Tomb Raider Research Articles

Historical Depictions, Archaeological Practices, and the Construct of Cultural Heritage in Commercial Video Games: The Role of These Games in Raising Awareness

Abstract Concerns regarding the historical accuracy, archaeological practices, and representation of cultural heritage (CH) in commercial video games (VGs) have fueled unending debates about their educational value. However, beyond offering interactive and engaging narratives, it is argued that these games play a vital role in CH. This work delves into the complexities inherent in representing history, archaeology, and CH within commercial VGs. It examines the portrayal of CH as a construct within these games, underscores the importance of collaborative efforts – between game developers, heritage professionals, and members of the communities represented – in their development, and highlights instances where commercial VGs can foster CH awareness. While many commercial VGs touch upon history and archaeology or embody diverse cultures as the platform for their narratives, the focus is placed on Shadow of the Tomb Raider to illustrate the many points found in this work because the game is said to ethically come close to representing the effects of archaeology on local populations and descendants of ancient people. The aim is to catalyze discussions among educators, researchers, game developers, heritage experts, and other stakeholders about the role of commercial VGs in enhancing learning and promoting consciousness about matters vital to cultural identities.

Revisiting the Ambient Sounds of Tomb Raider

This essay is prompted by a reconsideration of sonic elements in certain computer games that more than two decades ago figured importantly in the author’s life and which recently have been re-visited. It deals in particular with certain of the ambient sounds that permeate Tomb Raider (1996) and Tomb Raider II (1997), contrasting them with the games’ various diegetic noises, describing at least some of these sounds in graphic as well as verbal detail, and speculating about the relationship these sounds might create between the gamer and the game. While avoiding definitive answers, the essay asks several questions: How is it that gamers who fancy themselves to be keen listeners can spend extended amounts of time with these sounds and not find these sounds to be boring? In the context of gameplay, are these sounds ever actually, and actively, attended to? Heard out of context, might these sounds be considered to be, in themselves, a form of music?

“You just pulled the shit-end of a wishbone”: examining the roles of Vicky Arnold and Heather Stevens, the women behind the early Tomb Raider franchise

ABSTRACT Previous feminist analysis afforded to the Tomb Raider franchise, in particular on the early games, has generally focused on the criticism levelled at the promotion and image of Tomb Raider’s leading character Lara Croft, who is commonly assumed to be “designed and written by and planned and conceived by a guy written for guys.” However, such assumption has led to the erasure of two women who held content-creative roles in the development of the early games in the franchise, Tomb Raider (1996) and Tomb Raider II (1997), namely Vicky Arnold, scriptwriter, and Heather Stevens (née Gibson), level designer. To date, neither Arnold nor Stevens have been afforded attention from scholars on the significant contribution they made. Therefore, this article seeks to address the omission of Arnold and Stevens through analysing the key individual agencies that both women had when developing the early Tomb Raider franchise.

Practical Research and Exploration of Literary Literary Works Under Transmedia Narratives

This article outlines some basic concepts of literature under transmedia narratives as well as criteria for judging literature and suggestions and summaries for future development. It also proposes that the most ideal form of transmedia narrative is one in which each medium excels in its own way, each doing its own job”, combing through a review of domestic and international research. The concepts of transmedia narrative and transmedia communication, transmedia marketing, and adaptation are identified, and the definition of literary works is defined. Finally, by analysing the current status of transmedia narratives, it is pointed out that online works are currently the preferred resource for transmedia narrative attempts. A typical example of a domestic and international online work, Notes from a Tomb Raider, is selected for analysis, and the final section reflects on and offers suggestions for the transmedia narratives of domestic online literary works. The analysis and outlook for the development of online literature in transmedia narratives are provided.

Body Movin’: Ecocritical and Postcolonial Readings of the Travelling Body in the Tomb Raider Series

When Lara Croft travels, she travels light – sans suitcase, but in most cases with enough firepower to take opposing forces ranging from dinosaurs to bloodthirsty locals. However, her big guns seems often unnecessary titillation, for she can manage very well without them thanks to her exquisite acrobatic and hand-to-hand combat skills. She will vault over any obstacle, swim across rapid flowing rivers and abseil the steepest ravines. Lara Croft’s travels are often as physical as the virtual world would allow. That physicality returns our attention to the oft forgotten aspect of travelling namely the body of the traveller, not only defined by its position in space, but also by the ordinary and extraordinary circumstances of its biological interaction with the surrounding environment.In this paper I would like to explore the interplay between the body of the traveller and contexts it is located in. These contexts range from the narrative and gameplay aspects of the Tomb Raider series, but also go beyond the border of the game and are realised in the transformative and reflective cultural milieu of the game. In particular I want to focus on the representations of Lara Croft as an archetypal “action girl” and “adventurer archaeologist” and how these representations are realised in reference to the changing (maturing?) video game environments. In the framework of postcolonial and ecocritical theories I want to explore the dyads of body/the purported exotic, body/natural environment, as well as physical/mental aspects of travelling.

