Gender and Ethnicity in Entertainment Gaming

BY DOMINIQUE BEYONCE

Examine the appearance and role of female and minority characters, note their stereotypical portrayal, and discuss the impact that it has on real life.

Purpose

“It follows that if games are a significant portion of the media diet, they need to be understood as important systems of symbols which might have a broad social impact.”

Why is this important?

-The virtual census: representations of gender, race and age in video games

Media can create a model for life and effect our social identity.

Explination

Objectives

Examine the representation of gender, race and age in video games

Study the importance of the portrayal of women and the accepted interactions

Visually Inspect and compare the characters in the highest selling game of 2015

Examining the representation of gender, race and age in video games

Actual population statistics were compared with representations present in popular games.

Viewed any difference between primary and secondary roles of the characters

Contrasted characters’ social group representation in more violent games.

Males, whites and adults were over-represented in comparison to the actual US population. These overrepresentations come at the expense of women, some minority groups –chiefly Latinos and Native Americans – and children and the elderly.

Findings

Minority roles centered around appalling characters

Hoodlums and Thugs

Grand Theft Auto

High representation of African Americans due to real life representations of NBA and NFL athletes

NBA Live 16

Female roles were under-represented or often sexualized.

Grand Theft Auto

Study the importance of the portrayal of women and the

accepted interactions

Argued that the heightened realism experienced by game players would effect the self-objectification of women.

Study the importance of the portrayal of women and the accepted interactions

The examiners study the effects of sexualized avatars by using a group of female students playing the popular game Second Life. 87 college women Ages18 to 29 Varying races or ethnic group

79.3% White, 8% Black, 6.9 Asian/Asian American, 2.2% Hispanic, 2.2% multiracial and 1.1% Middle Eastern Participants were given a survey prior to

the study and then placed in four different groups with a mix of observers and controllers of avatars that were either sexualized or non-sexualized

Study the importance of the portrayal of women and the accepted interactions

Sexualized-given personalized traits

non-sexualized

The findings indicate that exposure to a sexualized avatar led to greater feelings of self-objectification than non-sexualized avatars, supporting previous literature on sexualized portrayals of women.

Although controlling the avatar led to greater feelings of identification than watching it, neither control nor identification moderated the relationship between sexualization and self-objectification.

Thus, a second study investigated other possible variables to explore the experience of self-objectification in virtual environments and also to investigate subsequent outcomes of this self-objectification.

Visually Inspect and compare the characters in the highest selling game of 2015

Mortal Kombat (MKX)

Visual Observations of MKX

Quan Chi:

Sorcerer

Warlock

Summoner

Character Variation Titles

D’Vorah:

Brood Mother

Swarm Queen

Venomous

Visual Observations of MKX

Raiden:

Thunder God

Displacer

Storm Lord

Costume Disparity

Kitana:

Royal Storm

Assassin

Mournful

Gender and Ethnicity in Entertainment Gaming

Conclusion

This is just a quick look at some very particular games and studies

I am optimistic about the direction entertainment gaming has been going

Hopeful that game developers and consumers will set a high standard for thought behind the representation of humanity