Sooliste stereotüüpide tajumine internetisuhtluses World of Warcrafti näitel
Date
2009
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
Experience of Gender Stereotypes in Online Communication on the Example of World of
Warcraft
A study was conducted in Estonia to investigate experience of gender stereotypes and genderbased
differences by players in an online-game, World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft is the
most popular MMORPG (a Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Game, where hundreds or
thousands of people play together over the internet) in the world, where about one fifth of the
players are female.
The study tries to find answers to the questions „What stereotypes have developed in the game
regarding females?“ and „What are different gender-based attitudes in the game?“. For this
purpose, ten semistructured informant-interviews were conducted, eight of which were
conducted through the internet, six with females and four with males. After this, the interviews
were analyzed using a qualitative horizontal analytical method.
Results of the study show that attitudes towards stereotypes in an online-environment are rather
soft and no strong meaning is given to them by either gender. On the other hand, it became
apparent that gender stereotypes have in a large portion transfered over to the World of Warcraft
from the real world – women are seen as weaker than men and less able, they are also seen as
representatives of their gender (due to females being a minority of the playerbase) their minority
gender rather than individuals.
The study also found that men consider their strongest characteristics their instrumental
characteristics, while for females emotional characteristics were more important. In addition the
study found that women prefer to play together with other men instead of women and that
women have in a large part adapted motives for playing from men and have also adapted several
other behaviours usually attributed to men.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General), bakalaureusetööd, infoühiskond, Internet, võrgusuhtlus, arvutimängud, sugupooled, stereotüübid (psühh.), soolised stereotüübid