KT It’s all about the butts - Frauen in Videospielen

The Surprisingly Unsurprising Reason Why Men Choose Female Avatars in World of Warcraft

When men play female avatars in online games, they change the way they speak to conform to female stereotypes—but the way they move betrays their masquerade.

In a recent study reported in Information, Communication and Society, researchers created a custom-built quest in World of Warcraft—the popular online game where players can work together to slay dragons and discover magical treasures. The researchers recruited 375 World of Warcraft gamers and ran them through the quest in small groups. The quest took an average of 1.5 hours to complete, and every participant’s movement and chat were recorded and meticulously coded.

The researchers found that the men were more than three times as likely as the women to gender-switch (23 percent vs. 7 percent). When selecting female avatars, these men strongly preferred attractive avatars with traditional hairstyles—long, flowing locks as opposed to a pink mohawk. And their chat patterns shifted partway toward how the real women spoke: These men used more emotional phrases and more exclamation points than the men who did not gender-switch. In other words, these men created female avatars that were stereotypically beautiful and emotional.

Although the gender-switching men could partially talk the talk, they completely failed to walk the walk. The researchers found that all the men in their study moved around in a very different way than the women. The men moved backward more often, stayed farther away from groups, and jumped about twice as much as the women did. When it came to moving around, the men behaved similarly whether they gender-switched or not. So if you’re trying to figure out if that female Night Elf is really a man, focus on how they move around. As study author Mia Consalvo, a professor at Concordia University, says, “movement is less conscious than chat, so it can be an easier ‘tell’ for offline gender.”

It gets stranger. The lead author of the paper, Rosa Martey at Colorado State University, told me via email that “it's not necessarily the case that men are trying to appear female when they use a female avatar. Our interviews did not suggest that those who switched were trying to ‘pretend’ to be women players.”

In fact, it’s all about the butts. Because players see their avatars from a third-person perspective from behind, men are confronted with whether they want to stare at a guy’s butt or a girl’s butt for 20 hours a week. Or as the study authors put it in more academic prose, gender-switching men “prefer the esthetics of watching a female avatar form.” This means that gender-switching men somehow end up adopting a few female speech patterns even though they had no intention of pretending to be a woman.

In my own research in virtual worlds and avatars, my colleagues and I have found that people will conform to the expectations of their avatars without consciously being aware of it. For example, we found that college students given subtly taller avatars will negotiate more aggressively in a bargaining task than students given shorter avatars. Of course, people can only conform to stereotypes that they know. Perhaps this is why we see gender-switching men conforming to stereotypes of how women talk, while not conforming to the more nuanced movement patterns.

The butt theory could also explain another consistently puzzling statistic: Why do men gender-bend so much more often than women? Given that most AAA video games and thus most of these female avatars are designed by men for a primarily male audience, gender-switching based on esthetics makes sense for male gamers. But because male avatars aren’t created by female designers for a female audience, women may not have the same incentive to gender-switch. (And no, the equivalent is not an obscenely muscular male avatar in a tank top holding a machine gun.)

Virtual worlds are often thought of as places where we are free to play and reinvent ourselves, but game design and psychology often conspire to encourage us to enact and perpetuate offline stereotypes and the status quo. The most fascinating irony of our contemporary virtual worlds may be how little they actually allow us to play.

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I'm a Man Who Plays a Woman in Video Games, and I'm Definitely Not Alone

I self-identify as a straight male-bodied dude, but recently I've taken to playing as a female-bodied character in many games. It's not something the majority of people do, but it's also not uncommon. Oddly, however, men play as women far more than women play as men. Let's break down why people choose the avatars they do.

A new study reported on by Slate found that men are much more likely to gender switch in online games than women. Researchers recruited 375 World of Warcraft players and had them cooperate in small groups for about 1.5 hours. The biggest finding? 23 percent of men opt to play as women, but only 7 percent of women try taking a walk on the (generally) hairier side.

Researchers also meticulously recorded participants' every movement and chat line, and their findings were... interesting—if not entirely unexpected.