Body Movin’: Ecocritical and Postcolonial Readings of the Travelling Body in the Tomb Raider Series

When Lara Croft travels, she travels light – sans suitcase, but in most cases with enough firepower to take opposing forces ranging from dinosaurs to bloodthirsty locals. However, her big guns seems often unnecessary titillation, for she can manage very well without them thanks to her exquisite acrobatic and hand-to-hand combat skills. She will vault over any obstacle, swim across rapid flowing rivers and abseil the steepest ravines. Lara Croft’s travels are often as physical as the virtual world would allow. That physicality returns our attention to the oft forgotten aspect of travelling namely the body of the traveller, not only defined by its position in space, but also by the ordinary and extraordinary circumstances of its biological interaction with the surrounding environment.In this paper I would like to explore the interplay between the body of the traveller and contexts it is located in. These contexts range from the narrative and gameplay aspects of the Tomb Raider series, but also go beyond the border of the game and are realised in the transformative and reflective cultural milieu of the game. In particular I want to focus on the representations of Lara Croft as an archetypal “action girl” and “adventurer archaeologist” and how these representations are realised in reference to the changing (maturing?) video game environments. In the framework of postcolonial and ecocritical theories I want to explore the dyads of body/the purported exotic, body/natural environment, as well as physical/mental aspects of travelling.

Van Tomb Raider naar de toekomst: de ontwikkeling van een archeologische tentoonstelling

From Tomb Raider to the future. The development of an archaeological exhibition. During the first semester of the academic year 2019/2020, master’s students of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) of the University of Groningen collaborated with staff of the University Museum to create the exhibition DIG IT ALL, showcasing research of the GIA. This contribution is based on an interview the author had with Arjen Dijkstra, head of the University Museum, in which Dijkstra reflected on the cooperation between the archaeology students and the museum. According to Arjen, the collaboration was a complex but rewarding project, even if some guidance was initially needed to get everyone on the same page. All in all, the project resulted in a valuable learning experience for everyone, especially the students, and, according to Dijkstra, it revealed some unique features of the archaeological profession, for instance, the way archaeologists interact with human remains and, more generally, the way they view the past. Collaborations with scientists are never perfect, according to Dijkstra, and the museum had indeed experienced less fruitful collaborations than the current one. Scientists tend to have difficulty in adapting to the specific demands of a museum when presenting research. Fortunately, this was not a problem with the DIG IT ALL project. Dijkstra highlighted that the archaeologists had already put a lot of effort into public outreach, and he encourages the GIA to keep doing this in the future.

ЧЕЛОВЕК НА БЛОШИНОМ РЫНКЕ, ИЛИ ПРИВАТНОЕ ИЗМЕРЕНИЕ ПРОШЛОГО

This article focuses on the problem of studying the flea market as a reflection of society and as a place of alternative, non-professional, and unofficial reappraisal of the past. The reasons for the low interest of historians in the phenomenon of the flea market, which, by definition, should be part of historical studies about everyday habits, collective memory, and Public History, were identified. The historiographical, source-related, and methodological milestones for studying the flea market were outlined. The high potential of special historical studies of the flea market was substantiated. The current lack of Public History tools to perform such studies was noted. It was suggested that historians should analyze the flea market through a specific lens, i.e., using the concept of Private History, still being elaborated and validated. Private History could address various aspects and forms of the indirect treatment of the past, such as close family circle, as well as semi-legal or illegal actions at flea and antiques markets, among collectors, searchers, and tomb raiders. Of no less interest are the changes that occur when the private discourse of the past turns into the public one

Automatic Power-up Items Placement on Shooter Game using Convolutional Neural Network

- A shooter game is a popular game genre with various components. To make a shooter game more attractive, some power-ups items can support players to achieve their goals. Power-ups items provide more power to players, some of which include ammo, extra lives, and invulnerability. The location of power-ups items should be in a special place so that it neither too easy to find nor too difficult to find. Item placement could be done manually by a human or a technical artist. It will need a relatively long time and high cost. In this paper, we try to mimic technical artist vision when placing an item. Visual images have been collected by scanning spatially the forest terrain by using a virtual camera on top. Each image data comply with the item placement rules according to the Tomb Raider and Uncharted 4 games. Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is used to find out which images can be occupied by power-up items or not. From several experimental scenarios, the use of the Global Average Pooling layer is proven to produce a model that is not overfitting. The best CNN models are developed and got an accuracy of 90.5% with an architecture that includes the Global Average Pooling layer. That model is applied to the new forest terrain so that power-up items can automatically be placed in an appropriate location.

