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Video game definition

“A game played by electronically manipulating images produced by a computer program on a monitor or other display.”

https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/video_game

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Quotes from Keeping Abreast of Hypersexuality: A Video Game Character Content Analysis

“This content analysis set out to chronicle depictions of male and female characters’ sexuality in popular console video games. Just as with traditional media such as television, movies and print media, video game players may pick up cues from video game characters that create or strengthen cognitive scripts about gender roles and sexual objectification (for review, see American Psychological Association 2007)”

“Females are not the only ones affected by unrealistic body images in the media. Portrayals of muscle-bound men may also set standards for male gamers. Such depictions may contribute to body dissatisfaction among some men, as well as such risky behaviors as steroid use (Labre 2002).”

“Sexualized portrayals of women in the media have been linked to objectification, leading some males to view women and their bodies as possessions (Frederickson and Roberts 1997). Adolescent males’ learning to objectify women from media may lead to negative social, legal, and relational damage.”

“In video games, a player has the ability to witness how characters present themselves and interact with other characters over and over again. Recalling that 8- to 18-year-old males typically play video games for 41 min per day (Kaiser Family Foundation 2002), repeated exposure through extended play should make it very easy for a video game player to create, rehearse, and strengthen symbolic representations of events.”

“Gender schema theory suggests (Calvert and Huston 1987) and subsequent research reveals that exposure to stereotyped, sexual interactions on television can provoke schema that categorize women as sexual, submissive, and less intelligent than their male counterparts (Thompson and Pleck 1986). As such, repeated exposure to attractive, scantly clad female characters may be problematic for young, male gamers’ sexual and relational development.”

“Gamers could learn attitudes and beliefs about sex roles and gender stereotyping and apply them to real world situations they find themselves in each day. For example, if a game player notices that males in video games are active, problem-solving heroes and women are incapable and always needing help from men, sex-based stereo types may manifest themselves in the home, school, or in other social circles.”

“Several studies gave examined stereotypical portraylas in video game content. In one of the earliest studies, Dietz (1998) examined gender stereotyping in 33 of the most popular Nintendo and Sega Genesis video games. The results revealed that almost half of the games (41%) were devoid of female characters. When human women were portrayed, 21% of the time they were depicted as “damsels in distress” or as “visions of beauty” (Dietz 1998, p. 434). For the games that contained human characters, 28% showed women as sex objects.”

“It was expected in hypothesis one that female characters would appear less frequently than would male characters. A substantially higher proportion of male characters (86%, n= 419) than female characters (14%, n=70) were featured in the video games.”

“Substantially more males (88%) were primary characters than were females (12%). A one way chi-square also revealed a significant effect for .2 secondary characters, (1, n=371) = 180.80, p<.01. Secondary characters were more likely to be males (85%) than females (15%).”

“In terms of sexually revealing clothing, a significant chi-square was observed by biological sex, χ2 (1, n=469) = 39.70, p<.001, Φ=.29. A higher proportion of female characters (41%) than male characters (11%) were portrayed in sexually revealing clothing”

“A chi-square analysis revealed a statistically significant .2 effect, (1, n=468) = 99.88, p<.001, F=.46. When compared to male characters (4%), a higher proportion of female characters (43%) were depicted nude (partial or full).”

“A chi-square revealed a significant difference in body proportion by biological sex, .2 (1, n=464) = 67.15, p<.001, F=.38. Female characters were more likely to be shown with unrealistic body proportions (25%) than were male characters (2%).”

“A significant chi-square was observed for this .2 variable by biological sex, (1, n=472) = 36.94, p<.001, F=.28. A larger proportion of female characters (16%) than male characters (2%) were shown wearing clothing that would not be appropriate for completing the task at hand.”

“A chi-square analysis .2( revealed a significant difference by sex, 1, n=461) = 140.88, p<.001, F=.55. When compared to males (1%), female characters were more likely to be displayed with small waists (40%).”

“However, the pattern of results is worth noting. For women, games rated E featured the highest proportion of unrealistic body proportions (44% of coded female characters with an E rating) and females with small waists (56% of coded female characters with an E rating).”

“Hypothesis one received empirical support for the prediction that female characters would appear less frequently than would male characters (14%, n=70, 86%, n= 419, respectively).”

“One quarter of the women in this study (25%) were shown with an unrealistic body image.”

“Nudity had the greatest disparity between female and male characters. Women (43%) were ten times more likely to be shown nude (partial or full) than males (4%).”

“Research question one asked if the ESRB rating system consistently filtered out variables related to depictions of overt sexuality. Across sex, the findings demonstrated that there is a significant difference among games rated E, T, or M on nudity. At first glance, it appears that the ESRB ratings do a fair job of filtering out sexual content. However, sexual content is comprised of more than just simple depictions of nudity. The additional overt sexuality variables as defined by this study (sexually revealing clothing, body proportion, appropriateness of attire, and waist size) do not differ between E-, T-, and M-rated video games instead of just T or M as may be expected”

“Repeated exposure to video game characters with unrealistic proportions in combination with similar “thin ideal” reinforcement from other media may help to explain why as many as ten in 100 young women in the US suffer from eating disorders (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) 2004).”

“When ESRB was broken down by sex, women were represented the least in E-rated games (n=11). It is also important to note that women had the highest percentages of unrealistic body proportions and small waists in E-rated games when compared to T-rated games and M-rated games. Thus, if video games were screened for young gamers by ESRB rating, women would be virtually nonexistent. When women were shown, impressionable video game players would be exposed to women with Barbie-doll figures even more in E-rated games than they would in T- or M-rated games.”

“The repetition of seeing women as oversexualized beings through both repeated game play and by seeing similar depictions across a wide variety of games can reinforce the belief that women are to be regarded as sex objects. The disproportionately small waists and voluptuous breasts for female characters may contribute to body dissatisfaction for female gamers and unrealistic expectations of women for impressionable male gamers. This has two major implications. First, this medium may be reinforcing to some that women are supposed to have unrealistic body proportions. When these proportions are unattainable, it can lead to low self-esteem and body dissatisfaction for female gamers. Taking that a step further, low self-esteem and body dissatisfaction may prompt some to adopt unhealthy eating habits trying to attain an idealized image. Second, it also sends a message to male gamers of what women should look like. Because very few women can achieve video game character proportions naturally, males may have unrealistic expectations of the feminine body.”

“While the Nintendo Wii retails for around $250 in the U.S., the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PS3 retail for anywhere between $350–450 depending on versions and console options. These price points suggest that the Xbox 360 and PS3 are catering toward an older audience who can afford a more powerful game console. If this is the case, it would not be surprising if more sexual content were included in games for these consoles or if more companies produced genres of games for these consoles that included more sexualized game characters.”

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Tables and Figures from Sexy, Strong, and Secondary: A Content Analysis of Female Characters in Video Games across 31 Years

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Quotes from Sexy, Strong, and Secondary: A Content Analysis of Female Characters in Video Games across 31 Years

“Video games are a popular source of entertainment for girls and boys;men and women (ESA, 2014). However, women comprised only 22% of employees in the video game industry in 2014 (IGDA, 2014). The dearth of female employees alongside scholarly findings of sexist encounters in online game spaces (Fox & Tang, 2014) sup port the popular notion that video games are a masculine activity (Selwyn, 2007).”

 “Video game technology in the United States emerged in the 1950s and 1960s in close connection to the burgeoning U.S. computer industry (Izushi & Aoyama, 2006). The development of Spacewar! at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962 encouraged several spin-off games and inspired the design of the first commercially available coin-operated video game, Computer Space, in 1971. A full-fledged industry emerged 6 months later with the release of the first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey. The computer industry at this time employed women in jobs that required limited technical skills, provided low-paying salaries, and presented limited upward mobility compared to their male colleagues (Haigh, 2010). Early on, this gender discrimination stifled women’s participation and fueled a persistent gender gap in technological fields (Haigh, 2010).”

 “The U.S. video game industry inherited the gender disparity within computer science and software fields with women occupying limited roles in these fields. Data on the gender demographics of the video game industry in the 1980s are scant, but popular press reports suggest that female developers only represented 3% of the workforce in 1989 (Graser, 2013).”

 “As Williams (2006) notes, the preponderance of men in the game industry leads to a culture in which the male perspective is the only one. Furthermore, online games in which women might connect and foster their mutual interest have served as deterrents due to gender harassment (Fox & Tang, 2014; Kuznekoff & Rose, 2012).”

 “Despite the contemporary perception of video games as a male-oriented activity\ break (Selwyn, 2007), early marketers of video games did not draw this distinction. Rather, advertising for theMagnavox Odyssey in the 1970s promoted the notion that individuals of all ages and genders could enjoy the hobby (Williams, 2006).”

 “Hartmann and Klimmt (2006) found that female partici pants consistently chose games featuring a nonsexualized rather than a sexualized female protagonist and expressed more interest in playing as the nonsexualized character. Similarly, Reinecke, Trepte, and Behr (2007) found thatwomen preferred female characters but disliked hypersexualized female avatars. These findings are important for two reasons. First, women express a dislike of video games because the content seems generally intended for heterosexualmales. Second, adding female characters as sexual objects marginalizes these characters in a way that women may view as derogating their in group.”

 “Thus, when women see repeated negative depictions of female characters in video games they may avoid the medium entirely and become part of the self-perpetuating cycle as Williams (2006) described.”

 “As few games feature female leads (Glaubke et al., 2001), women may not always perceive that designers intend content for them. The primary character in a video game is a commanding role, one that centers on the character as the main actor in the narrative and agentic force behind the gameplay (Williams, Consalvo, et al., 2009). This depiction is consistent with masculinized traits such as leadership and independence that may be imparted on female characters along with sexualized attributes (Jansz&Martis, 2007)”

 “Video game publishing companies provide financial backing toward development efforts that may affect a game’s success in the marketplace. Considering the popular notion that sex sells, it is possible that companies employ sexualization as a marketing tactic.”

 “Analyses of videogame content often involve sampling a fixed number of the top-selling video games during a specific time span to analyze content most frequently encountered by consumers (Martins et al., 2009;Williams,Martins, et al., 2009).Thi approach did not satisfy the sample for the current study because few top-selling video games feature playable female protagonists.”

 “Although the early years of the video game industry perpetuated the gender disparity rife within the computer industry, the recent and growing interest of women and girls seems to be influencing game con tent in positive ways. Recent feminist discussions (e.g., #1reasonwhy) have brought attention to the underrepresentation of female professionals in the industry as well as the sexualization and stereotyping of female characters in video games. This study complements those critiques by investigating whether games have always featured inadmissible depictions of female characters.”

 “Central to the study’s purpose, we found a pattern of change in sexualization over time that indicates the industry may be reacting to its critics. The games released from 1983 to 1990 featured the least sexualized characters in our sample. This finding is unsurprising considering the simple graphic capabilities of early video game con soles. Previous content analyses found that games with lower graphical integrity (i.e., highly pixelated visuals) show characters with highly disproportionate bodies, including large heads on boxy bodies (Martins et al., 2009).”