"When selecting female avatars, these men strongly preferred attractive avatars with traditional hairstyles—long, flowing locks as opposed to a pink mohawk. And their chat patterns shifted partway toward how the real women spoke: These men used more emotional phrases and more exclamation points than the men who did not gender-switch. In other words, these men created female avatars that were stereotypically beautiful and emotional."

So these men role-played to an extent, perhaps somewhat unconsciously, while inhabiting idealized bodies they'd dreamed up. Article author and Ubisoft research scientist Nick Yee noted that this sort of behavior is actually fairly typical of people given avatars drastically or even subtly different from their own bodies. If an avatar is tall, he observed, people tend to be more aggressive in their actions. So basically, people unconsciously paint personalities in broad strokes. They act out what they know, so they fall back on stereotypes without really thinking about it.

The men in the World of Warcraft study failed miserably, however, when it came to movement and other less easily monitored/altered habits.

"The researchers found that all the men in their study moved around in a very different way than the women. The men moved backward more often, stayed farther away from groups, and jumped about twice as much as the women did. When it came to moving around, the men behaved similarly whether they gender-switched or not."

In short, the tendency to role-play has limits. It's not necessarily all-encompassing—not when it's unintentional or unconscious, anyway.

When interviewed after the study, many of these men explained their character choice in a rather, er, predictable fashion. Basically, it was about what sort of butt they'd be staring at while (sometimes literally) hoofing it across Azeroth's patchwork quilt of plains. The researchers explained their results thusly: "[Men playing female-bodied characters] prefer the aesthetics of watching a female avatar form."

They theorized, then, that women are more shy about being guys because most games feature male avatars designed to empower men—not appeal to women. Female avatars in games, meanwhile, often play to stereotypical male ideals of beauty and sexual appeal.

It's incredibly interesting research, and it got me thinking about why I've started playing a female avatar more often than not, regardless of whether a game is single-player or multiplayer. Physically speaking I'm attracted to women, but that's not usually what drives me when I'm rooting through my virtual skin closet to decide what I'm gonna wear to the big bash.

I guess, though, the long and short of it is that I'm already me in real life. I like the idea of seeing worlds—far flung or close to home—through other people's eyes. Video games let me do that, even if only on a very low (and oftentimes not entirely indicative or realistic) level.

It started in single-player games, largely with Mass Effect. Everyone was clamouring that FemShep was a much more engaging, well-acted personality than BroShep, so I had to see what all the fuss was about. They were right, and I was fascinated by the way Jennifer Hale's raw, impassioned performance made it much easier for me to play a no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners Renegade—something I'm often wary of doing because in real life I hate hurting people and am soft like a pack of the most heartbreakingly pitiful pet shop window puppies. I got to be someone else for a bit. Someone who was kinda mean, but mostly for good reasons (honest!).

As a result, I definitely gravitate toward role-playing when I opt to play a non-"me" character these days. It's a thing I've gotten more confident about with time, too. I've tried a bit in MMOs, though mainly ones with strong single-player components—for instance Star Wars: The Old Republic. I basically tried to be Azula from (sublimely excellent) cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender in that one—a monstrously terrible person for sure, but an interesting, surprisingly vulnerable depiction of a monstrously terrible Person.

Never once did I consider movement or physical proximity, though, as was mentioned in the study. Men and women are socially conditioned to handle those things very differently, but it's never occurred to me in virtual spaces. Maybe I notice it less when I can pass through people like Casper The Friendly Jedi Ghost?

I've been pretty overtly hit on by dudes a couple times in chat windows. That was kinda weird, but it stopped pretty quickly after I said I was a guy. It felt horribly un-true to the experience of being female-bodied in this ceaselessly sexualized world of ours, but I couldn't handle the pressure (incidentally, I'm not the first). If I couldn't deal for a few minutes, though, I can't even imagine what it's like for women on a daily basis. I know women who tend to play as male characters in multiplayer games for that very reason. It's a tremendous shame that it has to come to that, but I suppose it does technically count as another reason people pick bodies unlike their own in games.

