Gender and Gaming II - Initial Social Access Points Coming to a Place Near You!

The session on Gender and gaming this week dealt with three texts in particular:

•    Yee, “Maps of Digital Desire”

•    Lin, “Body, Space, and Gendered Gaming Experiences”

•    Jenkins, “Complete Freedom of Movement”

In game deterrents and barriers

We wanted to play this video in class, but ran out of time. It's a machinima produced by WoW players and can thus be seen as a humorous response to how female players are sometimes treated in WoW (confer both Yee and Lin).

The video brings forward the double edged sword that female players are sometimes confronted with. I find the video funny, but I also consider it a criticism. It wouldn't be funny if it wasn't referring to a pattern and then reversed to expose the ridiculousness of female players acting this way. I'm seeing a message in this video that, besides the giggles, the viewer is meant to take away from this.

On one hand, female players/avatars are sometimes met with a differentiated treatment, where they are regarded helpless and in need of protection (i.e. from a male player). Other times female players are treated more generously, help is easier attained and players can be more forgiving if a female player makes a mistake.

There is another side to this coin, where forgiveness is replaced by distrust in the female player’s skills and abilities to play well. It can be disheartening to be treated as an inferior player, suspected of not being able to fully perform to the standards of male players. 

For more on this, consider reading Esther MacCallum-Stewart's article Real Boys Carry Girly Epics: Normalising Gender Bending in Online Games (2008).

I think the video displays many of these points, both the positive of getting the offer of free materials for a new item, but also the negative. For example when Jesse leaves, one of the women says she wouldn't have liked to carry him through the dungeon and outperforming him anyways.

I also see this video as an example of a deterrent that is operating within the game. So the female player may have made it as far as to actually play, but can find the tag "female" occasionally creating problems.

I've had a few experiences with this myself, but most of the time, being female has not been an issue.

I'm wondering though, in relation to the video, does male players meet any barriers in game? In what way would these barriers intersect with fx age, sexuality, race etc? And how are these different from the barriers girls and women meet?
(Maybe I'm reaching too far into next session's theme..)


Out of game deterrents and barriers

In line with Lin's study on gendered gaming experiences and how they are physically structured around the home, cybercafés and dormitories, this is an example of a larger roadblock, still cultural, but also in the more serious category.

Quoting from Kotaku in Well, That’s One Way to Combat Misogyny in Gaming:

Enthusiasts of military-style first-person shooters are not well known for their progressive thoughts on the matter of gender. The organizers of a large LAN party in Texas, scheduled to celebrate the launch of Battlefield 3, have decided the best way to deal with any slurs hurled at female gamers is to simply forbid them from attending.

"Nothing ruins a good LAN party like uncomfortable guests or lots of tension, both of which can result from mixing immature, misogynistic male-gamers with female counterparts," the organizers originally wrote in an event FAQ. "Though we've done our best to avoid these situations in years past, we've certainly had our share of problems. As a result, we no longer allow women to attend this event.

This paragraph has since been removed, as the stink over the exclusion went viral, and replaced with: "This event is a 'gentlemen's retreat'; as such we do not allow women to attend."

This is an obvious barrier, they simply will not let you in. Comparing to Lin's example with cybercafés that culturally was considered dangerous and inappropriate for females, where also the interior layout of the cybercafés acted as a hindrance, here they have tried to solve this problem by segregating the genders and creating a pure male space (notice what they are wanting to evoke by the phrase "gentleman's retreat").

So far, using these two examples, I've painted a pretty grim picture, it sounds like female players are barely wanted in these games by the male majorities and if they get in, their role is clearly marked.

However!

Initial Social Access Points coming to a place near you!

This link was shared on Facebook a few days ago, it's from the Diablo 3 forum and titled How to prepare your girlfriend/wife for diablo III. The problem is: These players are excited about Diablo 3, they know they will spend substantial time when this game comes out and they are already thinking about how to deal with some potential future conflicts now:

"What I mean by prepare is that... You prepare her mentally for all the hours you WONT spend with her and all those hours you will spend with Diablo 3. "

The author ends his post by saying "leave some tips!"

I've seen this dilemma presented on other game boards as well, and this thread looks like a standard "how to deal with girlfriend/wife & gaming" case. What I want to highlight here, is that one of the bits of advice usually given, is expressed as the best case scenario:

"4) Try to convert them to games (best option). Maybe you will even play together?"

And later by another commenter:

"I feel sorry for you guys. You should try to find a grl that loves games :)"

Having/finding a gamer girlfriend is again by a third commenter framed as optimal, this guy considers himself lucky!:

"Guys i gotta tell you,i must be one of the lucky guys :))

My girlfriend,age 22,hardened WoW player,W3 player,and other tons of games,liked D2,and D3 got her quite excited,she`s always asking about that beta key :-<"
                               

We're clearly watching the "initial social access points" in the making as Yee talked about. Notice how forthcoming the guys are in this process, the male players are actively seeking to involve their female aquaintances, here romantic partners, or at least this is the advice given.

When I read this thread, I couldn't help but to also find it endearing. While looking at the negatives on this topic, the previous examples given, this does not give the impression of male gamers aggressively defending their turf, setting up a "do not enter if has boobs" sign as with the Battlefield 3 LAN.

I'm curious about the access points for female players in Battlefield 3, is this not a game that inspires the male players to invite their girlfriends/wives?
Would Battlefield 3 also be able to cultivate a "girlfriend-effect" or why does this game seem to move in the opposite direction?
Is the "girlfriend-effect" an MMO phenomenon only?
And how about expanding the "girlfriend-effect" to also include female players recruiting their female friends? Personally I'd love to have a bigger female player network at my disposal! 

And last but not least, bikini plate!

Here's an example of bikini plate from WoW. Should I add, the gear is the same, it just looks different depending on the avatar body.

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Note: I accidentally misrepresented the avatar sizes, the female avatar is (of course) shorter than the male.