26 Aug 2011 No Comments

I healed a tank, and I liked it

I never started out to be a healer. I started out with my main as a hunter dps (damage per second.. aka. a damage dealer, non-tank) in World of Warcraft (WoW). It wasn’t until two years ago when I met Ky (and Ky met me) that I became a heals (healer). It was love at first rejuv (rejuvenation = healing over time spell), and ever since then we’ve been inseparable (I’ve quit at times, but I always seem to go back to her… ).

Since then, we’ve healed countless tanks (both good and otherwise), dungeon groups, raids, and have generally been around the block. The rush never gets old… that moment when you know you were the one who kept the group from wiping at the last minute. I’d like to say I’ve gotten good at it.

So it was interesting in my research when the nature of gender and WoW class came up, and I found myself playing a traditionally gendered role. Often people who roll healers are female in character as well as in real life, and if not both, the former. Females are stereotypically the more nurturing of the sexes, so it extends that we tend to think of healers as female. I never made the connection really.

We all have different reasons behind our class choices. Much has been written on the subject behind motivations of play (Yee) and, following that, motivations behind class choice (healer versus tank versus dps (DiGiuseppe/Nardi) ). There’s more I’m sure, but nearly all of it has roots in the real world as we bring our real lives into our game lives..

There are a lot of reasons to play heals, to be a female and play heals. This little night elf’s story is only one of many, and one of these days, I’ll ask my male friends why they do it.

I find I enjoy helping people. Swooping in at the last second with a quick HoT (heal over time) to save someone when they’re fighting a mob and are low on health.. or just randomly buffing people, hoping my little druid buff might do them some good. It’s both selfish and altruistic at times. At it’s base, it appeals to the nurturing instincts as I feel joy when the group succeeds and hurt when they don’t. Knowing it’s not always my fault when they don’t, but taking it on myself none the less (if i had just been a little bit faster… had that much stronger heals…).

I’m female. I’m a healer.
Now, do I do it because I’m female? Probably.
Do I like it because I’m female? Likely.
Either way, I heal tanks and like it.

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DiGiuseppe, Nicholas & Nardi, Bonnie. (2007). “Real Genders Choose Fantasy Characters: Class Choice in World of Warcraft.” First Monday. 12(5).
Yee, Nick. (2009). Daedalus Project. http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
Yee, Nick. (2007). “Motivations of Play in Online Games.” Journal of Cyberpsychology and Behavior. 9. pp. 772 – 775.

by krosier in Gender Roles, Thoughts

30 May 2011 No Comments

Sexualized Female Avatars & Why We Play Them

Last week’s posting and looking back on my thesis brought up some thoughts… it has been well researched in the gaming community that many females don’t like playing ‘sexy’ avatars: the ones with curves and breasts that in real life would give them serious back problems and probably falling to the floor most of the day due to the shear weight of them. So why do we play them anyway? or for some of us, why do we play them to begin with?

I did a brief search on ‘female avatars’ and MMOGs today, trying to see the different types of avatars, and there really isn’t a dearth of types… while most of them are sexualized, many are fantastic, monstrous, or even normal (yes.. while they are rare, I’ll admit the ‘normal’ ones are out there). The genderizing of many of these is a topic for another day.

Looking at staples like World of Warcraft (WoW) and Guild Wars (GW), they have somewhat normal avatars, but they also have the lithe ones… For WoW, it’s the Blood and Night Elves (BE / NE). For GW, most of the females.

I’ll even admit to being one of these females. In WoW, I have super majority of NEs. In GW, I’m always ‘dressing up’ my avatars to fit a highly sexualized feminine role (side: a hat tip to Ludica’s “Playing Dress-Up”).

So why do we do it? I think like many things, it’s a complicated relationship, and for everyone, the reasons will be different. Research into these reasons, while not vital, would be interesting and provide some insight into a lot of what I study (real world gender construction and MMOGS). However, I do think some reasons can be theorized.

One is females simply like the fantasy of it. We like the idea of being able to escape to something completely different. The avatars are so sexualized they’re almost in-human in a way. They’re also different then us and kind of open another world where we get to play the hero – something completely removed from someone who is jane-average and works a 9 – 5. The magical Night Elf healer who helps save the day by bringing back a heroic party from the brink of death? Why not? They’re the fantasy of what we wish we could be. Which partially leads into the second point…

The fantasy of being the ideal female and fitting in with current gender standards. A lot of today’s standards for ‘female beauty’ are standards only a tiny majority can fill out. Being bombarded with these signals of what it takes to be female in a modern society, we are given a twisted opportunity to play the ‘perfect’ female in online games. Society has placed gender roles on people – for males and females. Games allows us ‘imperfect’ females to escape into the perfect female.. if only for a little while.

