Masculine Pleasures as Normalized Practices: Character Design in the Video Game Industry

Abstract

Scholars have extensively studied video game labor practices (e.g., Bulut, E. (2015). Glamor above, precarity below: Immaterial labor in the video game industry. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 32(3), 193-207. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2015.1047880, Bulut, E. (2020). White masculinity, creative desires, and production ideology in video game development. Games and Culture, 16, 1555412020939873; Banks, J. (2013). Co-creating videogames. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing; Kerr, A. (2010). The culture of gamework. In M. Deuze (Ed), Managing Media Work (pp. 225-236). London: Sage; O’Donnell (2009). The everyday lives of video game developers: Experimentally understanding underlying systems/structures. Transformative Works and Cultures, 2. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2009.0073, O’Donnell (2014). Developer’s dilemma: The secret world of videogame creators. Cambridge, MA: MIT press; Johnson, R. S. (2013). Toward greater production diversity. Games and Culture, 8(136), 136-160. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412013481848, Johnson, R. (2014). Hiding in plain sight: Reproducing masculine culture at a video game studio. Communication, Culture & Critique, 7, 578-594. https://doi.org/10.1111/cccr.12023); yet, few have exclusively examined the process of character design (e.g., Srauy, S. (2017). Professional norms and race in the North American video game industry. Games and Culture, 14, 478-497. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412017708936). Using a grounded theory analysis of 19 interviews with games designers and developers, this work complements existing research with insights on how gender and gendered interactions, technologies, audiences, market logics, and corporate culture integrate and influence character design practices. We found that technological affordances (e.g., game engines and related software; see Whitson, J. R. (2018). Voodoo software and boundary objects in game development: How developers collaborate and conflict with game engines and art tools. New Media & Society, 20, 2315-2332) converged with the masculine, heteronormative identities of game developers to shape normalized valued practices for character design, resulting in formulaic tropes that generally appealed to a masculine audience. Changes in status quo character design were attributed to diversity-conscious individuals, who operated within organizational practices privileging proven formulas over innovative designs.

Keywords

video game characters game design game labor organizational culture grounded theory avatars

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Banks

(2013). Co-creating videogames. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Bar-Tal

Saxe

(1976). Physical attractiveness and its relationship to sex-role stereotyping. Sex Roles, 2(2), 123-133.

Bourdieu

(1986). The forms of capital. In Richardson

J. G.

(Ed), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education (pp. 241-258). New York: Greenwood Press.

Bourdieu

Wacquant

L. J.

(1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago press.

Bulut

(2015). Glamor above, precarity below: Immaterial labor in the video game industry. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 32(3), 193-207. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2015.1047880.

Bulut

(2020). White masculinity, creative desires, and production ideology in video game development. Games and Culture, 16, 1555412020939873.

Burgess

M. C. R.

Dill

K. E.

Stermer

S. P.

Burgess

S. R.

Brown

B. P.

(2011). Playing with prejudice: The prevalence and consequences of racial stereotypes in video games. Media Psychology, 14(3), 289-311.

Cassell

Jenkins

(Eds), (2000). From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: gender and computer games. Cambridge: MIT press.

Chess

Shaw

(2015). A conspiracy of Ffshes, or, how we learned to stop worrying about #GamerGate and embrace hegemonic masculinity. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 59(1), 208-220.

10.

Cohendet

Simon

(2007). Playing across the playground: Paradoxes of knowledge creation in the videogame firm. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 28(5), 587-605. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.460.

11.

Corbin

J. M.

Strauss

(1990). Grounded theory research: Procedures, canons, and evaluative criteria. Qualitative Sociology, 13(1), 3-21.

12.

Cote

A. C.

(2020). Gaming sexism: Gender and identity in the era of casual video games. New York, NY: NYU Press.

13.

Dall’asen

(2020). The future of diversity and inclusion in video games. Allure. Retrieved from https://www.allure.com/story/video-game-inclusive-beauty.

14.

Dewey

(2014). The only guide to Gamergate you will ever need to read. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/10/14/the-only-guide-to-Gamergate-you-will-ever-need-to-read/?utm_term=.d0f4661ca186.

15.

Dietz

T. L.

(1998). An examination of violence and gender role portrayals in video games: Implications for gender socialization and aggressive behavior. Sex Roles, 38(5-6), 425-442. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018709905920.

16.

DiMaggio

P. J.

Powell

(1983). The iron cage revisited. American Sociological Review, 48(1), 147-160.

17.

ESA (2018). 2018 sales, demographic, and usage data: Essential facts about the computer and video game industry. Washington, DC: Entertainment Software Association.

18.

Evans

Janish

(2015). #INeedDiverseGames: How the queer backlash to gamergate enables nonbinary coalition. QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, 2(2), 125-150. https://doi.org/10.14321/qed.2.2.0125.

19.

Ferguson

(Ed), (2018). Video Game Influences on Aggression, Cognition, and Attention. New York: Springer.

20.

Foxman

(2019). United we stand: Platforms, tools and innovation with the unity game engine. Social Media+ Society, 5(4), 2056305119880177.

21.

Gray

K. L.

(2020). Intersectional Tech: Black users in digital gaming. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press.

22.

Gray

K. L.

Buyukozturk

Hill

Z. G.

(2017). Blurring the boundaries: Using Gamergate to examine “real” and symbolic violence against women in contemporary gaming culture. Sociology Compass, 11(3), e12458.

23.

Hallett

(2003). Symbolic power and organizational culture. Sociological Theory, 21(2), 128-149.

24.

Jansz

Martis

R. G.

(2007). The lara phenomenon: Powerful female characters in video games. Sex Roles, 56(3-4), 141-148. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9158-0.

