Doing gender versus playing gender in online worlds: Masculinity and femininity in Second Life and Guild Wars

Abstract

The 1987 West and Zimmerman article 'Doing gender' argues that throughout our daily lives, we are always 'doing gender', reinforcing what is acceptable behaviour for females and males according to socially defined gender roles. Through the examination of a qualitative study, this article explores the relationship between 'doing gender' and 'playing gender' in online virtual worlds, comparing differences in the conception and performance of gender in Second Life, primarily a social world, and Guild Wars, primarily a role-playing game. It also explores players' perceptions of their own avatar gender choices, gendered play styles more broadly, as well as perceptions of in-game gender ratios.

From dictators to avatars: Furthering social and personality psychology through game methods

“…Furthermore, games provide an important lens into online interactions and are successfully being used to understand attitudes, social cognitions, and behaviors. For example, economic behaviors that occur in the real world have been mirrored in digital games that involve economic systems (Castronova et al, ), and social and gender roles and social networks have been examined using ethnographic and survey approaches in games such as World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 1994) and Guild Wars (NCSOFT, 2005; Nickell et al, ; Rosier & Pearce, ).…”

Simulating Marriage

“…For some, this involves cross-gender play and account sharing, which are closely related to the players' in-game goaloriented behaviors and gendered self-expression. Though gender representation (especially cross-gender play) and account sharing are not new in gameplay, Audition, being a non-fantasy, non-science fiction, non-adventure based roleplaying space, demands of its players different suspensions of disbelief -with different implications for gendered selfrepresentation, compared to fantasy games such as WoW, EverQuest and Guild Wars [14][18] [24][27][28] [30]. In addition, as we will show, Audition players' cross-gender play and account sharing are often highly instrumental strategies to cope with the specificities of in-game marriage as a rule system (and have, in many situations, little to no intended role play aspect).…”

“…Second, since social norms of gender and sexuality are deeply embedded in marriage, this study contributes to a growing social scientific literature in HCI and CSCW on gender and sexuality representation in virtual worlds, including [14][21] [24] [27][30] [31]. Digital environments such as MOGs allow players to choose and customize their digital representation of gendered selves by creating one or more avatars [26] [30].…”