Women Experience Guilt, Shame and Exclusion in Gaming Culture

CARDIFF, Wales - Dec. 13, 2023 - PRLog -- A new study of 1000 women who play video games found that:

• Almost a third of women experience guilt about taking the time to play video games
• Almost two in five keep gaming a secret for fear of judgement
• A third are embarrassed to call themselves a 'gamer'
• Despite this, 41% feel that playing games is a daily highlight in their lives

The study was a collaboration between Swedish gaming studio Undone Games, in partnership with Dr Steph Rennick, Lecturer in Interactive Media from the University of Stirling, and Dr Seán Roberts, Lecturer in Communication from Cardiff University.

The study surveyed 1000 women of all ages across the UK who play mobile games on how they felt about gaming.

While more than 41% agreed that playing games is one of the things they most look forward to each day, almost 60% felt that they do not play enough games to consider themselves a 'gamer', and more than 30% agreed that they would be embarrassed to call themselves one.

The results also suggest that many women feel excluded from video game culture, with significant numbers of women feeling guilty about playing video games and ashamed about what others think of them taking time to play games. Interestingly, feeling guilty or ashamed did not correlate with how much time women spent playing games. Dr Rennick found this surprising. She comments:

"We expected a significant proportion of women to report feelings of guilt around playing video games and taking leisure time more generally. But while we thought feelings of guilt or shame would have a negative impact on the amount of time women spent playing games, we didn't find such a connection. Those who feel guilty or ashamed don't play less, but they feel worse."

The most popular genres of mobile games were puzzle and word games, with 84% of women regularly playing one of the two. The team is now trying to understand women's relationships with these genres.

Anna Bostam, CEO of Undone Games comments:

"Women have long been an integral part of the gaming community, yet they often find themselves overlooked or inadequately represented in the virtual worlds they engage with. Our decision to develop the women-centered game - LetterMe - is a proactive response to this disparity, seeking to offer an intellectually stimulating and enjoyable gaming experience but also aiming to amplify representation of women in the gaming world. By authentically representing women, we aspire to break stereotypes and challenge preconceived notions about what a 'gamer' looks like."

Read more about the study here: https://correlation-machine.com/VideoGameDialogueCorpus/K...