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Video Games in the Digital Age

Tomb Raider

  • 3 things to know
  • A2 Unit 3

Overview

Recall questions on the franchise's origin and changing ownership, the core gameplay, the 1990s design of Lara Croft and both readings of it, van Zoonen applied to the original, the 2013 reboot and the criticism of it, intertextuality, the treatment of other cultures, and what a reboot does for a publisher.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Numbers

Identify the action-led franchise Tomb Raider and give the origin of its central character.

Key term

How was Lara Croft designed in the 1990s?

Key term

How was the character redesigned in the 2013 reboot?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Identify the action-led franchise Tomb Raider and give the origin of its central character.

    Model answer

    Tomb Raider is an action-adventure series whose central character, Lara Croft, first appeared in 1996 in a game made by the British developer Core Design.

  2. 2

    How has the ownership of the franchise changed?

    Model answer

    It passed from its original British publisher to the Japanese company Square Enix in 2009, and in 2022 the character and the studios working on it were sold on to the Embracer Group.

  3. 3

    What is the core gameplay of the series?

    Model answer

    Exploring ancient tombs and ruins, solving environmental puzzles, climbing and traversing dangerous terrain, and fighting animals and human enemies.

  4. 4

    How was Lara Croft designed in the 1990s?

    Model answer

    She was built with exaggerated proportions in a minimal costume, presented through camera angles that emphasised her body, and marketed as much as a pin-up as a protagonist.

  5. 5

    Give one argument that the original Lara Croft was a positive representation.

    Model answer

    She was a capable, intelligent and physically fearless woman leading a major action franchise at a time when almost every game protagonist was male.

  6. 6

    Give one argument that the original Lara Croft was a negative representation.

    Model answer

    Her design was shaped for a male audience's pleasure rather than for the role, so her competence was packaged inside an object of display.

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