All that said, I think I also play as a woman to at least try and encourage the idea that people aren't defined by their bodies. I'm a guy playing as a girl, and I might role-play a little, but fundamentally I'm still me. A person who's a lot more than simple physical characteristics.

Because at the end of the day, people aren't the flesh suits they wear, regardless of which dimples, curves, and protrusions they might have. They're people—maddeningly complex amalgams of wants, needs, dreams, and desires. Women can be awesome, men can be awesome. Or maybe someone's caught in the middle. Maybe they use games to literally try on other gender identities, to see what works for them. That is also awesome. Anyone can be anything, and games can help.

Or you can just play as a really powerful/charming/space marine version of yourself. I still do that from time-to-time too. Enough about me, though. What kinds of avatars do you tend to play as in games? Does it change depending on whether you're playing single-player or multiplayer? Do you adopt different personalities depending on what sort of character you're playing? Is that on purpose, or does it just kinda... happen?

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Video games need more women – and asking for that won't end the world

Here are five common arguments against developers adding more female characters – and why they are wrong

I’ve been a Woman Who Exists in the Games Media for a pretty long time now, and female representation in games is something that, y’know, comes up quite often. The latest example involves the futuristic dungeon-crawler Deep Down, which Capcom is set to release on PlayStation 4. Recently, the developers appeared on a live web stream and seemed to suggest that there are no women characters in the game for story reasons. In response, VG247’s Brenna Hillier unleashed a hilarious and white-hot tirade that beautifully skewers that mentality – do go and read it, it’s highly enjoyable. (Capcom has since clarified the comments stating that there is only one character, not 12, but he is still male, of course.)
Here’s something I’ve noticed: whenever you talk about female protagonists in games, you always hear exactly the same responses. Always. I’m not talking about the absolute meat-heads here; the ones who genuinely think that women aren’t really proper people and don’t welcome their presence online or anywhere. I’m talking about the people who don’t seem to understand why this stuff is even an issue. Why is having female characters such a big deal? Aren’t we living in a post-race, post-feminist world where we don’t need to get so angry about these things?
Well, no, we’re not, unfortunately, and though great progress is being made, it is important to keep these issues in mind if we’re ever going to break through the narrow marketing-defined definition of what games and gamers are. So here are five of the most frequent responses to recurring requests for more playable women in games, and why they’re misguided.

Adding female lead characters doubles the art Budget

This is only true if the art budget is predicated on having one character, who is a man. In most other circumstances it would not magically cost more to make some of the characters female. It does not take more time to design and write a female character. Female actors do not cost more to employ. If you’re doing unique performance capture for, say, four different male characters, it would not cost more to do unique performance capture for three male characters and a female character. Or even two of each! Bear in mind, too, that the budget for characters is only a fraction of a whole art budget for a game.
Sure, with heavily narrative-based games that include lots of cinematic sequences, there are budgetary considerations when providing players with a gender choice for the lead character. “In the case of something like Uncharted, you’ve got mesh data, texture data and possibly mo-cap data to duplicate,” says the indie developer Byron Atkinson-Jones, who previously worked at Lionhead on the Fable series. “Also, would character interactions change based on gender? Would you have to ensure that the proportions of the male and female character are the same so that all gameplay elements remain the same – ie being able to jump and grab a ledge? But nothing is really that difficult to do in games, it’s all down to resources, planning and willingness to do it. If the designer stipulates that the main character can be male or female from the start then the development team would build it that way.”

Atkinson-Jones is currently having to consider this problem himself with his current title, Containment Protocol. He needs to get voice acting for the lead, but can’t afford to employ both male and female actors. For larger studios, though, it’s about thinking of story in a different way. The later Saint’s Row titles, for example, allows for male and female characters, even letting players swap gender throughout the game. “I think all this requires is better self-awareness from developers,” says Mitu Khandaker-Kokoris, of one-woman studio Tiniest Shark, recently responsible for the fascinating sci-fi social media parody, Redshirt. “If you are spending money on all kinds of variety with your male characters, then why is your budget not designed from the ground up to account for female characters too?” Rhianna Pratchett, lead writer on last year’s Tomb Raider reboot, agrees. “It seems sheer madness that the industry is striving for more realistic (and expensive) graphics, but not more realistic worlds that actually depict half the Earth’s population and an increasingly large chunk of gamers.”

