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Final Level: Society

Pokemon Silver was my gateway drug to video games. That sounds weird, right? Well,
it all started when I was about four or five years old. I dont quite remember how old I was, but I
do know that I was very young and very ecstatic. I was all smiles as I walked into Circuit City,
an ancient tech god of the past, with my parents. There was only one thing on my mind-- a
Gameboy Advance and a Pokemon game.
This all started with my cousins, who were avid gamers since day one. I was so intrigued
by the games they would play, like Super Smash Bros Melee and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina
of Time, that it made me want to fully experience this kind of joy, too.After that, I managed to
convince my parents to buy me a Gameboy Advance, a portable gaming console, and a video
game, Pokemon Silver Version. My parents sought an employee for help in finding the gaming
console of my dreams, while all I could do was walk in giddy circles, up and down the vast
aisles, thoughts racing through my mind.
Finally, there it was. My eyes lit up like fireworks on the Fourth of July, and my heart
began racing. I felt so incredibly happy that, even to this day, I still remember how joyful I was
when I saw that pink oblong box and silver game cartridge.
Now, fast forward to present day. Over the next 10 years I became more aware not just of
other video games but also issues like social equality, LGBTQ+ representation, womens rights
and more. I learned about the rules and expectations society has impressed upon the younger
generation and the norms they would impose on each gender. I learned how my own parents
wanted me to be lady-like and do lady-like duties around the house. Enraged by these
traditional standards, I decided to become adamant in tearing down these standards. This new
view of mine affected everything I did and everything I enjoyed doing, and that included video

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games. As I began to immerse myself into new games like Fire Emblem: Awakening, Persona 3
Portable, and many more, these new ideas began to go through my mind. As I would play, I
would think to myself, How do old, traditional ideas get mixed into games? How do societal
expectations play a part in the storyline of these games? Thus, that led to the birth of my
question for my senior project: How do video games reflect societal and gender norms or
expectations? How might games try to break through these norms or expectations instead?
Social norms have been a huge part of humanity since the very beginning. Throughout
the centuries, these norms helped establish civilization as unwritten rules about how to behave.
They provide us with an expected idea of how to behave in a particular social group or culture
(McLeod). Society enforces these unwritten rules in order to ensure that everyone behaves a
certain way that will benefit society. According to the Northgate High School psychologist Mary
Tsuboi, Social norms and expectations have always been a part of our culture. The family
situation should be the area where norms and expectations are set. This made me realize that
social norms are enforced onto people as soon as they are born. Even if they, as a baby, do not
understand the current situation they are in, they learn to conform to these values instituted by
society through their environment.
Norms differ depending on the era, society, and culture. For example, in Western
countries, a social norm would be that people who become adults must become independent and
move away from their family. In Asian countries, however, young adults are expected to stay
with their parents and care for them. These expectations are the guiding forces to the behaviors
one should exhibit in a society. They also set the standards for morality. Another example is, in
real life, one is expected to be honest and not cheat in anything. In video games, one is also
expected to not cheat and play fairly. Issues of cheating are one example of a concern in games,

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especially ones involving multiple players around the world. Sometimes, these issues can cause
the players within the community of a game to create programs that would detect and make sure
players dont cheat (Taylor 50). However, this issue is mostly resolved by a game developing
companys own anti-cheat program. Many standards created in real life make an appearance in
video games, especially games where decisions have a huge impact on gameplay. In the game,
Undertale, one plays as a character who can either be nice to others and spare everyone or go on
a killing spree. If one does end up killing many of the characters, the player faces dire
consequences and the society created within the game falls apart because of the players chaotic
actions. This reflects the social norm of being kind and compassionate to others and not killing
people. Video games throughout history have created their own norms that fit within the
fictional society and culture created in its story, but it has always been similar to the social norm
in the era and place the game was created in. With these social norms comes the creation of
cultural norms.
Cultural norms are like social norms; with them comes expectations. An example of this
would be the work environment in China versus the environment in the United States. In China,
it is expected for employees to socialize and get along well with their boss. Also, it is expected
for employees to obediently follow their bosses, even if they disagree with their choices. In
contrast, employees in the United States are not expected to become friends with their boss, as
their relationship is strictly a work relationship. If something is disagreeable, workers will
question the authority and usually speak their mind (Seligson). Video games reflect these cultural
norms in its own subculture: gaming culture. For example, the difference between North
American players and Korean players of the game, League of Legends can be seen in their
performances. Korean servers are known to be extremely competitive, more so than the North

