ADAD1002 - Assessment 2 Concept Statement
My work reflects the concept of representation in video games through customisation binaries. Video game character customisations are constantly evolving in order to diversify a players' freedom of choice on who they'd like to represent. Throughout the years games have been introducing new and increasing ways to customise details on characters as a means for the playable characters to be more individualised and personalised. Despite this, a separate community dedicated to 'modding' has formed and developed in order to make up for the lack of certain options players are presented with. Modding communities are non-for-profit and take initiative in their spare time to creatively modify and introduce specific additions into game directories, enabling the game to have new or improved features at their personal leisure. The modding community is a varied demographic with specific niches catering to specific interests, such as graphics rendering, gameplay interface, cheat codes/shortcuts, etc.
My work reflects the algorithm of randomisation inside three particular games, all with varying degrees of personalised customisation. Sims 3 and Saints Row IV are definitely provided with more options as compared to Dragon Age 2, however each customisation offers their own levels of customisation. Through making a set of 8-10 randomised characters based on the games preset algorithm, I was able to compare these generated designs to that of my own character, whom I designed to reflect my own appearance as close as possible.
My work explores the binaries of representation on the female spectrum, challenging notions of masculinity and femininity and how video games offer that choice of range for how a character identified as female would look like and what options there are to reflect varying degrees of masculinity/femininity. The Saints Row video game series offers the most range in terms of randomised character design from different face structures, hair types and make-up options, creating designs that are starkly contrasting amongst each other. The Sims also offers different designs when randomly generated, however definitely leaning towards more feminine characteristics e.g long hair and complimentary make-up. Dragon age offered the least amount of diversity in regards to options, only providing diversity in hairstyles and skin tones. The base face structure is hardly altered through the randomised algorithms, suggesting a prerequisite idea on the female gender.
My own personal character is meant to convey the extent to the games character customisation, which was an attempt to explore the parameters of the customisation in order to create a female Asian with pink hair. The dragon age offered the least options to achieve the race, with Saints Rows and Sims just barely deviating from the western standard of the female gender such as deep set eyes and pointed, long noses. Granted, with restrictions to such options as a player of the games, my design as the centre piece is meant to highlight the limitation current games customisation offer.
With my design centered amongst the rotating randomized designs, it intentionally places the idea of the player at the front and center of customizing character design, with the rotating designs being the computer generated to what my character could potentially look like in regards to being a female. The binaries that limit the parameters of customization reveal similarities and subtle differences to what constitutes as a female character design. The Saints Row IV had a predominantly western facial base, consisting of deep-set eyes and pointed noses, whilst the
Sims 3 provided more racial diversity albeit more feminine qualities. The rotating aspect of my work was meant to create a dizzying effect, where the randomized designs would eventually seem to morph into one another through sheer circular movement if a person were to observe it for an extended duration. The circular motion was to enforce the idea that there are infinite designs and probable combinations, with the endless loop of my work reinforcing that notion of binaries not limiting freedom of expression but rather the options available.
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