Gay Video Game Player Survey

[Novice]

The first ever study of "gaymers" was approved by the institutional review board of the University of Illinois. This public survey is open to all genders and sexualities, so you don't have to be lesbian or gay to participate. Originally conceived by Jason Rockwood a recent graduate and confessed non-gamer who came up with the idea after taking a class called "Videogames: Issues, Content and Policy," taught by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The <a href="http://www.GaymerSurvey.org" target="_blank">Gaymer Survey</a> opened June 8 and will be running for eight weeks. <a href="http://www.innewsweekly.com/innews/?class_code=Ga&article_code=2071" target="_blank">In Newsweekly</a> has the complete story.

"People had talked about being gay and being a gamer, but nobody had asked them to unify those two elements and people were excited about that," Rockwood said in an interview with In Newsweekly.

[dej2]

Why does the gay agenda have to be applied to every aspect of life? What does sexual orientation have anything to do with being a gamer?

[Calisto]

Why does the gay agenda have to be applied to every aspect of life? What does sexual orientation have anything to do with being a gamer?

hear hear!

[Novice]

Probably should have addressed this differently, but that's how he's doing the survey. Would bring up why gender is relevant to anyone or any company doing a survey based upon product sells and market penetration.

--And why isn't the Quote thing working right???

[Maflash]

...[edited because im too laxy to explain my comment properly]...

Nah, its never a bad thing to ask an opinion I suppose...
Reading through a few of the questions, there is a lot of repitititition and iffy questions in that survey, It makes it hard not to second guess what they're up to. I'm sure we touched on this kind of thing in the objectification thread recently.

[Banshee]

Why does the gay agenda have to be applied to every aspect of life? What does sexual orientation have anything to do with being a gamer?

There are some people who would ask a comparable question of female gamers, e.g. what does gender have to do with being a gamer, or why does the female agenda have to be applied to every aspect of life? I've heard those and more.

I have no problem whatsoever with a full-on study on gay gamers, just as I would have no problem with a study related to female gamers, as long as the test design was solid in each. If it was, we'd have data that we didn't have before. Let's see if those brain differences matter in gaming -- why not? I see no harm, and potentially some good. The more quality information, the better.

[Calisto]

There are some people who would ask a comparable question of female gamers, e.g. what does gender have to do with being a gamer, or why does the female agenda have to be applied to every aspect of life? I've heard those and more.

I do ask that, quite frequently in fact lol.

Who cares if I'm a female, I'm a gamer so stand still and let me shoot you!

[Banshee]

Who cares if I'm a female, I'm a gamer so stand still and let me shoot you!

Ah, but Calisto, that's almost my point. I have seen so many pass through here. You like to frag things. I like RPGs, simulations, and some other things. Cat91 liked flight sims. The list goes on. Female gamers are indeed just as diverse as our male counterparts -- I've done too many panels and seen too many stripes of the gaming rainbow to think otherwise.

However, that very diversity makes me wonder: if we like all of these different things already, is it not possible that there may be even more things out there for us to explore that have yet to be discovered? Things that possibly might appeal to female gamers more, statistically, than male gamers? Have we merely adapted to the gamut of games out there that were created primarily by mostly-male design teams, or is there something more that might be had?

I don't know whether the answer to that question is yes or no, but I'd love to see some really big, properly-designed studies to begin to touch the tip of the iceberg, as it were.

I do have to wonder: is it mere coincidence that The Sims became the best-selling game of all time, given that several of the designers and a majority of the producers for the title were female? Here's a little additional background on that. I have no idea, but I do know that the game had an unusually large female gaming fan base for the time of its release.

Like I always say, and have been saying for years, some really comprehensive research is truly needed.

[Calisto]

oh I'll agree on the comprehensive research. I'd like to see a proper study that just doesn't give XX% of gamers are female or male, I want to see some break down with genre.

[Banshee]

Me, too! I'd love to have some real information on that.

[cryforlife]

Ithere is a lot of repitititition and iffy questions in that survey, It makes it hard not to second guess what they're up to. I'm sure we touched on this kind of thing in the objectification thread recently.

Ya one thing I noticed was the inclusion of M2F as a gender designation, but then in all questions following they used questions like "playing as the opposite gender". As if my life isn't confusing enough, I have to try and guess exactly which gender designation, physical or mental, that they meant by such questions?

I'm M2F and always play as female, does that count? Or not? I'm confused, and not in the way most ppl would think lol!

[booger]

Ithere is a lot of repitititition and iffy questions in that survey, It makes it hard not to second guess what they're up to. I'm sure we touched on this kind of thing in the objectification thread recently.

Ya one thing I noticed was the inclusion of M2F as a gender designation, but then in all questions following they used questions like "playing as the opposite gender". As if my life isn't confusing enough, I have to try and guess exactly which gender designation, physical or mental, that they meant by such questions?

I'm M2F and always play as female, does that count? Or not? I'm confused, and not in the way most ppl would think lol!

You should probably just ignore the survey. If they're that confused when they wrote the survey, then I can't imagine that what they do with the final data will be any less confused.

[Maflash]

I'm M2F and always play as female, does that count? Or not? I'm confused

Unless its part of the story, a character wouldnt have a sexuality anyway, so you can think of them as you please I think - Isnt that how those fan comics come about?

Either way, is it really so bad if I cant create myself perfectly and become attached to the character I'm given? Also, why would It matter in an online rpg that the manual doesnt say your character is gay or transgendered or whatever if you're able to form your own relationships in game?
So none of it really matters as a specific issue when you can just ask for more freedom in making a character, for example, and being free to play as you please.

[cryforlife]

I'm M2F and always play as female, does that count? Or not? I'm confused

Unless its part of the story, a character wouldnt have a sexuality anyway, so you can think of them as you please I think - Isnt that how those fan comics come about?

Either way, is it really so bad if I cant create myself perfectly and become attached to the character I'm given? Also, why would It matter in an online rpg that the manual doesnt say your character is gay or transgendered or whatever if you're able to form your own relationships in game?
So none of it really matters as a specific issue when you can just ask for more freedom in making a character, for example, and being free to play as you please.

Oh I totally agree, it's silly to be honest. I'd much rather see transgender repsesentation in film or other media. I mean, what would be the point of transgender content in a videogame? Or gay content for that matter? What IS transgender or gay content? Aside from maybe at some point stating that a character is one of these, as they don't make that much of a difference in life to be videogame worthy IMO. Unless it's a dating sim I guess.

But whereas most of that sounds silly (even to me) it would be downright offensive if it were just a part of who the character is and yet never comes up as part of the story or gameplay in some way, as it would just feel like a PR stunt at that point. I do think maybe the best of rpg scenario writers would be able to pull it off, but when they can't even seem to create believable ethnic minority characters 9 times out of 10, I don't relish the idea of them trying to tackle Gender Identity Disorder anytime soon. Even Transamerica botched some things bigtime...

[dej2]

IMHO
Human sexuality does not have to be in video games... maybe NR 17 and M rated and above games only.

I have 3 small children that play video games... well, 2 small children...(Jade is only 8 months old).

At this time in their life, I'm not really ready to explain what the Birds and Bee's are let alone what "Gay" is.

son: "Daddy, the game says that guy is gay. What is gay?"

Dad: "Oh, son, he's just a ultra sensitive happy go lucky guy." (geez)