unit 12

Specialist study in creative media production

This unit is designed for students like myself to be provided an opportunity to take greater control of their own learning by independently researching and presenting an investigation into an area of personal interest within creative media production and technology. It is intended that the personal investigative study should be a pre-curser to the final extended project and may be used to influence and inform direction and decision making for the final project proposal.

Who am I?:

The "Who am I?" task is a personal reflective video stating information about ourselves which included our interests, inspirations and potentially the topic that I wish to delve into in my final major project. The aim of this task is to gather ideas about my interests and what I want to explore in my final major project, whether that's a certain genre, topic, or technique.

For my “Who am I?” task, I am going to create almost like a video essay. Due to my confidence levels being majorly low when in front of a camera, I figured making a piece to camera wouldn’t be beneficial to me, and it would limit myself during this task. Making a short video with images and videos on screen with a voiceover would allow me to talk about myself confidently.

Here are the questions I am going to ask myself:

What was your first influences that leaded you towards the Film & TV production pathway?
What are some of your favourite Films or TV Shows?
What genre of film or television do you typically tend to pick when looking for something to watch?
Outside of Film & TV, what are your typical interests?
What do you like about these interests?
What do you think you could explore for your FMP based on these interests?

Here is the "Who am I?" task video:

Mind-map:

This task was to create a mind-map stating all possible ideas for my final major project and research topic. For this, I decided to lay out my mind-map in a way I could understand it. That way is putting all my interests and the sub interests that come with that. I then also wrote what kind of FMP I wish to create and why - whether it's a documentary or short film, what kind of atmosphere I wish for it to have etc. I then had my mind-map in two halves, one half stating all the short film (or otherwise known as fictional ideas) and the other half stating all the documentary (or otherwise known as non-fictional ideas) possibilities.

Here is my mind-map:

SWAT Analysis:

For this section, I must pick three ideas that could be potential topics for my FMP. For this, I am using my “Who am I?” task and Mind-map for topic ideas as in them tasks, I have stated my interests, and what my initial idea is for my final major project. I must then analyse these ideas for the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This way I will be able - and also my peers when I ask hem their opinion - which idea would be most suitable to me and the best idea for my final major project.

Idea 1: The sudden boom of interest in Anime.

This documentary would be about the sudden interest in anime and how it’s taken the interest of multiple people in the western side of the world. I am interested in doing this topic as I have an interest in this myself and find it fascinating how most people now are somewhat interested in this content. I would be exploring questions such as in the following: What is anime? Why has there been a sudden interest in anime? What is so interesting and addicting about anime? How has anime suddenly become a popular form of content in the western side of the world? I am planning for these questions to be answered by enthusiastic fans of anime while also using my own research such as internet sources and statistics. This documentary mode would be Participatory.

Strengths – Light-hearted idea with a lot of available information to work with. Passionate about the idea as I am also interested in the media such as anime. I know a lot of people who have the same interest.

Weaknesses – Will be hard to gather viewpoints unless I find an event that I can attend that will allow me to film or interview people at as interviewing people on the streets about it will be unsuccessful as some people do not care for the topic.

Opportunities – With this idea, I can delve into my interests and passionately create a form of media on it. I would also be exploring a question which I want to know the answer to and so I would be broadening my knowledge on one of my interests.

Threats – Would have to research a lot to make sure I’m not going to be offensive towards the culture and I would have to make sure that I can get the viewpoints of other people otherwise the documentary may seem very surface level.

Idea 2: Mockumentary on a fake superhero.

This mockumentary would be based on a fake superhero which me and a couple of my friends created for our 48-hour film challenge that we had to complete last year called “Janky James”. This would be a comedy exploring the daily tasks of this awful “superhero” and almost taking inspiration from themes of The Boys – due to them mocking the superhero genre and using the interesting storyline that not all superheroes are good behind closed doors – and The Office – as they are a mockumentary which include notifiable camera angles and zooms which make the show so unique in it’s genre.

Strengths – Another light-hearted idea which would be entertaining to most viewers. There is a lot of work that could help inspire this project and it would be easy to think of routes that the story could go down due to the endless possibilities.

Weaknesses – Comedy is very subjective, and it could be risky to go for a route where if the comedy lacks, the film will lack quality too. I would also have to find multiple people willing to act in this film who may not be available.

Opportunities – This could be a chance for me to explore the comedy genre while also including a genre of content – which is documentary – that I am comfortable structuring and creating.

Threats – If no one is willing to help me with this project, the whole idea could fall through completely and I could struggle trying to create another idea within the time limit.

Idea 3: How TikTok is changing the music industry.

This documentary would be exploring how the Tiktok has changed the music industry through how it creates trends but also how easy it is to promote your own creations on the app. I want to explore this topic because music is a large interest for me and with Tiktok being such a popular app, this topic seems relevant to anyone who uses it. I would be exploring statistics and recent examples of artists who have claimed this popularity through the social media app and maybe including interviews of people who are knowledgeable in social media promoting. This documentary mode would be Participatory.

Strengths – It’s a relevant topic with an interesting question to answer. I am passionate about music and use TikTok on a daily basis and therefore know a lot of examples where music has blown up through the social media app.

Weaknesses – There could be a lack of interviews as it might be hard to find someone who is knowledgeable on this topic that would be willing to do an interview.

Opportunities – I would be exploring the documentary genre again which I have thoroughly enjoyed in the past and it is something I want to delve into further.

Threats – Due to the topic being on music, it would be hard to dodge copyright as I would need to use certain music to show the viewer examples of songs which have gained promotion through Tiktok.

What is the strongest idea?

Using the three ideas, I am now going to decide which idea would be best for me to go ahead with for my final major project. I have analysed the ideas for myself in the “SWAT” task but I am also going to ask people around me what they think would be best for me to do. I am going to do this through a questionnaire online using Google Forms. This form will include 3 questions. The first question is what idea they prefer. The question will involve a detailed explanation of each idea and a checkbox next to them. The second question will be why they picked that idea, so I can gather the reasons why that idea could be a good one. The third question will be if there is anything I could add, what would it be. This will help me see if I am missing anything to my topics and what I can add before going ahead with the planning.

The questionnaire:

I will now record the responses and include them below.

Response 1:

What idea do you prefer?: Mockumentary with a fake superhero.

Why is the one you picked your favourite?: It allows the most range of your skills to be implemented, as well as unlike the other two I feel it will hit a wider audience, as anime is something one person might enjoy, but the next might not, so for me it's between the idea 2 and idea 3.

Would you add or change anything and why?: Nope not from what I can think off at the moment

Response 2:

What idea do you prefer?: The sudden boom of interest in Anime.

Why is the one you picked your favourite?: I am a big Anime lover myself and think this idea is very interesting and it intrigues me the most.

Would you add or change anything and why?: No it's perfect

Response 3:

What idea do you prefer?: The sudden boom of interest in Anime.

Why is the one you picked your favourite?: I don't know too much about anime personally but found the way you described the idea very interesting and would want to watch anyway to see the questions you wrote about be answered.

Would you add or change anything and why?: No changes the idea is 10/10!!!

Response 4:

What idea do you prefer?: Mockumentary on a fake superhero.

Why is the one you picked your favourite?: Biased JankyyJames is the worlds best superhero and deserves to be shown in all his glory.

Would you add or change anything and why?: Remove the space between Jankyy James, Its JankyyJames 2 ys no spaces trademark pending

Response 5:

What idea do you prefer?: Mockumentary on a fake superhero.

Why is the one you picked your favourite?: I think that idea 2 sounds like the best options because it would be interesting too see how you would do it.

Would you add or change anything and why?: Nothing.

Response 6:

What idea do you prefer?: The sudden boom of interest in Anime.

Why is the one you picked your favourite?: I think this is an interesting idea and it is quite unique for a documentary. You would be able to speak to people first hand to gain their views on the subject.

Would you add or change anything and why?: Maybe look into the future of Anime and how it might change and adapt.

Response 7:

What idea do you prefer?: How Tiktok is changing the music industry.

Why is the one you picked your favourite?: For sure the most viable pick, something that's relevant and just in today's society. You can justify this well.

Would you add or change anything and why?: Maybe you could explore some of the music that's blown up from tiktok and the effect of that on there overall career, the harmful cases where they tuned in for one songs and declined. (The island boys).

Response 8:

What idea do you prefer?: The sudden boom of interest in Anime

Why is the one you picked your favourite?: As I have a mild interest in Anime, I would be interested to know why there is a sudden interest in it and how it's fascinating, as I have a lack of understanding in comparison to friends who I know watch it and how it could potentially invest me into the medium

Would you add or change anything and why?: I don't know honestly, solid idea.

Response 9:

What idea do you prefer?: How Tiktok is changing the music industry.

Why is the one you picked your favourite?: Felt it is very relevant and how short form content is now an everyday consumable.

Would you add or change anything and why?: This will be about the real world examples and with facts and figures presented in an interesting and compelling way.

Response 10:

What idea do you prefer?: How Tiktok is changing the music industry.

Why is the one you picked your favourite?: 1. Because I do not engage with anime, it is not something that interests me. 2. As much as I would enjoy to watch James prance about in a cape, I feel viewers will feel lost without watching the previous instalment. 3. I like music and would be interested to see how the silly clock app has influenced it.

Would you add or change anything and why?: If I could change anything it would be climate change and endgame capitalism.

End Results:

While I gathered my peer's feedback, I also spoke to my tutors. After speaking to my tutors, I decided maybe deciding on another idea may be the best option for me due to the weaknesses and threats being too hard to work around for the ideas to go ahead. For instance, for my documentary idea, "The sudden boom of interest in Anime.", no events are running in between now and the deadline, so gaining interviews will be hard and so the documentary may seem hollow. The mockumentary idea on the fake superhero could fall through as comedy is subjective and the work that goes into a mockumentary is large and could be hard to work on in the time I have. Finally, "How TikTok is changing the music industry" documentary has a risk of being hollow and falling through because there would be a lack of interviews and therefore it would be more of a video essay, limiting my ability to explore the documentary genre.

To solve this, we spoke about some of my interests again, looking at concerts, music, social media and videogames. We came up with a couple ideas which were all documentaries, as this is a genre I wish to explore properly as illness limited my ability to explore it on my last project. While discussing, I was stating my love for videogames but my dislike for some parts of the gaming community due to misogyny. After talking on that conversation for a while, I decided making a documentary based on misogyny in videogaming, and how it affects the community.

