Researching digital games, players, and gender

This chapter introduces research on digital games and gender, and the field of digital game studies. The chapter outlines five broad areas in games and gender research. These are games, gender and representation, game making and production, players and gender, games as technology, and games and social media. The ways that concepts of gender will shape research about gender are considered, and the significance of play to game analysis and player research is discussed. Then, two example approaches to the researching of games and gender are explored. The first involves the close analysis of gender and representation within games. The second is a discussion of the issues that can arise when planning to research gender in online, multiplayer games. The chapter ends with questions about games, emerging technologies, and future directions in game research. Student contributor Shiqing Li has authored a reflexive demonstration of close analysis, applying concepts of abjection to representations of gender in a survival horror game.