March post 2
Reach3 Insights -
https://www.reach3insightstop3.com/women-in-gaming/?submissionGuid=940b12a9-ac8d-4130-9c2b-d8eb7eedd9fe
- This survey was conducted with 900 women gamers in the US, China and Germany. In a partnership with Lenovo, they interviewed these women on the issues they face within the industry.
- Women make up 41% of the gaming community:
- However the survey showed that 77% of these women have experienced gender-based discrimination when gaming. - Due to how common these interactions are:
- 59% of women mask their gender, while 55% use either non-gendered or male gendered identities when playing online.
Reach3 Insights -
https://www.reach3insightstop3.com/women-in-gaming/?submissionGuid=940b12a9-ac8d-4130-9c2b-d8eb7eedd9fe
- This survey was conducted with 900 women gamers in the US, China and Germany. In a partnership with Lenovo, they interviewed these women on the issues they face within the industry.
- Women make up 41% of the gaming community:
- However the survey showed that 77% of these women have experienced gender-based discrimination when gaming. - Due to how common these interactions are:
- 59% of women mask their gender, while 55% use either non-gendered or male gendered identities when playing online.
March post 1
Dozens of Women in Gaming Speak Out About Sexism and Harassment
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/style/women-gaming-streaming-harassment-sexism-twitch.html
Another interesting article that I read and wanted to share a few key points from:
- "The streamers did not provide their legal names to The New York Times. In years past, women gamers who have spoken out against the industry using their legal names have been subjected to further harassment, hacking and doxxing." - Why is it that women gamers who speak out against the industry get subjected to even more harassment for simply speaking up?
- “When it’s one call-out, it’s a problem with a person,” Ms. Thorne said. “When there’s a ton of call-outs, it’s a problem with the industry.” - The problem is much deeper than just one person or one company, it's a whole industry problem.
- Twitch released a Twitter statement on Sunday saying that the company takes “accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct extremely seriously” and was “looking into the accounts concerning streamers affiliated with Twitch and will work with law enforcement where applicable.” - This article came out in 2020, it's 2022 and Twitch still has not come far with helping solve the problem of sexual harassment faced constantly by female gamers.
February post 2
Real life experience
Yesterday, a few of my brother's friends had come over to our house to play video games with him. As they were playing on our Xbox, I heard one of his friends make a very snarky remark to my brother about owning a Xbox instead of a Playstation. Apparently according to the friend, having a Xbox is 'girlish' and having a Playstation will make him more of a 'boy'. I was stunned when I heard this and quite puzzled about how owning a different type of gaming setup can make you be more manly. I was also concerned because the friend was only about seven years old and making this sort of comment.
As soon as the friend left our house, my brother came up to me and started demanding that we switch our Xbox for a Playstation because he doesn't want seem 'girly' to his friends. This really made me wonder again what makes the Xbox so much more girly and who created this difference.
Real life experience
Yesterday, a few of my brother's friends had come over to our house to play video games with him. As they were playing on our Xbox, I heard one of his friends make a very snarky remark to my brother about owning a Xbox instead of a Playstation. Apparently according to the friend, having a Xbox is 'girlish' and having a Playstation will make him more of a 'boy'. I was stunned when I heard this and quite puzzled about how owning a different type of gaming setup can make you be more manly. I was also concerned because the friend was only about seven years old and making this sort of comment.
As soon as the friend left our house, my brother came up to me and started demanding that we switch our Xbox for a Playstation because he doesn't want seem 'girly' to his friends. This really made me wonder again what makes the Xbox so much more girly and who created this difference.
February post 1
First interview
I had my first interview with someone who would like to be a streamer in the future. I will be sharing everything I asked her later and her answers but first I would like to reflect on how it went.
As it was my first time interviewing someone, I was definitely quite nervous and scared that my questions were not good enough. But as soon as the interview started, I felt more as ease and it felt like just a regular conversation and went pretty well. That could be because the person I was interviewing was someone I knew from before so I felt more comfortable asking them the questions and the conversation probably went smoothly because of that.
My plan for my second interview would definitely be to interview someone who I do not know as well so that it can be a bit more challenging for me and also would help me improve my interview skills.
First interview
I had my first interview with someone who would like to be a streamer in the future. I will be sharing everything I asked her later and her answers but first I would like to reflect on how it went.
As it was my first time interviewing someone, I was definitely quite nervous and scared that my questions were not good enough. But as soon as the interview started, I felt more as ease and it felt like just a regular conversation and went pretty well. That could be because the person I was interviewing was someone I knew from before so I felt more comfortable asking them the questions and the conversation probably went smoothly because of that.
My plan for my second interview would definitely be to interview someone who I do not know as well so that it can be a bit more challenging for me and also would help me improve my interview skills.
January post 2
Is the video game industry finally reckoning with sexism?
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/jul/22/is-the-video-games-industry-finally-reckoning-with-sexism
I came across this really interesting article and wanted to share a few points that I found to be interesting:
- "Then, last summer saw a wave of stories on Twitter about people in the games industry generally being plied with drinks and pressured into sex at industry parties, belittled and gaslit at work by male bosses, stalked, groomed, harassed, or treated with contempt when a senior man’s advances were spurned." - I found this to be a huge key point and takeaway from the article because this shows that the problem is not just female gamers not getting enough recognization, it goes way beyond that. There's a lot that happens in the industry which is usually hidden and does not necessarily have to do with streaming.
