| This study focuses on the significance of gender constructions in popular videogames, both in terms of how they are constituted rhetorically, and on how these constructions may be alternatively constructed. Utilizing critical methods growing out of the rhetorical theories of Kenneth Burke, this study critically analyzes what rhetorically constitutes popular, and often problematic, gender constructions in mainstream videogames. Building upon the work of various videogame theorists and scholars, the study also examines the possibilities of constituting alternative constructions of gender in videogames, particularly through the analysis of the game Beyond Good and Evil which exemplifies an oppositional rhetorical force toward common and stereotypical gender constructions utilized in contemporary videogames.;By engaging the common constructions of videogame gender, and the game Beyond Good and Evil, critically this study continues the argument against more traditionally patriarchal constructions of gender in favor of greater interactive freedom for the user in constructing gender identities. |