 “Our data reveal that throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, the industry introduced more sexualized female characters than other periods. The introduction of Lara Croft in the 1996 game Tomb Raider may have served as a catalyst for video game developers to feature more sexualized females as a sales tactic to entice male players. Although scholars have argued that Lara represents a strong, bold female archetype (Jansz & Martis, 2007), her sexualized portrayal in the video game and promotional materials in the 1990s supports the notion that video games primarily serve male interests (Cruea & Park, 2012; Selwyn, 2007).”

 “However, our data reveal a decrease in the sexualization of female characters after 2006. We attribute this decline to an increasing female interest in gaming coupled with the heightened criticism levied at the industry’s arguably male hegemony (Williams, 2006).”

 “RPGs had the second lowest rate of sexualization. This finding bridges evidence found in other areas of the video game literature. Women prefer to play games with less sexualized characters (Hartmann & Klimmt, 2006) and women play RPGs with more frequency than other types of games (Williams, Consalvo, et al., 2009).”

 “We also found that games depict primary characters as less sexualized than nonprimary characters. Nonprimary characters are less central to the story and, consequently, designers may sexualize them to enhance their appeal. The sexualization of nonprimary characters underscores their secondary role by reducing their importance to their physical appearance. Conversely, a primary character is central to the story and aspects of the narrative give her significance beyond her physical attributes. This conclusion aligns with tenets of objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) under which the body of a woman is valued for its use to others.”

 “Although the lower levels of sexualization for primary characters hint to prosocial change, more female characters filled secondary roles than primary roles in the sample. Thus, the risks associated with objectification of women in media (e.g., dehumanization) remain a concern (Heflick, Goldenberg, Cooper, & Puvia, 2011).”

 “We found evidence of the Lara Phenomenon (Jansz & Martis, 2007) in that characters portrayed as sexualized were also capable. Jansz and Martis (2007) suggested that strong depictions of female characters, even when paired with sexualized features, may empower female gamers. We agree that this possibility exists, but argue that if female characters require sexualization to bolster their merit, that objectification and its deleterious outcomes (e.g., discomfort among women who do not play video games) become difficult to avoid.”

 “Our findings indicate that children who play video games likely encounter sexualized imagery prior to adulthood. That is, games with the ESRB rating of Mature or Teen featured more sexualized characters than games rated Everyone. This is logical given that Mature games are created for an adult audience; however, games rated Teen did not significantly differ from Mature games in terms of sexualization. This finding does not imply that the video game industry sexualizes female characters for teenagers. Rather, because the ESRB ratings board consists of parents and other similar caregivers (ESRB, 2014), this may indicate that video games have normalized sexualization of female characters across audiences of varying ages.”

 “Our finding that the critical success of games featuring female protagonists has decreased over time possibly stems from a lack of industry support in creating these games. The limited financial success of games may fuel the decline in critical scoring of such games. Lower sales discourage publishers from future investment in games that feature female protagonists because male characters pose less of a risk. Poorly funded games receive less investment in development efforts, a cycle that may result in lower evaluations from reviewers.”

 “Despite a decrease in critical success for games featuring female protagonists in recent years, this phenomenon appears unrelated to sexualization. This finding implies that games do not require sexualized females to receive favorable reviews from critics. This also indicates that the presence of a sexualized female character does not bias the critic toward a higher review if other aspects of the game (e.g., mechanics, story, graphics) are otherwise poor. Furthermore, this finding under-scores unenthusiastic reviewer commentary for sexualized depictions of female characters (Ivory, 2006).”

 “These findings provide grounds for a policy recommendation to the ESRB for ratings. We found that games rated Teen presented female characters as sexualized as the characters in games rated Mature. Teen games are suitable for persons aged 13 years and older; M games are generally appropriate for ages 17 and older (ESRB, 2014).”

 “Although female characters cast in secondary roles still outnumber primary characters, the observed pattern of higher sexualization from1992 to 2006 followed by a decrease in sexualization from2007 to 2014 suggests that the widespread, overt sexualization of females is on the decline. Positive portrayals of female characters who are strong, capable, and attractive without overt sexualization may be an important factor for encouraging women to become interested in gaming. These trends may also contribute toward achieving gender parity in the professional industry if positive character portrayals attract more women to gaming.”

 “We found that, on average, female characters are far less sexualized than what previous analyses suggest. In other words, what scholars, critics, and the public largely assume is a nearly universal feature of female characters in video games (i.e., gross sexualization) seems overstated when considering game content rather than marketing materials.”

 “That is not to say, however, that subtle sexualization is unproblematic as it still encourages objectification by enhancing appearance focus (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Thus, subtle sexualization—such as that reflected on average in our observations—may still lead to damaging outcomes.”

  “Finally, although our study produced more conservative observations of sexualization than previous work, marketing still makes female characters’ sexiness salient, a factor signaling the masculine nature of the content that may encourage objectifying female characters from the onset of gameplay and a likely reason girls and women never pick up the controller (Near, 2013).”

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Quotes from Girl Gamers and their Relationship with the Gaming Culture

“At the heart of academic understanding of computer games and games consoles is the widely held conviction that technology embodies a culture which is expressive of masculinity. Male designers who have developed games have traditionally preserved male dominance within the gaming industry based on their own taste and cultural assumptions. Computer games such as ‘sport simulations’, ‘beat ‘em ups’, ‘shoot ‘em ups’ and ‘adventure games’ that incorporate fantasy and human violence are said to maintain gender differences in play and affect the degree of female participation in computer play”

“In the early 1990s Eugene Provenzo’s content analysis of games available on the Nintendo platform revealed that games contained a small number of female characters in mostly submissive and marginal roles. For Provenzo, stereotyped portrayals of gender embody the culture in which games exist as well as reveal its’ prevailing attitude towards women. ”

“Although gender representation has altered during the last decade, game developers openly state that their rationale for the inclusion of female characters is based upon the premise that they appeal to the average boy gamer than equivalent male character.”

“The first section of the interviews sought to discover how girl gamers gain access to gaming, that is, whether girl gamers own or merely have access to a console. With girl gamers only representing a comparatively small proportion of the gaming market, it was important for us to explore whether girl gamers are unaccounted for or representing a comparatively small proportion of the gaming market, it was important for us to explore whether girl gamers are unaccounted for or unrepresented in game content, primarily because their access to the gaming culture is achieved secondary access to consoles owned by others.”

“Respondents also indicated that they believed gaming was strongly biased in favour of males. In explanation of this supposition, it was argued that:

Adult Gamer: They’re very boyish in fact that they tend to be football games or rugby games, and even the driving games tend to be rally racing type stuff, they are quite aggressive aren’t they?

Interviewer: Yes, perhaps they are.

Adult Gamer: I mean I like Spyro… he’s a very gentle little dragon.”

“It was commonly stated that more boys play because so many of the games are in fact ‘blokey games, y’know things like shoot ‘em ups’. Referring to the disproportionate amount of games that are released with only male gamers in mind, girl gamers highlighted the lack if real choice available to them:

Child Gamer: There are like more boy games coming out for the Playstation, I get Crash Bandicoot because they are my favourite games and because there’s not much girl games out like. The only games I’ve actually got is the ‘Spice Girls’ [reference to Spice World the dancing game].

Interviewer: Would you like to see more games which have more for you as a girl?

Child Gamer: Yes, I think there should be more girl games coming out because there is a lot of boy games and they like , … you don’t understand them because they are like for boys. Like there’s football games and everything

Interviewer: But I see you have football posters on your wall, why don’t you play football games?

Child Gamer: I don’t like the football games that are out, because it’s hard to play because you’ve got to… try and get it off another player, and if you don’t really know what the rules are … it’s hard.”

“This girl gamer not only recognised that gaming culture has direct links to existing male culture, but also there are ways in which such games presuppose a certain level of cultural competence. This and other similar comments were notable for the way computer games are not perceived as neutral artefacts by girl gamers, but an embodiment of the knowledge and practices of a male culture. Thus, with reference to the range of games played by females, girl gamers revealed that their experiences outside the context of gaming did not in any way facilitate their ability to ‘learn how to learn’.”

“Questions relating to the Tomb Raider series were used to address girl gamers’ attitudes and opinions towards the highly gendered images within games. Although one of the most successful and popular games of the 1990s, Tomb Raider is a good example of a game that appears to offer more for males than females. Indeed, the game‘s protagonist, Lara Croft, was featured in The Face magazine as one of the most popular twentieth century icons. Conforming to stereotypical perceptions of female beauty, its popularity with males is not only documented by the selling power of the product, but also exemplified by Playboy’s attempt to feature the human Lara Croft representative in their magazine”

“Inevitably, the exaggerated physique of Lara Croft also figured in girl games’ explanations for their dislike of the game:

Adult Gamer: Her boobs are too big, huhuhuhu well the Lucozade advert, I don’t think anyone looks at the Lucozade, well the men don’t, but I mean It is pathetic really, I mean I have played the games … but her as an individual is a bit over the top.

Interviewer: What do you mean pathetic?

Adult Gamer: Well it’s like, Lara Croft is very curvy and everything whereas the blokes she’s shooting are straight figures … they’re all ugly. Anyway, I prefer the games you don’t have to just keep shooting.”

“It is also important to point out that the unpopularity of Lara Croft as a protagonist, within our sample, did not rule out female characterisation as something that girl gamers would like to see in places in games. Interestingly, one member of the child sample revealed that she was in the process of designing her own game, using the co-star of Crash Bandicoot (SCEE), Coco Bandicoot as her heroine. Currently, Coco is not an interactive character, but one that appears in the animated clips between levels. She declared that:

Child Gamer: I’m trying to design a game, but I haven’t finished it yet.

Interviewer: Can you tell me about what you’ve done so far?

Child Gamer: I’ve started to draw the characters … because everybody knows about Crash Bandicoot, so I’ve started a game Coco Bandicoot. I’ve drawn the characters, I’ve got one or two, I’ve got them in my file over there.

Interviewer: Can I have a look? [finds a blue file and pulls out a folded piece of paper with pencil illustrations on it]

Child Gamer: That man is called Neo Cortex, and he’s starred in Crash Bandicoot one, two and three, and Wooky Witch is our new character we’ve tried to design.

Interviewer: Tell me about Wookey Witch

Child Gamer: Well she’s when Coco Bandicoot’s gonna try and get past her, she’s gonna like either have a magic cloak or something and you’ve got to try and steal it off her, and she fires her magic lightning bolts at you.

Interviewer: What made you want to have new characters then?

Child Gamer: They’re always men, the baddies and goodies and I like Coco but you can’t be her.”