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American servers. In League competitions, many of the best players turn out to be Korean
players. This is because of the standard set by Korean society, where one is expected to quickly
get a job and be good at it. With this kind of thinking in mind, many Korean gamers, often
NEETs, or someone who is not in employment, education, or training, work hard to manifest this
kind of mindset. In the games themselves, they can teach one about the cultural norms of other
places. In an interview done with W. Lewis Johnson of Alelo, Inc., he reveals how in one of his
games, called Mission to Iraq, people must introduce themselves in accordance with local
customs. they must understand the proper hospitality norms (Hartley). Video games help
teach players about cultural norms, and that adds considerable knowledge to the players mind,
creating a respect for other cultures. However, within each culture comes with standards set for
each gender.
In society, gender norms are created so that a man and woman know their places and how
to behave. It is well known that a womans role in society is supposedly one of a housekeeper. A
woman is expected to clean the house, do the laundry, do the dishes, and be as obedient as
possible to the man of the house. A woman is expected to be docile and work easy jobs, like
being a secretary or intern. Though women are the ones typically thought to be negatively
affected by gender roles, men are affected as well. Gender norms tell men that they must be the
leader at all times and never show emotion, for a sign of emotion would mean a sign of
weakness. They must always be strong, physically and psychologically. This problem is known
as hyper-masculinity. A writer of HuffPost Crime writes that:
Society teaches us that if we are to be considered worthy of respect and pride, we must
be athletic, independent, assertive, domineering, competitive, tough, that we must bury
our emotions deep within the recesses of our souls, and, most importantly, that we must
search for and destroy any signs of femininity the woman - within. (Blumenfeld)

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This kind of social and gender norm, one that tells men to be fierce and brutal with others in
order to gain respect, can lead to much gender discrimination and a lack of representation in
video games. According to a research done by Fox and Tang, participants who endorsed
masculine norms were more likely to report sexiest attitudes about women who play video
games (Deskins 6). Men who greatly participate in the masculinity norm are more likely to
display sexist tendencies, which can lead to the enforcement of gender norms. This can be
observed in the gaming subculture and the real world-- I, myself, have witnessed this.
The gloomy and dark gray clouds loomed over the cold and dark waters as my friends
and I fast walk to the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. Sweaty, tired, and having the great
urge to pee, I run towards a bathroom in the middle of the field near the piers. My friends and I
wait on each other as we take turns freeing ourselves from the hell we suffered. After the seven
minutes of heaven, we giddily walk to the place of our dreams-- the Jpop Summit Festival that
was held every year in San Francisco. Eager to escape the depressing weather, we rush inside the
building to check in. As we walk in, my eyes felt as if they were popping out as I stare, wideeyed, at all the vendors and posters inside the massive warehouse-like building. The inside
greatly contrasts with the outside as the colorful posters and people themselves seem to buzz
about. Suddenly, a girl in a beautiful white outfit with a white veil walks by. I felt my heart
racing fast as I recognize her to be dressing up as one of my most favorite video game characters
of all time. After checking in, my friends and I decide to walk around the vendors and booths that
seem to overflow with products either shipped straight from Japan or from the artists own hands.
As we walk around the building, with the crowds slowly growing exponentially, I
suddenly catch wind of multiple conversations about video games. As I slow my walking pace, I
listen to one group of friends talk about a game called Skullgirls and how much they love the