Here is my SWAT analysis for that idea:

This documentary would be exploring misogyny in videogaming. This would be answering questions such as how it affects the community, why there is misogyny in videogaming, and why does it still exist. Where I have an interest in videogaming, I have faced misogyny especially in competitive games and so I have a first person perspective on this topic. I would be interviewing women who have experienced misogyny, whether in games or in the esports community, and I will be running an experiment for primary research. The documentary mode will be participatory.

Strengths – It's a topic that has been discussed for a couple years now and it's something that me and most of my friends have faced. It will help to raise awareness about a topic I am passionate about.

Weaknesses – There could be a lack of interviews as some women might not feel comfortable talking about their experiences.

Opportunities – I would be exploring the documentary genre again which I have thoroughly enjoyed in the past and it is something I want to delve into further. It would help raise awareness on a problem that needs to change.

Threats – Due to the topic being considered sensitive, I have to be careful for myself and friends that when experimenting, it doesn't go too far. I also have to make sure that the documentary isn't completely bias.

The idea I am going ahead with:

I think my strongest idea, and therefore the idea I am going ahead with, is the "Misogyny in Videogaming" documentary. This is because it's a topic that could work with interviews and experiments without relying on events and also a topic which includes one of my passions. I am interested in this topic because not only does it involve videogaming, something which I partake in almost daily, but it also includes showing what I and my friends have to face just for playing a game. I want to find out with this documentary how misogyny affects communities within gaming.

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Selecting a Research Topic:

My research topic and question:

I have been playing videogames since I was very young, potentially maybe 4 or 5 years old. I remember my first game I properly got addicted to was Simpsons: Hit and Run, even if I didn't complete the storyline like I was meant to and would rather drive around the open world in the famous Simpsons family car. Even now, I play videogames almost daily, whether that's adventure RPGs or first-person shooters. However, sometimes gaming can be ruined for me due to comments from typically men, however, women can make comments too, regarding my gender when on these games.

My research question is something that I want to explore as I have been in the gaming community for so long and experienced this treatment almost like it was normal.

"How does misogyny affect the gaming community?".

What do I know about my favourite media product?

For this task, I have to choose three media products related to my research topic and critically analyse them.

Video 1: The Dark Side Of Gaming - The Females Fighting Back | EXCLUSIVE - YouTube

This documentary was produced by the public broadcast television channel called BBC Three, owned by the BBC. BBC Three is a channel, created for producing shows for 16-34 year olds, which covers all genres including animation, documentary, comedy and drama. Some of BBC Three’s most famous shows include Gavin & Stacey, Little Britain, Our War and Russel Howard’s Good News (Wikipedia, 2023).

The documentary delves into a modern issue to do with sexism within gaming discussing the social issues that comes with the problem. These social issues include how women in gaming struggle to turn their microphones on to speak to their teammates because of the fear they get of receiving vulgar or terrible comments all because of their gender, and how certain women find it hard to get involved in gaming and community because of how it is prominently dominated by males. I would say the influences of this documentary are the women who receive these comments and the men who have witnessed it and want to speak up on it. I believe the whole point of producing this documentary would be to raise awareness of how women can be treated in videogames and to spark a change in the gaming community.

This documentary includes interviews with some popular creators or journalists in the gaming industry such as KSI, Ms5000Watts, Yogcast Hannah and Julia Hardy which provides knowledge and insight of what they see being in the main front of the gaming and content creation community. The documentary also uses graphics (such as pie charts, titles showing the names of the interviewees and archived footage, news articles and video clips from videos and streams) which gives the viewer, not only context, but also a break from just looking at an interview – like B-roll footage. However, they get criticised in the comments for cutting out some of the interviews with people that goes against their agenda, which is a technique to get the viewer on your side, without them hearing the other point of view.

The target audience for this documentary would be people within the gaming community, as I find that anyone outside the community wouldn’t have an interest in the topic, unless they are interested in social issues to do with genders. Even though it is a documentary based on women’s experiences, I also find men would be an audience for this documentary as they can see what women have to face, and to help promote that this behaviour needs changing or to criticise the documentary and correct their statements and include their perspectives.

BBC Three own the media production, meaning that their ability to recruit people within the industry for interviews and research improved, as the BBC is notable within the UK to be one of the most popular public broadcasting channels. The short documentary includes voice clips, archived footage, interviews, graphics which are all typical conventions of a regular documentary. However, there is no voiceover by a narrator, the story is carried by the interviews and on-screen graphics, which is code specific to this BBC Three production.

Through “The Dark Side of Gaming” documentary shows the world as a toxic and dark place due to the immaturity of men in the gaming community online and their awful behaviour towards women. They tend to generalise all women as victims of abuse in online gaming communities and all men as the perpetrators. This was something they got heavily criticised on not only in the comments of the YouTube link to the documentary, but online. Even creators who were included as an interviewee in the documentary spoke out about how they disagreed with how the documentary was edited to show a bias standpoint against men and how their answers which went against their agenda were cut out, ultimately creating a very bias documentary.

Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmAqdL9gQLA

Screenshot 2023-03-14 at 11.01_edited.jp

This documentary was produced by Vice Media, a media company which is founded in Montreal, Canada and known for being cited as the largest independent youth company in the world. Originally starting off as a magazine company, they branched out to different forms of media such as news channels, content production, record label and more. Some of their productions include the “Fyre” documentary and “The Bad Batch” (Wikipedia, 2023).

This documentary, similarly, to the previous documentary I analysed, delves into a modern issue within the gaming community, specifically they cover e-sports in this documentary. It covers how women within esports are still the minority in the male dominated industry and how they face the attention of being a woman gamer within the esports industry, while also fighting to reach the professional level within esports. I believe this documentary was made to show people what women deal with in the competitive, male dominated space and how they deal with it effectively to continue exploring and indulging themselves in the industry which they love and feel connected to. However, I think this documentary was also produced to promote these women pushing to be a professional esports player in hopes of getting them scouted.

The documentary includes interviews with women within esports, whether they are professional or amateur, and men who are involved in esports for example, a gaming coach and an esports agent. These interviews provide information from different viewpoints and information about the esports industry. The documentary also uses a lot of B-roll footage, archived footage such as gaming clips, graphics of online screenshots, which helps provide context for the viewer, yet also gives them a break from looking at the same screen.

The target audience for this documentary would be people who are involved in the gaming community, as I find that anyone outside the community wouldn’t have an interest in the topic. I also think women within esports would feel interested in this documentary as the whole production is based on what it is like competing as a woman in esports competitions. Finally, even though it is a documentary based on women’s experiences, I also find men would be an audience for this documentary as they can see what women must face, and to help promote that this behaviour needs changing or to criticise the documentary and correct their statements and include their perspectives.

Vice media produced the documentary which I think influences this media as Vice is typically notable for targeting the younger generation with their content, so I think that this documentary had that in mind when being produced, making it more suitable for young adults than other age groups. The short documentary includes voice clips, archived footage, interviews, graphics and a narrator which are all typical conventions of a regular documentary.

This documentary shows the world, specifically the e-sports industry, as unbalanced between genders, however they make sure to show that it’s not all men and women aren’t the only victims, which is what the BBC Three documentary which I previously looked at got criticised heavily for. The documentary provides both positive and negative sides to the esports industry when it comes to women, and I think that is important because otherwise it might shy away women from getting involved in gaming in the future.

Video 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awy6LABMLAM

This documentary was produced by the BBC. It is the national broadcaster of the United Kingdom, making it the oldest and largest within the UK. The BBC is a mass media company, providing many different forms of media under their sectors such as BBC News, BBC radio, BBC sport, BBC television and more. Some of their most popular content includes Eastenders, Killing Eve and Line of Duty (Wikipedia, 2023).

This documentary, similarly, to the previous documentary I analysed, delves into a modern issue within the gaming community, specifically they cover e-sports in this documentary. It covers how women within esports are still the minority in the male dominated industry and how they face the attention of being a woman gamer within the esports industry, while also fighting to reach the professional level within esports. I believe this documentary was made to raise a discussion about the lack of women within esports – and they make a point that the top female esports earner isn’t even in the top 300 – and how that can change to make a more diverse competitive gaming scene. However, I think this documentary was also produced to promote these women pushing to be a professional esports player in hopes of getting them scouted, or the professional esports management that they need to learn how to play in the top leagues of their chosen game.

This documentary includes interviews with women within esports who all play different games, such as csgo, dota 2 and valorant. This provides insight for the viewer on the first-hand experience of being a woman competing in esports leagues. They also use statistics to provide extra information, graphics to support these statistics. There is also a major use of B-roll footage and combined with the graphics and archived gaming clips, it breaks the documentary and interviews into sections to help the viewer watch the content easily.

BBC produced this documentary meaning that their ability to recruit people within the industry for interviews and research improved, as the BBC is notable within the UK to be one of the most popular public broadcasting channels. However, this also provides extra promotion, bringing more and more people to notice this documentary – which you can notice in the comments. The short documentary includes voice clips, archived footage, interviews, graphics and a narrator which are all typical conventions of a regular documentary.

This documentary shows the world, specifically the e-sports industry, as unbalanced between genders. I find that this documentary goes in the same direction as the first video I analysed in the sense that they lack the viewpoint of other people within esports and typically are set on the agenda that women are being treated unfairly in videogames and it is a very sexist industry – which is slightly untrue as a lot of competitive games rely on skill rather than gender – which is very ironic as BBC produced the first documentary too.

Report:

These documentaries are very similar as they all cover the same modern social topic – what being a woman in the gaming community is like. They call cover the problem of sexist abuse, unwarranted sexualisation, and mistreatment due to gender and they also cover what the esports industry is like as a woman. The documentaries include interviews with people within the gaming community – whether they are male or female – which provides professional and first-hand insight of the community and industry for the viewer. The documentaries also provide graphics, archived gaming footage and clips and statistics to back up the information and factual points: providing evidence. All the documentaries have very similar target audiences, them being people involved in the gaming community, women who have an interest in gaming or esports, and potentially men who would like to inform themselves on the community a bit more. I also find that these documentaries help offer promotion to these women in these documentaries, helping the chance of them getting scouted, or increasing their fanbase.

However, I find that one documentary differs from the other two – and that is the Vice Media documentary “What Professional Fortnite Looks Like for Women”. The thing that makes this documentary stand out from the other two for me is the extensive increase of positive reception it received compared to the other two. I believe the reason is because they not only created an unbiased viewpoint within the documentary, but they also involved different perspectives in their documentary, while also supporting the problem of sexism: practically avoided the typical ‘women are victims’ stereotype. Whereas the BBC documentaries were heavily criticised, by viewers and the interviewees they brought on for their production, for promoting a biased agenda which promoted the fact that the gaming world is a toxic and dark place due to the immaturity of men in the gaming community online and their awful behaviour towards women.

