Media Studies - Video Games (Horizon Forbidden West + The Sims Freeplay)

Guerilla Games

-published Horizon Forbidden West

-owned by SONY

-created as a result of a merger of three earlier companies and then later owned by SONY

→ reflects gaming origins in small, independent companies in contrast to its current status as a global, billion dollar industry

SONY gaming revenue and ranking as of 2026

$24.9 billion and #1 gaming company globally

Horizon Forbidden West's Platforms, Genre and Sequelality

Platform PS4/5

Action RPG

Sequel to 2017's Horizon Zero Dawn

Horizon Forbidden West's Release

-Officially announced in 2020 by SONY with a release date of 2021

-Delayed as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted production cycles and the team didn't want to overwork employees

-Released 2022

Hesmonhalgh + Horizon Forrbiden West

Diversification: HFW Lego Boxes (synergy), Music video

Genre: Action RPG, Fantasy, Open-world

Vertical integration: SONY owning Guerilla Games

Globalisation: Guerilla Games based in Amsterdam, owned by Sony (American), range of personnel (staff), HFW released globally

PEGI (Pan European Game Regulation)

-established to help European parents to make informed decisions on buying computer games

-launched in 2003

-Game publishers sign up to receive a PEGI rating (not compulsory)

-Age ratings: 3, 7, 12, 16, 18

Horizon Forbidden West's PEGI Age Rating

16 - reasons: strong violence, bad language and in-game purchases

HFW's setting

Set in a open world, dystopian, post-apocalyptic California, Utah and Nevada, the game explores the setting of a mysterious location known as the Forbidden West (which was suggested in the previous game to be barbaric and savage)

Intertextual references in the game

-San Francisco (via the Isle of Spires in the game)

HFW Story Summary

In the six months following her victory over HADES, Aloy, alone, has been searching for a backup of GAIA to repair the terraforming system, with her efforts so far being in vain.

Meanwhile, the terraforming system has been spiraling out of control, causing a poisonous red blight and catastrophic storms, all of which will bring life on Earth closer to extinction.

HFW Gameplay

-New ability to explore underwater

-New ability to upgrade weapons and wear outfits that add specific skills

-New ability to ride on flying machines

-Players able to explore a bigger map compared to Zero Dawn

-Main gameplay element is strategically fighting against enormous machines and mounted human enemies using a multitude of gear, weapons and traps from salvage parts

Schatz, 1981 - Genres of Order and Integration

-believed genre films were a social force because they reflected our values and ideologies

-argued genre filmmaking followed two dominant narrative strategies, Order and Intergration:

Genre of Order:

-focused on a protagonist who wants to defeat a physical threat

Genre of Intergration:

-celebrates the values of social intergration

HFW + Genre of Order (Schatz, 1981)

Hero (individual, male-dominant): Half-true → Female protagonist

Setting (ideologically unstable, contested space): True → Machines vs Nature, Tribal Civil Wars, The Forbidden West

Conflict (externalised violence): True → Aloy vs Villains

Resolution/ending (death): True → Tilda killed

Thematics (isolated self-reliance): True → Aloy as an outcast who determines herself the only one who can save this world

HFW and Todorov's Narrative

Equilibrium: Aftermath of Hades, Blight and animal robots killing everyone

Disruption: Hades is alive and Far Zeniths are trying to steal GAIA

Recognition: Finds GAIA minus subsystem but attacked by Erik

Attempt to Repair: Finding subsystems and battle with Tilda

New Equilibrium: GAIA is back but Nemesis is a new problem. Tilda and Gerard are dead.

HFW + Lévi-Strauss's Binary Opposites

Good vs Evil

Nature vs Technology

Humans vs Machines

Health vs Illness (Blight)

Life vs Death

Tribal vs Futuristic

Aloy vs Villains

GAIA and Elizabet vs Ted Farro

HFW + Enigma codes

-Far Zenith facility

-The abandoned camp

HFW + Action codes (actions that progress the story)

-Weapon mechanics

-finding the Far Zenith facility

-Rope glide mechanic

Visceral gratifications

Emotional feelings, not physical

Neale's Genre Theory + HFW

Repetiton:

-Large, detailed open-world

-Follows the trend of increased realistic visuals and cinematic cutscenes

-Action RPG = Boss fights, exotic setting, conflict + violence

-Sci-Fi = robots and futuristic elements

-Adventure = exploration, item collection, quests

Differences:

-Non-sexualised female protag

-Ethnic diversity

-Motion capture technology

Orientalism

The imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world as fearful or fascinatingly alien by people from the Western world

Tribal representation in HFW (Tribes Trailer)

Oserom - “builders”, “tinkers”, "revellers” (as in drinking, having a good time) → positive

Carja - guards their border, afraid of outsiders, intelligent, civilised → nuanced

