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WiG 2007 The Performance of Play - Dr Esther MacCallum-Stewart

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Emma Westecott
Emma Westecott

Dr Esther MacCallum-Stewart & Justin Parsler Women Players, Playing Women SMARTlab, University of East London & Brunel

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‘ Real Women Carry Epics’ : Women Players, Playing Women Esther MacCallum-Stewart and Justin Parsler
The two things that I can honestly say I have in common with all women who game are that we are all women and that we all game in one way or another. (Hardesty: 2001)
… good role-play is dependent on other factors besides gender (Antunes: 1999) A player who is consciously role-playing … is seeking to ‘create’ a character that transcends the mechanic of the game and takes on a plausible, defined reality of its own. (MacCallum-Stewart & Parsler: 2008)
Through role-playing it is possible to test out new frontiers and new roles. As a player of games, I have the leisure and luxury to explore what it is like to be something totally other. ‘What are you’, you ask, and I don’t answer with my real gender, nationality or age. I am an orc, a shaman, in Kalimdor… I still know very well who I am, but I am also something else, something other –and online, playing a role-playing game, I set some of that other free. (Mortensen, 2007: 305)
The fact that the player’s sense of being-in-the-game-world is mediated is made explicit in third-person games because the player-character can be seen , as an entity entirely separate from the player. The character is designed to-be-looked-at, as well as to-be-played-with. (King and Kryswinska, 2005: 100)
‘… even in WoW I like to roleplay’ (O)
One potential way of exploring this transgendering is to consider the fusion of player and game character as a kind of queer embodiment, the merger of the flesh of the (male) player with Lara's elaborated feminine body of pure information. This new queer identity potentially subverts stable distinctions between identification and desire and also by extension the secure and heavily defended polarities of masculine and feminine subjectivity. (Kennedy: 2002)
It seems much more likely that the pleasures of playing as Lara are more concerned with mastery and control of a body coded as female within a safe and unthreatening context. … However, Jones (2002) argues that "indirectly, these boys are accommodating shifting gender roles, building confidence that they can find even strong, challenging women attractive and that they wont be overwhelmed by their own fears as they deal with real girls.” (Kennedy: 2002)
WoW Gender-Bending 23% of male players listed a character of the opposite gender as their most enjoyable character compared with 3% of female players In WoW, men are about 7-8 times as likely to gender-bend than women. In other words: about 1 out of every 2 female characters is played by a man about 1 out of every 100 male characters is played by a woman The RL gender distribution is 84% male vs. 16% female. The in-game gender distribution is 65% male vs. 35% female. (Yee: 2005)
in general I seem to play and feel more comfortable with male characters, probably because it used to be all that was available, gaming in the past being total dominated by the male gender and hence male chars was all there was. It wasn’t until the Sims came out that I even considered the possibility of playing female chars. (J)
one must assume that a role-player has the potential to resist social conditioning and enact a cross-gender role, otherwise the entire debate is moot. (Antunes; 1999)
J is in character as close to me or as I would like to be in real life bearing in mind the restrictions RL places on you. He is very much an extension of me in personality but not in looks and as such is comfortable to play and immerse myself in for extended periods of time. (J) Me, I have rolled a female char for the challenge of Roleplay, see if I can 'fit' into the role of a female, being a male myself. … I mean, I know about everything about being a guy, I wanted to see if I had sufficent knowledge of the feminine world to play a girl. (A) I'm a guy playing a female character because that's just what it is for me. A character which I control … She's just a character I developed over some years, just like a writer would design the people in his novel or whatever. (Ja)
Also, something that I like about women chars is that they allow me to play something that I am not and... if I am going to be a half rotten walking copse... what's so strange about wanting to switch gender? (E) … I would never roll a human male or female because 1) I am already human (vaguely) so whats the point of playing a fantasy game and being something I am already? (L)
For all these complicated issues, however, it is still 'play'. Thus it offers a dynamic forum for exploring identity issues where mistakes are not terminal and new ideas can always be tried. It encourages serious study into the issues as well as allowing casual exploration. (Antunes: 1999)
… it simply gave me more possibilities to convicingly role play a female character (voice, looks, gestures in-game) and I enjoyed the new gaming possibilities (and YES you get treated differently as a female toon than as a male toon.) (M)

