Attitudes in Gaming

This week in our marketing course we looked at how attitudes are formed, and how difficult they can be to change. In this blog I’ll take a look at unconscious bias, and how attitudes to what a typical gamer is have shifted.

Unconscious bias is a form of attitude created in our unconscious that we aren’t consciously aware of. Unconscious bias resonates with me because I experience it every day and work constantly to help change attitudes that are formed without us even knowing.

Typical unconscious bias is often sexism, this is something that can happen at a very young age; I’m a young father of two boys and really make a point of using terms like “fire fighter”, and “police officer”. When I was in the lesson, I noticed a reinforcing of unconscious bias on sexism, when the tutor used these examples of attitudes:

She takes the attitude that children should be allowed to learn at their own pace

He has a very bad attitude towards work

That boy has a real attitude problem

When we look deeper at these examples, which were supplied via the Cambridge Dictionary we see a few things, it suggests that women are more focused on children, and gives a nod to that “boys will be boys” way of thinking. Oxford, however, uses “they” in place of “he” or “her”, which stops us reinforcing any bias we may have had.

Now, in keeping with my blog’s theme I’m going to discuss how attitudes to gamers has changed.

Historically, when people picture gamers, the stereotypical image is of a heavy-set bearded basement-dweller, or chronically thin guy who doesn’t shave and stinks. Jenkins from South Park, essentially.

Attitudes are changing; around half of all gamers are actually female. However, those familiar with this statistic will know that a lot of that demographic are focused on mobile games.

Hardcore gamers consider mobile gaming to be “not proper” gaming, and as such believe that the percentage of “real” female gamers is considerably lower.

This could potentially then return to the belief that the typical gamers are male trolls, which sparks the question, how can we change this ill-founded belief?

A couple of key ideas I came up with are: a gamer girl eSports team, and improving the female workforce in the gaming industry, which is currently at a woefully small level. And, importantly, more female leads in games aimed at younger audiences. Mario still saves the day, and Sonic still offers up to three playable male characters.

These are franchises I adore, and I love nothing more than exploring them with my sons. But the lack of flexibility can be frustrating. I recently found myself encouraging them to give Sonic Fighters a try on the basis that Amy is playable.

Do you have any ideas on how to improve attitudes to the typical gamer? If Women in Games interests you then be sure to check out the panel I’ll be on to celebrate National Women’s Day. (I’ll be recording it, so if you can’t make the event I’ll upload a video and update the article!)