This analysis has helped me a lot not only gain inspiration on questions and interview topics and questions which I can delve into within my own documentary and research, but not what to do when it comes to creating a documentary. I have noticed the negative reception some of the documentaries I analysed received which is something I want to steer away from as I am aiming to create an informative and balanced documentary which promotes the issue of sexism within gaming, but also shows that a lot of women have equal resources in gaming to men. I also find that while researching documentaries to analyse, I found a lot of good video essays or short videos which discuss the problem of sexism within the gaming community and esports industry which I can use to support my research and take inspiration from.

I would say my initial idea has been slightly changed as doing the analysis for these documentaries have made me realise how easy it is to create an unintended biased agenda which isn’t fair. Now, I will make sure to research a lot into my topic to make sure I am following in the footsteps of the Vice documentary and not the BBC documentaries. I also would say that my initial idea was just to do with the gaming community but after analysing documentaries on the esports industry and women, I would like to explore that topic further within my research and potentially my documentary too.

References:

Wikipedia, 2023. BBC. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC#Commercial_activities
[Accessed 14 March 2023].

Wikipedia, 2023. BBC Three. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Three
[Accessed 9 March 2023].

Wikipedia, 2023. Vice Media. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_Media
[Accessed 13 March 2023].

Types of Research and How I can utilise them:

For my Unit 12 work, I will need to explore research methods to successfully investigate the question and topic that I have chosen to indulge myself in. There are 4 different types of research which are in the following: primary, secondary, qualitative and quantitative. These methods are useful to know about as if I can identify what they are, what information I can gather with them and the advantages and disadvantages, I will be able to create a research plan effectively.

Research Methods:

Primary:

(Pro School Online, n.d.)

Primary research is information collected first-hand. This means that the data is received by me, and not from a direct source – for example, a website online. Primary research can be used to gather information such as opinions, factual data, recollections and more and the way I can collect this data is by conducting interviews - face to face or telephonic -, online surveys, focus groups and observations – such as recording reactions with cameras.

I can use primary research to answer my research question “How does misogyny affect the gaming community” in multitudes of ways. For example, I can use interviews to gather first-hand experiences and opinions from women within the gaming and esports community and interview some men within the gaming community to see what they think about the issue. I could also provide an online survey so if anyone feels uncomfortable doing a 1 to 1 interview, they could fill out the survey and put their answers in there. These two would help me the most in my research as I already had plans to do them when it came to my research however, I could still try and plan to do focus groups and observations: e.g., I could observe multiple online gaming communities and see the reception towards women. All these research methods help me solidify my research as I will have multiple examples of personal experiences which I can use to provide evidence of misogyny being an issue without just saying it because “I think there is”.

The advantage of primary research is that due to the data being provided is direct and first-hand, it means it’s accurate, reliable and I know the exact source it has come from so the chances of the information being incorrect is very little, and if it is, I know who provide the information to me. Another advantage is that primary research is customised to me. For example, a website with information on could only have a little bit of information on that is useful to me and my research whereas if I were to conduct interviews and surveys, all the information will be useful as I customised the research methods to gather the answers I needed.

The disadvantage of primary research is that due to the effort that goes into creating these interview questions, find the interviewee’s, creating the surveys and then receiving the results again, it can be time consuming and therefore I will need to be able to prepare a slot of time to collect all the data effectively within the deadline, so I have accurate information to work with. Another disadvantage is that one primary research method is almost never enough. The safest thing to do when it comes to primary research is to use multiple research methods to collect the most amount of precise data, so the information isn’t skewed and inaccurate. This also means conducting multiple research methods will extend the time it takes to partake in this research, which was the disadvantage I mentioned before (Bhat, n.d.).

Secondary:

(Bhat, n.d.)

Secondary research is information collected through another existing source. This means that the data I gather is received by someone else, and I am looking at that and taking information that I need: an example is collecting data from online services such as websites. Some secondary research methods include websites – or otherwise known as “data available on the internet”, government or non-government agencies, libraries, university or college reports and experiments, and articles and newspapers – or any other commercial information source.

I can use secondary research to gather information that I was unable to gather in my primary research. For example, if I find that one area of my research is lacking more than other areas, I can use secondary research methods, such as looking at online information services such as websites, articles and reports, to provide more research to that area, creating a more balanced documentary due to my intense research into the topic. I can also use secondary research to obtain accurate statistics so I can provide data to my viewer, helping them understand the impact of the issue easier. My plan is to use secondary research to gather opinions and experiences from people I am unable to contact, such as women who have a platform within the community, to provide more of a background of the context of the topic I am covering better. I am also planning to gather multiple statistics to use within my research and documentary, so my information is accurate, but it also provides the viewer context on the impact of this issue.

The advantage of secondary research is that it can be collected easily. Unlike primary research where it’s time-consuming planning and creating interviews and surveys and then having patience till the results come in, secondary research can be conducted immediately and efficiently as it can all be done behind a desk, hence why it has the nickname “desk research”. Secondary research is also quicker to conduct as most information is ready and available to consume when searched for it. Secondary research can be completed quickly due to the number of available sources online or in public spaces, such as a library, and unlike primary research, it doesn’t need to be collected from scratch.

The disadvantage of secondary research is that even though the information is available from the moment it is searched, it is important that it is examined to know the credibility of the information. As it is online, and the data is not collected by myself, it is hard to know if the information is as accurate as it is stated, and therefore I will need to investigate it more closely to find their evidence for the information. Furthermore, another disadvantage is some information is outdated and certain statistics may have changed since the information was uploaded. Therefore, I will need to date check all the sources to make sure I am only using up to date information to provide my viewers the highest-quality information for my documentary (Bhat, n.d.).

Qualitative:

(Bhat, n.d.)

Qualitative research is the term used to describe the collecting of non-numerical data such as text, audio and video. This type of research can be used to collect opinions, experiences and concepts and is known as the opposite of “Quantitative” data. Some of the research methods for qualitative data include interviews, focus groups, observations, surveys and secondary research. Qualitative data can be both primary and secondary research, depending on the research method.

Qualitative research is going to be very useful when it comes to my own research. This is due to the research that it covers - which are opinions, experiences and concepts. I can use qualitative research to gather opinions and experiences of misogyny within videogaming and how it affects the gaming community by partaking in the methods I stated before, which are interviews, focus groups, observations, surveys and secondary research.

An advantage of qualitative research is that it helps me find meaningful insights. Qualitative research helps me collect detailed personal experiences and opinions which is very important to my research as a lot of it is based on what women sometimes ace within the gaming community due to just their gender. Another advantage is that due to qualitative research having open ended questions so they can collect the non-numerical data, it allows me to generate new ideas from answers from these questions which I wouldn’t have thought about otherwise.

A disadvantage of qualitative research is that it could be unreliable due to the subjectivity. As qualitative research cannot be replicated, researchers tend to choose what information from their data that they have collected is useful to them and only use that within their research. Therefore, interpretations of data can vary a lot and may become inaccurate to fit what the researcher is trying to delve into. Another disadvantage is that qualitative data can be hard to draw generalised conclusions from as the data may be limited to a small group of people to fit the agenda of the researcher, and therefore creating a biased and unfair research log which doesn’t represent the larger population (Bhandari, 2023).

Quantitative:

(Fleetwood, n.d.)

Quantitative research is the term used to describe the collecting of numerical data such as patterns, averages, predictions, and the generalisation of results to the larger population. Quantitative data is known as the opposite of “Qualitative” data. Some of the research methods for quantitative data include experiments, surveys such as questionnaires, systematic observation and secondary research. Quantitative data can be both primary and secondary, depending on the research method.

I can use quantitative research to help me provide statistics (which is one of my aims for my research) which will provide information and context for the viewer of my documentary. I can use an experiment, which is a quantitative research method, which would be to join a game and use my microphone and see how many games out of a certain number, maybe 10, has had sexist comments or trolling in due to my gender. Another way I can use a quantitative research method is by creating a questionnaire can creating my own statistic out of the answers within that questionnaire.

An advantage of quantitative research is that it can be controlled in large samples, therefore it will be easier to keep accurate and reliable through the analysis of the data. Furthermore, another advantage of quantitative research is that the study can be replicated and repeated meaning if it does go wrong, I can redo it without affecting the data or my research.

A disadvantage of quantitative research is that due to the data being numerically focused, the impact of historical and cultural context of these results will lack in the result as they are normally failed to be considered. Another disadvantage of quantitative research is that it can be biased and inaccurate due to missing data and imprecise measurements and therefore the data collected from quantitative research may be unreliable unless it is thoroughly analysed to be accurate (Bhandari, 2022).

Mind-map for Research:

Key:

Title

Primary Research Methods

Secondary Research Methods

Advantages

Disadvantages

Research Plan:

For this section, I will be conducting my research to answer my research question, "How does sexism affect the gaming community?".

In my research plan, I split that question up into 3 different questions which are, "What are some people's experiences with sexism?", "What is the amount of sexism within videogaming?", and "How do people deal with misogyny and sexism within videogaming?".

Primary Research:

For my primary research, I created a questionnaire and shared it on my twitter account for people to fill out. This questionnaire was created to gather first-hand experiences from people who have experienced sexism in videogames, themselves or others, how they deal with it, and their opinion on how large of a problem it is. Here is what the questionnaire looks like.

Here are the responses:

Response 1:

Gender - Female

Experienced sexism in videogames? - Yes

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - Told me I belonged in the kitchen and a person I knew made me usually only play the role made for “girls”.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - I usually mute them or ignore them.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - I'd say it's not as bad as it used to be, but still bad enough.

Contact? - No

Response 2:

Gender - Female

Experienced sexism in videogames? - No

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - Female friends talking in the game voice chat and being sexualised, being told to go to the kitchen, being belittled and just not respected like male teammates were.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - Avoiding using in game voice chat unless absolutely necessary and using the in game report system is something does happen.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - If anything its way worse than people think because not everyone speaks up about it so things get missed.

Contact? – No

Response 3:

Gender - Female

Experienced sexism in videogames? - Yes

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - Someone threw my competitive game because I spoke in the game.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - Turn off my microphone and use the in game reporting system.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - I think everyone experiences a level of hate but it can be unbalanced when it comes to gender within gaming. A lot of people are scared to speak up on the comments as they get told they’re being weak or being over dramatic.

Contact? – No

Response 4:

Gender - Female

Experienced sexism in videogames? - Yes

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - When it comes to online games, it tends to be stereotypical comments that I've received such as go make a sandwich or go back to the kitchen.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - I'll put 40 plus kills on them and then message them saying get good.

