Gendered Choices: Examining the Mechanics of Mobile and Online Girl Games

Abstract

This article analyzes girl games, a subgenre of casual mobile and online games created and marketed for preteen girls. Through an examination of Barbie Fashionistas, Style Studio: Fashion Designer, and Central Park Wedding Prep, all of which are representative of traditional dress-up and makeover-oriented girl games, I explore how seemingly broad mechanics-based choices available to players within the games reinforce and respond to patriarchal ideologies, and argue that the mechanics of mobile and online girl games serve gendered and neoliberal ends both in game and in the larger context of North American gaming culture. Conducting close readings on and accounting for the mechanics of an understudied genre within the field to advocate for greater study of both game mechanics and girl games, I demonstrate how the availability of choice intrinsic in girl games provides opportunity to explore how players are constructed as neoliberal subjects.

The role of internet gaming in the association between anxiety and depression: A preliminary cross‐sectional study

“…Specifically, some evidence has suggested that males are at higher risk for disordered gaming due to gender-specific motivations such as a drive for achievement and competition (Dong et al, 2018;Kircaburun et al, 2020;Ko et al, 2005). Females are assumed to play Internet games more selectively and according to game-specific content (e.g., Barbie Girls, where players possess avatars and can purchase clothing and accessories; Barbiegirls.com, 2020;K. Cummings, 2018).…”

“…Specifically, some evidence has suggested that males are at higher risk for disordered gaming due to gender‐specific motivations such as a drive for achievement and competition (Dong et al, 2018; Kircaburun et al, 2020; Ko et al, 2005). Females are assumed to play Internet games more selectively and according to game‐specific content (e.g., Barbie Girls, where players possess avatars and can purchase clothing and accessories; http://barbiegirls.com, 2020; K. Cummings, 2018). Furthermore, social learning effects related to the heteronormative conceptualizations of masculinity and femininity have been implicated with females being more prone to internalized symptoms, such as depression (APA, 2013).…”