A semiotic analysis of gender constructions in popular video games and its ideological impact on the individual

• Main Author: Babago, Jamshyd F.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2019
• Subjects: Gender mainstreaming; Video game characters; Semiotics; Gender and Sexuality
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/6707; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=13615&context=etd_masteral
• Institution: De La Salle University

Amid the prominence and popularity of video game culture, it has changed dramatically – aesthetically and intellectually over time. Accompanied with the latest technological advancements, many video game companies have responded to the necessity of forwarding ideological views through its medium. The top-down approach of power could be observed in video games wherein, as cultural commodities of the video game industry, it is set to send and transmit ideological messages. This study utilized semiotic analysis to understand the meaning of signs and how this meaning is formed behind video games created by different video game companies. Utilizing the framework of Stuart Hall of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies on mass media, the researcher will look into the critical narratives of video games as a popular culture phenomenon where gender formations are constructed relative to a cultural hegemony rendered by video game companies. This study explores how ideologies relative to gender formations are veiled as signs accompanied with meanings. Finally, the study also delves into the impact of video games, especially on how players depict dominant gender constructions and, provides a critical examination of trends to see if it goes against the status quo.