Start Game? Choose Character: Immersive Game Narrative and Female Gamer Identity Presented by Kate Coleman & Lyndsey Raney 24 April 2013

Why Video Games? Growing area of academic interest and research:  4,008 articles published in peer-reviewed academic journals in the past 10 years. 2,971 of those published within the last 5 years.  Anita Sarkeesian’s kickstarter project, Tropes vs. Women in Video Games Foundation of research, but there are also largely unexplored topics within the field. We like them.

Literature Review “Lara phenomenon” Beyond Barbie and Mortal Combat Identifying with the villain Choosing male avatars when there are options to play female avatars The growth of casual gaming Motivations to play

Research Questions Game-Gamer Interaction 1.How important is it to have the option to play a character with whose gender the player identifies for female video game players? ‘Girl-gamer Identity’ 2.Does it increase or decrease a player’s personal identification with the character and how does that alter their perception of the game? 3.What effect does the option to play a female character whose physical character design is secondary to her agency in the narrative? Laying the Foundation for Future Research 4.Are there factors besides the character’s gender that have a more significant impact on a player’s levels of engagement?

Conceptual Framework

Research Design Ethnographic, semi-structured interviews with an observation component Goal is to gather detailed and nuanced data to categorize into a coding schema Sample size will be 20 individuals, divided into two groups of 10  One set of subjects recruited from a large metropolitan area, e.g. New York, Los Angeles, or Houston  One set of subjects recruited from smaller city, e.g. Austin, Omaha, or Denver

Data Collection & Analysis Information Gathering A. Gaming Habits How long have you been playing videogames? In a normal sitting, about how long do you play for? B. Game Selection and Type of Play How do you choose a new game to play?  Does the option of a lead female character affect your decision to play a game? How so? Imagine you’re sitting down to play your most recent videogame. Take us through the steps. Gaming Community Do you engage at all with other fans of videogames? How often? What motivates or prompts you to engage with other fans? Does it depend on the type of videogame you’re playing? Some female gamers prefer to play with male avatars if they’re playing online. Have you done this?  What do you think of this culture?  Do you play MMORPGs?  Is it any different for non-MMORPGs? Female Gamer Identity Do you consider yourself a “gamer”?  Are there situations in which you feel more or less comfortable identifying as a gamer? How so? How are the videogames you play now different from the games you played when you first started? Are there games where the treatment of female characters within game- play makes you feel guilty for enjoying them?  Could you give us an example? Interview Guide

Data Collection & Analysis Game-Related Categories A. Game Environment Story Gameplay Graphics Tactics Quests/Missions B. Game Characters Character(s) Side-character(s) Character-Driven Dialog Role Choice Coding Schema Fandom-Related Categories A. Girl-gamer “Identity” Female Male Gamer “when I play...” (or similar) “I like to play because...” Support from fellow girl- gamers B. Feelings about the Game Emotion Happiness Inspiration Confidence Anger Frustration C. Sharing with Others Seeking out other fans Sense of community Discussing game aspects with others D. Preferred Social Platform to Interact Blog (Livejournal, Tumblr may be substituted for this word) Twitter Facebook Forums

Future Research More nuanced, more directed research on the subject of gender identity and video games. Encouraging girls to become involved in computer programming and engineering through video games. Providing foundational research for the video game industry to broaden its appeal to women.