Both of these are completely intertwinable, but I think they make up part of what it means for a female to play the over-feminine avatar – a fantastical escape into someone who is a lot better then ‘me.’ There are other reasons I’m sure as this only stems from the little research I’ve done as well as my personal experience.

As always, thoughts on why I may be right or wrong is appreciated as well as any other ideas out there.

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Want to look into this more? Try:

T.L. Taylor, Ludica, (more tba)

And if anyone’s got anything to pass my way, feel free. This is something I’m curious about.

by krosier in Gender Roles, Sexualization, Thoughts

23 May 2011 No Comments

What We Play: A Study of Gender Game Preferences

A few months ago, some members of the Gendered Games group at Tech conducted a small study on some of the basic gaming habits of players. It was inspired by an earlier activity the group did regarding differences in male and female preferences in games and avatars.

The study ended up with 68 participants: 41 males and 27 females. They were asked various questions regarding how they played, what they played, who they played with, how long they played, etc.

The male participants were mostly in the age range of 18 – 25 (49%) and were students (44%). Other occupations for them included game designers, programmers, analysts, and management. The highest education most of them had completed was a Bachelors (39%), and most were White/Caucasian (98%).

The majority age range for female participants was 18 to 25 (33%). Most of them were students (38%) but other occupations included unemployed, designer, teaching/professor, research, and programming. The highest education most of them had completed was a Masters (37%), and most were White/Caucasian (82%).

Though a lot of the survey information has yet to be filtered through, much of the initial results were interesting.

  • Most males considered themselves “gamers” while most females didn’t
  • Females tended to choose a more realistic avatar of either sex. Males tended to choose a more realistic male avatar and a more sexualized female avatar.
  • Majority of both sexes prefer to play in Third Person
  • Females prefer achieving and exploring by themselves. Males prefer to work on achievements by themselves.
  • Females prefer socializing with others. Males prefer combat with others.
  • The top genres males preferred to play were platformer and arcade type games. The females top preferences were role-playing and point and click action adventure.
  • All females said they liked to play stories while 87% of the males did.
[More information and graphs can be found on the images below.]

This information is interesting to me, personally, on two fronts. The first is that some of the past trends in differences between the genders found in game studies done in the last decade seem to be narrowing. The second is the differences still fall along ‘appropriate’ gender roles. Males are still playing fighting games solo, and females are playing fantasy games with others.

Whether this change is a matter of a changing society, changing game companies, or society simply applying itself to a new media remains to be seen. Likely, it’s a merging of all three.

***************

What Kind of Gamer Are You?

genresPlayed

activitiesYourself

by krosier in Gender Roles, Research

05 May 2010 No Comments

The Vicious Cycle, in Reverse

I read a very interesting article in Salon this morning describing a similar gender dynamic in the book publishing world to that of the game industry, BUT IN REVERSE. In Ludica’s chapter for Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat, “Towards a Virtuous Cycle”, we described the self-fulfilling prophecy of the game industry using “women don’t play games” as a justification for not making games for women. The article by Laura Miller, “Why men don’t read books“, describes a similar, though slightly nuanced, dynamic.

by cpearce in Gender and the Game Industry, Magazine Articles, News Articles

12 Feb 2010 No Comments

What Men/Women Want

During the last meeting of GG, we had a “participatory” meeting, pitting the males against the females with the basic question of “What do we want from a game?”

Three questions were posed:

  1. What do you look for in an avatar?
  2. What makes a game fun?
  3. What games do you like and why?

The results are in and lead to a great discussion.

What Do You Look For in an Avatar?

MEN

  • Want to play an established character
  • Look at what an avatar can offer – instrumentalism

WOMEN

  • Want to create their own character
  • Create stronger emotional attachments to characters

Though both groups noticed some self projection onto their avatars.

What Makes a Game Fun?

MEN

  • Liked a fixed game system – linear narrative structure
  • Liked shooting games and puzzles

WOMEN

  • Wanted the ability to explore
  • Liked flexibility during play
  • Liked non-violent combat, disliked fear as a motivator
  • Preferred having some sort of social aspect

Both groups mentioned liking distractions and diversions in their game play as well as liking surprises and wanting to subvert the game play in some form

Some additional thoughts from the discussion on things I noticed.

  • Th men tended to use video games as the basis for their answers while the women used MMOGs

Some games that were brought up to think about

  • Igi
  • IndyCade
  • Imashinarium

Also, as a side note, a strong discussion came about regarding the idea of destiny and choice in games.

  • Choices aren’t real in games
  • Games don’t offer true “free will”
  • There is no “moral absolution” in games. Designers put in place a value system for the game based on their own values and expectations.

by krosier in Gender Roles, Thoughts

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