Is it a major problem? - I'm unsure

Significant amount or overdramatised? - I think it's a mixed bag. It's becoming less of a thing now, with gaming communities becoming more fractured amongst themselves so the insults are more at each other for what they like rather than other aspect such as gender, but its still a issue that happens often.

Contact? – No

Response 5:

Gender - Female

Experienced sexism in videogames? - No

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - No

Recollection of experience - I mainly play single player games and so haven't had any experience with it in videogames.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - Not playing multiplayer games and not using a mic.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - I think it depends on what kind of game you play. Multiplayer games - especially competitive ones have a lot of sexism.

Contact? – No

Response 6:

Gender - Male

Experienced sexism in videogames? - No

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - I haven't experienced it but I have witnessed it happen to one of my friends.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - I would speak up against the people that are doing it.

Is it a major problem? - I'm unsure.

Significant amount or overdramatised? - I think its a bit of both yes there is sexism and sometimes really bad sexism depending on what gaming community you are apart of but some people overdramatise it.

Contact? – No

Response 7:

Gender - Male

Experienced sexism in videogames? - No

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - No

Recollection of experience - Don't recall an experience of sexism whilst gaming.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - Wouldn't know.

Is it a major problem? - I'm unsure.

Significant amount or overdramatised? - Although I haven't experienced this issue from memory, I know it can be a big issue as it could potentially be emotionally damaging to one's health.

Contact? – Yes

Response 8:

Gender - Female

Experienced sexism in videogames? - Yes

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - Sexual assault threats, physical threats.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - I do a bit of both depending on the situation and who it is aimed at, reporting is standard though.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - It is enough to be a problem for most women but it doesn't happen as often because of how women deal with it eg. not speaking. As well as when it does happen it is quite harsh which makes it a bigger problem.

Contact? – No

Response 9:

Gender - Male

Experienced sexism in videogames? - No

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - I can't recollect a specific experience but it something that is very prevalent in especially shooters like Call of Duty, Valorant and CSGO.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - Muting everyone else.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - I think there is a significant amount of sexism, however, I also believe that the dramatisation of sexism in video gaming adds fuel to an already raging fire.

Contact? – No

Response 10:

Gender - Male

Experienced sexism in videogames? - No

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - No

Recollection of experience - No

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - If I were to experience sexism towards me I would mute them, if I were to witness it I would tell them that it isn't okay and report it if possible.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - I think that sexism within videogaming isn't overdramatised, it is a real issue but I believe it is mostly condensed within the communities of certain games. On a side note, female characters in games are often oversexualised which I feel isn't healthy for the community.

Contact? – No

Response 11:

Gender - Male

Experienced sexism in videogames? - Yes

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - No

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - Stand up for yourself

Is it a major problem? - I'm unsure.

Significant amount or overdramatised? - I don't think there is that much but it's definitely a problem.

Contact? – No

Response 12:

Gender - Female

Experienced sexism in videogames? - Yes

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - Teammates leaving when a female friend joined and messaged them to say stop playing video games.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - If its sexism that's flirting, I use my masculine voice, if its sexism that's telling me to get off I just absolutely dominate the enemy team then call them little children.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - Yes although, I think its more prevalent in certain game genres like FPS being full of aggressive, sexist people whereas co-op games like deep rock galactic being a lot more welcoming and kind.

Contact? – No

Response 13:

Gender - Non-binary

Experienced sexism in videogames? - Yes

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - Name calling and insults purely based of a friend with a typically female name in their username, as well as the usual gross misogynistic comments about kitchen, dishwasher, sandwiches and being bad at video games for those reasons, it even got to the point of gross sexual harassment and r*pe threats over a video game.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - I will usually try to rebuttal it but in a lot of cases stay quiet as to hope they will just get bored and stop, but there have been a few times where I just have to mute someone because they are just constantly spouting unpleasant things to me or a friend.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - I think it unfortunately is extremely common within competitive games especially those that are free to play, the worst offenders come to mind are League of Legends, Valorant, Overwatch, Apex, CSGO

Contact? – No

Response 14:

Gender - Male

Experienced sexism in videogames? - No

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - Valorant: team member telling multiple woman to "go back to the kitchen" or "go do the dishes"

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - Stand up for other people

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - I think there is a significant amount of sexism, however it depends what your playing- some games are a LOT worse than others and that's where it can be overdramatised, at least from what i've experienced.

Contact? – Yes

Response 15:

Gender - Male

Experienced sexism in videogames? - No

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - Playing a multiplayer game and after a match someone said that someone was "trash" the targeted player replied and one they knew they were female the aggressive player said "you're a woman no wonder you are so bad".

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - We mainly ignore the comments cause we been playing games so long its just another insult on the pile.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - I think that there is a significant amount of sexism within videogame communities especially with games like Call of Duty, Valorant, Apex etc.

Contact? – Yes

Response 16:

Gender - Male

Experienced sexism in videogames? - No

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - When people realise a girl is playing games like FIFA or Rainbow Six Siege

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - They get more kills than them which keeps them quiet.

Is it a major problem? - I'm unsure

Significant amount or overdramatised? - Yes?

Contact? – No

Response 17:

Gender - Female

Experienced sexism in videogames? - Yes

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - Yes, there are many but I've had experiences where I've used a mic and have been given the same repetitive insults like "Go back to the kitchen" or have been told to "Shut up women". There have also been times where I have been blamed for the team losing even if im doing the best in the game.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - It depends on the day, sometimes I mute and sometimes I speak up for myself and some times I just ignore it depending on the severity.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - Yeah I think there is a fair bit, and is definitely more prevalent in certain games compared to others. I've cut back on how much I use my mic within game if I'm in a game on my own. And when I'm playing with friends I usually get them to speak first too judge to see if I can use a mic in game without harassment. But when I use my mic, I would say the amount of sexism I experience is a large amount.

Contact? – No

Response 18:

Gender - Female

Experienced sexism in videogames? - Yes

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - That time my friend was told to kill herself because she played CS:GO and was vaguely feminine whereupon she then loaded up Minecraft and was sent an anti-LGBTQIA+ copy pasta repeatedly.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - I mute whoever is annoying me and let them scream themselves to death but others have fought tooth and nail to be the "winner" in the confrontation.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - It largely depends on the community being observed. Communities that surround games like CS:GO or League of Legends are very sexist whereas other communities such as the Minecraft community or the Animal Crossing community aren't very sexist at all.

Contact? – No

Response 19:

Gender - Male

Experienced sexism in videogames? - No

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - I've seen a woman get banned from a game match.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - I just mute the person and report them.

Is it a major problem? - No

Significant amount or overdramatised? - There's definitely sexism out there, but in my opinion it's not a big problem with most games as it's easily countered.

Contact? – No

Response 20:

Gender - Male

Experienced sexism in videogames? - No

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - No

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - Turn off game chat.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - There is significant evidence to suggest that sexism is a problem within the video gaming industry and gaming culture. While some may argue that instances of sexism are overblown or exaggerated, the reality is that many women and other marginalized groups experience harassment, discrimination, and exclusion within the gaming community.

Contact? – Yes

Response 21:

Gender - Male

Experienced sexism in videogames? - No

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - No

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - Leave the game chat.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - Numerous studies have shown that women who play video games are often subjected to sexist attitudes and behaviours, including verbal harassment and objectification. In addition, there is a well-documented gender imbalance in the gaming industry itself, with women being underrepresented in key roles such as game designers and programmers. So in short yes I believe there is a significant amount of sexism within videogames.

Contact? – No

Response 22:

Gender - Male

Experienced sexism in videogames? - No

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - I can't recollect a personal experience with sexism either to me or a friend.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - Normally if something like this where to happen I'd report the person within the game or mute them as I do not use voice or text chat.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - I think there is a significant amount of sexism due to people not being educated enough (either due to age or bad parenting etc) and having the freedom to express their oppressive and prejudice opinions without real or proper consequence.

Contact? – No

Response 23:

Gender - Male

Experienced sexism in videogames? - Yes

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - I play a lot of slice of life and slow games such as animal crossing, sims and stardew valley. I've been told by people those are not real games , especially by men who make it clear its because AFAB . Most of my experiences are stereotypical 'girls cant play video games' or that I'm a 'fake' fan because I cant recall certain move.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - I don't play a lot of online games but when I do , such as Apex, I often just don't play with the mic on. Its easier than risking being called names or having someone scream at me because I have a feminine voice. One of my friends have a better approach and often either shout back at them or laughs.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - There's an overwhelming amount depending on where your looking. You won't necessary find it in games communities like Hollow knight or animal crossing but its in its abundance in game lobby's such as Call of duty, in fact most first person shooters have this issue. Even in my own household where the majority of people are woman or afab , when my stepdad plays games , well its not nice language. You cant turn a corner without finding sexism. if you try to ignore it your part of the problem.

Contact? – No

Response 24:

Gender - Other

Experienced sexism in videogames? - Yes

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - It's not all the time but there are way too many men who will call any female presenting gamer that obliterates them a washing machine. I don't know if they just lack the braincells to come up with much new to insult but its just generic sexist views most the time.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - It depends on how much energy I have and how dumb the sexist individual is. ill probably flame them back, insult their intelligence or just laugh at them for thinking generic sexist insults are going to shake anyone to their core. then I just report them, not much else to do.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - I don't feel like its overdramatised, people have this impression because it happens enough. while yea I don't see extreme displays of sexism every day I do however see countless micro aggressions, sometimes entirely based on if they think your username is feminine enough to flame. The most extreme instances make sitting through a match in one of my games feel miserable as some drunk guy talks about how men built the world or something.

Contact? – No

Response 25:

Gender - Male

Experienced sexism in videogames? - Yes

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - Very hard to recall, but I remember lots of vile things being said on Hypixel Minecraft chats. Not so much to specifically a hierarchy in gender directly, but disgust in same-sex relations and how trans people shouldn't have rights. I also remember levels in Geometry Dash made specifically to hate on LGBTQ+, definitely not the only one, but one got very popular.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - I typically just keep quiet. I've never had an experience where I saw someone getting directly harassed, more just pathetic toxicity. But when that happens I just don't engage. Children are going to be children. Typically the worst people also happen to have the most time, I don't imagine that telling someone to stop will go very well for anyone. Just restrict them from the one thing they crave.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - There are definitely more instances of sexism in different genres of games. Depends on competition in the game.

