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Looking for female and male gamers of all kinds! (Research Project)

A friend of mine is doing a research project and is looking for female gamers and male gamers who have played in mixed gender groups that she can survey. We’re talking gamers of all kinds – tabletop, board games, CCGs, MMOs, all manner of RP.

If you are interested in helping out, please answer the following questions and e-mail them to Ivona Elenton AT ivona.elenton at gmail dot com . You can make your answers as long or as short as you want.

Please have your answers to Ivona by 10/10/13! Thank you!

ETA: (From Ivona) “Though question 5 is only directed toward 2 genders, I’m absolutely interested in the experiences of queer and gendervariant people as well.”

QUESTIONS FOR FEMALE GAMERS

1. How long have you been gaming?

2. List the games that you enjoy or have enjoyed playing (table top or on line rpgs, computer/videogames, MMOS, board games LARPS or others)

3. Tell the story of how you started, what or who drew you into gaming? How were your first gaming sessions? Etc. etc.

4. Do you enjoy playing with others or alone the most?

4b. If you have a clear preference, could you please motivate why you prefer one over the other.

4c. If you do not have a clear preference, could you mention some strong points with either or both ways of gaming

5. If you play or have played in groups, do you have any preference on gender balance in a gaming group? (somewhat equal in gender ratios, mostly females, mostly males) Please motivate why you have a preference, if this is the case.

6. Have you ever experienced, in any gaming setting, being treated differently as a gamer because of your gender. Please tell the full story if the answer is yes.

7. Do you think there is a general difference in style or culture between female gamers and male gamers? (if yes, please elaborate)

8. What about the games themselves, have you ever experienced that games or game developers cater to a specific gender? (if yes, please elaborate)

9. Recent studies have shown that about half of all gamers are female, and yet some male gamer groups have expressed surprise at these statistics. Why do you think this comes as a surprise to many? Could female gamers be less visible in various settings, and if so, how come?

10. Would you please share your favorite gaming anecdote here, if you have one.

QUESTIONS FOR MALE GAMERS WHO HAVE PLAYED IN MIXED GENDER GROUPS

1. How long have you been gaming?

2. List the games that you enjoy or have enjoyed playing (table top or on line rpgs, computer/videogames, MMOS, board games LARPS or others)

3. Tell the story of how you started, what or who drew you into gaming? How were your first gaming sessions? Etc. etc.

4. Do you enjoy playing with others or alone the most?

4b. If you have a clear preference, could you please motivate why you prefer one over the other.

4c. If you do not have a clear preference, could you mention some strong points with either or both ways of gaming

5. If you play or have played in groups, do you have any preference on gender balance in a gaming group? (somewhat equal in gender ratios, mostly females, mostly males) Please motivate why you have a preference, if this is the case.

6. When did you first game in a gender mixed environment? Please elaborate on this experience as much as you want.

7. Do you think there is a general difference in style or culture between female gamers and male gamers? (if yes, please elaborate)

8. What about the games themselves, have you ever experienced that games or game developers cater to a specific gender? (if yes, please elaborate)

9. Recent studies have shown that about half of all gamers are female, and yet some male gamer groups have expressed surprise at these statistics. Why do you think this comes as a surprise to many? Could female gamers be less visible in various settings, and if so, how come?

10. Would you please share your favorite gaming anecdote here, if you have one.

Just for fun, once I get my answers to these questions finished, I think I’ll post them here on this blog. I’ve been a gamer for years and years and I love talking about it.

8 replies on “Looking for female and male gamers of all kinds! (Research Project)”

1. Off and on since 1985 (but I’m “not a gamer”)

2. D&D v.2-4 (I kind of like 4), Vampire the Masquerade, Twilight 2000, Space 1889, Traveler, Gamma World

3. My husband is a gamer. I didn’t really know about anything but board games before I met him in Nov. 1984).

My first gaming sessions were playing Traveler with my husband, step-sons and friends at a (now defunct) game store. I tended towards the confused, but it was fun.

etc: My husband and kids (I’m a wicked step-mother) are all gamers. My other partners are gamers. I swore I wasn’t a gamer until they wouldn’t let me get away with it any more. Game time is sacred and we got married on Thursday to not interfere with Wed. or Sat. gaming. He’s more into Magic and MMORPG’s now but I travel 2.5 hours one way with one of my other partners to play 4th ed. D&D once a month. When Heather (daughter) was 12 we threw to to the gamers and she is now married to one of the boys she met the first night at the gaming club. They have 2 children (both gamers) and they own one of the local game stores.

4. a) I wouldn’t play if I wasn’t playing with other people. b)I’m not a gamer by nature and I do it because it means spending time with family and friends

5. I mostly play with guys, but I like it when there are other women in the group. I might like to try an all female campaign, just to see what it is like.

6. I have only played in mixed gender groups.

7. The boys are louder, more aggressive and more likely to tell you what to do. The women I have played with play characters that have more finesse. They will help you without insisting that their way is the one and only way.

8. No

9. I think that a lot of people buy into the stereotype of the geek and, because of that they don’t try to find female gamers (for roleplaying games). This is changing. There are more women who are interested in roleplaying and when a person is playing an MMORPG it’s not obvious whether the person is male, female or a cat.

Gaming is a way to try out new personalities and when I look at the kid (12 year old girl) she can hold her own in most groups whether they are male or female and whether they are older. Her friends who are boys don’t see anything wrong with girls gaming and with (at least some) game stores becoming family owned family friendly places for kids to congregate I think this will happen more and more.

10. I think it goes back to the Traveler game that we played that first summer with the boys. My youngest played an adventurer named Stump who had a talking cat named Furbutt. They were known galaxy wide, and even had their own Stump & Furbutt action figures.

The other one is watching my daughter and her husband fall in love and get married when they never would have met except for gaming. My granddaughter is named for one of my son-in-law’s characters from an RPG.

Is there more information available about the research project? I’d love to know what my data’s going to be contributing to.

The data is part of a library project, to assess if gaming is different for boys and girls and for males and females. At the very least, there will be a pamphlet and little article about it. Possibly there could be a publication further on, at some point next year, but this is more uncertain. Before anything would be published, everybody would be asked again if their data can be used. Nothing will happen without permission, and no names will be permitted anywhere, unless there are specific anecdotes where the subjects specifically gave permission for use of names and text.

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