Gender Swapping in Online Gaming

In online gaming, players are represented by an avatar, which is a three dimensional (3D) model used in computer games or a two-dimensional icon like a picture. A player’s identity is not usually revealed. This has led to an internet phenomenon known as gender swapping. Gender swapping is when a player swaps the gender of their identity in the game they are playing. Assortments of studies have been done on gender swapping in online gaming, but most of them fail to find the real reason many online gamers gender swap. However, many reasons have been discovered within this research based on three different previous studies into gender swapping and other various facets of online gaming players. This paper will discuss the results of three different methods with three different sets of results done to help us understand why players switch their gender in online games.
Literature Review
The research study done by Hussain and Griffiths (2008) was about why people engage in gender swapping. The authors point out the lack of research on the entire subject so the authors say that past research in this area had usually focused on demographics for online gamers. It was stated that more research on gender swapping would be enlightening. One statement was made to the fact that gender swapping seems to be a phenomenon of common practice. One hundred fifty seven participants were given an online questionnaire that asked questions of demographics, online playing behavior, and the reasons for playing with a small section on history of playing, including gender swapping. The questionnaire was then used on several online forums. The results showed that the majority of gamers (57%) had gender swapped. Hussain and Griffiths (2008) took a quote from an actual online gamer, “Because if you make your character a woman, men tend to treat you far better” (p. 50). The authors to explain the results used several extracts from the questionnaires. Hussain and Griffiths (2008) also assert that 34% of gamers used online gaming as a coping mechanism for mood changing. Experimentation and better in-game statistics were two of the reasons given for gender swapping. Hussain and Griffiths (2008) found one gamer that stated “if you play a chick…you will get free items…which in turn…I pass to my other male characters…simple. Nerd + Boob = Loot” (p. 50).
In the Griffiths, Davies, and Chappell (2003) article about breaking stereotypes for online gaming the introduction of this paper stated that this paper was in fact a benchmarking paper for research on a subject matter which had, until that date of the paper, not been done. The paper stated the three major types of social virtual gaming over the internet at that time: stand alone, Local And Wide Network (LAWN), and Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG). Each type of social virtual gaming was described for the reader with large emphasis on the MMORPG’s. The method, for which the data was collected, was a poll of two popular online website for players, www.everlore.com and everquest.allakhazam.com. A poll was preformed every 2 weeks, in the summer of 1999. The fan websites created the poll questions and not the authors of this article therefore, the poll results were constricted by the questions set up by the fan websites. The results section has several results based on the questions given by the fan website. For this paper, role-playing has the definition of following the story while online gaming, instead of just wandering around aimlessly. Role-playing had results of 24% of 2,145 players as always role-playing, 47% as some occasional role-playing, and 29% as never role-played. Gender swapping had results over 10,350 players with a large percentage (85%) saying they were gender swapping. Since this was the very first research being done of this nature on online gaming, many results were discussed in detail. Stated here were the approximate gender of online gamers as being male, and that gaming is diverse amongst the ages. Gender swapping was said to be some of the most interesting data collected. Griffiths, Davies, and Chappell (2008) state “the game allows a range of identities (and genders) to be explored…by the player” (p. 82). These results showed that gender swapping is mostly male-to-female in nature.
The article done by Fron , Fullerton, Morie, and Pearce (2007) is from a conference proceeding about the subject of dress-up online, I read the portion of the paper that referred to gender swapping. Examples of gender play in famous arts and literature were talked about in the first part of this portion of the paper. For example, Frida Kahlo was said to be famous for appearing in a number of self-portraits in male clothing. Virginia Woolf was commented on for her mockumentary of a fictional character whom through his 400-year lifespan, changes his gender through the ages. Another part of this portion of the paper talked about Yee and his research on male-to-female being the most common gender swapping in online gaming stating that more freebies are given to females; therefore, more males chose female avatars online. In the last part of this portion of the paper was the method, two websites were researched for gender swapping; There.com and Second Life. There.com maintains that personal expression is a large factor as to why men use female avatars. Male gamers tend to use the dress-up feature a lot for their female avatars. The use of voice was discussed by There.com, stating that males still use their own voices for their female avatars. In Second Life, it was maintained that clothes were not related to race or class or armor stats, meaning a male could use a female avatar with no affects to his stats as a player.

Discussion
The main objective of this paper Hussain and Griffiths (2008) was to give information on why gamers gender swapping while playing online games. The article had several extracts from gamers about gender swapping. Hussain and Griffiths (2008) state that “choosing to gender swap may have an effect on the gamer’s style…and could even have an effect on guild membership” (p. 50). I enjoyed this paper; I found the information on gender swapping to be very informative. I believe the gamers that talk about gender swapping as leading to a better game play or different game play. I myself have played many of my favorite games as male and female just to see the differences in game play. The Hussain article was a more current article than the other two articles. It had a large base of people for the method, which gave the results a broad spectrum of answers and data to get answers for why people gender swap.
The main objective of Griffiths et al. (2003) was to do some benchmark research on online gaming and stereotypes of online gamers, which lead to a ton of data that will lead to further researching. This article compared to the other two articles interested me to read it because it was written before MMORPG’s were large like they are today. The aspects in the article had only touched the surface of gender swapping in online gaming with this research. Written in 2003 when online gaming was in its adolescence so to speak, the article had weaknesses because the method used was a questionnaire controlled by the fan websites instead of the authors of the article, so the information collected was not all they wanted to collect.
Fron , Fullerton, Morie, and Pearce (2007) was a long article so I only used one small portion of this paper, that portion was about playing with and against gender and the conclusion portion Several authors were pointed out for their works that included gender swapping stating that the most common gender swapping was male-to-female. I enjoyed this article immensely because compared to the other two articles it had information I had not read about. I had no idea that gender swapping was a culture thing to an extent. I mean gender swapping in books, arts and literature was something I had never thought.
Gender swapping online seems to be something that happens for all the wrong reasons. It sounds like men use female avatars just to get all the stuff females are given as common courtesies. I wonder if the gender swapping happenings online are anything to do with exploration of one’s inner self. I refer to the adage of walk a mile in my shoes, maybe by gender swapping, men and women are finding a way to relate and understand the opposite sex by switching genders online.