Confucius Ideas on Popular Video Games in Indonesia

The purposes of this study are to identify Confucius ideas in video games that are popular in Indonesia. The research method used in this research is content analysis, namely (1) analysis of the use of speech utterances, (2) implied meaning and (3) responses to video games. Sources of data come from existing games (1) Call of Duty, (2) Halo, (3) Red Dead, (4) Battlefield, (5) Last of Us, (6) Final Fantasy, (7) Portal, (8) ) Assassin's Creed, (9) Tomb Raider and (10) Command and Conquer. The results of this study are (1) Confucius' ideas are conveyed in verbal form, (2) symbolic and (3) nonviolence. These Confucius ideas are a representation of universal humanistic values.

Salvaging Patriarchy in the 2018 Film Adaptation of Tomb Raider

This article focuses on the recent film adaptation of the 2013 Tomb Raider video game. Its main goal is to show that, despite the significant changes that the plot undergoes when transitioning from video game to feature film, the adaptation remains faithful to the conservative gender politics of its ludic source text, in the sense that in both the game and the film Lara must struggle to maintain patriarchal order. While in the game the female protagonist has to fulfil her late father’s unfinished archaeological (in fact colonial) project and redeem his name, in the film she has to compensate for her father’s masculinity crisis. The resolution of the plot coincides with a resolution of the crisis of masculinity, which reinstates the gender power relations privileging masculinity. Furthermore, this article shows that Lara’s struggle to re-establish patriarchy in the film’s storyworld coerces her to adopt a colonial attitude with respect to otherness. By performing phallic masculinity, Lara Croft acts as an agent of colonialism whose intervention in foreign territories and cultures is rendered by the film providential for the emancipation of the native populations.

Salvaging Patriarchy in the 2018 Film Adaptation of Tomb Raider

This article focuses on the recent film adaptation of the 2013 Tomb Raider video game. Its main goal is to show that, despite the significant changes that the plot undergoes when transitioning from video game to feature film, the adaptation remains faithful to the conservative gender politics of its ludic source text, in the sense that in both the game and the film Lara must struggle to maintain patriarchal order. While in the game the female protagonist has to fulfil her late father’s unfinished archaeological (in fact colonial) project and redeem his name, in the film she has to compensate for her father’s masculinity crisis. The resolution of the plot coincides with a resolution of the crisis of masculinity, which reinstates the gender power relations privileging masculinity. Furthermore, this article shows that Lara’s struggle to re-establish patriarchy in the film’s storyworld coerces her to adopt a colonial attitude with respect to otherness. By performing phallic masculinity, Lara Croft acts as an agent of colonialism whose intervention in foreign territories and cultures is rendered by the film providential for the emancipation of the native populations.

From ‘Plant Hunter’ to ‘Tomb Raider’: The Changing Image of Amalie Dietrich

In the context of her bicentenary in 2021, Amalie Dietrich will again be celebrated as a feminist paragon or condemned as a racist culprit. Her stay in Australia will be central to these contrasting approaches to her biography. There, she gathered a remarkable amount of native plants, animals, ethnological everyday objects – and human remains. In this context, she was subjected to suspicions of incitement in murder early on and to allegedly critical investigations concerning her role in the anthropological desecration of corpses in recent times. In this paper, we contribute some arguments to the clarification of this controversial subject. It focuses on the treatment of image of Amalie Dietrich in the German discourse from the Kaiserreich via the Weimar Republic, the fascist ‘Reich’, the Federal Republic as well as the Democratic Republic to reunited Germany. As a result, we argue that a critical biography of Amalie Dietrich must integrate the appreciation of her contribution to botany and zoology with a critique of her role in the racist history of anthropological grave robbery and desecration of human remains.

Picking Over the Bones: Amalie Dietrich and Colonial Queensland

Comment on Stefanie Affeldt and Wulf D. Hund: "From ‘Plant Hunter’ to ‘Tomb Raider’. The Changing Image of Amalie Dietrich"

Editor's Introduction

In 2012 Nina Huntemann wrote, “It isn't difficult to find feminist game studies, or feminist gamers.”1 This is no less true eight years later. It isn't difficult to find feminist game studies. Academics—like me and the contributors to this special issue—produce articles, monographs, special issues, and edited collections with steady regularity, and the broader community of game critics digs in with video essays, podcasts, and op-eds. Those working in industry participate in this discourse as well, as evidenced for instance by panels and events at the Game Developers Conference. Feminist thinkers have been tackling the tangled knot of games culture for at least twenty years. The now-classic From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games (1998) launched multiple follow-up anthologies.2 Game developers like Brenda Laurel, Sheri Graner Ray, and Megan Gaiser helped spearhead a movement to take girls seriously as players in the mid-1990s and have continued to write and speak extensively about games and gender.3 Depictions of women in games have driven inquiry into a number of games, including notably the Tomb Raider series.4 Feminist scholars have long researched complexities of gamer culture, including competitive gaming, arcade culture, fandom, and player identity.5 An energetic flurry of feminist thought about video games helped define game studies in the early part of this decade. Alex Layne and Samantha Blackmon first launched Not Your Mama's Gamer as a feminist game studies blog in 2011.6 The first issue of Ada New Media in 2012 included Mia Consalvo's call to action for game scholars, arguing that feminist scholars must address what she termed “toxic gamer culture,” and Lisa Nakamura's “Queer Female of Color: The Highest Difficulty Setting There Is? Gaming Rhetoric as Gender Capital.”7 The entirety of the journal's second issue, edited by Huntemann, focused on …

