The infamous Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider franchise (created by Eidos Interactive, 1996), was heralded as both a strong female protagonist and a hyper-sexualized, dissocialized trophy-avatar cyber-persona. Lara has been referenced in discussions of the predominance of male producers throughout the history of game development (e.g. LeJacq, 2013) and as an example of the created object of masculine fantasy (Kennedy, 2008). The reboot Tomb Raider (2013), developed more than a decade after the original, offers an opportunity to explore the evolution of “the feminine” in a notorious and contentious context. By comparing the narrative archetypes and the player-character relationship of both the original Tomb Raider and the 2013 reboot, we examine how the game-play is an experience- driven and highly visceral narrative which opens a door to the possibilities of a greater understanding and inclusion of diverse audiences within the gaming industry.
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