Gamerisms

TW: mentions of violence, racism, sexualization

[image description: A poster for Max Payne 3. At the foreground on the right is Max Payne, a white cis man with a beard, holding a whiskey a glass and wiping his mouth. In the background to the left is a dark-skinned cis man with most his face covered, holding an automatic weapon in one hand. To his right is a white cis woman with her hands behind her back, writhing in pain]

This is the newest cover art for the game Max Payne 3.

Let’s ignore Max Payne himself. Let’s ignore the game’s content, message, previous incarnations, et cetera. This post is just about the advertisement poster, and I do realize I am largely taking it out of the context of whatever kind of game Max Payne is. This cover art displays some very racialized, sexualized images that I’m actually surprised a game company would actually use.

Let’s start with the woman. Looking at her in the background is very discomforting. Although she appears to be held captive against her will, her post is almost model-esque, just teetering on the edge of looking like she’s in pain or in pleasure. It evokes both violence and sexualization at the time, a rarity, but not unheard of, in advertisements and posters and covers featuring women.

Now, let’s look at the dark-skinned man to the left of her. Max Payne 3 appears to be set in Brazil, so of course there are going to be brown people around. However, even without the context of the game, just take a look at that image. A dark-skinned, evil looking man taking hostage of a beautiful white, or at least light-skinned, woman. This is something I think we see all too often.

We can look at the presentation of the woman and the presentation of the dark-skinned man, but when you put them both together onto one cover art with Max, who many unfamiliar with the game will probably assume is the protagonist, at the foreground of the picture, how can anyone look at it and not see a sexualized, racialized image?

- Aria