“Attention was given to the nature of girls’ gaming activities, in particular alternative locations for their gaming. When asked whether they try out new games on playing-posts in shops, none of the respondents reported that they did. The responses indicated that shops, like arcades, are a male preserve. This attitude is perhaps best summarised by one of the young gamers, who stated that she sometimes watched boys play new games in shops, but has never had the courage to participate in that particular setting. Adult gamers, however, revealed that gaming occasionally occurs in the company of friends. However, it was commonly stated that they rarely instigate social gaming, neither do they actively participate when it does occur. Again, the process of play were revealed as affecting female playing practices with male involvement typically leading wither to the exclusion of girl gamers, or girl gamers to exclude themselves.”

“In answer to the question, ‘Who girl gamers?’ this study firstly identified girl gamers as a group that are drawn from a broad age range. This was a group that enjoyed gaming as a secondary activity, in the sense that their absolute playing time was constrained by several self-imposed sanctions. Despite the wider availability of gaming consoles, the restrictions placed upon playing time were caused by interactions between several factors. Factors included the presence and dominance of male gamers, the salience of contrasting female/familial social roles and the self-efficacy levels of girl gamers in relation to their playing style and gaming preferences.”

“Girl gamers also revealed their awareness of the sexism in games and claimed to desire a more balanced portrayal of males and females in games, as well as greater flexibility in character choice. Thus, in gendering the technology, this study revealed that girl gamers require a specific combination of characterisation and game-play.”

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Quotes from “A Content Analysis of Female Body Imagery in Video Games”

“A variety of sociodemographic and individual differences can produce sharp variations in cultivation patterns. The most common of these is a phenomenon called mainstreaming, whereby heavy television viewers’ beliefs tend to share a commonality that lighter viewers’ beliefs do not. Mainstreaming effects have been found for expectations of the ideal female bust, waist, and hip sizes.”

 “The realistic video game characters’ chest, waist, and hip sizes are significantly smaller, resulting in a figure that conforms to the thin ideal seen in other media.”

 “Although the statistical significance thresholds do not allow strong statements, it appears that female video game characters at the highest level of photorealism and in games rated for children feature thinner female characters.”

 “This study found that females in video games had significantly larger heads, but smaller chest sizes, waists, and hips than the average American woman. This finding provides some empirical support for the notion that this medium is presenting female body shapes that conform to the thin ideal observed with other mainstream media (Byrd- Bredbenner 2003; Sypeck et al. 2006).”

 “The skinny part of this ideal becomes more apparent when highly photorealistic characters are separated from minimally photorealistic characters.”

 “These findings have several implications. First, highly photorealistic games may be more likely than less photorealistic games to activate body dissatisfaction and a drive for thinness among female gamers, and to support the idealization of a markedly thin female body among male gamers.”

 “Gamers who encounter these characters would view a female who is 5'4'' tall, with a 29'' bust, 22'' waist, and 31'' hips. Since very few women can achieve these proportions naturally, the majority of female gamers will deviate from this ideal, and the majority of male gamers will never know a real woman whose body is actually this thin.”

 “An additional point to make when we think of effects processes is that the audience for games has been largely male (Fact and research: Game player data 2007). The audience, then, has made this medium different from television or magazines and this has two important implications. First, the male audience for this medium implies that male body-image may be impacted by the male ideal (e.g., muscular) often shown in popular video games. Indeed, a recent experiment conducted by Barlett and Harris (2008) found that college-aged males who played a video game that featured muscular characters for 15 min had significantly lower body esteem after game play than did those who did not play an ideal-body game. A second implication of a predominately male audience is that attitudes and expectations for how females should look may be most impactful among men, rather than as aspirational, or body-dissatisfaction-inducing figures for women—although this may certainly occur. Therefore, future body dissatisfaction impacts may be larger than any prior ones.”

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Experiment tables from “Selling Gender: Associations of Box Art Representation of Female Characters With Sales for Teen- and Mature-rated Video Games”

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Experiment from ”Selling Gender: Associations of Box Art Representation of Female Characters With Sales for Teen- and Mature-rated Video Games”

Experiment

 Hypotheses

 H1 Presence of female characters alone in box art (i.e., absent other characters, either male or non-human) is negatively associated with game sales.

 H2 In box art that includes female characters, centrality of female characters is negatively associated with game sales.

 H3 In box art that includes female characters, centrality of male characters is positively associated with game sales.

 H4 In box art that includes female characters, portrayal of female characters as non-central and sexualized is positively associated with game sales.

  Method

 Sample

 This study uses a purposive sample drawn from a sampling frame of about 6400 games with US sales of at least 10,000 copies (the lowest recorded number) listed on VgChartz.com. Cases were randomly selected from this sampling frame so long as they met other restrictions. Specifically, games had to be released in the US for a major home console (Nintendo GameCube, DS or Wii, Sony PS2, PS3 or PSP, or Microsoft Xbox or Xbox 360) in the period of 2005 through 2010, have an ESRB rating of Teen or Mature, and have a full MetaCritic score in order to be included in the sample. PC games and games from other consoles of the period were excluded because fewer of them had available sales data. Duplicate cases of the same game (often the same game released on different systems) were deleted unless they had different box art, and only the version of the game with the greatest sales was included in the sample. Box art is often very similar when a game is programmed for multiple game systems, so it was important to eliminate duplicate games from the sample. The final sample of 399 games is listed in the Appendix. Sales data and publisher data were obtained from VgChartz.com. Release date, and ESRB rating and review scores were obtained from the MetaCritic.com site. Large, easily readable box art images were available on GameFaqs.com and these images provided the raw data for coding.

 Methods

 The primary variables used in the analyses are game sales and box art portrayals of women and men. The first analysis examines the association of mere presence of male and female characters in box art with sales and includes games with both human and non-human characters. The second analysis examines the relationship between box art portrayals and sales in only those games that include female characters in the box art.

 Sales Counts

 Sales count was the number of copies of the game (in thousands) that have been sold in the US, obtained from VgChartz.com. Sales figures in dollars were not used because games vary in price, both individually over time and in comparison with one another, so using dollar figures would have produced inflated results for some games. Sales count was calculated at the time of data collection, in late 2011. Therefore the sales variable was measured later than all other variables.

 Box Art

 Coded categories based on content analysis of box art depictions of male and female characters on the front of the US version were used as the primary independent variables in both analyses. (Box art used in other countries sometimes varies from that used in the US and may reflect cultural differences that are beyond the scope of this study.) Content not on the front of the box was ignored, as potential buyers will usually see the front box art (because it is featured in online sales or in retail stores) but will generally see the back only if they physically pick up the game box and turn it to the reverse side. Box art content was initially coded for six traits: no human characters present; women present; women present and centrally featured in the box art; women present and highly sexualized; men present; and men present and centrally featured in the box art (see Table 1 for an explanation of coding categories). Box art is created and rendered on the box when the game is first published. Only in very rare cases does the art change during the life of the game. Thus the publication of box art that was coded for the portrayal measures preceded the sales count figure that ultimately resulted for each game.

 Presence of male and/or female characters The first trait, no humanoid characters present, was included because some box art depicts no living characters, non-human characters whose gender may be ambiguous or human characters whose features are sufficiently obscured by clothing to prevent gender categorization. For example, Fallout 3 is a game depicting a fully armored person whose gender cannot be determined. If the box art did feature humanoid (human or near-human) characters of discernible gender, they were coded as female or male. These codes for the presence of characters by gender were then combined in a single categorical variable used in the first regression to test H1, with the categories of no characters, male characters only, female characters only, and both male and female characters. According to H1, games portraying women exclusively would be negatively associated with sales relative to the other categories.

 Centrality of characters Both male and female characters were classified as being central or peripheral. Cases were coded as having central female characters when the box art indicated a female character to be the lead character or one of multiple major characters of equal importance through such visual indications as centering the perspective on that character, putting that character in the foreground or in front of other characters, or showing only that character. When all female characters were placed in the background and off to the side, women were classified as non-central. Male characters were similarly classified as being central or not central using the same criteria. Based on the second hypothesis, it was expected that when box art included female characters, the presence of central female characters would be negatively associated with sales. According to the third hypothesis, the presence of lead male characters would be positively related to sales in this subsample of games where box art included female characters.

 Sexualization of female characters Box art was coded as sexualized when human females were shown with disproportionately large breasts, clothes prominently showing the midriff or cleavage, clothing similar to swimwear, dress revealing any undergarments, or a suggestive pose. Female characters were classified as non-sexualized when they lacked any of these characteristics or when only head shots were provided.

 Portrayal of female characters The third analysis used a categorical variable based on the two codes for portrayal of female characters. The variable for portrayal of female characters had four categories: non-central non-sexualized (the reference category); non-central sexualized; central nonsexualized and central sexualized. According to the fourth hypothesis, non-central, sexualized female characters would be associated positively with game sales. In contrast, central sexualized and central nonsexualized female characters would be negatively associated with game sales, based on the second hypothesis.

 Coding reliability As recommended by Rudy et al. (2011) coders included both a woman and a man. The coders were trained for about 20 min each in the coding method. The coding schemas were explicit and unambiguous so training was not problematic. In her recent primer of methods for executing content analysis, Neuendorf (2011) recommends a clear and comprehensive codebook for all categories and thorough training. She suggests that the coding be clearly linked to theory and the hypotheses, which is the case here, and that validity and reliability be described (see also Krippendorff 2004). Coding methods for the box art used here were similar to those used earlier in studies of both box art and game play, listed above. In earlier studies, coding categories that were clear and simple were found to be most reliable; for example, it was easier to reliably rate degree of nudity than to rate “attractiveness” of female characters. For this reason, the descriptors selected here to rate sexualization and centrality were concrete, clear, and coded only as binary variables. For measuring inter-coder rating reliability with ordinal measures, Neuendorf (2011) recommends several measures (e.g., Scott’s Pi and Krippendorff’s alpha) that take into account the likelihood of chance agreement; she suggests that at least 10–20 % of the cases be coded by multiple coders. Scott’s Pi, with the Potter and Levine- Donnerstein (1999) correction formula for expected agreement, was used to check inter-rater agreement between coders on 149 cases (37 %) for each of the six binary codes, since these measures had been used in earlier studies (e.g., Downs and Smith 2010), thereby allowing for direct comparison. Scott’s Pi ranged from .88 to .96 for each of the six codes (Table 1), thereby meeting Neuendorf’s (2011) recommendation of a chance-corrected coefficient of at least .6.