Utaru (from the Forrbiden West) - “sing to heal the land, but no hymn will save them”, patronised and presented as helpless, weak, helpless (has a matriarch and based on healing → anti-feminist) → negative (but in the game less so)

Tenakth - 3 clans, “generations of bloodshed”, has the most tribal signification, presented as “savage” and violent → negative

Orientalism + HFW

Orientalism is embedded at the core of HFW'S narrative of exploring exotic lands and Aloy is both an explorer and a white saviour

HFW's ethnic representation - Pros

-More NPCs of black characters

-Skin shading and texture

-Doesn't use the stereotypes of gangsters, athletes or promiscuous

HFW's ethnic representation - Cons

-Stereotypes of the dangerous and the pited (alvarado)

-Bad indigenous representation

HFW + Ethnic Representation (Orientalism)

-Rebels riding a Tremortusk, a massive mechanical elephant → elephants are symbols of the Orient even though they weren't often used for combat

-Use of words like “braves”, “savages” and “primal”

-”The Seas of Sands” quest has a lot of oriental imagery → a red dragon hanging from the ceiling, red lanterns and red decorative knots

HFW + Gender Stereotypes

Women:

-"compassionate”, “care", “comfort”

-Tilda's figure-hugging outfit

-feminine outfits (skirts, dresses)

-long hair

-no pauldrons (shoulder armor) nor exaggerated muscles

Men:

-masculine features (beards)

-pauldrons (shoulder armor)

-larger mass

-”courageous”, “humorous”, “warrior”

-tattoos/war paint

-short hair

Van Zoonen + HFW

Stereotypical:

-Zo + Varl romance

-Agressive + violent = male

-Caring + nurturing = female

Non-stereotypical:

-Aloy

Bell hooks + HFW

Regalla → Sapphire stereotype

Diverse characters but doesn't address racisms → post-racial society

Only patriarchal, capitalist group is a group of white people (Far Zeniths) who had the wealth and privilege to escape a dying earth

Judith Butler + HFW

Supports:

-Varl wanting to go with Aloy → protector

-Erik → toxic masculinity

-Tilda → tight fitting outfit

-Zo → maternal, cares for Aloy

Doesn't Support:

-Aloy is a strong female character (literal sense)

HFW + Glued to Games (Scott Rigby, 2011)

Competence (development of skills):

-Aloy vs Tilda (have to mastered a lot of the weapons, have to mastered strategies)

Autonomy (being in control):

-Player controls Aloy and is given the choice to make decisions in certain scenarios

Relatedness (game brings fans and players together):

-Online fandome, Cosplay and game conventions

HFW's Target Audience

-Women

-Male gamers who find sexualised female protags uncomfortable

-White and Black gamers

-Teens to 30s

-Explorers, Reformers

HFW + Uses and Gratifications Theory

Entertainment - exciting conflicts, obstacles

Identity - Aloy as role model, cosplay

Social interaction - Fandom, cosplay

Information - mechanics of game, game lore

HFW + Reception Theory

Preferred: Aloy = strong hero, diverse representation, exciting and engaging

Negotiated: Can see the problems but still enjoy the game

Oppositional: Women are presented as weaker and less war ready, stereotypical male rep, Aloy = white saviour, Tribal representation

HFW + Cultivation Theory

Stigmatisation (The media demonised groups through rep): Regalla, Tenakth tribe

Enculturation (process of learning through engaging with culture): Learning to play as Aloy

HOWEVER, it is clear that villains and storyline aren't real life

HFW + Bandura's Bobo Doll Experiment

Aloy as a role model → aspirational copying

Immersive → story lore and praised for graphics

Have to kill Tilda for the game to progess → rewarded for violent actions

HOWEVER, reasons are given for violence in the game explores e.g. saving the planet and people know it's not real

Jenkin's defence of video games

-flawed studies

-gameplay but solitary

-audiences can tell it's not real

Fans influencing the production of HFW

-Fans bring players in → more players mean more want for content

-Fan realigning hetreonormativity→ causes DLC where you can have Aloy kiss Seyka

HFW + Shirky's End of Audience

-One of GG's head people's intro to a new Horizon game on website → directly talking to audience

-Criticisms of game online e.g. representation of tribes

-GG's website encourages active audience (links their Twitter, Insta, Email) → also encourages cosplay via guides

HFW + Jenkin's Fandom

-Mode of reception (intense engagement)

-Cultural production (textual poaching) → Fanart and Fanfiction

-Social comminity → Cosplay conventions

-Interpretative community → YouTube analysis and criticism videos

HFW + Queerness

-Aloy canonically sapphic → only addressed in a DLC and you can chose to have her kiss Seyka (BUT it never gives you the option to say you don't like her)

Audience reaction:

-Already readings of Aloy being queer

-On AO3, all of the top Aloy ships are F/M and the top category is F/M (not surprisingly for how androcentric fandoms are → normally goes M/M to F/M to F/F)