arts

IMAGINES - Classical Receptions in the Visual and Performing Arts

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Video games--Social aspects.

Video games.

Women in video games.

Sex role in mass media.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (304 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

London [England] : Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.

Summary:

"Despite the prevalence of video games set in or inspired by classical antiquity, the medium has to date remained markedly understudied in the disciplines of Classics and Ancient History, with the role of women in these video games especially neglected. Women in Classical Video Games seeks to address this imbalance as the first book-length work of scholarship to examine the depiction of women in video games set in classical antiquity. The volume surveys the history of women in these games and the range of figures presented from the 1980s to the present, alongside discussion of issues such as historical accuracy, authenticity, gender, sexuality, monstrosity, hegemony, race and ethnicity, and the use of tropes. A wide range of games of different types and modes are discussed, with particular attention paid to the Assassin's Creed franchise's 21st-century ventures into classical antiquity (first in Origins (2017), set in Hellenistic Egypt, and then in Odyssey (2018), set in Classical Greece), which have caught the imagination not only of gamers, but also of academics, especially in relation to their accompanying educational Discovery Modes. The detailed case studies presented here form a compelling case for the indispensability of the medium to both reception studies and gender studies, and offer nuanced answers to such questions as how and why women are portrayed in the ways that they are; whether these portrayals are authentic and/or accurate, and whether this matters; what female characters allow a video game to do that male ones don't; and what types of stories these video games tell using their female characters."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction / (Jane Draycott, University of Glasgow, UK and Kate Cook, Durham University, UK)

Part 1. Women in Classical Video Games: An Overview. 1. Playable Girls in Ancient Worlds: Athena (1986) Opens the Door / (Dunstan Lowe, University of Kent, UK) ; 2. A Historical Overview of Women in Ancient-Period Video Games / (Jordy Orellana Figueroa, Eberhard Karls University of Tèubingen, Germany) ; 3. Dangerous Defaults: Demographics and Identities Within and Without Video Games / (Marcie Persyn, University of Pittsburg, USA) ; 4. Developing Female Agency in the Grand-Strategy Legacies of Rome: The Total War, Age of Empires and Paradox Interactive Franchises Reappraised / (Becca Grose, University of Reading, UK and Markus Mindrebo, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) ; 5. From Rulers to 'Great People': Representations of Women in the Civilization Series' / (Joshua R. Hall, Ancient World Magazine , USA)

Part 2. Goddesses, Monsters and Mortals: Specific Studies. 6. The Maiden, the Mother and the Monster: The Monstrous-Feminine in Historical and Archaeological Video Games / (Dan Goad, Independent Scholar, UK) ; 7. Bringing Down the Divine Patriarchy through Deicide in Apotheon (2015) / (Amy Norgard, Truman State University, USA) ; 8. Violence against Women in Classical Video Games / (Hannah-Marie Chidwick, University of Bristol, UK) ; 9. 'It's the Most Freedom a Woman can Have': Gender, Genre and Agency in Choices: A Courtesan of Rome / (Kate Cook, Durham University, UK) ; 10. Argonautic Women? Gender and Heroic Status in Rise of the Argonauts / (Sophie Ngan, Durham University, UK) ; 11. Digital Katabasis: Figuring the Divine in Supergiant's Hades / (Kira Jones, Emory University, USA) ; 12. Reception and Representation of Greco-Roman Goddesses in Smite: Battleground of the Gods / (Katherine Beydler, University of Michigan, USA) ; 13. Playing Salammbô' Orientalism, Gender and Gaming with the Punic World / (Andrew Dufton, University of Edinburgh, UK) ; 14. The Nature and Deeds of Athena in God of War / (Camilla Tosi, University of Ferrara, Italy) ; 15. Aphrodite, A Caricature of Female Sexuality / (Olivia Kinsman, University of Bristol, UK)

Part 3. The Assassin's Creed Franchise. 16. Assembled through Play: Women in Assassin's Creed Odyssey / (Anna Foka, Uppsala University, Sweden and Lina Eklund, Uppsala University, Sweden) ; 17. Kassandra's Odyssey: The Promise, Playability, and Reception of the Assassin's Creed Heroine' / (Richard Cole, University of Bristol, UK) ; 18. 'We Do What we Must to Survive': Prostitution and Power in Assassin's Creed Odyssey ' / (Roz Tuplin, GameLondon, UK) ; 19. Playing Cleopatra in Assassin's Creed Origins / (Jane Draycott, University of Glasgow, UK)

Index.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

9781350241954

9781350241947

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.