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character they use for every battle online. Another group near a hat booth talks about the newly
released game in Japan, Fire Emblem If, and how they hope that translations do not become
butchered when it arrives to North America. The group, consisting of mainly females, also talk
about how they hope same-sex marriage will not be cut in the localized version. As I walk
around with my friends and listen in on these conversations, I realize how diverse the gaming
community truly is.
In gaming culture in general, the average player is stereotyped as white, male, and
sometimes upper middle class. Many males shun other female players only because of their
gender or potential behavior and keep to themselves. A possible reason for this is because of
negative experience with trying to get girls to play games with them. This forcefulness and poor
sportsmanship from the men when the women play poorly because of being forced into playing
with them can cause an inner hatred for all women. This can lead to dude-bro culture, which
mainly consists of many men being very misogynistic towards women and act closely knit with
each other while lashing out to those that dont fit within their description. Many men
unknowingly participate in this type of culture because of a need for acceptance. As social
beings, humans have a need to be in a group and feel closely knit and safe. According to my
mentor for my project, who goes by the alias Tessa Thorn and is a graphic designer and a game
developer, gaming culture is Very dudebro; middle class to first class white males. Its a very
dude bro culture like sports, except more nerdy. Gaming culture can be considered similar to
sports culture, where the attitudes of the people and the behaviors are the same, right down to
cheering for their favorite team. One person could be cheering for the Oakland Raiders while the
other could be enthusiastically yelling for their favorite League of Legends team, Fnatic. Gaming
culture can ignore the female demographic because many people do not even consider the

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population of female gamers, as this demographic is often times not counted for in subcultural
analyses (Carbone). This could be largely due advertisement being marketed towards the male
demographic. What appeals to them is what is mainly used in advertisement. With this kind of
discrimination leads to how gender norms play a role in all of this.
In video games themselves, women are often hypersexualized and given plain
personalities while men are hypermasculinized and given a tough guy personality. While men
are made to look masculine and powerful, women are made to be objects made to be ogled at, as
their designs are usually overly sexualized and womens large breasts typically act only as
sexual markers in the game, their meaning remaining fairly one dimensional (Taylor 118). In the
history of video games, women have often been made to be the one saved or is only made to be
the male protagonists love interest. Their deaths have also often been used as a catalyst for a
male protagonists new power. However, many games have come to break that norm. An
example would be Bayonetta from a game of the same name, a highly capable and independent
main protagonist. However, despite this, she still displays a very sexual body type. Even so,
female protagonists do not always have the womanly body types. Max Caulfield from Life is
Strange is a regular old teenager that could easily blend in with modern society. Another
character that doesnt fit gender norms is Lucina from Fire Emblem: Awakening. Despite being
the princess of her world, she does not follow the role of being dainty and quiet and obedient, but
instead, is a fierce leader who can lead an army and yet show kindness to others. An example of
a male character breaking the gender stereotype would be Warren Graham from the game, Life is
Strange. Despite being a side character, Warren does not display the usual male characteristic
traits of tough, lone wolf, or brutal, but instead, shows feminine traits of kindness,
friendliness, and is shy and insecure. An example of a similar character would be Tiz Arrior.

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Even though main male protagonists are often mostly gruff and aloof, Tiz of Bravely Default is
an honest, gentle, and innocent teen who greatly cares for his friends. Video games will not
always break the typical gender norms of reality, but today, there are games that show that there
has been progress in them.
Psychology also plays a big role in video games. For example, it can influence us to
mimic a certain character in a game or, to the extreme, lose the distinction between fantasy and
reality or cause one to become addicted. Video games, however, can also have a somewhat
psychologically negative impact on society. For one, there is the problem with game addiction.
According to the school psychologist Tsuboi, games can greatly enhance, or boost, ones selfesteem if they feel truly successful in the game or even welcome in the game as opposed to how
they feel in real life. This can lead to addiction because of the growing dependence on the feeling
experienced from getting rewarded. However, games can also be used as a way to forget about
life problems, Tsuboi says, something I can confirm as I myself play video games in order to free
my thoughts from reality and calm myself down. Games can psychologically boost our selfesteem through in-game rewards and achievements and make us feel better about ourselves, but
they do not usually fix the main problem. Games also allow us to explore our creative process
and utilize our independence. Using The Sims game series as an example, Simcity and other
such games allow the player to engage in acts of creation and enhancement representing an
intrinsic expression of our need to author our lives and the outcomes around us (Rigby 53).
Games help people express their need to be independent and not conform to societys rules; a
common expectation in Asian culture is for one to go into a high-paying career, like a doctor or
lawyer. The Sims allows one to explore multiple jobs that they have always wanted to do. An
example of a game that psychologically impacted me was Persona 3 Portable. After I played that

