Unlikely gamers: how women, elderly and ethnic minorities play multimedia games and how it contributes to their participation on the electronic highway
(project 014-43-719)
Research problem
Digital entertainment technologies (DET) have an as yet unrecognised relevance for the digital divide, i.e. the inequalities of gender, age and ethnicity with respect to access, skills and attitudes towards ICT. Multimedia games can be considered both instrumental and cultural primers, in the sense that mastery and understanding of a multimedia game provide part of the skills, attitudes and digital experience necessary for successful participation on the electronic highway. We examine the practices and experiences of unlikely gamers such as girls, elderly and ethnic minorities and relate these to their access to and use of information applications on the electronic highway. We will use on and offline methods, including an online survey, digital observation, in-depth interviews and the construction of an online unlikely gamers community. The results of the study will be used to construct a pattern card of 'good' practices to build up digital capital from DET.
Scientific relevance
We assume that multimedia gaming is a way to accumulate digital capital. We focus in particular on ‘unlikely gamers’, that is gamers who are invisible in dominant discourse about gaming, and who belong to groups that are underrepresented on the digital highway: women, elderly people and ethnic minorities. We will first explain the relevance of DET in an ICT context and then expand on the unlikely gamers.
Digital entertainment technologies (DETs)
The term ‘digital
divide’ refers to divisions between the information rich and poor that result
from inequalities in access to information and communication technologies
(ICTs), and in knowledge, skills and attitudes towards ICTs. These inequalities
turn out to run parallel with inequalities of gender, age, ethnicity,
education, employment and disability. The terminology of
ICT notwithstanding, digital divide discourse is
primarily articulated in terms of access to information, with
particular attention to applications in the public domain. Access to
communication has been much less central in the discussions. Despite
the prominence of video- and computer-games, digital entertainment technology
has hardly been discussed in relation to social inequality on the digital
highway. Other worries dominate the discussions about multimedia games. Some
fear that games isolate their players, breed an addiction, and stimulate
violent behaviour. However, digital entertainment technologies, in
particular multimedia games, has an as yet unrecognised relevance for the
digital divide. We consider multimedia games to be primers for information
applications on the digital highway. The process of priming contributes to the
accumulation of 'digital capital'. Two kinds of priming are distinguished: instrumental priming; the direct acquisition of computer skills
through gaming, and cultural priming, concerned with both a confident
attitude towards, and a satisfactory accommodation of technology and digital
culture into a person's everyday life and experience.
Unlikely gamers
The main players of multimedia games have been
shown to be young white men, who play more frequently than any other group. These ‘likely gamers’ accumulate digital capital, (re-) constitute the
technological elite, and the subsequent hegemony of the young, white masculine
position with respect to ICTs and DETs. There are, however, women, elderly
people, and ethnic minorities who do play multimedia games. They are
the unlikely gamers we focus on in this project. Their stories can
open up the technological domain, showing under which conditions and how
multimedia games prime participation on the electronic highway. This
acknowledges a neglected dimension of digital culture, i.e., that of groups
marginal to the technological elite.
Social relevance
Policy measures to counter inequalities on the electronic highway have been implemented in the public domains of education and work, whereas the role of leisure and entertainment has been neglected. The experiences of unlikely gamers will be used in this project to construct a pattern-card of 'good practices' to build digital capital through DETs.
Methodology
We adopt a grounded theory approach, which produces a detailed analysis of what unlikely gamers do, how they experience it and how their activities and experiences are related to their acquisition of digital capital. Our tools for data gathering are based on online and offline methods: we will do an on-line survey, make digital observations of actual game play and computer-skills, and initiate a virtual community. Off line we will conduct in-depth interviews.
The participants in the study are drawn from three groups of unlikely gamers: (young) women, ethnic minorities, and the elderly. Participants are considered to be ‘gamers’ when they regularly play multimedia games for fun. Multimedia games include all genres and all platforms. Participants for this project will be recruited through advertisements. Recruitment will also take place in internet cafes. An online survey will be done among unlikely gamers using ASCoR’s CMC survey tool. A questionnaire will be given to a matched sample of members of these groups who do not game. The survey aims to gather information about the reception of DET, that is, its use and interpretation, and the (subsequent) computer skills of the unlikely users. Data collection will be targeted at the most active among the unlikely gamers. Twenty people will be invited to the ASCoR’s ComLab. Each participant will play a non-controversial PC game. Then they are presented a number of tasks that require computer-skills. Their solutions are recorded digitally, and analysed to assess their actual skills. A matched group of non-gamers will also be invited to play the game and solve the tasks. This allows us to compare both groups. In addition, these twenty unlikely gamers will be interviewed in depth, to collect detailed individual accounts. Moreover, a virtual community for the three groups of unlikely gamers will be established in order to facilitate public discussion. The researchers will submit specific questions about game play, DET and ICT to focus the discussions. A content analysis will be done on systematic time-samples form the exchanges in the community.
Research
- Prof.dr. Liesbet van Zoonen,
- Dr. Jeroen Jansz,
- The Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR), University of
Amsterdam;
- Prof.dr. Maaike Meijer, Nederlandse Onderzoeksschool Vrouwenstudies, University of Maastricht.
Results
Artikel ‘Videogames as Technologies of Gender’ gepresenteerd op conferentie ‘Changing Gender! Research, Theory and Policy for Gendered Realities of the 21st Century’, Athene 2-3 juni 2005
Artikel ‘Videogames as Technologies of Gender’ gepresenteerd op conferentie Oslo-Amsterdam, 5-6 september 2005
Presentatie over het onderwerp Vrouwen & Videogames, voor Make a Game, videogamewedstrijd voor scholieren in het middelbaar onderwijs, georganiseerd door KennisNet, 5 oktober 2005
Presentatie op Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschap 24 november 2005: onderzoeksverslag ‘Female gamers & The Sims’