Contact? – No

Response 26:

Gender - Male

Experienced sexism in videogames? - No

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - No

Recollection of experience - Haven't come across it.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - There is a bottom what can mute all or mute one person in the game so you don't need to deal with anyone and if you need to play games with someone make sure you are friends with them.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - In different games you can experience a lot of sexism but not all community will have it as they enforce the game by allowing the people to block, report, and mute, the people who might be using sexism at you. You could think of Roblock it have a strong community against sexism, and they block people who might do the wrong thing, this doesn't mean that they get everyone and some people get away but eventually they get caught by the Roblock community. Games like FPS (First Person Shooters) are the most toxic in the sexism and more, but they have a mute all and block as well report bottoms even those that doesn't stop the people.

Contact? – Yes

Response 27:

Gender - Male

Experienced sexism in videogames? - No

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - Male gamers disrespect woman gamers because of their gender.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - Leaving the game.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - Theres alot for different types of games that are male dominated.

Contact? – No

Response 28:

Gender - Male

Experienced sexism in videogames? - No

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - No

Recollection of experience - No as I rarely play online games.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - In online games there is usually a mute button or just report the person or block them.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - I know that it is a big problem in certain gaming community's such as the FPS genre as its an incredibly competitive and toxic community. but its not a big problem in other community's such as simulation or puzzle genre as their community's are usually very helpful and friendly but as the FPS genre is so big with games like Call of Duty and CSGO that it is the problem it is.

Contact? – Yes

Response 29:

Gender - Female

Experienced sexism in videogames? - Yes

Witnessed sexism in videogames towards another? - Yes

Recollection of experience - I was playing valorant, and constantly received comments about being a woman. I had sexual comments thrown at me and also the basics like, "go back to the kitchen" . When I reacted to the comments (as i should) I was told to stop being dramatic ect.

How do you deal with sexism in videogaming? - Usually i just stay quiet and mute my mic. but in the instance i mentioned previously, i was just having a bad day and they took it too far so i got annoyed.

Is it a major problem? - Yes

Significant amount or overdramatised? - A significant amount of sexism is in the gaming community.

Contact? – No

Interview:

I was able to interview two women from the Games Development class at my college to ask their opinions on sexism within the gaming community. Both women agreed that there is a large amount of sexualisation in the community, which leads them to be reserved at turning on their microphone due to the comments they may receive or because they are naturally shy. One woman who has a lot of experience on the game Overwatch, says that she has received comments to do with sexual assault and physical threats when her microphone is turned on, and found that sometimes her games are thrown by her own teammates just because they found out her gender. Another thing that was mentioned was how the choice of role sometimes affects what comments they receive. For example, female players stereotypically lead towards support roles, which some man has commented to one of the women I spoke to “typical woman Mercy main,” which is the name of a character inside the game called Overwatch. She also agreed that she felt empowered when picking a non-support role as it’s almost breaking that typical label. However, we didn’t just speak about the abuse from males. We also spoke about how because of this sexist agenda the community already has, a lot of women feel the need to bring down other women rather than work together because of male validation, or to feel more than the other woman in the game.

I also spoke to them about how they avoid these comments or work around them. They both said they turn off their microphone and tend to stay silent to avoid these comments. They also avoid shooter games as they have a reputation to have a male dominated community which can lead to abusive comments towards them. When it comes to the comments, the women I spoke to said they are happier to defend their friend if they receive a comment rather than themselves.

When discussing the amount of sexism within the community, and how to fix it, one of them stated that “it happens so much it’s funny,” almost as if it’s a normal experience to go through that it’s laughable when it happens. One of them also said that a support group wouldn’t work – which would entail everyone to work against sexist comments within online gaming – because we don’t know the ratio of sexist to non-sexist people within the community, and some people are too stubborn to change their mindset.

I also asked the Games Development tutor what she thought about sexism within gaming, and she opened me up to a whole world of the 90s game generation, as that’s what she experienced. She stated that when she played Street fighter, the only character she would play would be Chun-Li because at that time, she was the only female representation within the game at that point. She also introduced me to another Street fighter character called “Mika”. This character in particular is a female wrestler from the game whose design is very oversexualised, as if it’s appealing to the male gaze.

Secondary Research:

For my secondary research I looked online for statistics, articles, podcasts, websites and video essays discussing the topic of sexism in videogaming that I can use to support my research for my research question.

The first thing I came across was this clip from the podcast named “That's What She Said”, a podcast ran by 100 Thieves member BrookeAB, displays popular female twitch streamers BrookeAB and TinaKitten’s experiences of sexism within the games Valorant and CSGO.

(51) Dealing with Sexism in Gaming... - YouTube

BrookeAB and TinaKitten are gaming streamers most known to be popular on the streaming platform, Twitch. They play games such as Among Us, Valorant, Minecraft, and more. BrookeAB in particular, has experienced major issues with being popular on the streaming platform which has lead to her and her family receiving horrific threats, doxxing issues and stalking, which caused her to go on a hiatus from social media in general to support herself and her family through this terrifying time. In a statement from October 16th, 2020 she said, “Like countless women in gaming and frankly, too many people around the world, for the last year, I have been targeted by a handful of online stalkers and abusers that did, and continue to do, everything in their power to hurt me and those who support me with threats of murder, arson, bodily harm, job loss, and the most horrific threats you can imagine,”. She is now using her platform and experience to help other women within the gaming industry escape the same torment that she was put through and stated it is a widespread problem within the industry and hopes to break the cycle. (Amos, 2020).

However, in this particular clip from the podcast, they are mentioning experiences that they have gone through when playing videogames because of their gender. For example, Brooke states how some boys comment that she should go back to the kitchen due to her being a woman, and Tina opens up on the sexualising comments that a woman can get just for playing a game. Furthermore, BrookeAB starts laughing when Tina mentions CSGO when on the topic of sexist comments, almost as if she's expecting it to be awful. This may prove that this is a continuous problem for both women and that it is almost expected now. This is important for my research question as one of my mini questions is "What are some people's experiences with sexism within videogaming?" and this is helping to answer that.

To get through the games and not experience the awful comments which have a chance of happening, TinaKitten states she doesn't use her microphone when in the game of Valorant, which answers another mini question I have "How do people deal with sexism within videogaming?", and both of them agreed that 5-stacking, a term used to describe the action of playing with a full team of players you know rather than having a random stranger on your team, is when they have the most fun as they don't have to worry about the random teammates they get put into a game with.

(56) The Sexism Problem of Overwatch & Gaming - YouTube

This video essay was created to explore the issue of sexism in Overwatch and gaming in general as it is not discussed anywhere near enough. SBV, the creator and publisher of the video states in their description that "The fact that women are still so frequently targeted for harassment in-game, simply because of their gender, is a point of shame in this community. It's time we #SpeakUp and made a change."

The video essay uses a range of clips from videogames where men are actively targeting the women, whether it's abuse or sexualisation just because of the gender of the player. He also explores statistics, not just of videogame related results, but of real life data such as, how many women have been followed by a stranger, or how many women have had a multitude of weird comments which could help support his claim that not all comments can be received as jokes, but rather a sort of threat.

He also explores that fact that typical hate is normal within competitive gaming and is almost expected when tensions and emotions are at their highest in that setting. However, he states that "being attacked for who you are, or in this case simply for your gender, is not a normal part of anything," and continues showing evidence of women being targeted in videogames but again, makes sure to say that sexism doesn't happen in every single game. He also explores the hate that men get, specifically trans men, or men with typically higher voices or more stereotypical feminine traits, because that is also a huge problem within the gaming community: being attacked of their perceived lack of masculinity.

He then goes on to explain what people could do to combat sexism within videogaming. He says a lot of people mute their microphones, leave the game or aggravate the assaulter back in the same tone, which does nothing. Silence only helps the abuser, and a reaction is what they want. He done a study for this video and most of the women he spoke to said that the most annoying thing about these sexist comments is that no one would defend them. Even if only one person was making them comments, the other teammates would stay silent, unwarily encouraging this behaviour. He says wiping out the minority of abusers would be the best plan, which would require everyone speaking up against them when they make these comments.

What I find interesting about this video is that compared to the other video essays, podcasts, or documentaries I have analysed, the comments are of a positive manner. Obviously, this is not a viable reason, but this video is created by a male. I am wondering if because, it is created by a male, it had more of a positive reception, or it could be because of the heavy amounts of research and facts he provided, and didn't victimise women and made a balanced opinion.

Articles, Books and Statistics

This section is where I will look at statistics and articles that I have found online that help me research my question, and would help me support the facts that I am looking for. I will also be looking into any books that I have found that might help me indulge further into my research question.

Article 1: REPORT: Women and games - how do modern female gamers play? - Try Evidence

This article is full of statistics and facts which can help me with my research. This whole article is a report based on women and gaming, speaking about how many women are involved in gaming, what type of game genre they typically tend to lead towards and whether they are a casual game or a hardcore, competitive gamer. This article and statistics are all based on Polish samples which could coincide with the results of global research.

Looking at the statistics, the ones in the following are useful to me:

Women tend to lead towards RPG, Adventure and Logic games.
18% of Women (out of 584 people in Poland) spend for than 4 hours on games from Monday to Friday
18% of Women (out of 584 people in Poland) prefer to play on easy mode, whereas 27% of men (out of 584 people in Poland) like to play on hard mode).
Among hardcore gamers, women make up 24% which many of them are involved in activities such as e-sports or other gaming activities such as beng on streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube.
Women prefer immersive gaming dynamics more than men, related to travel and experiences, and less strictly martial.

This data can be helpful as I can cite this article for my research and use this information however, I could be at a disadvantage using this particular data as it is all recorded in Poland and therefore, may not coincide with the results of the global, or United Kingdom research.

Article 2: Reach3 Insights’ New Research Reveals 59% of Women Surveyed Use a Non-Gendered/Male Identity to Avoid Harassment While Gaming

This article is full of statistics and facts which can help me with my research. This whole article is a report based on trends in the gaming industry about what women experience in the gaming industry. This includes speaking about how many women are involved in gaming, what type of games they are playing, what they deal with when they play games, and how to avoid that conflict.

