Beyond the screen: identity-driven exclusion in gaming communities of minority groups in France

Video games have become a global cultural leisure, diversifying in form, use and audience. However, not all audiences have equal access to these games. Indeed, women and people with disabilities face barriers and feel excluded from this activity. The aim of our research is to identify the antecedents of the exclusion of women and people with disabilities and their relationship with social identity theory and self-categorisation theory, which evolve depending on the context. To achieve this, we employed a comparative thematic analysis, conducting 31 semi-structured interviews to compare men and women, both with and without disabilities. The main findings reveal that the identity of female players transitions from being a player to being a woman due to external factors, leading to exclusion. For people with disabilities, their identity as a player shifts to being identified as a person with a disability when faced with equipment that is not adapted to their condition. Video game developers and designers are advised to consider the impact of social identity on the feeling of exclusion.