 Control Variables

 Several variables were controlled for in the analyses; these included review score, year of game release, console maker, publisher, and ESRB rating. Each is described below, and all were obtained from MetaCritic.com. MetaCritic’s review scores, based on a 100-point scale, are aggregate scores based on reviews from other sources (e.g., websites, magazines) if there are at least five reviews available for the game. Thus, the MetaCritic review score was a count variable with a range from 1 to 100. Review scores were viewed as a proxy for game quality; controlling for review scores allowed assessment of the relationship between box art and sales without the influence of game quality (which could only be estimated through actual game play, not by observing box art). Year of game release was controlled because older games have the potential for greater sales since they have been on the market longer. Year of game release was coded based on the last two digits of the year (i.e., five through ten so 2005 was coded 05). Console manufacturer—the company that manufactures the system on which the game is played—was treated as a categorical variable (used in the analyses as a set of dummy variables) that included Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, with Nintendo as the reference category. I also coded publisher as a categorical variable with categories for games produced by a large publisher, specifically Nintendo, Ubisoft, Activision, or EA, versus smaller publishers. These controls are included because the industry is dominated by a few larger publishers and console makers that have garnered reputations and partially separate audiences (such as people who own only one of the consoles), which may affect sales and reviews. Finally, ESRB ratings (ratings for level of adult content such as sex, violence and drug use from the industry-associated Entertainment Software Ratings Board) were coded as a binary variable (T or M, with T as the reference category; only games aimed at teens (T) or adults (Mformature)were included in the sample). While all of the games in this sample include some amount of sexual, violent, and/or drug content due to the sample restrictions, this content is more intense in games rated M than those rated T, which may affect sales.

 Results

 Descriptive Statistics

 Table 2 lists ranges and incidence rates for the variables used in the analyses. Most games (42 %) showed male characters exclusively, with about a quarter showing male and female characters together and another quarter showing only non-human characters. Only 7 % of game boxes showed female characters exclusively. This means that female characters were shown in about one third of the games. Female characters were central in 19 % of all games or 55 % of those games showing box art with women. In contrast, 66 % of all games, or 95 % of games that showed men in the box art, featured central male characters. Female characters were sexualized in 21 % of games, representing 61 % of the games that showed women at all. It should be remembered that this sample was purposive and included only Teen and Mature games; despite this, the incidence figures are similar to those seen in earlier studies. The mean release date for games in the sample was 2008 (SD01.7). The mean MetaCritic review scores was 68 (SD0 14). Sales figures were skewed, with a mean of 368,000 copies and a standard deviation of 622,000. The 25th percentile was 70,000 copies, the median was 150,000 copies, the 75th percentile was 390,000 copies, and the 99th percentile was 3,540,000 copies. The single highest-selling game sold over five million copies. In other words, the best-selling games sold a disproportionately large number of copies.

 Presence of Female Characters

 The first analysis (Table 3) uses a negative binomial count regression (N0399) of a categorical variable for the presence of female and male characters (presence of men only, women only, both, or neither, with men only as the reference category) on sales, holding constant review scores, year, publisher, ESRB rating, and console manufacturer, for all games in the sample; this analysis is used to test the first hypothesis. Negative binomial count regression is appropriate when the dependent variable is an overdispersed count variable (positive integer values with a large range) and variable associations may be nonlinear (Gardner et al. 1995). This is the case here, since sales count is a count variable with a large range (from 10,000 to 5.7 million copies) and some nonlinear associations with other variables (e.g., sales increase exponentially as review scores increase beyond 80). The table presents the raw regression coefficients (b); incidence rate ratios (exponentiated coefficients, denoted eb), which represent factor changes in sales per unit increase in the variable; standard errors and z-scores; and Chi-squared values from nonlinear Wald tests with one degree of freedom of coefficients of interest for hypothesis testing. For the incidence rate ratios, values below one are negative relationships, and values above one represent positive relationships. All results use a one-tailed significance test because hypotheses had predicted the direction of relationship.

The first hypothesis predicted that the presence of female characters alone would be negatively associated with sales; this hypothesis was supported, as seen in Table 3. Compared with cases that included only men in the box art, cases that included only female characters sold significantly worse (χ2010.81, p<.001), decreasing sales by a factor of .44, while sales for cases that included no human characters or both men and women were not significantly different from cases with only men (χ20.31 and .12, p0.58 and .73, respectively). In addition, some control variables were significantly related to sales. Review scores and an ESRB rating of M (as opposed to T) were positively associated with sales while year of publication was negatively related to sales (more recent publication associated with lower sales). Some genres also were positively or negatively associated with sales. These results suggest that it is not the presence of women (or men) in box art per se that affects sales, but the presence of female characters alone (without male characters) that reduces sales.

 Centrality of Female and Male Characters

 Results from the second negative binomial analysis (Table 4) indicate the associations of centrality of female characters (second hypothesis) and centrality of male characters (third hypothesis) with sales for that subsample of cases that includes women in the box art, controlling for sexualization of female characters, review scores, release year, publisher, ESRB rating, and console manufacturer (n0135). Genre controls were not included because there were too few cases to provide sufficient power for this analysis. According to the second hypothesis, it was expected that the presence of central female characters would be negatively associated with sales. Results of the negative binomial regression analysis supported H2 because centrality of female characters was negatively associated with sales (χ2020.11, p<.001), decreasing sales to a factor of .53 compared with games that had only non-central female characters. Findings shown in Table 4 also supported H3 because centrality of male characters was positively related to sales (χ202.86, p<.05), increasing sales by a factor of .31 relative to box art with no central male characters. Control variables that were related to sales were review score, ESRB rating and year of publication (inverse), as well as some producer dummy codes.

 Centrality and Sexualisation of Female Characters

  The third analysis, seen in Table 5, provides a test of the fourth hypothesis, using negative binomial regression to examine the association of portrayal of female characters (with categories of non-central non-sexualized, non-central sexualized, central non-sexualized, and central sexualized) with sales of games, controlling for the centrality of male characters, the review scores, release year, publisher, ESRB rating, and console manufacturer. Again, this analysis uses only that subsample of games that includes at least one female character in the box art (n0135). A categorical comparison of portrayal was used instead of a traditional moderated analysis to test for interaction between centrality and sexualization of female characters (as is predicted in Hypothesis 4) in order to avoid collinearity between the main effects and the interaction term. Compared to cases with non-central, non-sexualized female characters, those with non-central, sexualized female characters were significantly and positively related to sales (χ203.93, p<.05), increasing sales by a factor of .52, as predicted in Hypothesis 4. Compared to cases with noncentral, non-sexualized female characters, those with central sexualized or central non-sexualized female characters were significantly and negatively associated with sales (χ203.03 and 3.02, respectively, p<.05 for both), both decreasing sales by a factor of about .3. Notably, there was no significant difference between the coefficients for central sexualized women and central non-sexualized women (χ20.02, p0.89). Some control variables also showed significant associations with sales: games rated M or with high review scores positively predicted sales; release date was negatively associated with sales. In addition, some publishers were more strongly associated with sales. In other words, as Hypothesis 4 predicted, sexualized female characters were positively associated with sales only when they were also marginal—that is, not central in the box art depiction. Female characters that assumed a central position were negatively associated with sales (as per the prediction of Hypothesis 2), regardless of whether they were sexualized.

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Quotes from “Selling Gender: Associations of Box Art Representation of Female Characters With Sales for Teen- and Mature-rated Video Games”

“Studies completed on video games sold in the US have shown that female characters are not given representation equal to male characters in video games and are often created from a male perspective that is less than “realistic,” exaggerating their sexual or feminine traits (e.g., Beasley and Collins Standley 2002; Burgess et al. 2007; Downs and Smith 2010; Martins et al. 2009; Williams et al. 2009).”

 “These depictions in video games potentially influence the socialization of young people, who make up a large part of their audience, and thus may transform or reproduce gender representations in the general culture (Downs and Smith 2010).”

 “At a simplistic level it might be assumed that sexualized representations of women are used in video games because such depictions increase game sales. Similarly, it might be assumed that female characters are usually cast in supporting rather than central roles while male characters take central roles because the predominantly male audience is better able to identify with a male protagonist, incentivizing the use of a male protagonist”

 “Since best-selling games reflect both the average cultural preferences of gamers and the content that is most widely available for producing gender socialization (e.g., Williams et al. 2009)”

 “There is similar concern about the effects of the representation of women in video games because game characters often serve as role models, especially to young children (Miller and Summers 2007). Children may build their gender identities, roles and schemas in part on their observation of characters in video games and through their symbolic interaction with these roles (Dietz 1998; Beasley and Collins Standley 2002; Collins 2011), just as Goffman (1979) suggested for consumers of magazine ads. Children who see female characters portrayed as attractive and sexy and male characters portrayed as muscular and strong may experience low self-esteem when their own bodies do not meet those expectations (Miller and Summers 2007) and may mimic gender behavior seen in games that is inappropriate in actual social situations (Beasley and Collins Standley 2002; Downs and Smith 2010).”

 “Many variables influence video game purchase decisions, such as magazine and online game reviews, magazine, television and online ads, word of mouth from friends, and box art. Of these, box art (the ads depicting game scenes on the front of the video game box) is the only content to which nearly all buyers and potential buyers are exposed (Burgess et al. 2007),”

 “Video games are unknown products offering experiential benefits, so the use of pictures is particularly likely to draw consumer attention and encourage purchase.”

 “The game box provides a clear point of contact with the consumer and an obvious place to try to advertise the product and influence buying behavior. In the same way that consumers read the cereal box in order to make a choice, they peruse the video game box (either online or in a store) in order to learn about the game content. In both cases, the content is meant to influence purchase behavior, not to represent the full range of product characteristics; it is intended to convey the overall flavor of the game and emphasize content the producer believes will attract buyers, not to portray all characters in the game or all events likely to happen (Burgess et al. 2007).”

 “Buyer behavior is important because it provides an indication of the relationship between video games and the larger culture. When representations of characters were investigated over a 12 month period, male characters were found to outnumber female characters but the effect was even more pronounced in the highest-selling games (Williams et al. 2009).”

 “On the other hand, the presence of non-central female characters in box art can reinforce a game’s coding as masculine if those characters are sexualized in a stereotypical way. Because the sexualized female characters are marginalized instead of strong and central, they do not represent a threat to the masculinized space of the game (Kimmel 2008).”

 “These results suggest that it is not the presence of women (or men) in box art per se that affects sales, but the presence of female characters alone (without male characters) that reduces sales.”

 “In other words, as Hypothesis 4 predicted, sexualized female characters were positively associated with sales only when they were also marginal—that is, not central in the box art depiction. Female characters that assumed a central position were negatively associated with sales (as per the prediction of Hypothesis 2), regardless of whether they were sexualized.”

 “Earlier research has shown that female characters are shown less frequently than male characters in video games, take a lead role in games less frequently than male characters, and are often portrayed as highly sexualized, especially in best-selling games (Williams et al. 2009).”

“Results from this study suggest that, among Teen and Mature games, sales are highest in games with box art depicting non-central, sexualized female characters. Thus, not only are female characters (particularly central or non-sexualized ones) underrepresented in game box art, they are particularly underrepresented when taking into account the number of game copies sold.”

 “The other goal of this study was to try to understand (admittedly through indirect means) why these depictions are so prevalent. The simple answer implied by these results is that these depictions are prevalent because they tend to sell better, and marketers presumably know this fact. Specifically, sexualization of female characters is associated with higher sales only when no female characters are central in the box art.”

