Doing gender in the gaming industry

Abstract

The field of ICT has traditionally been seen a masculine area and research has shown that is problematic for women to both enter and stay in the field. Looking at industrial growth, the field of gaming has become the prominent one, and has surpassed all other entries in media and culture. Gaming, also perceived as a masculine area, does however have a gender distribution of players that almost is equal. Still, the workforce is dominated by males, and the games are designed by males, for males. Medial tools (such as gaming) are representing societal models, which is the source of information that is most influential in shaping how people perceive and creates values about gender in the society. As mostly males are designing these societal models in the games, and that almost everyone is playing them, there are reasons to believe that the view of gender in society may be moulded from the male perspective in the gender structure. This study adds additional knowledge and understanding of how gender is done, by applying the concept of Doing Gender at the gaming industry. Which leads to the research question, “how is the gaming industry doing gender”. The question is answered by applying a theoretical framework to highlight patterns and answers in empirical data gathered in semi-structured interviews with actors in the gaming industry. The results show that there is a broad understanding and gender consciousness from the eyes of the interviewees. However, this study also show that a broader gender consciousness is essential to make the gaming industry a more appealing place for the female gender, as well as keeping their interest for gaming when growing up. In addition, we advise that the component of Setting as is added when creating and designing video game characters out of a gender conscious perspective.