Gaming and Gender COMM 190, Games & Society Bill White
Gaming and Gender
COMM 190, Games & SocietyBill White
The Gender of Gamers
CATEGORY Male FemaleAge 17- 18% 17%Age 18+ 35% 30%Total 53% 47%
Source: Entertainment Software Assn.
Where the Women Are
• Why are female gamers “invisible”?• Women enjoy MMOs
– Social and identity play– Exploration
• Moving beyond “pink games” allows women to occupy role of “gamer.”– Mastery and status– Team sport and combat
• Avatar design raises issues of embodiment and representation.
• Calls for inclusiveness & visibility in design and marketing of games.
The Discourse of the “Girl Gamer”
Contesting “Gamer Girl” As A Term
Ultimately, the message is the same: An “authentic” female player is a girl who plays the way boys play.
From Barbie to Mortal Kombat
“Girl Games”
• Research on “what girls want” assumes girl is a fixed, definite identity.
• But gender is fluid; it is constituted & cultural.
• Many “girl games” enact traditional, gender-specific notions of girlhood.
A Feminist Approach to Software Design• Origins
– Performative view of gender– Feminist pedagogy, accepting multiplicity of “knowledges”
• Fundamental Principles– Transfer authority to user– Value subjective/experiential knowledge of user– Allow different kinds of users and contexts to work.– Give user a tool to express his or her own voice, “truth”– Encourage collaboration among users
• “Storytelling” as Focal Game Activity– Renga (global round-robin shared story)– Rosebud (cyborg stuffed animal storytelling)– SAGE (interactive storytelling, “sage” character design)
Making Room for the Women
• Women are becoming more active as gamers.
• “A definite backlash” from male gamers.– Lewis’s experience– Anita Sarkeesian and the
“gamification of misogyny”
• Social pressure seems to be reducing the backlash.
Social Media: “#1reasonwhy”
Backlash
Backlash, cont’d.
Backlash, cont’d.