 “These findings suggest an answer as to why the most prevalent and stereotypical depictions of characters in box art improve sales. They are all signals that code a game as masculine, something that this audience expects and values in games.”

 “a masculine-coded space signals potential buyers that the game will meet the cultural norms for this type of game space. In contrast, central female characters and any signs that might code the game or space as feminine contradict audience expectations and desires.”

 “While it is possible that potential consumers seeking masculine games note the ESRB rating in making purchasing decisions (since ESRB ratings are listed on the box front), it seems likely that potential buyers also detect cues of masculine coding in box art. Thus, it appears from these results that it is overall gender coding of games and their box art, not necessarily specific depictions of men and women in and of themselves, that affects sales through audience preferences.”

 “That being said, new genres and niche markets are emerging, bringing with them the possibility of new genre conventions motivated in part by new audiences. “Casual” games, which often have less masculine-gendered game play and goals (such as raising crops in Farmville or mimicking the physical movements of real sports or fitness exercises in some Wii games), have emerged as a growing portion of the video games market. These games have gained popularity with demographic groups that have not traditionally been represented among gamers, such as women and older people, and seem to have changed the composition of the overall games audience.”

 “The Entertainment Software Association (2011) found that the average age of gamers is 35 years of age and that adult women now represent a larger portion of the gaming audience (30 %) than males under 17 (18 %). As a result, these games are often gendered gender-neutral or even feminine, and accordingly often portray women differently from traditional games (Wohn 2011).”

 “Accordingly, as Kimmel (2008) would predict, casual games are often derided by “hardcore” gamers (more traditional, primarily male gamers) as inferior or not “real” games. These developments suggest that the emergence of new genres that appeal more to women, rather than changes in the conventions of existing, masculine coded genres, may result in more realistic and diverse portrayal of women in at least some video games in the near future. With time, such a portrayal of women may even spread to the majority of games, either if more gender neutral “casual” games take up more of the market or if game producers innovate ways to include more realistic portrayals of women in “traditional” games without sacrificing their masculine coding in an attempt to attract a larger audience.”

 “For all of these reasons, one should not interpret the results of this study as indicating that a marginalized portrayal of women will necessarily improve game sales; furthermore, designing games to capitalize on a marginalized portrayal of women based on such a simplistic interpretation could negatively impact society because of the potential negative effects of stereotyped gender portrayals on players’ gender schemas and self-esteem.”

  “Based on this study’s results, this influential group of games tends to include either no characters or one or more male characters in its box art, to place male characters in central positions, to include female characters only in conjunction with male characters, and to depict female characters (when they are present) as sexualized and non-central.”

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Content Analysis definition

analysis to determine the meaning, purpose, or effect of any type of communication, as literature, newspapers, or broadcasts, by studying and evaluating the details, innuendos, and implications of the content, recurrent themes, etc.

Taken from: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/content-analysis#targetText=noun,content%2C%20recurrent%20themes%2C%20etc.

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Results from “What Does a Gamer Look Like? Video Games, Advertising, and Diversity” Experiment

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Experiment from “What Does a Gamer Look Like? Video Games, Advertising, and Diversity”

Experiment findings and results

Overview of our study

In our investigation of what a gamer looks like, we employ content analysis techniques of previous advertising studies on diversity and stereotyping. In this way, we hope to get at the larger question of how the appearance and behaviors of actors in video game commercials reinforce or comment on expectations and stereotypes of who might qualify as a player. The emergence of next-generation console systems provides an opportunity for advertising to new players and new audiences. Yet while next-generation consoles create opportunities to foster more diversity, they also might be affected by preexisting gamer stereotypes and perceptions of masculinity. Given this, our research questions are as follows:

Research Question 1 (RQ1): In video game commercials, what relationships exist between gaming platform (e.g., Wii, Xbox, etc.) and physical characteristics of gamers (e.g., sex, ethnicity, age, etc.)?

Research Question 2 (RQ2): In video game commercials, what relationships exist between gaming platform and behavior of players (e.g., play, discussing violence)?

Research Question 3 (RQ3): In video game commercials, what relationships exist between (a) actor sex and physical characteristics of gamers, and (b) actor sex and player behaviors?

These questions are meant to examine how a gamer is expected to look and how a gamer is expected to behave. Within these questions, we investigate how the specific gaming platform might provide some variation. Given the recent shift to next-generation platforms, it seems possible that some gaming systems might advertise as more family oriented, while other platforms might maintain more traditional masculine depictions of the gamer-type.

 Method

For our study of video game advertisements, we undertook a content analysis of video game commercials that aired in 2013. As already noted, 2013 was a key year for the video game industry in terms of the entrance of several new console systems. To address our research questions, we examined various commercial characteristics, physical characteristics of gamers, and player behaviors. Because our focus is on what a gamer looks and behaves like, we only included commercials that featured human actors, excluding those that featured only in-game material. While an analysis of game characters is certainly useful, we felt that it was important to limit the study to human actors—a focus on humans allows us to consider representation of gamers as opposed to games. Given Shaw’s (2015) assertions that players are often ambivalent as to their representation within actual games, a focus on who is actually playing seemed more pertinent. To ensure reliability of coding measures, three trained coders coded every commercial. As noted in the literature review, advertising creates a complicated situation as coders can only use generalized assumptions about factors such as ethnicity, sex, and age. Yet, it is important to remember that commercial viewers would be forced to make similar assumptions when gauging these same physical identifiers.#

Sample

To identify a sample for analysis, we used the website www.gameads.gampressure. com. This website is available for downloading more than 16,500 classic and contemporary video game television commercials that are categorized by country, platform, and timeline. Our initial sample consisted of 5,036 U.S.-based video game television commercials. We narrowed down the sample using criteria including (1) physical human presence, (2) commercial length under one hundred seconds, (3) no behind the scenes/making of commercials, (4) no duplicate commercials, and (5) commercials that aired in 2013. Our process of elimination established several things. First, we wanted to make sure that humans were depicted in the commercial. The purpose of selecting commercials that were under one hundred seconds was to eliminate commercials that were not likely aired on television. “Making of commercials” and “behind the scenes” commercials generally feature developers, as opposed to players. Furthermore, while we do not know the specific networks and television programs that video game commercials were aired with, our goal was to primarily analyze commercials that were initially intended for television, because this indicates audience outreach. Longer and “behind the scenes” commercials seem to be primarily meant for specialized and YouTube outlets—meant for fans that were already more committed, as opposed to inviting new audiences. After applying our inclusion criteria, 180 commercials remained for coding. It is worth noting that the majority of the commercials were for console video games, as opposed to computer or mobile games. This was not an oversight on our part—very few computer or mobile games had television commercials, and even fewer featured actor representations of gamers. One might argue that the lack of diversity in types of ads, itself, speaks to the perceived lack of audience diversity.

Measures

A coding scheme jointly developed by the authors consisted of three main measurement classifications: (1) game platform, (2) physical characteristics of gamers, and (3) behavior of gamers. The variables for game platform being advertised included the presence or absence of PlayStation, Xbox, Personal Computer, Next Gen, Wii, and Nintendo DS. Based on the existing coding scheme, each commercial could be coded as advertising multiple game platform types. The variables for physical characteristics of gamers included presence of a main character, main character sex, main character whiteness, family presence, mother presence, presence of females, presence of males, multiple ethnicities present, ethnicity other than white present, and age. The variables for behavior of gamers included for both males and females, their game play, their talking about playing games, their sexualization, their talking about violence, and the occurrence of extra-game violence. All variables were nominal in nature (e.g., yes/no). The operational definitions of the variables are included in the appendix.

 Coding procedures

To test the reliability of the variables that measured physical characteristics and behavior of gamers, a randomly selected set of nine advertisements (5% of the whole sample) was independently evaluated by each of the three authors (one male and two females). The use of Cohen’s kappa or Scott’s pi as an indicator of interrater reliability was inappropriate. Instead, we used Fleiss’s kappa because it assesses interrater reliability for more than two coders (Fleiss et al. 1969; Warrens 2010). Table 1 indicates interrater reliability for each variable for the nine randomly selected ads. Reliability scores ranged from −.243 to 1.00. There were nine variables that returned poor-to-fair agreement (main character presence, family presence, main character, main character sex, main character white, multiple ethnicities, extra-game violence, male sexualization, and mother playing game; Fleiss et al. 2003). Each variable required further clarification and training before the final round of analysis was conducted. During this process, it was determined that the relative lack of reliability for main character variables (sex and white) and mothers playing game was influenced by the lack of reliability for their respective parent variables—main character presence and mother presence. After the coders received further clarification and instruction, a second round of coding using the entire sample (n = 180) was conducted. Table 1 indicates the interrater reliability for each variable for all 180 video game ads. Reliability scores ranged from .212 to .926. Of the nine variables that exhibited poor to fair reliability in the first round of coding, six saw improvements. Male sexualization and extra-game violence did not exhibit improvements in reliability and were still considered poor (<.40). Furthermore, female sexualization, which initially had high agreement, returned poor agreement (<.40). Out of the final twenty variables, ten had very good agreement (>.75), and seven had fair-to-good agreement (.41−.74; Fleiss et al. 2003).

Analysis

Chi square was the appropriate test for analysis because all measured values were nominal. Because we were interested in the representation of sex, we examined the presence of males, females, and both sexes in video game advertising. However, upon initial analysis, our expected cell frequency for female presence was frequently low (<5), thus violating an underlying assumption of chi square. Therefore, we examined the presence of one sex (either male or female) or both sexes (presence of male and female). This decision allowed us to (1) satisfy the underlying assumption of a minimum expected cell frequency in most situations, and (2) when minimum expected cell frequency was not achieved, the use of a 2 × 2 contingency table in SPSS allowed for the calculation of Fisher’s exact, an alternative measure of associative strength not subject to minimum cell frequency assumptions.

Discussion

While the market for video games has shifted over the last decade, our study demonstrates that only some things have changed in terms of perception of the “gamer.” Certainly, there is some diversity in the actors presented as players, but there is still an overriding expectation that certain kinds of people are more accepted as gamers. Unsurprisingly, we found that this varies by platform—some platforms are more inclusive than others. At the same time, regardless of platform, there were certain pat terns in how player diversity was presented, suggesting that the larger cultural perception is that video game players are more likely to be white and male.

