The basics- Released in 2007 on multiple consoles, PC and Mac.
- The Wii version had active features; on Xbox it was the first game to be offered on Xbox Live Marketplace.
- 11th version of the Tomb Raider franchise.
- Marked 10th anniversary of original 1996 Tomb Raider game.
- Sold 1.3m copies – good but nowhere near original (7m+ copies).
- Game was based on original (offering nostalgia) but with updated graphics and gameplay – faster and more agile; more realistic visuals.
- Genre: Action adventure
- Protagonist/avatar (character player controls): Lara Croft
- Quest narrative driven by enigma and action codes and culminating in a final confrontation with antagonist. Lara Croft is dispatched to New Mexico to recover part of the Scion of Atlantis
- Gameplay involves: Exploration; Overcoming physical obstacles; Puzzles; Fighting; Gunplay.
Tomb Raider Anniversary
Language and Audience
Analyse the game cover for Tomb Raider Anniversary (above).
1) How does the cover communicate the genre of the game?
- Black and Gold colour scheme: communicates mystery and adventure/action
- Mise-en-scene (PROPS): Guns communicate action and violence, this suggests that the genre is action and adventure
- Gold symbol behind character: Ancient writing on symbol suggests puzzle and mystery
2) How does the pose and costume of the character appeal to primarily male audiences?
- Costume: tight booty shorts and tight top not appropriate and impractical clothing for role of character; character has a lot of skin on show and her assets are visible - reinforces Mulvey's male gaze as her character is quite sexualised.
- Costume: sexualised - gun holsters look like suspenders
- Pose: back facing audience, quite sexualised, forcing audience to look at her bum; the text also goes across her back drawing attention to her bum
- Pose: eye contact with audience - could be argued that this direct mode of address empowers the female character
- No male characters on cover, only Lara Croft: Scott Rigby - Autonomy; Agency; Empowering women
- Female character with weaponry: increases power
- Women not traditionally linked to action and adventure
1) What does the gameplay for Tomb Raider Anniversary involve?
- Gameplay is quite simplistic: this makes the game more accessible and more likely to appeal to a mainstream audience (anyone can play)
- Adventure walk through; elements of action and mystery
- Cinematography: low angle shots (voyeuristic pleasure?); 360 degree pans (being in control, able to view things from different angles)
- Sounds: non- diegetic and diegetic sounds, non-diegetic sounds create more suspense and tension for player; diegetic sounds make game more realistic
- Sounds: grunting sounds character makes - argument of sexualising or realism?
- Intertextual references: Indiana Jones
- Movements and physicality: character is athletic, flexible, purposeful, strong and competent - links to Scott Rigby: Competence
- Scott Rigby: Autonomy - being in control of charcter and putting yourself in their shoes
- Scoot Rigby: Competence - audience gets pleasure about completing level or game
- Liesbet van Zoonen - Lara Croft character arguably sexualised and objectified
- Sarkeesian - representation of women in video games (mise en scene, character movement)
Read this NME feature on the evolution of the character of Lara Croft.
1) Note the statistics in the opening paragraph.
Lara Croft is the most successful human videogame heroine of all time:
- more than 1,100 magazine covers
- selling over 58 million videogame units worldwide
- March 15 2018, Lara Croft returns to the big screen in Tomb Raider - with the Oscar-winning Alicia Vikander in the title role.
2) How does the article describe the cultural change in society and the media since the early 00s?
Her hot pants have been ditched for cargo trousers, and the focus is on her attitude, intelligence and athleticism, rather than her improbable polygon body. Here’s the how Lara Croft became a feminist icon.
3) How was the original 1996 Lara Croft received by audiences and critics?
"She was strong, smart and had an amazing job: she was already a role model"
4) What did the 2013 re-launch do differently – and how successful was it?
The 2013 re-launch game gave Lara a makeover. Hot pants and Barbie physiques were out; cargo trousers and abs were in. Scars, dirt and blood covered her skin, and thegameplay focused more on Croft’s face to reveal a deep and complex emotional background. Finally, Lara actually looked like someone who spent her time raiding caves for ancient artefacts.
Now read this feature – Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft: feminist or femme fatale?
