Lisa Kirk, Annika Lutz, Trena Norton, Molly Zimmerman GHC 2010 Relevance

GHC 2010 Extended Abstract For many people, video games are the first taste of the world of technology. Therefore, the message these games send to the players is vitally important. Women, specifically, are most often portrayed in more mature video games as both overly sexual and somewhat masculine. For example, one of the most commonly known woman video game characters, Lara Croft, is dressed in tight, revealing clothing with clear emphasis on her breasts and hips. It is only natural that any environment in which women are objectified is one most females will avoid. Lara Croft also demonstrates emotional aloofness and participates in shooting and violence, activities and traits thought of as purely male-oriented. The fact that she is only physically feminine, and eccentrically so, suggests that a woman's appearance may be her only valuable attribute. Furthermore, her character implies that a successful person must strictly demonstrate traditionally male personality traits. Beyond these obstacles still lie many social implications a woman must face when entering the world of video games. A female gamer is typically seen as unfeminine, geeky, and holding lower status than other females. More importantly, she is seen as a worse game player than her male peers. Although there has been no research that proves women cannot play video games as well as men, an overwhelming majority of the population shares this belief, including many women. In this way the video game community is somewhat antiquated, treating women as having an eternally lower status than men. While previously the subjects of research on women in video games have been mostly on player statistics, we will explore both women's portrayal in video games as well as the social environment of a woman gamer. The Interactive Digital Software Association, or IDSA, reported in 2000 that 43% of video game players are women. We will grow on this famous finding by examining why women are still thought of as a minority in the realm of video games even though they are more prominent in the industry each year. Furthermore, we will investigate why they face such harsh criticism as female gamers when there has been no substantial evidence of one gender being more capable than the other in playing video games. In order to accurately research discrimination and its affect on women within the video game community, data will be collected through a series of experiments and surveys. Experiments will …