Looking at the statistics, the ones in the following are useful to me:

88% of women gamers surveyed play competitive-style games
75% of women surveyed are playing action/survival-style games
66% of women surveyed are playing shooters.
77% of women responded dealing with at least some sort of frustration when gaming because of their gender. Judgements of skills, (70%), gatekeeping (65%) and patronizing comments (50%) were the most reported types of comments women gamers said they received while gaming online.
In addition, 44% of women gamer respondents have received unsolicited relationship asks while gaming.
59% of women surveyed use either a non-gendered or male identity when playing games online to avoid conflict
71% of participants said that companies can foster more inclusive behaviours in gaming by having a greater presence of different groups in gaming ads

I can use this data in my research as it holds a lot of information which could answer all 3 of my mini questions; which are "What are some people's experiences with sexism?", "What is the amount of sexism within videogaming?", and "How do people deal with misogyny and sexism within videogaming?". However, this particular article doesn't state how many women were asked in this survey, only where and when it was recorded which could make this data invalid to credit. The article also doesn't include any graphs or layout of statistics which I could compare with anther article.

Article 3: Female Gamers’ Experience of Online Harassment and Social Support in Online Gaming: A Qualitative Study | SpringerLink

This article is full of statistics and facts which can help me with my research. This whole article is a report based on the online harassment that female gamers have to face within online gaming, and what social support is offered, or a lack there of. This particular article is a very in depth study on women within gaming and everything that they go through when it comes to winding down and playing games online.

Looking at the statistics, the ones in the following are useful to me:

A number of the gamers (n = 18) stated they had gotten to the point of preferring to play alone than dealing with negative experiences. For instance: “Better to play alone than subjecting myself to potential toxicity”.
There was a common theme of females having experienced numerous incidents of male harassment (n = 73), including sexual harassment (n = 24) and verbal aggression directed at them during gaming (n = 44), and for some the experience of being stalked by males online (n = 5) and offline (n = 2).
“Comments are running my gaming experience” (post number 67)
Females frequently reported the experience of not having an active involvement in the games and the feeling of not being taken seriously as having a role to play.
“I’ve almost completely hidden my gender for the past 10 years in online gaming so I could enjoy my hobby” (post number 190)
When asked if they were female by other male gamers, a large amount of females talked about how they would deny being female (n = 5) or would allow male gamers to believe they were a teenage boy (n = 16).
“I hid my gender from my clan for 3 years” (post number 191)

I can use this data in my research as it is all conducted as primary research and a lot of the information this article provided was from a qualitative study and it states where the data was collected from, which was from a public online discussion forum intended for female gamers. All of the quotes that were used were generated by a total of 271 female gamers. They were also all recorded during one month, which only 21 out of the 251 gaming-related discussions were analysed for this particular study. The only reason why this data may be invalid is because it was conducted on a forum online, meaning the results can't be controlled and people could be lying, or twisting what happened in their experiences to manipulate the data. This data could also be inaccurate as this study was published in 2018 which means that the data could've heavily changed now, in 2023.

Theses: Women in Gaming: A Study of Female Players’ Experiences in Online FPS Games (usm.edu)

I've decided to use this Theses made by M Allison McDaniel for the University of Southern Mississippi as it provides a lot of data and information that I can use for my research. This particular theses explores what harassment and discrimination women playing FPS games face, how they respond, and in what ways they find games to be empowering. A survey was distributed online to an international sample of 141 female FPS gamers.

Looking at the statistics, the ones in the following are useful to me:

Women who play FPS games often feel empowered by playing (79.4%), even though a majority also experience forms of verbal harassment or discrimination (75.9%).
Since 2009, the number of women who work in the game industry has doubled to 22% (Gaudiosi 2014).
In response to perceived harassment while playing videogames, some women players, as a way to cope and fight against this harassment, create blogs online to gain support; one such blog (“Not in the Kitchen Anymore”) documents a woman’s various experiences with online harassment in games (Hudson 2014). “Fat, Ugly, or Slutty” is another of these sites, playing upon the common stereotypes women gamers feel they face (O’Leary 2012).
My most notable results included women reporting that first-person shooters contain the most harassment and that it is not uncommon for other women to be the harassers.
As soon as other players, players I do not personally know, realize I'm a woman they generally get either extremely hostile or overly flirtatious. Sometimes an awful mix of both. I often have to turn my mic off or exit the game completely
Most participants (46.8%) “sometimes hide and sometimes reveal” their sex and/or gender (see Table 6). This may depend upon the scenario, such as whether they are playing with strangers or not. Whereas 36.2% do not think about this, 7.8% “always hide.” Sometimes hiding one’s sex and/or gender, and always hiding it, paint a fearful environment. Women players realize that openly showing their sex and/or gender (through name, chat, etc.) could open the doors for targeted harassment. Not wanting to deal with the repercussions of speaking and revealing this to strangers, they may instead hide in various ways.

This theses is very detailed and includes a lot of information to do with qualitative and quantitative studies which I can use to explore my own research question. The theses states where the data was collected from and their references if they conducted secondary research to backup their facts and statements, making it more reliable. The only reason why this data may be invalid is because it was conducted on a forum online, meaning the results can't be controlled and people could be lying, or twisting what happened in their experiences to manipulate the data. This data could also be inaccurate as this study was published in 2016 which means that the data could've heavily changed now, in 2023.

Book: Trigger Happy - Steven Poole

This book was created to critique one of the most popular forms of play, videogames. Poole looks into multiple different characteristics in videogames such as character design, map creation, and storylines however, the most important part he explores, which is in my opinion, is the Gender Genres section, under the False Idols category. This section is all about the comparison of games played between men and women, and the large increase of women gamers coming into the 21st century.

Looking at the statistics and information provided within this book, the ones in the following are useful to me:

1997 Tokyo Game Show, 82% of the audience were male
Due to most of the developers of videogames being men - or at least until when this was published which was at the start of the 2000s - the videogame products have appealed to men, just like "women's fiction" are typically written by women, which sells more to women than men.
According to some American statistics , the gap between male and female has vanished as in a 1999 study in the United States, nearly 43% of gamers were female.
Videogame developers in the future will appeal to more men and to more women only as long as their games mature aesthetically.

I can use this book within my research as it is an offline source which provides diversity within my research and all of the statistics, quotes and factual information has been credited and cited to their original owner, proving that the information is real. This disadvantage about using this book is that because it was published in the early 2000s, it would be hard to line up the data with the new generation of videogames, in 2023. The data also could've heavily changed, making it invalid to use for my study.

Research Report:

Introduction:

I have had the interest in videogames since I was incredibly young, potentially 4 or 5 years old. I remember my first game I properly got addicted to was Simpsons: Hit and Run, even if I did not complete the storyline like I was meant to and would rather drive around the open world in the famous Simpsons family car. Even now, I play videogames daily, whether that's adventure RPGs or first-person shooters such as Stardew Valley, Valorant and Overwatch. However, sometimes gaming can be ruined for me due to comments from typically men, yet, women can make comments too, regarding my gender when on these games. This toxicity within the community has been around for a long time, typically since videogames started being advertised - in the words of Steven Poole from the book “Trigger Happy,” “with often depressingly adolescent, sexist advertising” - towards men, due to most of the game developers before the 2000s, being of the male gender (Poole, 2004). My research topic is “Sexism in Gaming,” something that I want to explore as I have been in the gaming community for so long and my friends and I have experienced this treatment like it was normal.

My research report provides a conclusion to every piece of work and research I have completed and conducted to inform me on sexism within gaming. Within my research, I have used a range of primary and secondary research to provide myself with accurate results from experiences of sexism within gaming within news stories, articles, and books but also offering myself information from my peers around me and their experiences. I have used a large variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods such as a questionnaire, interview, statistics, video essays, podcasts, theses, and books to support every fact and information that I use and compare with my own.

To research my topic, which is “Sexism in Gaming” I decided to pick a research question that would lead my research and it is also something I have a personal experience with. My research question is “How does sexism affect the gaming community?” which is a question that not only I have experience of, but most of my friends and women that I meet online have experiences of. To make the question easier to answer, I have split my question up into 3 sections of questions which I refer to as “mini questions”. These questions include "What are some people's experiences with sexism?", "What is the amount of sexism within videogaming?", and "How do people deal with misogyny and sexism within videogaming?". All these questions combined will create an informed and rich report on how sexism affects the gaming community and the first step for me understanding what I potentially want to explore for my final major project.

In this research report, I will show my understanding in the subject that I have decided to research through my primary and secondary research findings, using graphs and statistics from my own research, or research I have found online. I will be exploring what I have learnt within my analysation of 3 documentaries which cover my theme of exploration as well as discussing any other forms of media I have chosen to provide myself with information. I will then be comparing them all together to see if any patterns arise to gather statistics that I can use for a potential documentary project.

Methodology:

For my research, I decided to split up my overall main research question, “How does sexism affect the gaming community”, into 3 mini questions that will help me fully understand what I am trying to discover about my chosen topic. These 3 “mini” questions are "What are some people's experiences with sexism?", "What is the amount of sexism within videogaming?", and "How do people deal with misogyny and sexism within videogaming?". This included conducting both primary and secondary research. The first bit of research I produced was before I began my research, and it was to analyse 3 types of media that relate to my research topic, however I wanted to include it in my report as it opened my eye up to how audience perceive the type of media I was looking at and what not to do to achieve a balanced argument in a documentary.

The documentaries I analysed were all very similar as they all cover the same modern social topic – what being a woman in the gaming community is like. They call cover the problem of sexist abuse, unwarranted sexualisation, and mistreatment due to gender and they also cover what the esports industry is like as a woman. The documentaries include interviews with people within the gaming community – whether they are male or female – which provides professional and first-hand insight of the community and industry for the viewer. This is a form of secondary, qualitative research and the advantage of looking into this form of content was that the analysis has helped me a lot not only gain inspiration on questions and interview topics and questions which I can delve into within my own documentary and research, but not what to do when it comes to creating a documentary. I would say another advantage is that it shows me what is already out there as a form of media within this topic, and how to be original compared to these documentaries so there is a point to me looking into the question “How does sexism affect the gaming community?”. However, the disadvantage of looking into these documentaries is that these documentaries, despite providing good information, might have an unbiased agenda. This would mean the documentaries may have edited their content to make the viewer think what they are showing, and not for themselves – which a couple documentaries I analysed got called out for.

For my actual research, I began by starting my primary research, so I can gather the responses I need; this is because primary research can be time consuming and so I prepared a slot of time to collect all the data effectively within the deadline (which I learnt by researching different research methods (Bhat, n.d.). This included creating a questionnaire – a quantitative method of research - and conducting an interview – a qualitative method of research.