1) Why is Lara Croft considered a “polarising figure among gamers”?
- "She was a sex icon and a feminist icon, and there is no issue being both of those at once."
- "a paradox regarded as either a digital pin-up girl or a feminist role model, or sometimes both"
- "a paradox regarded as either a digital pin-up girl or a feminist role model, or sometimes both"
- "because of her appearance, Lara Croft is often considered part of a systemic problem generated by a male-dominated video game industry."
"Her sexualised appearance was a drawback from the early days of video game development when women were hard to distinguish from men on 32-bit consoles, Marie said. Flowing hair was difficult to design - Lara Croft wears her hair in a single braid - so emphasising a woman's hips, legs and breasts became an easier way to feminise her."
3) Why were Lara Croft’s physical attributes emphasised in the original games?
Laura Mulvey - The Male Gaze
At the time of the release of the original games, the gaming industry was male dominated - "Lara Croft's appearance is often considered part of a systemic problem generated by a male-dominated video game industry".
4) How does Anita Sarkeesian describe Lara Croft?
"She is one of the most iconic representations of women in gaming, but that doesn't mean it's a good thing," said Anita Sarkeesian, a media critic and executive editor of Feminist Frequency, a non-profit organisation that looks at how women are presented in pop culture. "She is a hyper-sexualised character that promotes a deep objectification of women." Sarkeesian said Lara Croft was simply a stereotype for the category of games typically associated with male players. Even the camera angle in the game focuses on her rear end, she said, putting it at the centre of attention. "With Lara Croft, you see her entire body running around in her hot pants," she said. "That encourages players to look at her as a sex object."
5) Why has Lara Croft’s appearance and characterisation changed over time?
Lara Croft's appearance gradually changed as more women were drawn to video games. (Research shows that nearly half of all players now are women). In 2013, Crystal Dynamics rebooted the franchise and gave her a more natural look, including trousers. "The goal was to make her a relatable character, one that was believable," Marie said.
1) Why is Lara Croft such an iconic figure in the gaming industry?
Lara Croft is one of the first female main characters in gaming which ultimately makes her an instant icon. The launch of the original Tomb Raider starring main playable character Lara Croft grabbed the attention of many people, especially female demographics.
2) What products and spin-offs have featured Lara Croft or the Tomb Raider brand?
Lara quickly captured the attention and imagination of popular culture, with commercial tie-ins that would make today’s questionable gaming cash-ins look sane. Gard’s creation was taking the world by storm. Lara appeared in adverts for energy drinks, credit cards and cars, branded wetsuits were coded into Tomb Raider’s sequel through a partnership with Sola, and her pouting face even graced postage stamps in France. There have also been Tomb Raider films made throughout the 2000s starring famous actresses such as Angelina Jolie as main character Lara Croft.
Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/culture/gaming/tomb-raider-lara-croft/
3) Why might Lara Croft be considered a postmodern icon?
- Lara isn't just a gaming icon: she had become a celebrity in her own right, drifting further and further away from Gard’s original intentions.
- Many have cited Lara as the spark that lit the fire for more strong female characters to be featured as the leads in video games, a far cry from the ‘damsel in distress’ model that was seen in many games before Tomb Raider’s arrival.
- The developers did away with the over exaggerated sexuality of the original Lara, instead giving gamers more of a “girl next door” (albeit extremely rich girl next door) aesthetic. (2013)
- They reworked Lara too, presenting instead a young, raw character much more like the average player sitting at home and therefore more relatable; acting out of necessity, desperation and the need to survive when she is shipwrecked and stranded on a threateningly mysterious island early in the game. (2013)
4) Why is Tomb Raider Anniversary a 'case study in conglomerate ownership'?
Tomb Raider Anniversary developed by American based companies 'Crystal dynamics' and 'Buzz monkey' - who are both ultimately owned by Square Enix.
Grade A/A* extension tasks
Link Tomb Raider Anniversary to our work in the unit so far:
1) What examples from the Tomb Raider franchise are included in Anita Sarkeesian's video series 'Tropes vs Women in Video Games'?
2) How can we apply Liesbet van Zoonen's work to Lara Croft and Tomb Raider?
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