Level Up to Domination - why do some feel the need to dominate?

I made it to level 20 in the last Witcher Wednesday stream and for the first time I feel like a high-level character. The difference in emotional reaction from now compared with previous levels is that I engaged in fights in which I dominated my opponent. I don't mean I easily won - I had that before when I returned to the swamps outside Vizima and took on Drowners. No, to dominate an opponent is different, it is not to kill them and be done - it is to kill them in a manner that leaves no doubt I was going to do anything other than win this battle. My opponent never had a chance. This is the type of kill that leaves a message (if anyone in the game world were coming around to clean up my carnage that is).

I am Geralt and you should not fuck with me.

I had very mixed reactions to the game that night, both positive and negative. Something about the session stuck with me, but I wasn't sure what it was in that moment. As is often the case I was exhausted after stream - my brain was done for the day. The next day I awoke with a single question in my head - why do men people some feel the need to dominate?

In case anyone is looking for answers here, I'll save you the trouble. I am not going to answer my own question. After waking up in philosophy mode last Thursday I immediately took to my office and started looking up theories on this, but the amount of work that has been dedicated to violence, dominance, aggression, and male fantasies was absolutely overwhelming that early in the morning. And honesty, this is a blog, not a peer-reviewed publication (CV line) so there is only so much work I am willing to put into it. I will be exploring this idea though through the finishing moves in the game and my reactions to them.

First off, the fighting in The Witcher has always been flashy and bloody. I want to get that established right away so there is no misunderstanding about my ideas here. Blood, death, wildly swinging swords - these have been a part of my play experience since the tutorial. The game is violent - as I expected it would be considering I am playing a monster hunter. The video above (Flashy Fighting) is an example of a fight scene that doesn't include any of the finishing moves I am talking about. Still looks cool though.

I have also appreciated the look of the fighting in this game since the beginning (please note that I am talking about the aesthetics of the fighting and not the mechanics) as well as feeling emotionally and intellectually engaged by them. Intellectually, there is something to learn and remember - which sword, which style, which sign should I use for each encounter depending on the type of creature or combination of creatures present. There's an example of this in the Flashy Fighting video, about 20 seconds in when I switch swords. The strategy for this move was to kill all the humans using the steel sword (good for killing humans) and then focus on the monsters with the silver sword. I wasn't very good at this first, but then, with practice, I eventually mastered it. This sense of mastery and accomplishment is one of the reasons video games in general are so engaging. There aren't many skills in life one can pick up in a few hours (are there any?) and thus see the progress they are making as they make it, but with games this is easier to see - and it feels good. Mastery feels good, powerful, accomplished. 

The new finishing moves add to this sense of mastery in some ways. As I mentioned earlier there were fights that had become easy, but the dominating finishing moves showed that they were easy. The emotional response to this is clearly evident about 28 seconds into this 2nd video (Distracted Witcher).

My last level was clearly the fucking best. I am roflstomping these guys.

Not all of my reactions were positive, however. Like watching a particularly gruesome scene during a horror movie there were a few points at which my initial reaction was to turn away. As seen in this 3rd video (Finishing Moves OOO). Yet even here, within seconds of having to force myself to keep my eyes on the screen I follow by describing these moves as "sweet." In the end, dominating my opponent in this game felt powerful in a way that I will never feel irl. 

This is not to suggest that I am a violent person. In fact, I would say that I am the exact opposite - and would be even if I was strong enough. In fact, there are even times in the game when I wish I could solve an issue without killing. Though I recognize this isn't the best example seeing as I wanted to fistfight (still violent) rather than kill this NPC (nonplayer character) in the video below (Fistfight).

And although I intellectually understand that strength comes in many flavors, many of which are not physical, I am still a product of America, and this country worships physical prowess - a sign of masculinity - over all else. Finally, we get to the point I suspect was gnawing at me - gender norms and expectations. In the question before the page break I crossed out the word "men," but it is there because that is how I originally formulated the question. It seemed reasonable too because Geralt is a male character written by a man, turned into a game character by some men, and then a tv series by some more men. Not to mention that the connection between men and violence has a rather long-standing history at this point. As Staniloiu and Markowitsch so succinctly open their paper, "Violence and aggression have traditionally been viewed as being associated with being male," (Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 33 (2012) 1032 – 1036).

I am not a man. I am playing Geralt and I identify with him in various ways both real and imagined, but I am a ciswoman and have never felt otherwise. Perhaps this complicates my exploration of domination here, or maybe not. As is evident already, the game evoked feelings of power, and I don't have a reason to suspect that is untrue for men either. There may be other factors for male players (ideals of masculinity and identity that I don't aspire to for example) but even that in part has to do with being and feeling powerful to some extent.

There is a lot to unpack here. Like I said just after the page break, I am not going to get to an answer here. In part, because it will take far more time than a single week (the time between posts) and in part because this issue is far too deep to explicate in the space of a single blog post. I will likely return to this idea of masculinity in The Witcher later though, so stay tuned. In the meantime, for fun, here is a video of alternative finishing moves from Mortal Combat - you know - for those players not into domination.