I created a questionnaire and shared it on my twitter account for people to fill out. This questionnaire was created to gather first-hand experiences from people who have experienced sexism in videogames, themselves or others, how they deal with it, and their opinion on how large of a problem it is. Here is what the questionnaire looks like. It included questions along the lines of gender identity, experiences with sexism in videogaming, witnessed sexism in videogaming, their opinion on if it’s a major problem, and if I can contact them for extra information. The advantages from this form of research method are that it gives me first hand experiences without having to travel, or the person responding having to travel and that it is also time saving as I managed to gather a lot of information just from this form whereas if I were to interview every single one of them, it would have taken ten times longer, therefore not meeting the deadline. The disadvantage of this research method, being questionnaires, is that because I shared it online, I received a few troll answers, which didn’t help my investigation and another disadvantage was because it was online, people could be lying and therefore it would make my data invalid.

After sharing my questionnaire, I was offered to interview some students from Canterbury College who are studying Games Development and were kind enough to offer some help with research. Most of my questions were based around sexism within gaming, whether they experience or not, in what games they experience it most in, what they do if it does happen, what they think causes sexism within the gaming community, and what their thoughts on how to stop sexist comments within gaming. The advantage of conducting an interview is that I managed to receive first hand information from women within the gaming community and their thoughts on sexism within it. Another advantage is that using interviews mean the information is customised to me. For example, a website with information on could only have a little bit of information on that is useful to me and my research whereas the interview means all the information will be useful as I customised the questions to gather the answers I needed. However, the disadvantage of using interviews is that it provides an answer for a very small part of the community. If I want strong reliable data, I need to match it with other types of research to see a pattern or to see if the interview is reliable to comment on most of the community. It would be unfair to use just this interview when making my documentary.

After I finished conducting my primary research, I moved onto my secondary research production. For my secondary research I looked online for statistics, articles, podcasts, websites and video essays discussing the topic of sexism in videogaming that I can use to support my research for my research question. Again, similarly to the primary research, I am aiming to find information that will answer my research question “How does sexism affect the gaming community?”.

When it came to online video media, I used clips from the podcast named “That's What She Said”, a podcast ran by 100 Thieves member BrookeAB, displays popular female twitch streamers BrookeAB and TinaKitten’s experiences of sexism within the games Valorant and CSGO, a video essay by the YouTube Creator “SBV” named “The Sexism Problem of Overwatch & Gaming” where he explores the issue of sexism in Overwatch and gaming in general as it is not discussed anywhere near enough and he encourages people of any gender to “#SpeakUp” to sexism. I analysed both clips and gathered the information that I needed, which is a qualitative method of research. The advantage of analysing online video content just like the ones I have stated above is that it is easily accessible and quicker than if I were aiming to gather this information through primary research methods, such as interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, etc., as the information is already online when I need it. However, the disadvantage is that they can be unreliable if not thoroughly checked and analysed before using for research purposes.

I then investigated articles and statistic. In this section I looked at statistics and articles that I had found online that would help me research my question and would help me support the facts that I am looking for – which is both qualitative and quantitative methods of research. This included looking into a polish article called “try_evidence” written by Karolina Cieślak. This whole article is a report based on women and gaming, speaking about how many women are involved in gaming, what type of game genre they typically tend to lead towards and whether they are a casual game or a hardcore, competitive gamer. This article and statistics are all based on Polish samples which could coincide with the results of global research. Another article I investigated was called “Reach3 Insights’ New Research Reveals 59% of Women Surveyed Use a Non-Gendered/Male Identity to Avoid Harassment While Gaming” written by a company called “Reach3”. This whole article is a report based on trends in the gaming industry about what women experience in the gaming industry. This includes speaking about how many women are involved in gaming, what type of games they are playing, what they deal with when they play games, and how to avoid that conflict. The final article I looked into was called “Female Gamers’ Experience of Online Harassment and Social Support in Online Gaming: A Qualitative Study” written by Lavinia McLean and Mark D. Griffiths. This whole article is a report based on the online harassment that female gamers have to face within online gaming, and what social support is offered, or a lack thereof. This particular article is a very in-depth study on women within gaming and everything that they go through when it comes to winding down and playing games online. The advantages of analysing articles and statistics are that article sources tend to be more reliable due to defamation and suing laws and statistics help provide context for my research which I can input into my FMP to inform the viewer. The disadvantages however are, that articles may be biased and therefore imprecise and unfair to use and statistics have the chance of being outdated meaning they would be inaccurate for the current day.

Finally for my research, I looked into a thesis and a book – a qualitative research method. The thesis, called “Women in Gaming: A Study of Female Players’ Experiences in Online FPS Games” was made by M Allison McDaniel for the University of Southern Mississippi as it provides a lot of data and information that I can use for my research. This particular thesis explores what harassment and discrimination women playing FPS games face, how they respond, and in what ways they find games to be empowering. The advantage of investigating a thesis is that they had to reference all of their sources as it is a university exam document. Therefore, I can check the reliability of their findings for my own project. However, the disadvantage of using this particular thesis is that it specifies that it is looking into FPS games specifically rather than the community as a whole, so the information is useful, but not for all of my particular question, “How does sexism affect the gaming community?”.

The book, written by Steven Poole, is called “Trigger Happy” and it was created to critique one of the most popular forms of play, videogames. Poole looks into multiple different characteristics in videogames such as character design, map creation, and storylines however, the most important part he explores, which is in my opinion, is the Gender Genres section, under the False Idols category. This section is all about the comparison of games played between men and women, and the large increase of women gamers coming into the 21st century. The advantage of using this book is that as it is a published form of media, the sources have to be accurate for the time it was published, making it a reliable form of research. Not only that but it also provides a variety of information in one place. However, the disadvantage is that with this particular book, it was published in 2001, meaning that some of the statistics and information could be outdated for talking about sexism in the community within the current day however, it could help when looking into origins of sexism within gaming.

Findings:

Like I stated in my introduction, my main research question is “How does sexism affect the gaming community?”. I then also stated that I have split my main research question into 3 “mini” questions which are in the following "What are some people's experiences with sexism?", "What is the amount of sexism within videogaming?", and "How do people deal with misogyny and sexism within videogaming?". In this section, I will be stating what I have found within my research and I will be answering each of my mini questions to make an informed and accurate answer to my chosen research question.

“What are some people’s experiences with sexism?”

This is one of my “mini” questions because unfortunately a lot of people experience sexism within the gaming community and to prove that it does in fact happen for my documentary viewers who may be unaware it happens or who don’t understand the impact, I wanted to discover examples of sexism that people have experienced in the gaming community. For this question, I am using both primary and secondary research findings to answer this effectively.

First looking at my primary research, I asked in my questionnaire, an online questionnaire shared on twitter and Microsoft teams with 29 responses from gender identities such as male, female, non-binary and other, if people could recall some particular experiences that they have had within gaming that could relate to sexism. Within the questionnaire, a lot of the responses that I received explained that a lot of people have received comments to do with sexist stereotypes such as women being told to “get back to the kitchen” or “to go make them a sandwich.”. Furthermore, people have received threats – of physical and sexual nature – just for being a woman or presenting feminine within the gaming community. For example, someone in my questionnaire said that abuse got so bad that “it even got to the point of gross sexual harassment and r*pe threats over a video game.”. A couple of the responses have also said that they had received unwarranted sexualisation from some people within the gaming community – e.g., one said “female friends were talking in the game voice chat and being sexualised.”. One of my responses stated that “a person I knew made me usually only play the role made for “girls”.”

Now looking at my interview findings, where I interviewed two women who are studying Games Development at Canterbury College, they had similar experiences. One woman who has a lot of experience on the game Overwatch, says that she has received comments to do with sexual assault and physical threats when her microphone is turned on, and found that sometimes her games are thrown by her own teammates just because they found out her gender. Another thing that was mentioned was how the choice of role sometimes affects what comments they receive. For example, female players stereotypically lead towards support roles, which some man has commented to one of the women I spoke to “typical woman Mercy main,” which is the name of a character inside the game called Overwatch.However, we didn’t just speak about the abuse from males. We also spoke about how because of this sexist agenda the community already has, a lot of women feel the need to bring down other women rather than work together because of male validation, or to feel more than the other woman in the game. A lot of my interview findings link up with my questionnaire findings, verifying the credibility of the questionnaire.

When it comes to my secondary research, I looked into a mix of video content such as podcasts and video essays, articles, statistics, a thesis and a book. For the “That’s What She Said” podcast ran by Twitch Streamer BrookeAB, I discovered that her and the guest, TinaKitten, also receiving sexist comments because of their gender. For example, Brooke states how some boys comment that she should go back to the kitchen due to her being a woman, and Tina opens up on the sexualising comments that a woman can get just for playing a game. Furthermore, BrookeAB starts laughing when Tina mentions CSGO when on the topic of sexist comments, almost as if she's expecting it to be awful. This may prove that this is a continuous problem for both women and that it is almost expected now. Furthermore, because of this podcast I discovered that BrookeAB has experienced major issues with being popular on the streaming platform which has led to her and her family receiving horrific threats, doxing issues and stalking, which caused her to go on a hiatus from social media in general to support herself and her family through this terrifying time. She is now using her platform and experience to help other women within the gaming industry escape the same torment that she was put through and stated it is a widespread problem within the industry and hopes to break the cycle. The video essay I analysed, called “The Sexism Problem of Overwatch & Gaming” by YouTuber “SVB”, uses a range of clips from videogames where men are actively targeting the women, whether it's abuse or sexualisation just because of the gender of the player. He also explores statistics, not just of videogame related results, but of real-life data such as, how many women have been followed by a stranger, or how many women have had a multitude of weird comments which could help support his claim that not all comments can be received as jokes, but rather a sort of threat. He also then states the hate that men get, specifically trans men, or men with typically higher voices or more stereotypical feminine traits, because that is also a huge problem within the gaming community: being attacked of their perceived lack of masculinity.

When it came to looking at articles, statistics, a thesis and a book, I wrote down specific statistics which would help me answer my main research topic. Here are some important statistics that would help me answer my “mini” research question “What are some people’s experiences with sexism?”:

77% of women responded dealing with at least some sort of frustration when gaming because of their gender. Judgements of skills, (70%), gatekeeping (65%) and patronizing comments (50%) were the most reported types of comments women gamers said they received while gaming online. – Reach3
In addition, 44% of women gamer respondents have received unsolicited relationship asks while gaming. – Reach3.
There was a common theme of females having experienced numerous incidents of male harassment (n = 73), including sexual harassment (n = 24) and verbal aggression directed at them during gaming (n = 44), and for some the experience of being stalked by males online (n = 5) and offline (n = 2). – Lavinia McLean and Mark D. Griffiths.
Females frequently reported the experience of not having an active involvement in the games and the feeling of not being taken seriously as having a role to play. - Lavinia McLean and Mark D. Griffiths.
“Comments are running my gaming experience” (post number 67) - Lavinia McLean and Mark D. Griffiths.
Women who play FPS games often feel empowered by playing (79.4%), even though a majority also experience forms of verbal harassment or discrimination (75.9%). – M Allison McDaniel
My most notable results included women reporting that first-person shooters contain the most harassment and that it is not uncommon for other women to be the harassers. - M Allison McDaniel
As soon as other players, players I do not personally know, realize I'm a woman they generally get either extremely hostile or overly flirtatious. Sometimes an awful mix of both. I often have to turn my mic off or exit the game completely. – M Allison McDaniel
78.7% of 141 female FPS (otherwise known as first person shooters) gamers have perceived difference in treatment based on sex/gender when playing in online games. – M Allison McDaniel

"What is the amount of sexism within videogaming?"