Conclusion

Our content analysis of video game advertisements illustrates that even with the emergence of next-generation systems and shifting landscapes in gaming, there is still a cultural perception of the gamer as white male. There are exceptions to this, which can be seen in many commercials that challenge our expectations of what a gamer might look like and how he or she might behave, and certainly we have found that there is an increased inclusivity in terms of who might actually appear in these commercials. Some commercials have begun to play with and tease out these representations: the commercials of Call of Duty: Ghosts, for example, that featured a wide variety of players, or that of Diablo, where it was a woman player coaxing her male partner to play. While representations of the gamer have mostly stayed consistent, these examples portend the beginnings of a shift, as the video game industry continues to diversify. When stereotypes were at play, they fell along the lines of Bakir and Palan’s (2013) discussion of agentic and communal gendered stereotypes. Female players almost necessarily needed the permission to play via the surrounding communities. Alternatively, masculine play is often portrayed through violent speech and action, or other stereotypes of aggressive play. It is essential that we keep interrogating the role of the “gamer” as a cultural archetype. This antiquated character is a remnant that continues to dissuade new players from entering, and representations of this white, male gamer continue to present a limited scope of who can and should be playing. The analysis of these commercials illustrates a larger issue occurring in the world of gaming—while the markets and players are, indeed, beginning to become more diverse, there is still a perception of a white, male gamer who is central to the industry. Television commercials—one possible entry point into playing a new video game—function as an invitation. Depending on the representation present in that invitation, the audience will either feel that a game is intended for them or not. By continuing to expand representation of players in advertisements, the video game industry will be able to expand both in terms of overall sales and scope of audience.

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Quotes from “What Does a Gamer Look Like? Video Games, Advertising, and Diversity”

“Beginning with major market video games in the 1980s and continuing through the 1990s, video game technologies were primarily designed by and for—and subsequently advertised to—male audiences (Fron et al. 2007).”

“A lack of industry diversity, both in terms of gender as well as ethnicity, meant that for a long time, primarily white men have dominated the American-based video game industry (Fullerton et al. 2008).”

“Creators of big budget (usually) console video games, such as those played on PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo systems—have often made games with the presumption that the primary audience is similar, demographically, to the developers (Fullerton et al. 2008).”

“There has long been a perception of the primary video game audience as a white, heterosexual man.”

“This suggests that public perception of the video game player is something definable, stable, and consistent. The margins of this definition are far more fuzzy, though, and as pointed out by Shaw (2012, 2013), the cultural perception and definition of what a gamer is becomes far more prescient in defining “gamer” than the realities of who actually plays games. As such, even though there is a cultural perception that men are more likely to embody the gamer personae, the reality is that approximately half of all people who play video games are women (Jayanth 2014)”

“While there might be diversity in terms of who actually plays video games, those who play often are forced to play in ways that hide their actual identities. For example, one recent Pew Research report illustrates that while a diverse number of teens play video games, girls are less likely to play games that require voice chat—a feature that would reveal their identity (Marcotte 2015).”

“Shaw’s (2015) research helps to elaborate on ways that players who might not traditionally identify as “gamer” find alternative ways to deal with their own discontinuities with gamer culture. While Ivory (2006) asserts that this is in part because of hyper sexualized characters in video games, Shaw (2015) suggests that marginalized players are not necessarily as troubled by the accuracy of in-game representation.”

“These studies coalesce to illustrate that while there might be an expanding market to video games, there is still difficulty in broadening the notion of who a “gamer” is. The term gamer, as such, is packed with immense baggage—both positive and negative.”

“De Grove et al. (2015) suggest that while representations of a “gamer” are expanding to include the more expansive audience, there are still stereo typical perceptions behind the reputation of who might be a gamer, particularly as it pertains to gender. Bergstrom et al. (2014) similarly illustrate that despite shifting demographics for Massively Multiplayer Online Games, popular representations still place these gamers within stereotypical boundaries, creating audience expectations regarding gamer identity. Thus, it becomes important to study not only representations within games but also representations of the gamers themselves in other forms of media.”

“Advertising is an ideal means of understanding the texts and subtexts of how we interpret video games and gaming cultures because of its ability to convey culturally enforced codes into popular media (Leymore 1975; Williamson 1994).”

“These codes help to define who, what, and how a product is used both publicly and privately. In this way, advertising allows us to examine larger cultural values and assumptions. In addition, rather than being entirely about products, advertising is about selling an image of consumptive practice (Barthel 1989). In turn, by analyzing advertisements, we are able to illustrate ways that representational images might elaborate on common cultural practices.”

“Video games have long been advertised in magazines, television, and online. Early video game advertising rarely featured women or non-white players. This began to slightly shift with magazine advertising aligned with the newer Nintendo systems of the mid-2000s (the Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo Dual Screen [DS] Lite), which were specifically marketed to women (Fron et al. 2007). Magazine advertisements for the Nintendo Wii often highlighted how mothers could use gaming systems to better bond with their families (Chess 2011). Similarly, Nintendo DS advertisements in women’s magazines often highlighted physical productivity: beauty and time management, in particular. According to Chess (2011, 236), these advertisements are selling more than just play:

By collapsing play with productivity, there is something larger being sold about how women are expected to play. In turn, video games are able to maintain status as masculine play spaces, reinforcing subtext that women should only play in specific circumstances.”

 “Yet, many modes of marketing video games remain alienating to non-traditional or more diverse game audiences. This alienation occurs in several ways. For example, in his study of video game box art versus sales, Near (2013) demonstrated that video game box art with sexualized non-centrally female characters had the highest sales for teen- and mature-rated video games. At the same time, there are still other expectations regarding gaming technologies. For example, perceived masculinity is often paired with the perception that the content itself may be overwhelmed with sexist or violent elements.”

“In decoding advertising as being meant “for men,” part of the presumption is that speech or action that can be interpreted as “violent” is inherently meant for masculine audiences. In addition, by studying the representation of players in advertisements—as opposed to the game content itself—we are able to illustrate assumptions of who the audience is and what that audience might look like.”

“while we might have a great deal of identity information when analyzing a video game character (for example, a specific ethnicity, sex, or age range), we have none of this information when looking at an actor/character in an advertisement.”

“Bergstrom et al.’s (2014) study of popular culture representations of gamers in shows such as The Big Bang Theory involves characters with a great deal of identifiable information. Yet, everything in television commercials is about perception— while the real age or ethnicity of an actor might be disguised by clothing style or makeup, it is only the perception of their age and ethnicity that carries meaning in the fifteen to thirty seconds that we consume the commercial. Thus, using a content analysis method wherein we are able to track multiple visual perceptions about factors such as age, ethnicity, and gender allows us to consider the tricky space of how the audience is most likely to perceive these characters. In other words, it does not necessarily matter if an actor is a thirty-five-year-old African American woman; what matters is how she visually parses to audiences in a short period of time.”

“Several studies have used content analysis approaches to better understand patterns and codes of how gender and ethnicity are articulated through television commercials. For instance, Paek et al. (2011) used content analysis to compare how gender functions cross-culturally among seven countries. Espinar-Ruiz and González-Diaz (2012) employed content analysis to compare how men and women were portrayed stereo typically in food commercials. Eisend (2010) used meta-analysis to compile studies analyzing gender across television commercials to find common themes and stereo types. All of these studies establish that gender is still stereotyped within advertising spaces. Furthermore, the content of these studies implies that males and females take on specific kinds of roles in advertising. Where males often take on “agentic” roles (aggressive or leadership-related), females often take on “communal” roles (nurturance or friendliness; Bakir et al. 2008). These roles persist in advertising targeting both children and adults (Bakir and Palan 2013). Thus, the analysis of agentic versus communal roles can help elaborate on the style of representation for game players or potential game players.”

“This was not an oversight on our part—very few computer or mobile games had television commercials, and even fewer featured actor representations of gamers. One might argue that the lack of diversity in types of ads, itself, speaks to the perceived lack of audience diversity.”

“Certainly, there is some diversity in the actors presented as players, but there is still an overriding expectation that certain kinds of people are more accepted as gamers. Unsurprisingly, we found that this varies by platform—some platforms are more inclusive than others. At the same time, regardless of platform, there were certain pat terns in how player diversity was presented, suggesting that the larger cultural perception is that video game players are more likely to be white and male.”

“In games where there was a main character (52%), this character was overwhelmingly white (67%) and male (90%). This illustrates previous insight that while there might be an increasing amount of diversity throughout the commercials, when there was a single person presented as a clear advocate for video games (i.e., a main character), that person was overwhelmingly white and male. While there might be an increased number of diverse actors in a video game commercial, in general, the advocate for gaming (which could be understood as a “gamer”) seems to have not changed.”

“Yet, other versions of advertisements attempted to showcase a diversity of expected players. In these alternative versions, both men and women of multiple ethnicities talked about playing in entirely inappropriate spaces and scenarios—for example, players talked about their violent acts of play while at dinner with in-laws or at a baby shower. One clip from the commercial features a non-white, female dental hygienist excitedly explaining while she cleans a patient’s teeth, “. . . And as I’m about to shoot . . . this huge thing falls out of the sky!” These depictions are clearly meant to be playful with expectations of gamer bodies, and show an increase toward a diverse representation of the “gamer” as a cultural archetype.”

“Yet, other commercials still maintain stereotypes of women in terms of playing. In one commercial for the Xbox 360 game Call of Duty Black Ops II Revolution, a white male is introduced as “The Replacer”—a male who can occupy women while men play the video game. This replacer is apparently multitalented, listening to women’s problems, being there for the birth of children, and showing up to dates in place of the (presumed) male who is too busy playing video games. The commercial reinforces gendered, heteronormative stereotypes that women are not players (and that men, necessarily, are) yet also only involves the predicaments of white women—all of the women shown in the commercial are white. Clearly, this advertisement is suggesting a more traditional representation of the “gamer.”

“Just being present in a commercial, of course, is not enough to indicate whether a per son is considered a “gamer”—the actor in the advertisement needs to be either playing a video game or talking about playing. While 43.9 percent of the commercials had both males and females, females were not necessarily depicted as game players. Among commercials where a woman character was present, only 22 percent featured women playing the game, and 14 percent featured women talking about playing. Comparatively, when males were featured in a commercial, they played a video game 47.8 percent and talked about playing 36.7 percent of the time.”

“One surprising finding was that male presence was often necessary to enable female play. Figure 2 illustrates that in instances where males and females were present in an advertisement, the proportion of female play was greater than instances when only females were present. This suggests that while there might be an increased number of females playing, there is still an expectation that males are necessary to enable and potentially advocate play. This reinforces Chess’ 2011 theory that while video games are sometimes advertised to women, there is a suggestion that women can only be permitted to play in specific ways—as part of family togetherness or in productive contexts. This was certainly the case in dance and music games such as Just Dance 4 and Just Dance Disney Party—where more females danced/played but a small number of males played as well. Games such as Super Mario Party and several other Wii games showed males and females playing together. This suggests that while there is a slow increase of diverse representation of gamers, the quality of that representation might still be in question.”

“One interesting reverse of males enabling female play occurred in the advertisement for multiplatform Diablo III. In this advertisement, a young man comes home, finding his partner’s clothing strewn across the stairs as she makes loud, sexual noises off-screen. When he finds her, she is playing the game with a group of friends (in full cosplay) and invites him to join. Interestingly, the male character in this commercial appears uncomfortable—his female partner has clearly “lost control” of her sexuality via her entry into the game. This advertisement suggests that the boundaries of who gets to be a “gamer” are shifting and that the results might be discomforting.”

