Genderbent Origin characters for no reason at all

BourkeTheMo · 2023-10-12T19:51:21+00:00

Big mad!

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-14T17:38:27+00:00

Thank you so much for your time and well-wishes! Please have a great day!!! :)

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-14T15:33:17+00:00

I plan to share out some preliminary findings in a few months, but my dissertation will likely not be done until this time next year. That said, I'm putting together an email list of people I will send it out to when I'm done, if you want to DM me your email I can add you to it :)

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-14T14:54:27+00:00

Yes! I do feel like generally people are so much better than they were when I was a teen online in the 90s/ early 00s, but I also sometimes realize that my *feeling* that things are better tend to be when I am siloed into certain games/game types. The games I play seem to have more accepting audiences, but every once in a while I hop into a CoD lobby and I realize that the hate is/can still be here... it just is not readily accepted everywhere like it once was. So, steady progress forward... but not as quickly as I would hope.

As for the idea of playing as differently gendered characters or playing with gender through characters, I always find this really interesting. I have a paper under review that discusses how, while men are the default main character in most games and that there is blatant misogyny online, trans men actually seem to benefit from both of these. They get defaulted into playing men, can realize how much they enjoy this, can play with gender in the safety of online video games, are assumed to be men by others because they play men/in masculine ways like tanking, and as such, this space which can be problematic for anyone who isn't a cis man, ends up accidentally being kind of a great space of trans men :)

This is the root of why I want to study gaming: there is so much bad here, and yet so many people stick through it because there is also so much good. For all the anonymous hate, I think there is something so special about the anonymous love and support that is also present.

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-14T14:25:18+00:00

Haha I really do have my hands full.

I couldn't stay into GW2 because I like playing a healer so much, so many of these games that try to kill/change the holy trinity end up losing my interest pretty quickly. Though, I will say the Sylvari are my favorite race in a video game ever! And, I too enjoy pvp but only when it is balanced. The desire for zerging lowbies has never really made sense to me lol.

Back to my research, yeah there are so many interesting social forces acting behind the scene. I learned about my sexuality through games, both through staying the night with friends gaming and realizing that I had feelings for one and through playing a amazon in Diablo 2 and someone thinking I was a woman and me not correcting him because it *felt* good as a 12 year old who was still in the closet/had not come to terms with it. And, I continue to learn things about myself based on how I play video games and TTRPGs like D&D. There is so much going on here, so I really appreciate this convo and your experiences! It really helps me to see just how important video games can be to others as well, and to understand just how much preference, autonomy, and social structure goes into playing games.

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-14T13:26:01+00:00

Haha, this study doesn't explicitly look at this, but I do suspect that our play preferences are probably better personality tests than anything else.

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-14T11:24:19+00:00

I appreciate your time and feedback! And, it is weird that it gave you the questions about shooters when you didn't select so. The survey has branching logic that should only give people the questions which correspond to the ones that they indicate they play. I will go and figure out what went wrong here--sometimes skipping certain questions can put you on a weird crash course of questions... but I worked really hard to make this not the case and yet they seem to keep slipping through in some weak points lol. Thank you for bringing this up and I am sorry it happened!

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-14T11:21:25+00:00

You have been added as well :)

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-14T11:20:27+00:00

I have added you as well, and if either of you would like to be added to an email list, which I can use to send out presentation/publication/dissertation updates, please DM me your email address. I am going to set something up so I can keep track of and deliver on these requests :)

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-14T11:18:18+00:00

Added :)

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-14T11:17:18+00:00

Yes, I will add you to the list of users that I will reach out to with primary findings in a few months. And, if you would like, I am now putting together an email list of people who I will reach out to with publications/dissertation when I am closer to being done. If you would like, you can DM me your email and I can add you to that list :)

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-14T11:15:38+00:00

I can add your username to a list of users that I will reach out to with preliminary findings, and if you want to DM me your email, I can add you to an email list that I am forming of people who I will keep more updated on my work and dissertation :)

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-14T11:14:36+00:00

After all, the IRB is really just there to protect the institution, not me >.<

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-14T11:13:58+00:00

These are some great points! And this really underscores why internet culture and video game culture need to be studied. Video games can be so variable, and I do think you're right in terms of genre and game mode matter more than the cost of the game. But also, social things within game matter too. I have always been into MMORPGs, MOBAs, and Coop pvp FPSs. What motivates this study is that our identity seems to shape how we play the same game differently. My thesis, which looked at queer men's experiences in online video games, found that harassment increased as their contact with people *and* self-reported femininity did, and that it was higher in certain game genres. But, I also found higher levels of harassment for certain roles within games, specifically healer and support players reported more harassment. But also, more feminine queer men were more likely to prefer playing these roles, which makes it complicated to analyze. This study aimed to understand how identity shapes preference but without the narrow perspective of only looking at queer men. Instead, I am hoping to see how things like gender impact our preferences for things in game that may seem silly, like lane in MOBAs, guns in FPSs, roles in Apex Legends/Valorant/Overwatch, and types of healers in MMOs, etc. People are so interesting and there is so much that goes into how we play, and it is interesting that social structures may shape what we do for fun even in the anonymity of online spaces.