Playing Whiteness in Crisis in The Last of Us and Tomb Raider

This paper examines the white normative figure under duress, through videogames that present a crisis in American narratives of progress: The Last of Us (Naughty Dog, 2013), set in a melancholic post-apocalyptic U.S.; and Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics, 2013), a reboot of the now-classic Lara Croft narrative that recasts the heroine as desperate and far from invincible. Using key concepts from critical whiteness studies, popular panics around the demographic shifts in the U.S. away from a white majority, and Richard Dyer’s theorizations, I show how “making whiteness strange” can decouple it from the normative, and rescue it from unattainable ideals and self-annihilating tendencies. Running the gauntlet between representing universal humanity and traumatized victimhood, whiteness in games takes a beating within a fraught post-9/11 and post-Obama moment of national transition. Through critical analysis of identity politics around whiteness in video games, larger cultural stakes are revealed.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF FILM PRODUCTS TO INDUCE TOURISM

Film products to induce tourism is a new phenomenon for tourists to visit a destination that inspired by films and television. For example; film The Beach (Thailand), Tomb Raider (Cambodia), Entrapment (Malaysia), Lord of The Rings trilogy (New Zealand), Harry Potter trilogy (UK) and others. Many of this destination has turned into a popular tourist attraction. However, film products to induce tourism can also be unpredictable. The success of any film or television is not guaranteed, and the effects on inducing visits can be complex. Thus, this paper will analyze six of the characteristics of film products namely on location, off location, storyline, celebrity, film genres and film festivals. By understanding these characteristics of film products, this paper can help to increase a better understanding of the context of film products to induce tourism. Indeed, this paper also opens an opportunity for future researchers to study film products as a new strategy to induce the tourism industry where it can increase the number of tourists visiting.

The aesthetics of stealth: towards an activist philosophy of becoming-imperceptible in contemporary media

This article argues that various contemporary media articulate an aesthetic of stealth, that is, the staging of acts of becoming-imperceptible. Furthermore, the article contends that the aesthetic of stealth resonates with a broader shift in the functioning of contemporary political culture, the requirements it formulates, and appropriate modes of action. The argument is presented in three case studies, each articulating one step in the argument: through Steyerl’s video piece How Not to Be Seen, the author situates stealth aesthetics in the political context of a shift away from struggles for visibility to a withdrawal from representation and the preoccupation with becoming-imperceptible. In an engagement with the TV series The Americans, the author explains how exactly contemporary media, in this case television, produce an aesthetic of stealth, foregrounding the notion of ecological perception. Finally, an analysis of the changes in gameplay in the video game series Tomb Raider allows the author to elaborate, first, on how stealth gameplay fosters the embodied performance of ecological perception and, second, on how the media aesthetic of stealth infiltrates genres that traditionally rely on open confrontation and combat.

Depictions of Female Protagonists in Digital Games: A Narrative Analysis of 2013 DICE Award-Winning Digital Games

Digital games historically hold a spotty record on gender depictions. The lack of depth in female characters has long been the norm; however, an increasing number of female protagonists are headlining games. This study used narrative theory to examine depictions of four female protagonists in four 2013 Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain Award-Winning Digital Games: The Last of Us, Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, and Beyond: Two Souls. Studying these media depictions provides context for how women’s stories are recorded in society. Stereotype subversions largely occur within familiar game narratives, and the female protagonists were still largely limited and defined by male figures in the games.

Historicizing video game series through fan art discourses

In this article, we argue that fannish histories should not be dismissed as mere nostalgia over past experiences of one's own media fandom. Instead they should be understood as complex narratives which combine various historical layers (personal, productional, fictional) and influence the future reception of and anticipation for sequels. They also shed light on the personal histories of fans, which are often juxtaposed with extratextual and fictional histories of a video game series. The subjective nature of these historical discourses is not to be seen as a constraint but as a feature of everyday history which points to the prominence of historicizing in fan cultures of video game series. These topics are examined in the selected multimodal material from the site DeviantArt consisting of fan art pieces, authorial captions, and respective comments inspired by two single-player video game series: Tomb Raider and Mass Effect.