I conducted a survey of over 60 game players on Reddit, Twitter, and Discord. All respondents were people who regularly play games and engage in discussions about them online.
My main intention behind conducting this survey was seeing how women are viewed by the general gaming populace. Though the results are not exactly representative, they nonetheless show some very important things about the state of representation of women in gaming culture.
Over 70% of the respondents were male, higher than the national average of 54%.
They were asked if gaming culture was weighted towards men over women, and the answer was firm.
Another interesting survey finding was the question of whether respondents termed themselves as ‘gamers’.
The term has often been used by gatekeepers to make people unwelcome in gaming culture, as stated by academic Dr. Emma Vossen. “Developing a sense of belonging in games culture is difficult because of active policing of the symbolic borders of the ‘Gamer’ identity. The title Gamer is used to determine who is and who is not a full participant in games culture and who gets to express their opinion without facing abuse.”
A majority of respondents, 60%, did not call themselves gamers, perhaps for this very reason.
There were multiple interesting takes when respondents were asked how they would change the industry for the better.
One of the responses was simple and succinct. "Yes,I think the best first step would be to realise that EVERYONE plays games".
Others were lengthy, and spoke to the alienation that women often feel in games culture. "I believe that the true power for more inclusion lies more with developers than an individual, such as myself, due to the amount of people who always seem ready to resist it under some belief that it is part of a political agenda bent on undermining them.
"Many developers are already making efforts to include women more, and they often meet backlash for doing so. Still, on my part, I try not to "gatekeep" who gets to have a presence in the gaming community and culture, and I think perhaps the best course of action would be to make an effort to speak against those who, for some reason, believe women should not have a significant presence in a culture they wish to be part of. In other words, create a female-positive voice louder than the voice speaking against them."
It is clear that a majority of respondents agree that women are not represented equally in the gaming world. Hopefully this extends to the rest of the gaming community, though time will tell if that bodes true.
You can view the full survey results here: https://goo.gl/forms/ApfeVjzwgCDVIdIh1
