Archaeology of Tomb Raider: In the Spotlight: John from JHNGames
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Archaeology of Tomb Raider: In the Spotlight: John from JHNGames |
| Interviewer: | Kelly M |
| Interviewee: | John from JHNGames |
| Date(s): | April 3, 2014 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | Tomb Raider |
| External Links: | In the Spotlight: John from JHNGames – The Archaeology of Tomb Raider, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Archaeology of Tomb Raider: In the Spotlight: John from JHNGames was conducted in 2014.
Some Excerpts
Do you run a Tomb Raider fansite or blog? If so, what would you say was your biggest achievement to date?
I do run a Tomb Raider blog – well, technically. Late last year (2013) I decided to start a little blog where I could talk about games to my heart’s content without annoying the (insert profanity of choice) out of my Facebook friends. Shortly after making it, though, I decided to add dedicated pages that would feature only those posts about my favourite franchises. These started off as pages identical to the rest of the blog, but my desire to give each its own custom design prompted me to make them each an individual blog of their own – and, of course, the Tomb Raider blog was the very first one I made.
How has Tomb Raider changed your life?
I’m not exaggerating when I say that, had it not been for Tomb Raider – well, Legend, specifically – I might not be the person I am today. I’d still be playing games, but I don’t know if I’d have become as thorough with them as I am without Lara. It’s thanks to her that I now pride myself on collecting EVERYTHING in the games I enjoy – it’s actually become a bit of an obsession! And there’s also the fact that I became a good deal closer to one of my best friends thanks to Lara. He and I spent many-a-night chatting about our favourite archaeologist on the phone, talking about what we thought of the games, what we liked and what we didn’t, and what we’d like to see from them in the future. The phone might have fallen silent these days with regards to TR, but it was so much fun while it lasted, and I’ll always be grateful to Tomb Raider for it.
What are your thoughts on Lara’s image? Is she simply the product of a sexist gaming industry or can she be seen as a positive role model?
This is a tough question, given that it’s such a contentious issue amongst the TR community. I think there are a lot of things to take into consideration, not the least of which is the TIME at which each iteration of Lara has been released – as time moves on, so too do peoples’ attitudes. For my own part, I can say wholeheartedly that I’ve NEVER seen Lara as – to put it somewhat bluntly – just “tits n’ guns”. If that had been the whole of her character, I would have run for the hills and never bothered with TR again. I fell in love with Lara because of her brains, her daring, and her stop-at-nothing approach to getting what she wanted. It frustrates me so very much that there are people out there who think “tits n’ guns” are all there is to Tomb Raider – I want to shake them by the shoulders and tell them to go play the games before forming their opinions!
Of course, misguided opinions aren’t the only things to blame. The developers have slipped up at times themselves. Letting players choose to have Lara run around in nought but a bikini if they wished was clearly a mistake. (Just on the subject – my personal favourite outfit of Lara’s was the blue-shirted one she wore during the Beneath the Ashes DLC – which, alas, I’ve only seen on YouTube. Owning a PlayStation, I’ve never been able to play it!)
To answer the question directly, I think Lara’s appearance and clothing may, at times, have been a product of the attitudes of the day (whether sexist or not), but the woman beneath the aesthetics? She’s always been a positive role-model, no question about it. Just don’t go shooting people, readers. That wouldn’t be cool.