FEMALE AND EVIL: THE ROLE GENDER PLAYS FOR VILLAINS IN ADVENTURE GAMES

Abstract

This research paper examines how female evil is represented in adventure games from 1982 till 2013 and how this representation of female evil can be understood in a cultural philosophical perspective. First, the philosophical growth of the term evil is summarized and the paper describes how media forms, such as art, literature and movies, have represented evil in the past. While these art forms focus on representation through images, sound and text, video games introduce interactivity as a new tool to represent, understand and occasionally even be evil. Observed is that female villains are represented through text, images, sound and extra diegetic material. By examining the female gender role of end bosses in digital games, the portrayal of evil is studied and it is shown that humanlike female end bosses become demonized oral villains as their representation is stereotyped with the use of symbols for evil. Only when the villain is a genderless being the female aspects of the end boss can be said to be of cultural importance.