“Often, mothers were depicted as the person who either enables or stands in the way of games. One enabling commercial for the video game retail store GameStop shows a white mother driving home at holiday time. Her minivan is weighted down and bouncing to hip-hop music. As she drives, a variety of males nod at her, knowingly, with the underlying implication that she might have some relationship to gangs. As she pulls up to her front driveway, and opens her trunk, it is revealed to the audience that the mother’s “hipness” is related to the back of her vehicle being overloaded with video games and systems. The implication is that she is not purchasing these for herself, but rather, for her family.”

“Yet, mothers also are seen as inhibiting play. One commercial for the new Xbox One system via Wal-Mart helps to establish that mothers not only are not gamers but also actively might hinder play. In the commercial, a father and son are in the son’s bedroom playing an Xbox system, newly opened. The advertisement clearly takes place before the Christmas holiday, and the two appear to be playing surreptitiously. The father warns his son, “It’s for the whole family. But remember, mom can’t know that we opened it early.” The mother suddenly calls for them and begins to approach the room. As we see the mother walk, we hear nondiegetic music following the mother’s feet, suggesting something dangerous or threatening might happen. The father and son quickly hide the gift from the mother. The commercial helps to establish that motherhood is separate from gaming. Although the gaming system is “for the whole family,” we know that the mother is not included. The use of suspenseful music helps to establish the mother as the villain—she is an enemy of play.”

“In advertisements where males were present, 12.8 percent featured males talking about violence, but in advertisements where females were present, only 3.3 percent of them talked about violent content of video games. In this way, it seems as though violence is an indicator of a perception that gamers are male.”

“At the same time, there was a surprising lack of sexualization in any of the commercials shown. Females were sexualized only in 3.9 percent of the advertisements and males in only 1.1 percent.”

“Our content analysis of video game advertisements illustrates that even with the emergence of next-generation systems and shifting landscapes in gaming, there is still a cultural perception of the gamer as white male. There are exceptions to this, which can be seen in many commercials that challenge our expectations of what a gamer might look like and how he or she might behave, and certainly we have found that there is an increased inclusivity in terms of who might actually appear in these commercials.”

“When stereotypes were at play, they fell along the lines of Bakir and Palan’s (2013) discussion of agentic and communal gendered stereotypes. Female players almost necessarily needed the permission to play via the surrounding communities. Alternatively, masculine play is often portrayed through violent speech and action, or other stereo types of aggressive play.”

“It is essential that we keep interrogating the role of the “gamer” as a cultural archetype. This antiquated character is a remnant that continues to dissuade new players from entering, and representations of this white, male gamer continue to present a limited scope of who can and should be playing. The analysis of these commercials illustrates a larger issue occurring in the world of gaming—while the markets and players are, indeed, beginning to become more diverse, there is still a perception of a white, male gamer who is central to the industry. Television commercials—one possible entry point into playing a new video game—function as an invitation. Depending on the representation present in that invitation, the audience will either feel that a game is intended for them or not. By continuing to expand representation of players in advertisements, the video game industry will be able to expand both in terms of overall sales and scope of audience.”

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Assessment of box art covers for action games released on the PS4 within the past year, this was a small experiment to see the difference of coverage of males and females on video game box covers in 2018/2019, taken from:

https://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/playstation-4/2019/action/

Not all games from this list are on the table above, for example box arts that just include titles, missing box arts, or the character’s features were hidden and were indescribable. 

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Quotes from “On Being a Feminist in Games Studies” re-upload

“The difficulties were more about not being a hard-core gamer. Really, to stay in the industry you needed to be a gamer who loved games more than anything else. More than having friends and relationships and, basically, a life.”

 “During crunch times ahead of milestones, people were working 80þ hours a week.”

 “But the ethos of “manning up” and working really long hours at the expense of any other priority in life is also one that permeates the industry in ways that make it hard for anyone with parenting duties, relationship interests, and so on, to participate fully in the industry.”

 “Issues of labor conditions in the games industry and their gendered implications continue to the present day (see de Peuter & Dyer-Witheford, 2005, for an early depiction of conditions).”

 “But it was clear that the structures and ethos of production were quite masculinized."

 “The pathways into gaming are social––we often learn to game, are introduced to games, and find our way into competence, through our social connections (Taylor, 2008). We sit in front of the console with our friends and play together. We learn together and spend many hours gaining expertise.”

 “Scholars in games studies have tried to counter the myth of the socially isolated and inadequate “gamer identity,” arguing for the sociability of games.”

 “Social context is a big part of games and gameplay. Which makes it difficult for someone like me, who has friends my own age and older, who are queer women with feminist politics, who look at the games available to them and say “I don’t want to waste my time on that stuff––it’s violent, sexist and horrible” and then refuse to play with me.”

 “Inclusivity is a constant project. Exclusions don’t just “happen” in games or in games studies research, just as they didn’t just “happen” in the furniture-making industry. They are the product of active behavior on the part of those in power. If we want to have an inclusive society, culture, subculture, medium, or academic discipline, we have to work at it by pushing through the barriers of exclusionary behavior ourselves, or making sure we are not part of the snarling pack defending its territory from the “threatening other.”

 “In games, we still have the princesses and hyper-sexualized characters, but there are more games with women characters I can bear to look at, and play as. And online there are spaces in games where I don’t feel vilified and hated. But there are also persistent spheres of misogyny and hate that work to exclude me and other women. Just as in the offline world.”

 “If you identify as a hard-core gamer, maybe you wonder whether I should be entitled to write about games because I am a casual gamer, or a middle-aged lesbian, or really, more a media studies researcher than games studies. But does policing the boundaries of who is entitled to identify as gamer, or write and research about games, make the discipline of games studies stronger? What do we lose by such policing and what do we gain? More broadly, in games cultures, the boundary policing of gamergate embodies some of the drawbacks that can ensue.”

 “Culturally however, digital games negotiate a constant struggle for legitimacy, derived in part from the way that games are not seen as serious. They are still seen as marginal-to mainstream culture, as are the people who play them. Yet, they can be seriously tied to the cultural production of values and norms, just as other forms of media can. It is this very position on the edge––of the mainstream media, but also of serious/not serious––that is used as a rhetorical tool of some of the worst outbreaks of misogyny and hate speech we have seen in recent times.”

 “Eglash (2002) points to the ways in which geek masculinities are racialized, with African- American men cast as an opposition to the geek through tropes and stereotypes that align African American men with physicality and White men with more intellectual pursuits. That geeks and the bearers of other nerdy styles of masculinity have been the recipients of bullying behaviors from other men and sometimes women is observable, although with the rise of the importance and valorization of the high-tech industries, the geek male is less on the outer than he used to be.”

 “Gamergaters characterize themselves as out siders, maligned and misread, trying to protect the safe spaces they occupy in games from the invasion of diverse “others.” This strategic foregrounding of the marginalized characteristics of games and geek masculinities neatly elides or obscures the much more central and powerful positions these men occupy through their race and gender positions in culture more broadly.”

 “The stereotypes of gamers perpetuate the idea of marginal geek masculinities, and at the same time virtually obliterate women and anyone else from the category of gamer. In this, they are aligned with the gamergaters.”

 “the context of games cultures rather than broader cultures, we can see that hard-core gamers are at the center––and this group is generally young, White, heterosexual, and male.”

 “The marginalized geek gamer of the broader culture here occupies the center. The games industry perpetuates this centrality of the hard core. It also perpetuates the centrality of the Triple A titles as the most important games. Triple A titles tend to be the most risk-averse titles, while the indie games and mobile and casual markets exist on the margins.”

 “But the industry, perhaps because they view the hard core as central to their profit margins, is slow to change.”

 “Consalvo (2012) points out that publishers perpetuate the idea of the Triple A titles as the ones that matter through discourses which suggest that casual games are feminized.”

 “In other words, “real games” are the hard core Triple A variety and they are also the masculinized games (Vanderhoef, 2013). Vanderhoef also suggests that feminized casual games are perceived as an active threat to the hegemonic White male hard core. This concatenation of identity, content, and capital is potent.”

 “I want to touch on in this consideration of shifting margins and centers is games studies. As a discipline carving out a space for itself, it exists on the margins of the more established disciplinary areas. It maps onto the Humanities and Arts, but also exists in relationship to the IT, Computing Sciences and Design disciplines.”

 “Wasn’t the whole ludology/narratology debate of a decade ago about trying to create a meaningful and formal distinction between games and literary texts, and therefore methodologies?”

 “Although the Triple A titles were the predominating form of games in the earlier years of games studies, it is notice able that there were gaps in games studies around some very popular genres––sports games, children’s games, early casual games, games that didn’t reflect the researchers’ own interests, and have left gaps, some of which persist.”

 “Chess and Shaw (2015) point out that the initial academic event that captured the attention of gamergaters was a “fishbowl” session designed to attract more of the game studies scholars into the discussion on diversity. They felt the need to do this because of the ways in which “diversity” was being hived off into a marginalized strand of the field rather than incorporated into the key concerns and rhetoric of the field.”

 “As J. Sunde´n (personal communication, October 21, 2016) has commented “separatism is not primarily (or even secondarily) about exclusion, it is not about those who are not there, but about gaining strength collectively as a subordinate group”.”

 “In terms of gamer cultures and groups set up to support women and gay or lesbian players, Richard notes that “ . . . counter-communities within subcultures offer unique affordances for pushing boundaries and rebelling against hierarchy, and they allow members to form and foster skills, confidence, and networks that begin to level the playing field” (Richard, 2017, p. 173).”

 “The vestiges of marginality still permeate the sensibilities of at least some of the gamergaters. The ways in which gamergaters have constructed and us against- the-world mentality that is manifested through a kind of besieged and defensive reaction to critique”

 “While not trying to defend gamergater actions, we can see where the rhetoric of marginality might have arisen from. This does not make it acceptable. Clearly the kind of misogynist rage we witness in gamergate and other events like the PAX dickwolves, or the trash talk on Xbox live, comes from men wielding power that emanates from a privileged central position.”

 “The reality is that making more diverse games will not cause the current range of games so beloved by the gamer gaters to disappear. It is not a zero-sum game. “Having multiple game cultures does not inherently displace others. . . . Multiple communities can exist without taking away from one another” (Shaw, 2017, pp. 159–160).”

 “The impacts of these enraged attacks on women and on feminists and on women and/or feminist academics are clearly to chill speech (see Chess & Shaw, 2015, p.22; Ruberg & Shaw, 2017, p. xxi). If you think you may be subjected to campaigns involving doxing, hacking, and public humiliation, you think very carefully about whether you are going to say anything. The very same people who perpetrate these acts will argue they have a right to their hate speech as free speech. This “all rights, no obligations” approach ignores the limits to free speech that have always existed, and the ways in which hate speech curtails the ability of others to speak.”