This is another one of my “mini” questions. The reason why I am asking this is because even though it is impossible to state exactly how much people experience sexism on a perfectly accurate level, it would help my research known a rough average of people who have experienced sexist comments within the gaming community so I can show the true affect it has on people within the community to viewers of my FMP who may not understand the true impact.

For this particular “mini” question. I put my questionnaire results into excel and created graphs which may show the impact of sexism within the community and how many people have experienced it or witnessed it.

The "Have_You_Experienced_Sexism_In_Gaming.png" table shows each gender that was an option on my questionnaire and whether they have experienced sexism within gaming or not. Out of 29 responses, 17 of them were male, 10 of them were female, 1 of them was non-binary and 1 of them identified as Other. It shows that 13 of the responses have experienced sexism, the majority of them identifying as female – specifically 8 out of the 10. This shows that 80% of the females answering my questionnaire have experienced sexism while gaming. Overall, 44.8% of responses said they had experienced sexism – out of 29 responses.

The "Have_You_Witnessed_Sexism_In_Gaming.png" table shows each gender that was an option on my questionnaire and whether they have witnessed sexism within gaming or not. Out of 29 responses, 17 of them were male, 10 of them were female, 1 of them was non-binary and 1 of them identified as Other. It shows that 23 out of the responses have witnessed sexism within gaming, the majority of them identifying as male, specifically 12 out of 17. This also shows that 70.5% of males that responded to my questionnaire have witnessed sexism, 90% of females that responded to my questionnaire have witnessed sexism too. Overall, out of the 29 responses, 79.3% of people have witnessed sexism within gaming.

The "Is_Sexism_A_Problem_In_Gaming.png" table shows how many people – out of the 29 responses received – believe that sexism is a problem within the gaming community. This is helpful to answer this question as it shows the impact of sexism on the community, and how many people genuinely think that it is a problem that needs to be stopped. The table shows that out of the 29 responses, 23 people believe that it is a major problem, and 5 people are unsure if it is or not. 96.5% of people who responded to the questionnaire either believe it is a problem or think it could be but are unsure.

These questionnaire results, plus the interview I did where one of them actually stated one of them stated that “it happens so much it’s funny,” with the Game Development students, who had both witnessed sexism and one majorly experienced it, show that sexism is prominent within the gaming community with first hand primary research results to prove that.

Within my secondary research, I didn’t learn about the amount of sexism within my video content analysis, and all of the statistics that answer this question also answer the first “mini” question. Please refer back to the statistics list that is located just above that are used to answer the question, “What are some people’s experiences with sexism?”.

Unfortunately, I ran out of Wix media storage so I couldn't upload the final images of this Unit to the page. This google drive folder has the final images of the graphs mentioned above to give you context to what I am explaining. I am sorry for the inconvenience.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1I7YDY4WXIbVBFGwTjY7awre8lk-qzO73?usp=sharing

How do people deal with misogyny and sexism within videogaming?

This is the final question out of my 3 “mini” questions. The reason why I am asking this is because I am interested to see the different ways people deal with sexism as my main research question is “How does sexism affect the gaming community?”. This question will provide information such as what women or anyone targeted by sexist comments may do in the future in games to avoid the comments which could limit their entertaining experience or ruin their safe space within gaming.

Looking at my questionnaire results, a lot of people said that they mute their microphones, ignore the people saying the comments, report them, don’t turn on game chat, stand up for themselves or others and leave the game. However, a couple specific responses are in the following:

“It depends on how much energy I have and how dumb the sexist individual is. I’ll probably flame them back, insult their intelligence or just laugh at them for thinking generic sexist insults are going to shake anyone to their core. then I just report them, not much else to do.”.
“I typically just keep quiet. I've never had an experience where I saw someone getting directly harassed, more just pathetic toxicity. But when that happens, I just don't engage. Children are going to be children. Typically, the worst people also happen to have the most time, I don't imagine that telling someone to stop will go very well for anyone. Just restrict them from the one thing they crave.”
“I will usually try to rebuttal it but in a lot of cases stay quiet as to hope they will just get bored and stop, but there have been a few times where I just have to mute someone because they are just constantly spouting unpleasant things to me or a friend.”
“Turn off my microphone and use the in-game reporting system.”

These responses plus the interview where they both said they turn off their microphone and tend to stay silent to avoid these comments. They also avoid shooter games as they have a reputation to have a male dominated community which can lead to abusive comments towards them. When it comes to the comments, the women I spoke to said they are happier to defend their friend if they receive a comment rather than themselves.

When it came to looking at articles, statistics, a thesis and a book, I wrote down specific statistics which would help me answer my main research topic. Here are some important statistics that would help me answer my “mini” research question “How do people deal with misogyny and sexism within videogaming?”:

59% of women surveyed use either a non-gendered or male identity when playing games online to avoid conflict. – Reach3
“I’ve almost completely hidden my gender for the past 10 years in online gaming so I could enjoy my hobby” (post number 190) – Lavinia McLean and Mark D. Griffiths.
When asked if they were female by other male gamers, a large amount of females talked about how they would deny being female (n = 5) or would allow male gamers to believe they were a teenage boy (n = 16). – Lavinia McLean and Mark D. Griffiths.
“I hid my gender from my clan for 3 years” (post number 191) – Lavinia McLean and Mark D. Griffiths.
Most participants (46.8%) “sometimes hide and sometimes reveal” their sex and/or gender (see Table 6). This may depend upon the scenario, such as whether they are playing with strangers or not. Whereas 36.2% do not think about this, 7.8% “always hide.” Sometimes hiding one’s sex and/or gender, and always hiding it, paint a fearful environment. Women players realize that openly showing their sex and/or gender (through name, chat, etc.) could open the doors for targeted harassment. Not wanting to deal with the repercussions of speaking and revealing this to strangers, they may instead hide in various ways. - M Allison McDaniel

Discussion:

To conclude this report, I will answer each of my “mini questions” and provide a short summary of what I found to answer my main question, “How does sexism affect the gaming community?”.

Unfortunately, a lot of people experience sexism. When it came to my own primary research, a lot of the responses included that people received stereotypical sexist comments such as to “go back to the kitchen,” or to “make them a sandwich,” or that they are bad “because they are a woman,”. Furthermore, comments include sexual harassment and one of my questionnaire responses said that their altercation got so bad that they “received rape threats,” just because of their gender. This continued as a pattern when I looked into my interview research where both of the women, I spoke to who are within the gaming industry and the community said they receive the same sort of comments. In fact, one of the women that I spoke to said that she received the comment “typical woman Mercy main,” which is the name of a support character inside the game called Overwatch and that some of her games were purposely thrown, another term for lost, because her team found out her gender. Again, this pattern continues into my secondary research, where multiple online sources say that women receive sexist comments a lot, specifically about “kitchens” or unwarranted sexual harassment.

There is a lot of sexism within the gaming community, with just in my questionnaire, 44.8% of responses said they had experienced sexism (out of 29 responses, 17 being male, 10 being female, 1 being non-binary, and 1 identifying as other) and 80% of them responses being women. In addition to that statistic, it shows that 23 out of the responses have witnessed sexism within gaming, the majority of them identifying as male, specifically 12 out of 17. This also shows that 70.5% of males that responded to my questionnaire have witnessed sexism, 90% of females that responded to my questionnaire have witnessed sexism too. Overall, out of the 29 responses, 79.3% of people have witnessed sexism within gaming. Finally, 23 people out of the 29 responses believe that it is a major problem, and 5 people are unsure if it is or not. 96.5% of people who responded to the questionnaire either believe it is a problem or think it could be but are unsure. These statistics continued when I looked into statistics provided by articles online where one found out “77% of women responded dealing with at least some sort of frustration when gaming because of their gender. Judgements of skills, (70%), gatekeeping (65%) and patronizing comments (50%) were the most reported types of comments women gamers said they received while gaming online.”. This was a statement provided by a company called Reach3 in the article ““Reach3 Insights’ New Research Reveals 59% of Women Surveyed Use a Non-Gendered/Male Identity to Avoid Harassment While Gaming.”. All of these statistics prove that sexism happens a lot of the time within the community, therefore there is a large amount of it.

Finally, most people who experience sexism find themselves muting their microphones, ignoring the abusers, reporting them or even leaving the game. A few of the responses from my questionnaire said they would stick up for themselves depending on the comments or what mood they are in, for example, “It depends on how much energy I have and how dumb the sexist individual is. I’ll probably flame them back, insult their intelligence or just laugh at them for thinking generic sexist insults are going to shake anyone to their core. then I just report them, not much else to do.”. Again, similarly to all the other questions, the same pattern continued and a statistic from a thesis I analysed said “Most participants (46.8%) “sometimes hide and sometimes reveal” their sex and/or gender (see Table 6). This may depend upon the scenario, such as whether they are playing with strangers or not. Whereas 36.2% do not think about this, 7.8% “always hide.”

These findings have helped me massively, as even though it is a topic I am interested in, I truly didn’t know about the full impact it had on the community. Doing this research has helped me understand what most women go through, and it helps me know that I, and others are not alone. Providing myself information such as statistics will help me in the future with my Final Major Project where I am producing a documentary based on sexism within gaming. These answers will provide context to the viewer and if they don’t know the impact, help them comprehend the true effect on the community by these immature comments.

The limitations of my study include that my primary research was majorly limited due to my lack of reach on social media, I had a small sample of 29 people who had filled out the questionnaire, that it may statistically change if I were to gather more responses. Again, I believe this could be because of my restricted time limit as well. Doing this research has taught me that a lot of sexism appears in the FPS genre, otherwise known as the first-person shooter genre, and I would like to explore that more. I will use all of this research in the future as my documentary needs a lot of research to not seem shallow, or to give my viewers a biased and fixed opinion which I know many documentaries have been ridiculed and criticised in the past for.

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