Thomas Was Alone designer Mike Bithell is currently working on a new game, Volume, and has decided to add the option to play as a female character. He reckons this will take less than two weeks of work to implement. There’s a strange assumption that female characters would inherently change a game to the point where it requires a ton more work and money to create. Unless your entire code base is set up around interchangeable male characters (which is what, say, Infinity Ward claimed was the case with the Call of Duty series before the launch of CoD Ghosts) this just isn’t true. “I don’t recall seeing anyone even mentioning that the Titanfall beta has female avatar options,” says Bithell. “It has zero effect on the enjoyment of the game for players who don’t care, and a massive effect for those who do. Everyone wins.”
Asking for more women characters will lead to tokenism and positive discrimination

In 2009, researchers at the University of Southern California carried out a comprehensive study of the 150 biggest video game releases – they discovered that less than 10% of game characters are female. Acknowledging the existence of women and reflecting that in video games is not positive discrimination. People are not asking for every single game to star a female protagonist; they are asking for more than literally one or two titles a year to star a female protagonist. They’re asking for it to be an option. In no way is it tokenism to politely request that games more accurately reflect the makeup of the game-playing public and indeed society, instead of existing in a strange alternate reality where 90% of noteworthy people are white and male and have a number two buzzcut.

It’s not just women who are fed up with always seeing the same kinds of protagonist in video games. It’s pretty much everyone. Back in 2011, IGN superimposed different game characters’ faces on each other and found them to be almost identical – a production line of young white men with cropped hair and tribal tattoos.

This didn’t used to be the case, you know. Back in the 80s and 90s, people were just making stuff – the budgets and teams were smaller, and lead protagonists varied enormously as a result. It’s only in the last console generation that marketing has developed such a tight hold on games that it defines what they are allowed to be before they’re even made. Developers are told things like, “this kind of protagonist resonates with the demographic”, “this kind of box art is best”, “games with prominent women don’t sell”. Jean-Max Morris, creative director on Capcom’s interesting sci-fi adventure Remember Me, claims to have been told by publishers that they wouldn’t sign the game because of its female lead. It’s a self-perpetuating circle that limits what games can do.

I’ve had people tell me, look, we’ve got the newly re-humanised Lara Croft and we’ve got FemShep and maybe Faith, can’t we just be happy about that and celebrate it? Yes! Yes we can celebrate that. But we can also ask for more of it, please. That’s not positive discrimination. And what’s really frustration is the way that male gamers on Twitter and in comments sections tend to try to derail the argument by reaching ridiculous conclusions. Ask for more female characters and suddenly we’re apparently demanding for all games to include women, or for strict government guidelines on representation. There is a lot of fear and insecurity. I am fairly certain we will avoid a future in which developers are sent to special gender awareness prison camps for not meeting their quota of female antagonists.

Women don’t play RPGs/action adventures anyway so what does it matter?

This just straight-up isn’t true any more. Look at me, look at my colleagues, look at Twitter, look at the audience of major games websites, look at the many, many pieces of research that show that women are 50% of the gaming audience in total and more than 20% of even the most traditionally male-dominated genres, look at Bioware and the Mass Effect series, look at the ever-increasing number of people who read and share articles like Brenna’s, and tell me women don’t care about video games, or that female characters don’t matter to them (and plenty of men, too).

Also - and this is so obvious it’s barely worth pointing out - more relatable characters would bring more women and more money into these genres. “Even if you accept the line of thinking that ‘women just don’t play these games’ (which is obviously untrue!), then surely it would also make sense to accept that making your games less actively unwelcoming to women will potentially widen your audience,” says Khandaker. “I am loathe to mention this kind of argument, because I think making diversity a ‘business case’ is really the wrong approach… I advocate for better representation and diversity in games not because it’s a good business case for games, but because, simply, it is the right thing to do.”

