Why Computer Games?
- Easy to count!
- Pause Function
- Unexplored area personally despite interest
- Under representation of Female
- New literature available around subject
Hunch
Representations of female sexuality in computer games are often constructed from the perspective of the male gaze, therefore inaccurate and furthering the male dominance within gaming culture.
Worth Researching?
- Recent efforts to make games more accessible to a female audience - is this apparent?
- Masculine dominated genre
- GTA IV - up to date game from groundbreaking series, targeted at males, reflection of society, based on NYC - Realism
Coding Categories
- Appearance - Body Size, Hair, Clothing, Flesh exposure
- Speech - None, flirtatious, aggressive, neutral, bussiness
- Location - Poor/Rich/Industrial, Venues - Bar, Bowling alley, Strip Club
Problems Faced so far
- Began counting 'pedestrians' (randomly genrated)
- Playing linear aspect of game to view actual charcters
- Missing results
- Scale
Ideas that exist already
- Already know women are underepresented: 'Bryce and Rutter' - content analysis
- 'Theorists have argued that representational factors . . . are partially responsible for alienating women from computer games' (163:2006)
- Can an avatar even assume a gender? - 'it would be difficult to establish at this point, if the object on screen evoking recognition in this way even has to be humanoid - let alone representative of any gender' (164:2006)
- Seperation of gaming from thoeries surrounding film culture, however in GTA women cannot be described as 'avatars' as they are fixed characters, cannot be controlled by the user.
- Journal: 'From Barbie to Mortal Kombat' (Cassel and Jenkins) - Violent games tend to exclude women - Quake (female avatars)
- Girls Game Movement - www.womengamers.com - 'Digital women critique'
