Attention whore! Perception of female players who identify themselves as women in the communities of MMOs

Abstract

Despite the expansion of the gaming industry, its public remains overwhelmingly male in MMOs (Massive Multiplayer Online) games. The objective of this research is to explore the perceptions of players regarding self-identification as women in MMOs .The aim was to know: (i) how women identify themselves online (both as avatars and in virtual communities, such as forums), (ii) if there is fear of being identified as a woman, and (iii) if there are experiences of aggression and / or courtship from male players. The research included an online questionnaire with 21 questions about the experiences of female players that was posted as a link in virtual communities about games. The sample was composed of 120 self-identified Brazilian female players of MMOs with an average age of the players is 22 years. Most of the players were from the Southeast of Brazil, and have played MMOs for 6 to 10 years. Most players said that they have no problem revealing their gender and think that MMO communities are mostly receptive to them. Most of them play with female avatars (89%), and say that the experience is pleasurable (33%); 36% report that they were courted once at least while gaming. Despite reporting that their experiences playing games is pleasurable, there is still a differentiation of treatment for female avatars: 43.5% of the players say they realize their faults are being implicitly assigned to their gender and 38% report having experienced situations in which they were required to date another player. As for the experience of aggression, 23% reported that this has already occurred, but rarely. The results show that although there is no explicit prejudice, women still feel they are not treated as equals.