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Are 1st person shooter games misogynistic or entertainment? 1st person shooter games have long been criticized for being violent and misogynistic, while at the same time being praised for great storytelling in an immersive environment. Select your favorite 1st person shooter game and apply the 5-Step Critical Process.

In the Chapter 3 example of the 5-Step Critical Process, the text uses the example of the game Red Dead Redemption and runs it through the process. Use that as an example to help guide you through the process with your game of choice.

If you’re not familiar with this type of game, here is a list of potential games with links that provide background information and enough of an understanding to take a game through the 5-Step Critical Process (these are just examples, you can select a game of your own choosing or one from the list below):

• Call of Duty (Links to an external site.) (Any from the series) 
• Uncharted (Links to an external site.) 
• Grand Theft Auto (Links to an external site.)
• Farcry (Links to an external site.)
• Fortnite (Links to an external site.)
• Overwatch (Links to an external site.)
• Metal Gear (Links to an external site.)

Below is an example from textbook (please note that this example is shorter than the requirement for the Midterm. I expect your critique to be at least 1,000 words).

First-Person Shooter Games: Misogyny as Entertainment?

Historical first-person shooter games are a significant subgenre of action games (Links to an external site.), the biggest-selling genre of the digital game industry. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (set in a fictional WWIII) made $775 million in its first five days. And with thirteen million units sold by 2012, Rockstar Games’ critically acclaimed Red Dead Redemption (RDR, set in the Wild West) was applauded for its realism and called a “tour de force” by the New York Times.1 (Links to an external site.) But as these games proliferate through our culture, what are we learning as we are launched back and forth in time and into the worlds of these games?

1. DESCRIPTION Red Dead Redemption features John Madsen, a white outlaw turned federal agent, who journeys to the “uncivilized” West to capture or kill his old gang members. Within this game, gamers encounter breathtaking vistas and ghost towns with saloons, prostitutes, and gunslingers; large herds of cattle; and scenes of the Mexican Rebellion. Shootouts are common in towns and on the plains, and gamers earn points for killing animals and people. The New York Times review notes that “Red Dead Redemption is perhaps most distinguished by the brilliant voice acting and pungent, pitch-perfect writing we have come to expect from Rockstar.”2 (Links to an external site.)
2. ANALYSIS RDR may have “pitch-perfect writing,” but a certain tune emerges. For example, African Americans and Native Americans are absent from the story line (although they were clearly present in the West of 1911). The roles of women are limited: They are portrayed as untrustworthy and chronically nagging wives, prostitutes, or nuns—and they can be blithely killed in front of sheriffs and husbands without ramifications. One special mission is to hogtie a nun or prostitute and drop her onto tracks in front of an oncoming train. One gamer in his popular how-to demo on YouTube calls this mission “the coolest achievement I’ve ever seen in a game.”3 (Links to an external site.)
3. INTERPRETATION RDR may give us a technologically rich immersion into the Wild West of 1911, but it relies on clichés to do so (macho white gunslinger as leading man, weak or contemptible women, vigilante justice). If the macho/misogynistic narrative possibilities and value system of RDR seem familiar, it’s because the game is based on Rockstar’s other video game hit, Grand Theft Auto (GTA), which lets players have sex with and then graphically kill hookers. GTA was heavily criticized for creating an “X-Rated wonderland” and was dubbed “Grand Theft Misogyny.”4 (Links to an external site.) Indeed, Rockstar simply took the GTA engine and interface and overlaid new scenes, narratives, and characters, moving from the urban streets of Liberty City to American frontier towns.5 (Links to an external site.)
4. EVALUATION The problem with Red Dead Redemption is its limited view of history, lack of imagination, and reliance on misogyny as entertainment. Since its gameplay is so similar to that of GTA, the specifics of time and place are beside the point—all that’s left is killing and hating women. Video games are fun, but what effect do they have on men’s attitudes toward women?
5. ENGAGEMENT Talk to friends about games like GTA, RDR, and Rockstar’s more recent L.A. Noire. (Set in 1940s Los Angeles, it also contains scenes of nudity and graphic violence against women.) Comment on blog sites about the ways some games can provide a mask for misogyny, and write to Rockstar itself (www.rockstargames.com), demanding less demeaning narratives regarding women and ethnic minorities.