25.

Johnson

R. S.

(2013). Toward greater production diversity. Games and Culture, 8(136), 136-160. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412013481848.

26.

Johnson

(2014). Hiding in plain sight: Reproducing masculine culture at a video game studio. Communication, Culture & Critique, 7, 578-594. https://doi.org/10.1111/cccr.12023.

27.

Kelleher

(2015). ‘This has got to change’: Women game developers fight sexism in industry. Seattle Times. Retrieved from https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/game-on-women-are-developing-new-video-games-and-a-new-culture/.

28.

Kerr

(2010). The culture of gamework. In Deuze

(Ed), Managing Media Work (pp. 225-236). London: Sage.

29.

Leigh

(2014). Gamers’ don’t have to be your audience. ‘Gamers’ are over. Gamasutra. Retrieved from https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/224400/Gamers_dont_have_to_be_your_audience_Gamers_are_over.php.

30.

Lipkin

(2013). Examining Indie’s independence: The meaning of ‘Indie’ games, the politics of production, and mainstream cooptation. Loading, 7(11), 8-24.

31.

Lynch

Tompkins

J. E.

van Driel

I. I.

Fritz

(2016). Sexy, strong, and secondary: A content analysis of female characters in video games across 31 years. Journal of Communication, 66(4), 564-584. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12237.

32.

Near

C. E.

(2013). Selling gender: Associations of box art representation of female characters with sales for teen- and mature-rated video games. Sex roles, 68(3-4), 252-269.

33.

Nicoll

Keogh

(2019). The unity game engine and the circuits of cultural software. ProQuest Ebook Central: Springer International Publishing AG. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/iub-ebooks/detail.action?docID=5880623.

34.

Nieborg

Foxman

(2018). Mainstreaming misogyny: The beginning of the end and the end of the beginning in gamergate coverage. In: Mediating misogyny (pp. 111-130). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

35.

O’Donnell

(2009). The everyday lives of video game developers: Experimentally understanding underlying systems/structures. Transformative Works and Cultures, 2. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2009.0073.

36.

O’Donnell

(2014). Developer’s dilemma: The secret world of videogame creators. Cambridge, MA: MIT press.

37.

Ong

(2016). The video game industry’s problem with racial diversity. Newsweek. Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/2016/10/21/video-games-race-black-protagonists-509328.html.

38.

Patton

L. D.

Bondi

(2015). Nice white men or social justice allies?: Using critical race theory to examine how white male faculty and administrators engage in ally work. Race Ethnicity and Education, 18(4), 488-514.

39.

Rao

Monin

Durand

(2003). Institutional change in Toque Ville: Nouvelle cuisine as an identity movement in French gastronomy. American Journal of Sociology, 108, 795-843.

40.

Ruffino

(2013). Narratives of independent production in video game culture. Loading, 7(11), 106-121.

41.

Sarkeesian

Petit

(2019). Female representation in videogames isn’t getting any better. Wired. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/story/e3-2019-female-representation-videogames/.

42.

Shaw

(2009). Putting the gay in games. Games and Culture, 4, 228-253.

43.

Shaw

(2014). Gaming at the edge: Sexuality and gender at the margins of gamer culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

44.

Shi

(2019). What inclusion means to players. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@Electronic_Arts/what-inclusion-means-to-players-db4522bdd8a0.

45.

Srauy

(2017). Professional norms and race in the North American video game industry. Games and Culture, 14, 478-497. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412017708936.

46.

Summers

Miller

M. K.

(2014). From damsels in distress to sexy superheroes. Feminist Media Studies, 14(6), 1028-1040.

47.

Tompkins

J. E.

Lynch

Van Driel

I. I.

Fritz

(2020). Kawaii killers and femme fatales: A textual analysis of female characters signifying benevolent and hostile sexism in video games. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 62, 1-19https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2020.1718960.

48.

Tschang

F. T.

(2007). Balancing the tensions between rationalization and creativity in the video games industry. Organization Science, 18(6), 989-1005. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1070.0299.

49.

Weber

(2012). #1ReasonWhy - The night Twitter took on the industry’s sexism. GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved from http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-11-27-1reasonwhy-the-night-twitter-took-on-the-industrys-sexism.

50.

Westecott

(2013). Independent game development as craft. Loading, 7(11), 78-91.

51.

Weststar

(2015). Understanding video game developers as an occupational community. Information, Communication & Society, 18(10), 1238-1252. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2015.1036094.

52.

Weststar

Legault

M. J.

(2017). Developer satisfaction survey 2017 summary report. International Game Developers Association. Retrieved from https://static1.squarespace.com/static/551ac4c9e4b0038a33ecc74e/t/5cdd6bfca4222f0c44df488c/1558014975174/IGDA+DSS+2017_Summary+Report_Dec2017_FINAL.pdf.

53.

Whitson

(2013). The ‘console ship is sinking’ and what this means for indies. Loading, 7(11), 122-129.

54.

Whitson

J. R.

(2018). Voodoo software and boundary objects in game development: How developers collaborate and conflict with game engines and art tools. New Media & Society, 20, 2315-2332.

55.

Whitson

Simon

Parker

(2018). The missing producer: Rethinking indie cultural production in terms of entrepreneurship, relational labour, and sustainability. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 24(2), 606-627. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549418810082.

56.

Williams

Martins

Consalvo

Ivory

J. D.

(2009). The virtual census: Representations of gender, race and age in video games. New Media & Society, 11, 815-834. doi: 10.1177/1461444809105354.

57.

Zackariasson

Walfisz

Wilson

T. L.

(2006). Management of creativity in video game development. Services marketing quarterly, 27(4), 73-97.