- “On top of this, we need a cultural shift towards accountability and the proactive protection of workers: strict codes of conduct that are enforced, paid community management teams, and empowered third-party, external investigators called in to handle any allegations of sexist, homophobic, ableist or racist misconduct. HR is PR: its role is to protect the company’s image, as we have seen time and time again. We deserve better.”
Is the video game industry finally reckoning with sexism?
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/jul/22/is-the-video-games-industry-finally-reckoning-with-sexism
I came across this really interesting article and wanted to share a few points that I found to be interesting:
- "Then, last summer saw a wave of stories on Twitter about people in the games industry generally being plied with drinks and pressured into sex at industry parties, belittled and gaslit at work by male bosses, stalked, groomed, harassed, or treated with contempt when a senior man’s advances were spurned." - I found this to be a huge key point and takeaway from the article because this shows that the problem is not just female gamers not getting enough recognization, it goes way beyond that. There's a lot that happens in the industry which is usually hidden and does not necessarily have to do with streaming.
- “On top of this, we need a cultural shift towards accountability and the proactive protection of workers: strict codes of conduct that are enforced, paid community management teams, and empowered third-party, external investigators called in to handle any allegations of sexist, homophobic, ableist or racist misconduct. HR is PR: its role is to protect the company’s image, as we have seen time and time again. We deserve better.”
January post 1:
Searching up the word "famous gamers" online:
Searching up the word "famous gamers" online:
- Even searching something as simple as "famous gamers" only tends to show male gamers which further implicates that you can only be a famous gamer if you are male. This creates a stigma that female gamers can not come up to this level even if they try because the industry only allows famous male gamers to be shown.
- Same thing as before, when searching up famous gamers, there is a whole subcategory called "pro gamer girl" as if implicating that they are not considered famous enough to be in the same category as "famous gamers" and that they have to be pro to get remotely famous.
- Same thing as before, when searching up famous gamers, there is a whole subcategory called "pro gamer girl" as if implicating that they are not considered famous enough to be in the same category as "famous gamers" and that they have to be pro to get remotely famous.
December post 2:
Searching up the word "gamer" online:
- Majority of the results that come up when you search up "gamer" is just random male gamers.
- The only female gamer picture that comes up is from a website that talks about specifically female gamers rising up: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomokoyokoi/2021/03/04/female-gamers-are-on-the-rise-can-the-gaming-industry-catch-up/
- Another noticeable thing from this screenshot is the fact that "girls" has been put as a subcategory as if implicating that girls that game are much different than actual gamers which just happens to be all male.
- The only female gamer picture that comes up is from a website that talks about specifically female gamers rising up: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomokoyokoi/2021/03/04/female-gamers-are-on-the-rise-can-the-gaming-industry-catch-up/
- Another noticeable thing from this screenshot is the fact that "girls" has been put as a subcategory as if implicating that girls that game are much different than actual gamers which just happens to be all male.
December post 1:
Most watched channels on Twitch according to https://sullygnome.com/channels/365/watched
- All the top 10 streamers on Twitch happen to be male.
November post 2
Could the reason behind the disproportionate amount of views between female and male gamers be that there just are not enough female gamers? Clement, J. (2021, August 20). U.S. Video gamer gender statistics 2019. Statista. Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/232383/gender-split-of-us-computer-and-video-gamers/. The website provides statistics on the average percentage of female and male gamers per year. This was conducted through an online survey, in which around 4000 people answered which might lead to the survey not being extremely accurate. As we can see from the graph, the percentage of female gamers has increased. In 2006, there were about 38% only, but it increased to 45% in 2021, in just a span of 15 years. Clearly from this we can see that there are enough female gamers, and the problem mainly lies within the industry. Yokoi, T. (2021, March 5). Female gamers are on the rise. Can the gaming industry catch up? Forbes. Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomokoyokoi/2021/03/04/female-gamers-are-on-the-rise-can-the-gaming-industry-catch-up/?sh=2cef1982f9fe. This article talks about how female gamers are catching up to the amount of male gamers and about how the gaming industry needs to also catch up as there are many aspects that it needs to work on. This article seems to be more opinionated with a few statistics, so the accuracy might not be high. This article also does however speak about how the main problem is around the gaming industry, and how unfair it is. Bosman, S. (2020, January 3). Male and female gamers: How their similarities and differences shape the games market. Newzoo. Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/male-and-female-gamers-how-their-similarities-and-differences-shape-the-games-market/. This one also talks about the increase in female gamers but it’s more oriented towards how the gaming market needs to adapt to this change and make a difference in the way they market and sell their games and it also discusses the platforms in which games are played. |
November post 1
Timeline: October- Finished poster https://spark.adobe.com/sp/urn:aaid:sc:US:08398123-755e-49a5-b38c-3a2268605b35?fmt=post Start researching more about the industry itself. November- Start looking up statistics of popular gaming sites. December- Look for potential female gamers who also stream to perhaps interview them and ask them questions about how their overall experience has been with Twitch or any other gaming platform they might use. January- Start combining the research and the interviews together. The information I have gathered from the interviews will support my overall research. February- Should be 50% done. March- Start writing a research paper. April- Finish the research paper and start getting ready for the presentation |
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