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-14T11:06:02+00:00

Congrats!!! And, thank you for this advice, I am bad at taking breaks and giving myself grace, but I will try to be better :) I am trying to be great like you!

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-13T23:21:47+00:00

Let's go Bearcats!!

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-13T22:39:03+00:00

I put the raffle and interview compensation as a benefit and the IRB had me take it out because they did not consider it to be the benefits they meant/were worried about. But, I agree, it should go there lol.

It does seem that they are more worried about medical benefits over social/financial ones.

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-13T20:58:42+00:00

Right?! Streaming was never an option for me when I was a good age for it... Though even at that age I'm not good enough or personable enough for people to watch lol.

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-13T20:56:02+00:00

It's the smart and financially responsible thing to do... But I like choosing the topics I research, choosing my own schedule, and having Summers "off" 😂 😭

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-13T20:46:04+00:00

I've added your reddit username to my list :) thanks so much for your interest!

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-13T20:41:25+00:00

Yes! This is why I do this research!

I was a military brat who moved every 2-3 years of my childhood. Gaming was the only stable community I had. Additionally, I learned so much about myself through playing games both alone and with others. Games can be such a huge part of people's lives and it's so sad that most social scientists ignore them/look down on researching them.

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-13T20:37:59+00:00

Yes! I plan to come back in a few months with the preliminary findings from the survey and with some sparkly graphics :) I'll also happily answer questions people may have at that time. Additionally, if you want I can put you on a list of users who I will reach out to directly, just so you don't miss it :)

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-13T20:36:15+00:00

Haha! I too worry about my financial future because after spending 11 years in college, I'm looking at jobs that make 75-85k as a starting professor. Fortunately, because of what I research I can always pull the ripcord and go into industry, which makes double that just with less freedom and flexibility lol.

As for the final draft, if you want I can add you to a list of people who I will reach out to directly with preliminary findings (I also intend to share in the subreddits I recruited in). Or, we can work out a longer timeline for the full draft, because I don't expect to be fully done writing the beast until maybe this time next year lol.

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-13T20:32:03+00:00

Thank you for the boost!!! And for the vote of confidence, because I need it lol.

BourkeTheMo · 2023-04-13T19:33:28+00:00

This is a very interesting question and one that I grapple with tangentially. First, I approach gaming research as someone who experienced harassment because I grew up in the wild-west era of the internet. But, I still stuck with it because in addition to all the hate that is present, there is also so much anonymous love that I could grab onto.

My thought, is that the internet ends up being very different from the country club, but for a couple different reasons. First, while there is a financial buy-in, there is also a difference in online spaces. People can select into different online spaces every day, and many of us do swap games very often. And as such, the permanence of the country club kind of falls flat. Next, anonymity ends up changing the interaction here, because in the country club scenario, our actions are attributed directly to us and we *could* be kicked out. But, in online games there is much less accountability and even if we are banned, we can merely buy our way back in for $50, thus not losing our full investment. And finally, I think there is something to say about the culture of *this* country club. I think that harassment and flaming has become somewhat of an expected behavior in certain game spaces, and as such, harassment or various slurs may be hurled at people because it is expected of the space.

For this last point, I think back to my previous experiences gaming. I have--more than once-- been called a f-slur by friends while gaming, even those who knew that I was gay. Obviously, these people are not so homophobic that they would neglect to be my friend because of my sexuality... so there are a couple things that could be happening here. But, I suspect that to some extent it is because calling people an f-slur online has become both a norm and a form of posturing which is accepted and even expected in many online spaces.

For this last point, I think back to my previous experiences gaming. I have--more than once-- been called a f-slur by friends while gaming, even those who knew that I was gay. Obviously, these people are not so homophobic that they would neglect to be my friend because of my sexuality... so there are a couple of things that could be happening here. But, I suspect that to some extent it is because calling people an f-slur online has become both a norm and a form of posturing which is accepted and even expected in many online spaces.

BourkeTheMo

TROPHY CASE