Digc201 Week Nine Lecture May7

DIGC201 Digital Games Cultures  

Week 9 Games in context: gender and identity.

Williams et al 2008 Debunking Gamer stereotypes 

US Research 40% of adults play games at least once per week, compared to 83% of teenagers. The average age of gamers is now 33, spending $7.4 US billion on games in 2006. 67% of teens play games online.

www.split-screen.com

Everquest2 census AV Player Age 31 80% Male pop Anglo dominated

http://everquest2.station.sony.com/pizza/images/Top.jpg

Educated, medium wealth Less Spiritual Healthier than non-Players and reduced media consumption

Bartle (1996) Taxomnomy of gamers

Bartle – taxonomy Taylor

www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm

Are digital games like chess or tennis, or are they pasttimes like reading or watching TV, or are the more like organised sports or simply just entertainment?

Unlike games, virtual worlds and simulations don’t attract as many killers. That’s not to say that killers do not or cannot exist in these spaces – they do. In Second Life they are known as griefers, people who try to cause discomfort to others via clever scripting. However, in many cases the ability of killers to “kill” is severely curtailed, both through a lack of ability to do so and the social norms that surround the space (Bixler, 2009).

gaming.psu.edu/KoLAnalysis

http://blog.gamerdna.com/blog/2008/10/10/does-your-bartle-typegender-influence-your-class-choi GamerDNA.com graphs Bartle's taxonomy against the popularity of class types for Warhammer Online players.

Class Bartle's taxonomy of motivation rated against player class and player race in World of Warcraft.

http://blog.gamerdna.com/ Race

1614 housholds surveyed Close to 5000 individual responses “This is big audience research by any measure.” Brand cited in Byrne (2008)

www.ieaa.com.au

The average age of an Australian gamer is 30 years 68% percent of Australian play digital games 46% are female (up from 41% in 2007)

88% of Australian households have at least one gaming device The average game play session is one hour 97% report gaming at least occasionally with others http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocasalvatella/3386437423/

63% of adults do not know that Australia has no R18+ for computer and video games. 91% of adults (including gamers and non-gamers) say Australia should have an R18+ classification for games. 17% of adults in game households admit to having pirated games in their collections with nearly 10% of all games in Australian homes being illegal copies. The Australian computer games industry is growing at more than 15% per year and conducted sales of AUD1.3 billion in 2007. 70% of Australians purchase games new from a local retailer.

Qualitative Ethnography

http://www.flickr.com/photos/96691515@N00/3006848248/sizes/l/

Power Gamers versus the Casuals The casual gamer is often seen as someone “with a life” who invests only moderate amounts of time in any one game, while the power gamer appears as an isolated and socailly inept player with litte “real life” to ground them (Taylor, 2006: 70)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/loimere/100412272/sizes/o/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/nnova/1935511681/sizes/l/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kspetz/393152033/sizes/l/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/1233957881/sizes/o/

gamespace and the “meat”Murphy (2004)

Cinematics Cutscenes FMV

http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/cutscenes/halo2.html

The International Games Developers Association (IGDA) surveyed nearly 6000 professionals in the Western games industry: Male = 88.5%, Female = 11.5% White = 83.3%, Black = 2.0%, Hispanic/Latino = 2.5%, Asian = 7.5% Heterosexual = 92%, Lesbian/Gay = 2.7%, Bisexual = 2.7% Average age = 31 years Average years in the industry = 5.4 years Percentage of people with disabilities = 13% (e.g., cognitive, mobility, sight, etc) 80% have a university level education or greater 60% of studios claim that obtaining diverse applicants is challenging

Game Developer Demographics: An Exploration of Workforce Diversity (2005) (http://www.igda.org/diversity/report.php)

Responses by Country

Job Types by Gender (descending sort on Female percent) Gourdin (2005: 13)

  StereoTypes Persist

www.screwattack.com/node/13902

DIGC201 Digital Games Cultures  

Week 9 Games in context: gender and identity. 1

Williams et al 2008 Debunking Gamer stereotypes 

US Research 40% of adults play games at least once per week, compared to 83% of teenagers. The average age of gamers is now 33, spending $7.4 US billion on games in 2006. 67% of teens play games online.

