The Sexi(e)st of All: Avatars, Gender, and Online Games

Chain-mail bikinis, boob sliders, and Barbie-like physiques. Female avatars in MMO games would seem to be the equivalent of pinup Playboy bunnies, constructed solely for male players’ pleasure. Yet women players choose female avatars almost exclusively, and regularly talk of their joy in creating powerful, creative, dangerous characters. Those joys are not temporary either: other researchers have found that among heavy MMO players, women tend to play more hours than men do, and they are less likely than men to plan to quit playing (Williams, Consalvo, Caplan, and Yee, 2008). But do women enjoy such representations, or merely tolerate them as a flawed part of their gameplay experience? Perhaps different groups of women feel differently, with factors such as play style, player type, MMO experience, and demographic differences such as age or sexuality playing a role. And what of the gear that games provide for avatars, in all its multiple representations? Is it simply a stat-enhancing tool, or something more? These are some of the questions that drove us to explore more deeply how and why women choose their avatars and the ways in which they can now customize them, including avatar creation options, in-game barber shops, and increasingly through gear.