Fewer women than men play games in these genres, still. But ask yourself: isn’t a lack of aspirational female characters in these genres likely to be a significant reason for that? I looked up to Lara Croft when I was a little girl. I looked up to her because she was all I had. It does matter.

Developers are afraid to put female avatars into games in case their clothing is criticised or they are accused of violence against women

Fear of doing something badly is a terrible excuse for not doing it at all. If you’re scared that your female character will be ill-received, there are simple things you can do to minimise the chances of that happening: dress female characters like human beings rather than a teenager’s wank fantasy and don’t make them objects of fetishistic violence. For example, don’t dress them up as slutty nuns and then make a trailer about a bald man graphically murdering them. Don’t dress women soldiers in skimpy tops because members of your community fancied seeing some pixelated cleavage. Writing women is not some kind of dark art. If you’ve got a compelling male character in a story, changing the pronoun isn’t going to change who they are.

“I understand this comes from a well-meaning place, but at the same time, we have a responsibility towards better representation,” says Khandaker. “We need to take ownership of that responsibility, and while I understand that it might be extra work, it’s worth putting in that work towards doing your research, or even dedicating some budget to hiring a consultant (they do exist!) who can talk to you about your ideas for representing women and minority characters – it’ll lead us all to a better, more inclusive, and compassionate place.”

“There could well be a ‘squishiness’ factor behind putting female characters into violent scenarios, particularly in terms of AI,” acknowledges Rhianna. “Developers can be a little bit nervous about getting female characters wrong (in fact getting any character who is not white, male and straight, wrong.) I think that involving writers and other narrative professionals early on in the process could help. We’re used to imagining ourselves into the shoes of people who aren’t us. I think that old phrase ‘write what you know’ unnerves people sometimes. It’s more a case of ‘write what you understand’. You understand a thing or two about living on this pale blue dot with other complicated, wonderful, maddening homo sapiens? Great, that’s half the battle. Go forth and write interesting humans.”

But it’s not realistic to have all these powerful women

OK. So it is realistic for, say, Cole MacGrath to run around shooting lighting bolts out of his hands, but if he were a woman that would be preposterous? Here’s what’s actually unrealistic: fiction in which more than half of the population of Earth simply isn’t present, or is only present in the background, as passive entities. That makes no sense.

I’m being a wee bit facetious, but the point stands that not having women in games is jarring. LA Noire, for instance, actually makes its version of 1945 more sexist than it was in reality. Cara Ellison goes into great detail on this here, but the LAPD was one of the most progressive police forces in America at that time and employed numerous female officers, and in postwar society there were many women doing the jobs that men had left behind – all of which is reflected in noir films of the period. The fact that LA Noire has no prominent women at all except dead ones and the lead character’s mistress isn’t an accurate reflection of history, it’s deeply strange.

“Women are now able to become soldiers on the front lines for real, yet it seems impossible to get them into virtual warfare,” says Pratchett. “It’s a sad day when imagination is lagging behind real life.”
Or, as Bithell succinctly puts it, “Tell that to the many women who serve in the military, in law enforcement, in any one of the relatively small number of professions depicted in video games. Or don’t, because they have guns."

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Mixer schrieb:

Ich für meinen Teil nehme, wenn es denn möglich ist, immer weibliche Spielfiguren. Nur schon aus dem ganz pragmatischen und von mir aus auch etwas sexistischen Grund, dass ich als Mann lieber einer hübschen Frau auf den Hintern schaue als einem schwitzenden Muskelprotz - auch, wenn es nur ein digitaler Polygonhintern ist.

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eape schrieb:

Die männlichen Hauptcharaktere sehen doch auch entweder sehr gut aus oder wie Andromonster.

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Messias21 schrieb:

Sex mit der Blauen??!

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eape schrieb:

Sex mit Garrus?

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