2 www.split-screen.com

Everquest2 census AV Player Age 31 80% Male pop Anglo dominated

http://everquest2.station.sony.com/pizza/images/Top.jpg

Educated, medium wealth Less Spiritual Healthier than non-Players and reduced media consumption 3

Bartle (1996) Taxomnomy of gamers

Bartle – taxonomy Taylor

www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm

Are digital games like chess or tennis, or are they pasttimes like reading or watching TV, or are the more like organised sports or simply just entertainment? 4

Unlike games, virtual worlds and simulations don’t attract as many killers. That’s not to say that killers do not or cannot exist in these spaces – they do. In Second Life they are known as griefers, people who try to cause discomfort to others via clever scripting. However, in many cases the ability of killers to “kill” is severely curtailed, both

gaming.psu.edu/KoLAnalysis

through a lack of ability to do so and the social norms that surround the space (Bixler, 2009). 5

http://blog.gamerdna.com/blog/2008/10/10/does-your-bartle-typegender-influence-your-class-choice-in-war/#more-510 GamerDNA.com graphs Bartle's taxonomy against the popularity of class types for Warhammer Online players.

6

Class Bartle's taxonomy of motivation rated against player class and player race in World of Warcraft.

http://blog.gamerdna.com/blog/category Race

7

1614 housholds surveyed Close to 5000 individual responses “This is big audience research by any measure.” Brand cited in Byrne (2008)

8 www.ieaa.com.au

The average age of an Australian gamer is 30 years 68% percent of Australian play digital games 46% are female (up from 41% in 2007)

88% of Australian households have at least one gaming device The average game play session is one hour 97% report gaming at least occasionally with others http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocasalvatella/3386437423/

9

63% of adults do not know that Australia has no R18+ for computer and video games. 91% of adults (including gamers and non-gamers) say Australia should have an R18+ classification for games. 17% of adults in game households admit to having pirated games in their collections with nearly 10% of all games in Australian homes being illegal copies. The Australian computer games industry is growing at more than 15% per year and conducted sales of AUD1.3 billion in 2007. 70% of Australians purchase games new from a local retailer. 10

Qualitative Ethnography

http://www.flickr.com/photos/96691515@N00/3006848248/sizes/l/

11

Power Gamers versus the Casuals The casual gamer is often seen as someone “with a life” who invests only moderate amounts of time in any one game, while the power gamer appears as an isolated and socailly inept player with litte “real life” to ground them (Taylor, 2006: 70) 12

http://www.flickr.com/photos/loimere/100412272/sizes/o/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/nnova/1935511681/sizes/l/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kspetz/393152033/sizes/l/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/1233957881/sizes/o/

gamespace and the “meat”Murphy (2004)

13

Cinematics Cutscenes FMV

http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/cutscenes/halo2.html

14

The International Games Developers Association (IGDA) surveyed nearly 6000 professionals in the Western games industry: Male = 88.5%, Female = 11.5% White = 83.3%, Black = 2.0%, Hispanic/Latino = 2.5%, Asian = 7.5% Heterosexual = 92%, Lesbian/Gay = 2.7%, Bisexual = 2.7% Average age = 31 years Average years in the industry = 5.4 years Percentage of people with disabilities = 13% (e.g., cognitive, mobility, sight, etc) 80% have a university level education or greater 60% of studios claim that obtaining diverse applicants is challenging

Game Developer Demographics: An Exploration of Workforce Diversity (2005) (http://www.igda.org/diversity/report.php)

15

Responses by Country

Job Types by Gender (descending sort on Female percent) Gourdin (2005: 13)

16

  StereoTypes Persist

17 www.screwattack.com/node/13902

18