Taylor T.L.

Multiple pleasures: Women and online gaming

Abstract

It was recently estimated that women now make up 51% of gamers online (PC Data, 2001). While a large proportion are playing traditional games like Hearts or Mahjong, there is a growing number involved in massive multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG). Most of these spaces are notable in that they mix traditional gaming of the hack-n-slash variety with often complex social forms and explorations into identity. These worlds, like Sony's Everquest and Microsoft's Asheron's Call, have come to be some of the largest multiuser environments available and more are slated for development. Through my ethnographic and interview work in Everquest over the last two years I explore the experience of women gamers in MMORPGs. Though typically thought of as traditionally masculine spaces, this research examines the growing use of these sometimes violent, sometimes playful, and generally always fascinating worlds by women. In particular, this presentation will focus on the variety of reasons women come to be involved with these games -- including socializing, mastery/status, team participation, and exploration. The findings of this research lead to a critical analysis of the historical "pink games" approach and calls for more nuanced understandings of gender and gaming. In addition, a consideration is given to the ways game design is simultaneously facilitating and constraining a diverse player population. While attempts are being made to create "women-friendly" gaming spaces, they often fall along stereotypical lines that donšt fully reflect the range of experiences desired by actual users. While most women gamers push back on these systems, fashioning playful and often meaningful experience out of them, serious critical consideration needs to be given to the underlying construction of gender and play in this emerging popular genre.