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game, I began to notice a change in the psychological aspects of my mind. That game taught me
to be appreciate the little moments in life and hold onto ideals and hopes for a better future. It
taught me to be true to myself and place my trust in others. Another way a game can have
psychological impact is their representation of people in them. With representation comes the
boost of self-esteem and happiness of an individual. This is due to the individual projecting
themselves onto that character because they empathize with the struggles the video game
character goes through. My mentor Thorn said that inclusion of race and sexual orientation can
make the player feel like they arent alone. For example, someone who is gay, but has not come
out to his friends and family yet, may find happiness and relief in a video game character that is
openly gay. However, sometimes game developers can poorly implement representation and
psychologically enforce stereotypes onto peoples minds. This is shown through games with
cute avatars or bright graphics are intended for children or females, ... female and cuddly
characters intended for females, with muscular men intended for males (Zorrilla). This can
psychologically affect the players mind by enforcing stereotypes as their own beliefs and that it
must be the right thing. However, as people continue to grow and find new things within
themselves, they can implement this new kind of knowledge into future games. This new
knowledge can potentially bring humanity together.
As I spent my days researching and toiling over my question, I have realized something.
Video games do not simply choose to break social and gender norms/expectations or conform to
them. Video games are, in their own way, an art form. Video games will always reflect social and
gender norms because we, humans, make them as society continues to change and grow. Even if
a game includes a princess slaying a dragon or a group of kids with mystical powers that only
they and a select few can see, they will always reflect society. This is because games incorporate

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societys ideals and rules. They also reflect the kind of people in the real world. Games will have
LGBTQ+ wizards, female knights, male assassins, old sages, and more. Though we dont have
wizards or anything of the sort in reality, we do have LGBTQ+ kids, women, men, old people,
young people, teens, and many more. From this paper, I have learned that games will always
have an impact on people because it is exactly like a virtual reality. I also learned, from my
mentored project, that the reason why games are the way they are and why they display similar
values to real life is because of the creators themselves. After interviewing my mentor and
working my project itself, I have learned about how difficult it can be to have a fully diverse cast
for a game. I learned that it was difficult to create a person of color character that didnt have any
stereotypes, whether I knew what would be a stereotype for someone of that skin color or not.
Video games will always reflect reality because we incorporate that reality into the art form
known as games.
Works Cited
BOOKS
Rigby, Scott, and Ryan, Richard M. Glued to Games: How Video Games Draw Us In and Hold
Us Spellbound. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2011. Print.
Taylor, T.L. Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture. Cambridge: MIT Press,
2006. Print.

ELECTRONIC SOURCES
Blumenfeld, Warren J. Hyper-masculinity, Twin Peaks, & Gendered Violence. HuffPost Crime.
Huffington Post, 22 May 2015. Web. 16 March 2016.
Carbone, Marco Benot, and Ruffino, Paolo. Introduction: games and subcultural theory.
University of London, 2014. Web. 19 March 2016.
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Deskins, Troy. "The Effects of Video Games on Sexism Attitudes in Males" (2015). Senior
Honors Theses. Paper 452. Web. 18 March 2016.
Hartley, Deanna. The Cultural Effects of Video Gaming. Certification Magazine. GoCertify, 3
April 2009. Web. 6 Feb. 2016.
McLeod, Saul. Social Roles. Simply Psychology. Simply Psychology, 2008. Web. 16 March
2016.
Seligson, Hannah. For American Workers in China, A Culture Clash. The New York Times.
The New York Times, 23 Dec 2009. Web. 15 March 2016.
Zorrilla, Michele. Video Games and Gender. Radford University. Radford University, June
2011. Web. 10 Feb 2016.

INTERVIEWS
Thorn, Tessa. Game Developer and Graphic Designer. Walnut Creek, CA. Personal Interview. 6
March 2016.
Tsuboi, Mary. Educational Psychologist. Northgate High School, Walnut Creek, CA. Email
Interview. 17 March 2016.

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