Not Tekken Seriously? How Observers Respond to Masculine and Feminine Voices in Videogame Streamers

Susanne Poeller; Alexandra Steen; Nicola Baumann; Regan L. Mandryk

doi:10.1145/3582437.3582444

Not Tekken Seriously? How Observers Respond to Masculine and Feminine Voices in Videogame Streamers

Susanne Poeller, Alexandra Steen, Nicola Baumann, Regan L. Mandryk

extern

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

As many games are centered around challenges, the gaming community is often considered to be a meritocracy where everyone is judged based on performance; however, research has challenged this assumption for players with marginalized identities, such as women. We discuss literature on gender stereotypes in gaming and present a study examining whether the same game footage (Tekken 6) is judged equally by participants when the player has a feminine or a masculine voice. 240 participants watched one of four videos (feminine/winning; masculine/winning; feminine/losing; or masculine/losing) and rated the player along several dimensions. Our results show that player ratings depended on voice and match outcome. The feminine voice was rated as less sympathetic when winning as compared to losing and rated as equally skilled in both outcome conditions. In contrast, the masculine voice was rated as equally sympathetic in both outcome conditions, but more skilled in the winning than losing condition.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, FDG 2023
Subtitle of host publication	Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games
Editors	Phil Lopes, Filipe Luz, Antonios Liapis, Henrik Engström
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450398565
ISBN (Print)	978-1-4503-9855-8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3582437.3582444
Publication status	Published - 12 Apr 2023
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 ACM.

Keywords

Tekken
digital games
feminism
gender
streaming

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1145/3582437.3582444

Cite this

Poeller, S., Steen, A., Baumann, N., & Mandryk, R. L. (2023). Not Tekken Seriously? How Observers Respond to Masculine and Feminine Voices in Videogame Streamers. In P. Lopes, F. Luz, A. Liapis, & H. Engström (Eds.), Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, FDG 2023: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games Article 17 Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3582437.3582444

Poeller, Susanne ; Steen, Alexandra ; Baumann, Nicola et al. / Not Tekken Seriously? How Observers Respond to Masculine and Feminine Voices in Videogame Streamers. Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, FDG 2023: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games. editor / Phil Lopes ; Filipe Luz ; Antonios Liapis ; Henrik Engström. Association for Computing Machinery, 2023.

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title = "Not Tekken Seriously? How Observers Respond to Masculine and Feminine Voices in Videogame Streamers",

abstract = "As many games are centered around challenges, the gaming community is often considered to be a meritocracy where everyone is judged based on performance; however, research has challenged this assumption for players with marginalized identities, such as women. We discuss literature on gender stereotypes in gaming and present a study examining whether the same game footage (Tekken 6) is judged equally by participants when the player has a feminine or a masculine voice. 240 participants watched one of four videos (feminine/winning; masculine/winning; feminine/losing; or masculine/losing) and rated the player along several dimensions. Our results show that player ratings depended on voice and match outcome. The feminine voice was rated as less sympathetic when winning as compared to losing and rated as equally skilled in both outcome conditions. In contrast, the masculine voice was rated as equally sympathetic in both outcome conditions, but more skilled in the winning than losing condition.",

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Poeller, S, Steen, A, Baumann, N & Mandryk, RL 2023, Not Tekken Seriously? How Observers Respond to Masculine and Feminine Voices in Videogame Streamers. in P Lopes, F Luz, A Liapis & H Engström (eds), Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, FDG 2023: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games., 17, Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3582437.3582444

Not Tekken Seriously? How Observers Respond to Masculine and Feminine Voices in Videogame Streamers. / Poeller, Susanne; Steen, Alexandra; Baumann, Nicola et al.
Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, FDG 2023: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games. ed. / Phil Lopes; Filipe Luz; Antonios Liapis; Henrik Engström. Association for Computing Machinery, 2023. 17.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

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AU - Mandryk, Regan L.

PY - 2023/4/12

Y1 - 2023/4/12

N2 - As many games are centered around challenges, the gaming community is often considered to be a meritocracy where everyone is judged based on performance; however, research has challenged this assumption for players with marginalized identities, such as women. We discuss literature on gender stereotypes in gaming and present a study examining whether the same game footage (Tekken 6) is judged equally by participants when the player has a feminine or a masculine voice. 240 participants watched one of four videos (feminine/winning; masculine/winning; feminine/losing; or masculine/losing) and rated the player along several dimensions. Our results show that player ratings depended on voice and match outcome. The feminine voice was rated as less sympathetic when winning as compared to losing and rated as equally skilled in both outcome conditions. In contrast, the masculine voice was rated as equally sympathetic in both outcome conditions, but more skilled in the winning than losing condition.

AB - As many games are centered around challenges, the gaming community is often considered to be a meritocracy where everyone is judged based on performance; however, research has challenged this assumption for players with marginalized identities, such as women. We discuss literature on gender stereotypes in gaming and present a study examining whether the same game footage (Tekken 6) is judged equally by participants when the player has a feminine or a masculine voice. 240 participants watched one of four videos (feminine/winning; masculine/winning; feminine/losing; or masculine/losing) and rated the player along several dimensions. Our results show that player ratings depended on voice and match outcome. The feminine voice was rated as less sympathetic when winning as compared to losing and rated as equally skilled in both outcome conditions. In contrast, the masculine voice was rated as equally sympathetic in both outcome conditions, but more skilled in the winning than losing condition.

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Poeller S, Steen A, Baumann N, Mandryk RL. Not Tekken Seriously? How Observers Respond to Masculine and Feminine Voices in Videogame Streamers. In Lopes P, Luz F, Liapis A, Engström H, editors, Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, FDG 2023: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games. Association for Computing Machinery. 2023. 17 doi: 10.1145/3582437.3582444

Not Tekken Seriously? How Observers Respond to Masculine and Feminine Voices in Videogame Streamers

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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