I just watched a programme on channel 4 about the top 100 sex symbols in film.
Not only did "Lara Croft" come in at number 6, but Angelina Jolie, who hit the big time playing Lara in 2001, came in at number 1.
Regardless of what you think about these results, it certainly says something about media and contemporary culture.
For further discussion, see this paper.
Saturday 24 February 2007
Greatest Sex Symbol
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Were you watching that for research purposes?
I think it's fair to say that 'Lara' is now more than just a game character... Anyway, from the perspective of a games-player I think the commentators that try to place the success of the first game on the character alone don't do it justice:
"Lara had something that hooked the gamers like nothing has before. At the center of Tomb Raider was a fantasy female figure."
I can only put this blinkered attitude down to trying to push a particular agenda... From what I remember of it Tomb-Raider was a ground-breaking game. Graphically it brought the cutting-edge 3D of games like Doom (which ran on expensive PCs) to (comparatively much cheaper) games consoles. The controls were intuitive, it was challenging and there was a coherent narrative element that was a thinly disguised rehash of the very popular Indiana Jones films... (in fact if they had chosen a male character I suspect they may have landed up with a lawsuit.)
The fact that it had a female lead probably made it much easier to publicise to the male gamers that formed the majority of the established market - and no doubt this contributed to its success - but I don't think they were quite as shallow as some seem to imply: they did have some critical faculties...
Though of course that's not to say gamers aren't shallow at all: once a game franchise has become established the publishers often get lazy and release poorly produced trash, yet often manage enough sales to justify a next instalment; which is certainly what's happened with Tomb-Raider. But that couldn't have happened without a good quality product in the first place.
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