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WiG 2007 The Performance of Play - Dr Esther MacCallum-Stewart

  • 1. ‘ Real Women Carry Epics’ : Women Players, Playing Women Esther MacCallum-Stewart and Justin Parsler
  • 2. The two things that I can honestly say I have in common with all women who game are that we are all women and that we all game in one way or another. (Hardesty: 2001)
  • 3. … good role-play is dependent on other factors besides gender (Antunes: 1999) A player who is consciously role-playing … is seeking to ‘create’ a character that transcends the mechanic of the game and takes on a plausible, defined reality of its own. (MacCallum-Stewart & Parsler: 2008)
  • 4. Through role-playing it is possible to test out new frontiers and new roles. As a player of games, I have the leisure and luxury to explore what it is like to be something totally other. ‘What are you’, you ask, and I don’t answer with my real gender, nationality or age. I am an orc, a shaman, in Kalimdor… I still know very well who I am, but I am also something else, something other –and online, playing a role-playing game, I set some of that other free. (Mortensen, 2007: 305)
  • 5. The fact that the player’s sense of being-in-the-game-world is mediated is made explicit in third-person games because the player-character can be seen , as an entity entirely separate from the player. The character is designed to-be-looked-at, as well as to-be-played-with. (King and Kryswinska, 2005: 100)
  • 6. ‘… even in WoW I like to roleplay’ (O)
  • 7. One potential way of exploring this transgendering is to consider the fusion of player and game character as a kind of queer embodiment, the merger of the flesh of the (male) player with Lara's elaborated feminine body of pure information. This new queer identity potentially subverts stable distinctions between identification and desire and also by extension the secure and heavily defended polarities of masculine and feminine subjectivity. (Kennedy: 2002)
  • 8. It seems much more likely that the pleasures of playing as Lara are more concerned with mastery and control of a body coded as female within a safe and unthreatening context. … However, Jones (2002) argues that "indirectly, these boys are accommodating shifting gender roles, building confidence that they can find even strong, challenging women attractive and that they wont be overwhelmed by their own fears as they deal with real girls.” (Kennedy: 2002)
  • 9. WoW Gender-Bending 23% of male players listed a character of the opposite gender as their most enjoyable character compared with 3% of female players In WoW, men are about 7-8 times as likely to gender-bend than women. In other words: about 1 out of every 2 female characters is played by a man about 1 out of every 100 male characters is played by a woman The RL gender distribution is 84% male vs. 16% female. The in-game gender distribution is 65% male vs. 35% female. (Yee: 2005)
  • 10. in general I seem to play and feel more comfortable with male characters, probably because it used to be all that was available, gaming in the past being total dominated by the male gender and hence male chars was all there was. It wasn’t until the Sims came out that I even considered the possibility of playing female chars. (J)
  • 11. one must assume that a role-player has the potential to resist social conditioning and enact a cross-gender role, otherwise the entire debate is moot. (Antunes; 1999)
  • 12. J is in character as close to me or as I would like to be in real life bearing in mind the restrictions RL places on you. He is very much an extension of me in personality but not in looks and as such is comfortable to play and immerse myself in for extended periods of time. (J) Me, I have rolled a female char for the challenge of Roleplay, see if I can 'fit' into the role of a female, being a male myself. … I mean, I know about everything about being a guy, I wanted to see if I had sufficent knowledge of the feminine world to play a girl. (A) I'm a guy playing a female character because that's just what it is for me. A character which I control … She's just a character I developed over some years, just like a writer would design the people in his novel or whatever. (Ja)
  • 13. Also, something that I like about women chars is that they allow me to play something that I am not and... if I am going to be a half rotten walking copse... what's so strange about wanting to switch gender? (E) … I would never roll a human male or female because 1) I am already human (vaguely) so whats the point of playing a fantasy game and being something I am already? (L)
  • 14. For all these complicated issues, however, it is still 'play'. Thus it offers a dynamic forum for exploring identity issues where mistakes are not terminal and new ideas can always be tried. It encourages serious study into the issues as well as allowing casual exploration. (Antunes: 1999)
  • 15. … it simply gave me more possibilities to convicingly role play a female character (voice, looks, gestures in-game) and I enjoyed the new gaming possibilities (and YES you get treated differently as a female toon than as a male toon.) (M)