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Gender in Gamer Culture and the Virtual World Nicholas Maisonave Gender in Gamer Culture and the Virtual World Nicholas Maisonave Master’s Project Department of Communication Stanford University Maisonave 1 1. Introduction Within the field of Communication, game scholarship is relatively new. Looking at video games as a communicative medium allows for further inquiry into the implications games might have in the development of gamer communities (and culture) and the construction of a gamer identity. As games continue to enamor a larger percentage of the general public, these implications become progressively more significant. In this literature review, I will focus specifically on the concept of gender in gaming—both within the video games themselves and as a construct formed within real-world game communities. Originally thought to be just a mere child’s pastime, video games have exploded into the mainstream lifestyle of the American public. Now a multibillion-dollar industry, video games have claimed a stake in the lives of everyday people. In fact, according to the Entertainment Software Association (2010), it is now estimated that over two thirds of all American households play computer or video games, women make up 40% of gamers, the average gamer is 34 years old, and gamers have been gaming for an average of 12 years. Clearly, video games are here to stay and are far more than just a child’s pastime. With recent advents in technology, people now have the opportunity to take gaming on the go—gamers can enjoy a bout of Angry Birds in the palm of their hands on their telephones or perhaps might tend to their crops in FarmVille by logging into their Facebook accounts. Games are no longer reserved to consoles and cartridges. As technology continues to allow gaming to become more widespread, it becomes increasingly important that we, as a society, understand the psychological and sociological effects games have on gamers. Gamers are slowly but steadily changing from a minority to the majority. As this process continues, we must ask ourselves: is gamer culture something that should be universally Maisonave 2 expanded throughout modern life? Are there negative effects of gaming that need to be critically examined? What are the characteristics of gamer culture, and how did it come to be this way? This cultural analysis will build on the theoretical framework of media effects put forth by Cultivation Theory (Gerbner et al., 2002) and Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 2001). Cultivation Theory states that people’s perception of reality is constructed and altered by information present in consumed media. Originally based in television scholarship, Cultivation Theory is founded on the premise that increased and ubiquitous consumption of media causes these media to become a solidifying source for knowledge of the world. Thus, should certain media present information in a specific or homogenous way, this could conceivably lead to the formation of generalizations and stereotyping. This is a process known as enculturation—media consumers gradually acquire the characteristics of and adapt to the cultural information presented in media. As we will see, the depictions of gender within gamer culture, and especially the video games themselves, provide a very strong example of the homogenization of media content. Similar to Cultivation Theory, S o c ia l Cognitive Theory purports that media exposure creates cognitive schemata based on the media’s content, and that these schemata then affect and guide behavior in the real world. Social Cognitive Theory provides a more active view of the media consumption process. With Cultivation Theory, the process of enculturation is a seemingly passive one. Individuals consume media content and subsequently have their perceptions of the world appropriately altered. Social Cognitive Theory instead theorizes that media content lays a functional groundwork in which consumers can navigate. Concerning the topic of gender, Social Cognitive Theory would state that video games, as a medium, present certain perceptions of gender that allow for the creation of specific cognitive gender schemata. Thus, when consumers are called to think about gender (or related topics), they will likely invoke Maisonave 3 the same cognitive pathways developed through media consumption—in this case, gender presentations in games. Also like Cultivation Theory, Social Cognitive Theory helps provide a possible explanation for the production of stereotypes from skewed media portrayals. Should an individual be repeatedly exposed to a singular type of gender representation, then s/he is more likely to invoke those specific cognitive schemata whenever the topic of gender is made salient. Thus, with these two theories in mind, video games can be seen as a medium in which gender is constructed, performed, and upheld, and that messages about gender in the virtual world can have real-world consequences. Gender is not a topic unfamiliar to the world of gaming. According to the International Game Developers Association (2005), 88.5% of game developers are male and 92% of developers are heterosexual. Also, both female and LGBTQ game developers held stronger opinions that the game industry lacks diversity and that diversity has a direct impact on the games produced. Thus, the viewpoint from which the majority of games are developed is one that is held by a largely homogenous contingent of game developers. With such an overwhelmingly large percentage of heterosexual males as game developers, it is no surprise that portrayals and perceptions of gender in video games are skewed. Supporting this claim, gender ideology among men, specifically highly masculine-identified men, has been shown to be strongly tied with sexual orientation—to be a man is to be heterosexual, to be gay is to breach a man’s masculinity, and to question a man’s masculinity is to question his sexuality (Pascoe, 2007; Parrott, 2008; Herek, 1986; Kimmell, 1997). With reference back to the two theories of media consumption, having such a sizeable proportion of game developers as heterosexual men can help to explain why female and LGBTQ game developers felt that diversity of developers translates directly into diversity of the games produced. Homogenization of gender and sexuality Maisonave 4 on the side of the developers consequently leads to homogenization of gender and sexuality in the resulting games. Thus, in gamer culture, the vast amount of depictions of gender and sexuality, at least of those present in video games, are those of the heterosexual male gaze. Gender differences have also been observed in perceptions of, motivations for, and participation in gaming. In massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), men are significantly more likely to play games due to the possibly of great achievement and the ability to manipulate the game environment for personal gain, whereas women are significantly more likely to play games due to their desire to interact with fellow gamers and form meaningful relationships (Yee, 2006). Men are also significantly more likely to play video games for longer periods of time and state that video games interfere with other real-world activities (Ogletree & Drake, 2007). Men have been shown to be more confident than women about their gaming capabilities (Terlecki et al., 2011), and to feel better about themselves after gaming for an extended period of time (Phillips et al., 1995). Additionally, when children are asked about video game preferences, boys are significantly more likely to state preference for games that are viewed specifically as designed for boys, whereas girl prefer those designed for girls (Heeter et al., 2009). Understandably, if so many games are designed by men, it might be the case that few games exist that are specifically designed with women in mind, thus helping to explain why gamer culture has been historically male-dominated. Whether or not these gender differences are the cause or the result, or both, of skewed gender portrayals in video games has yet to be determined, but future research should indeed venture further into this issue. Gender has an important historical precedent in gamer culture as well. In her candid account of a quest to develop a computer game company specifically targeting girls, Brenda Laurel in Utopian Entrepreneur w r it e s : Maisonave 5 Computer games as we know them were invented by young men…They were enjoyed by young men, and young men soon made a very profitable business of them…Arcade computer games were sold into male-gendered spaces, and when home computer game consoles were invented, they were sold through male-oriented consumer electronics channels to more young men. The whole industry consolidated very quickly around a young male demographic… (2001, p. 23) This historical construction of gender, as we will see, is of utmost importance in the ways in which gender is currently constructed among gamers within this culture. The ubiquity of maleness among early gamers and technology enthusiasts served as an initial barrier for women seeking to enter the gaming community. With the explosion of contemporary gaming, one would think the gender of gamers would be of declining importance, mostly since more women than ever now make up a contingent of this culture. Unfortunately, the cultural and social vestiges of the community described by Laurel have left a noticeable and lasting impact on all gamers in gamer culture, but most assuredly on the female gamers. In this literature review, I’d like to hypothesize a possible mechanism for the construction and maintenance of skewed gender representations and sexism in video games and gamer culture. First, I will review the extant literature on character portrayals in modern games and gaming peripherals, laying the foundation for further analysis by establishing the current state of affairs through video game character content analyses. Second, I will theorize how both the process of constructing a marginalized masculinity (that of the nerd) and the pervasiveness and transposition cultural stereotypes against women work within mediated spaces and gamer culture in the real world to reinforce and uphold skewed gender depictions in gaming.
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