 “It aligns with the cyber-libertarianism of the much broader cultures of geek masculinities. The culture of hate speech and hate mobs in cyberspace is heavily gendered and needs to be understood as such––it is not an accident (Citron, 2014). It draws from the structural power that men gain from their position at the center of a patriarchal culture. It functions to exclude women, queers, anyone else who games but is not part of the hard-core male center.”

 ” For as long as the industry understands this to be their core market, it will continue to validate the values being expounded by the hard core. This tacit acceptance of misogyny is not confined to games publishers. Shaw (2014, p. 275) suggests that “Misogyny, racism, homophobia, etc., were not invented by the internet, but they are enabled by technology and the cultural norms of internet communication in which this behavior is supported, defended, and even valued”.”

 “This is borne out in Massanari’s (2015) study of Reddit moderation, and the ways in which controversial posts drive up ad revenue. Sarkeesian (2017), in a talk at 2017 VidCon, also pointed to the ways in which the misogynist men who harass her constantly make money from their harassment. Fox and Tang’s (2016) study on sexual harassment in games shows that, as with more conventional organizations, if management is seen to act to close down harassment, then women will stay, but if they are perceived to either condone, or only pay lip service to censuring harassers, then women will often choose to exit rather than endure. The ability of games publishers to create change in this space is clear, and their unwillingness to do so on occasion can be attributed to either a supportiveness of the culture, or a perception that it is more profitable to allow it than not, or both.”

 “The games industry is diminished as a result. For as long as it remains risk averse, conservative, sexist, and complicit in cultures of racism and homophobia, it will remain marginal to other media cultures. It misses the opportunities to explore the complexities and nuances available––the rich possibilities of games to be so much more than they currently are. It puts a brake on innovation. But the impacts of the practices of gamergaters and the industry’s complicity in them are much broader than that. The exclusion and silencing of all but the few hard-core gamers, and the hate attacks, and execrable behavior toward all who are seen as “other” have a terrible impact on those people.”

 “Now, 30 years later, with the gamergate hate crowd, I did think twice about whether I wanted to write about identity and margins. Having witnessed the harassment of some of our colleagues, I really don’t want that going on in my life. Even though the gamergate crowd might be relatively marginal, they can have a strong chilling effect on speech. Again, there is a self-censoring process that is related to safety as Sunde´n also writes about in her research (see Sunde´n & Sveningsson, 2012, p. 149). However I also understand that if no one stands alongside those women who have been targeted nothing will change.”

  “We need to take these ideas seriously. As game designers, working out the ways that the affordances of games can minimize the game becoming a conduit for misogyny and sexist, racist, homophobic cultures. As publishers, the perception that the misogyny of the hard core is more profitable than the reduction of harms to the nonhard-core needs to give way to understanding that in the long term publishers are about culture as well as money and need to be alive to their responsibilities to cultural diversity. As players, users, and spectators of games, we also need to not be bystanders when the hard core exerts their power. And as games studies scholars, we need to maintain the current path toward inclusivity as a norm and be alert to the gaps and silences in the field.”

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Tables from “Still a Man's Game: Gender Representation in Online Reviews of Video Games”

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Results from “Still a Man's Game: Gender Representation in Online Reviews of Video Games” experiment

Hypothesis 1: Male character references will outnumber female character references in online reviews of video games, both in text and images.

Hypothesis 2: Male characters will be described as active and playable characters proportionally more often than female characters in reviews, whereas female characters will be featured as passive objects of game play proportionally more often.

Hypothesis 3: Female characters will be described and visually depicted in a sexually suggestive manner proportionally more often than male characters in reviews.

RQ1: How do video game reviewers regard the prevalence and sexually suggestive representations of male and female video game characters in game content?

Method

Gamespot (http://www.gamespot.com), a site affiliated with the CNet computer product review service, was used to obtain reviews for sampling. Gamespot was listed as the top site for video game reviews by the Google search engine’s ranking feature at the time this study was conducted, a testament to its popularity with players. To ensure a representative sample of popular and commonly reviewed games, reviews of all games from Gamespot’s “Top Rated” (games released in the last year rated highest by reviewers) and “Most Popular” (games whose pages are currently receiving the most site visits) lists were examined during a March 26, 2004, site visit to obtain a cross-sectional purposive sample. From the top 100 games in each list, redundant reviews were removed (some games appeared on both lists), and only the higher rated review was kept when multiple versions of a game for different play platforms were featured (e.g., PC and Sony Playstation 2 versions of the same game). 1 Lastly, all games from the “Most Popular” list that were not yet reviewed (some “Most Popular” games were upcoming releases not yet available) were also culled.

This process of elimination resulted in a sample of 100 games for the final analysis. The games from this group consisted of products released for six different game platforms: personal computer (N = 35), Sony Playstation 2 (N = 28), Microsoft XBOX (N = 15), Nintendo Game Boy Advance (N = 12), Nintendo GameCube (N = 9), and Sony Playstation (N = 1). Game genres were diverse, including sports, action, and strategy games intended for various age groups. Objectives and plots ranged from a railroad planning and construction simulation (Rail road Tycoon 3) to a gory narrative game featuring the plight of a doomed convict who escapes justice by grudgingly committing grisly murders for a snuff film distributor (Manhunt).

The unit of analysis in this study was each one- to three-page Gamespot review, and protocols guiding coder decisions were simple. Appearance of primary (main) characters and playable characters of each gender were indicated by their presence or absence in a review’s commentary. Active characters were defined as “characters that are playable or otherwise who have a significant impact on the plot of the game (e.g., as villains, combatants, “aides,” etc.),” and passive characters were defined as “characters that don’t play an active role are described (e.g., spectators, objects of game’s goal that do not play a role themselves in the outcome, etc.).” Protocols guiding decisions regarding sexual content were also rudimentary: Mentions of character attractiveness were defined as instances where “a character’s (passive or active) attractiveness is mentioned, whether tersely (e.g., “dashing,” “beautiful”) or in detail (e.g., “looks sexy in that revealing outfit”),” and sexual depiction in images was defined as instances where “a pictured character is depicted in a sexually suggestive manner, including revealing clothing, suggestive posture, etc.” This strategy was used to capture highly overt and relevant content of interest because preliminary examinations of reviews indicated that sexually suggestive content tended to be unambiguous. Although some video game characters were nonhuman (e.g., the alien protagonist from Ratchet and Clank), coders used mention of gender-related characteristics or gender-specific pronouns in reviews to determine character gender when possible. The author coded the entire sample of reviews, with 19% (N = 19) of the sample randomly selected for independent coding by a volunteer unfamiliar with the research hypotheses for intercoder reliability analysis .2 Reliability testing employed Scott’s Pi, a measure that accounts for category prevalence to estimate coder reliability above expected chance agreement (see Riffe, Lacy, & Fico, 1998). An item assessing primary character gender (“male,” “female,” or “no primary character/ gender unknown”) yielded a Scott’s Pi value of .82, and 14 dichotomous items indicating presence or absence of the various male and female depictions yielded an overall Scott’s Pi value of .81. In those cases where disagreement between coders existed, the primary coder’s decisions were used in analysis.

Results

Character Prevalence:

In general, female characters were represented in far fewer of the sampled game re views than male characters (Table 1). Though 75% (N = 75) of the reviews mentioned male characters, only 42% (N = 42) mentioned female characters in any capacity. Images including male characters appeared in 78% (N = 78) of the reviews, whereas female characters appeared in images accompanying only 32% (N = 32) of the reviews. Though 54% (N = 54) of the reviews indicated no primary characters or left primary characters’ gender unclear, 76% (N = 35) of the remainder featured male primary characters. Only a small portion of reviews indicating primary characters named a female lead (10.9%, N = 5) or primary characters of both genders (13.0%, N = 6). Comparing the 95% confidence intervals for these observed frequencies indicated that all of these differences were statistically significant (i.e., the 95% confidence intervals for the male and female proportions did not overlap for each category), strongly supporting Hypothesis 1.

Active and Passive Characters

Comparison of male and female characters’ appearance in active and passive roles found similar differences. Active male characters were mentioned in 75% (N = 75) of the reviews, whereas active female characters were described in only 33% (N = 33) of the reviews. Also, 65% (N = 65) of the reviews indicated male playable characters, whereas only 22% (N = 22) mentioned female playable characters. These differences were all statistically significant. A small difference in frequency of passive characters, with passive females appearing in 9% (N = 9) of reviews and passive males appearing in only 8% (N = 8), was not statistically significant. 3 Hypothesis 2, therefore, is only partially supported.

Sexually Suggestive Depictions

Though female characters were underrepresented overall, their attractiveness and sexuality were mentioned in proportionally more reviews than that of males (Table 2). Less than 1% (N = 1) of the 75 reviews mentioning male characters included a reference to a male character’s attractiveness or sexual appeal, but 12% (N = 5) of the 42 reviews mentioning female characters included such references to females. This difference narrowly missed this study’ threshold of statistical significance because of a small overlap in confidence intervals, largely due to the low frequency of such references in general. Though such a low overall prevalence may suggest a lack of sexualized content, the infrequency might as easily be interpreted as disinterest in such content on the part of the reviewers. Analysis of video game images from the reviews, however, more strongly suggests a gender gap in sexually suggestive portrayals. Of the 32 reviews with pictured female characters, 41% (N = 13) contained sexually suggestive imagery of females; only 4% (N = 3) of the 78 reviews with pictured males similarly included sexually suggestive male representations. This statistically significant difference provides partial support for Hypothesis 3.

Reviewer Opinions

Comparing the prevalence and nature of review comments about attractiveness and sexual appeal (largely determined by the reviewer) with the prevalence of sexually suggestive video game imagery (largely controlled by game producers) addressed the study’s research question regarding reviewers’ attitudes toward depictions. Although our analysis found that reviewed video games’ images portrayed women in a sexualized manner in much higher proportions than men, reviewers mentioned such content only six times regarding either gender. It is possible that reviewers were not particularly interested in mentioning the attractiveness or sexualization of characters, downplaying female sexual depictions in review comments. There is also some anecdotal support in reviews suggesting reviewers’ disapproval of sexualized female portrayals. Consider, for example, Gamespot reviewer Gord Goble’s (2003) take on the selection of the lone female player character featured in the TigerWoods PGA Tour 2004 personal computer game: “That the only LPGA personality to make the grade is the young and attractive, but unproven, Natalie Gulbis is interesting, to say the least” (n.p.). Though comments of this nature and the reviewers’ overall tendency to leave sexualized depictions unmentioned suggests that reviewers may be unenthusiastic about the proliferation of sexualized female images in video games, such a firm conclusion about the game reviewers’ reactions to character portrayals cannot be made from this study’s evidence. This study’s research question regarding reviewers’ reactions to sexually suggestive content thus remains only partially answered: Reviewers mention such depictions rarely, but it is unclear why.