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Kadın Valorant Oyuncularının Karşılaştığı Tutum ve Davranışlar: Nitel Bir Çalışma/ Behaviors and Attitudes Toward Female Valorant Gamers: A Qualitative Study

Year 2023, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 23 - 48, 30.06.2023
https://doi.org/10.47105/nsb.1189549

Abstract

Valorant is an online game played in teams of 5, where the goal is to kill all the players of the opposing team and defend your own team. It was decided to work on this game because it has different graphics and female characters than similar war games, it is preferred among young people, and it is free. Accordingly, in-depth interviews were conducted with 19 people (12 female, 7 male) who played Valorant for at least 1 month, reached through Valorant communities on social media, between June and October 2022. Only the in-depth interview form prepared by the researchers was used in the study. In the in-depth interview form, there are questions about the demographic information of the participants, as well as questions about their game history, Valorant habits, positive and negative situations they encounter in the game, their reactions to these situations, the effects of these situations, and possible judicial processes. The data obtained were divided into sections and examined, after the coding process, the common aspects of the codes were determined, and themes were created. 21 categories under 5 themes emerged.
The themes are the situations faced by the female players, female players’ reactions, the effects of these situations on female players, the players that triggered the sexist and negative situations, and the players’ approach to the judicial process. Situations faced by female players are discussed under 7 categories. There are themes such as supportive behavior; aggressive behavior including insults, threats, swearing, and harassment; flirting; coercive including coercive behaviors in communication and interaction; violent sexism; condescending; and women as “normal" players. Gamers are exposed to ambivalent sexist attitudes just because they are women, and these experiences have short to medium-term effects. Gender-based discriminatory behaviors include insults, swearing, threats, sexual harassment, blocking the gameplay, constantly asking questions, excessive compliments, offering help, trying to talk about non-game matters, belittling, and mocking.
In the study, the strategies developed by female gamers to avoid and deal with sexist behaviors are examined. Women's reactions to negative and discriminatory attitudes are divided into 5 categories: Trying to ignore, reporting, quitting the game, taking precautions, and giving verbal and behavioral responses.
The triggers of negative reactions towards women were grouped under 4 categories being a woman, the success of the female gamer in the game, making suggestions, and responding. Being a woman can be enough reason for being discriminated against during the game. The negativities during the game have some effects on female gamers. This theme is grouped under 3 categories as psychological effects, game-related effects, and normalization/accustoming. The effects can last for a short to medium term, depending on the intensity, the current psychology of the gamer, and the total gameplay duration. Finally, questions were asked about the judicial dimension of the events experienced by the participants, and it was seen that none of the participants applied to the judicial authorities and it’s seen that their knowledge of the judicial subject was insufficient.
It has been observed that women playing Valorant are exposed to various gender-based discriminations during their gaming experiences, and this situation is frequently experienced. All findings were discussed and discussed within the framework of international and national publications, and it was noted that the findings were in parallel with the literature.

References

  • Altınışık, C. (2021). İki farklı türdeki çok oyunculu video oyununda siber zorbalığın kurban üzerindeki etkisi [Yayımlanmamış Yüksek lisans tezi]. Maltepe Üniversitesi.
  • Alp, A. F., Çakmak, G. & Sarper Kahveci, M. (2020). “Ne bilir kadın oyun oynamayı?”: Kadın oyuncuların e-Spor deneyimleri. Türkiye Klinikleri Spor Bilimleri Dergisi, 12(3), 322-329.
  • Assunção, C. (2016). "No girls on the internet": The experience of female gamers in the masculine space of violent gaming. Press Start, 3(1), 46-65.
  • Barreto, M. & Ellemers, N. (2005). The burden of benevolent sexism: How it contributes to the maintenance of gender inequalities. European Journal of Social Psychology, 35, 633-642.
  • Burnay, J., BushmanB. J. & Laroi, F. (2017). Effects of sexualized video games on online sexual harassment. Aggressive Behavior, 45(2), 214-223.
  • Caudill, R. (2015). Altruism online: An ethnographic exploration into League of Legends. Summer Research, 237.
  • Cai, X., Cebollada, J. & Cortin ̃as, M. (2021). From traditional gaming to mobile gaming: Video game players’ switching behaviour. Entertainment Computing, 100445.
  • Cote A. C. (2015). “I can defend myself": Women's strategies for coping with harassment while gaming online. Games and Culture,12(2),136-55.
  • Dale, G., Joessel, A., Bavelier, D. & Green, C. S. (2020). A new look at the cognitive neuroscience of video game play. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1464(1), 192-203.
  • DelGreco, M. & Christensen, J. (2020). Effects of street harassment on anxiety, depression, and sleep quality of college women. Sex Roles, 82, 473-481.
  • Entertainment Software Association. (2020). Leading by example. https://www.theesa.com/perspectives/leading-by-example/ adresinden 1 Ağustos 2022 tarihinde alınmıştır.
  • Foo, C. Y. & Koivisto, E. M. I. (2004). Defining grief play in MMORPGs. Proceedings of the 2004 ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology.
  • Friborg, M. K., Hansen, J. V., Aldrich, P. T. ve diğerleri (2017). Workplace sexual harassment and depressive symptoms: A cross-sectional multilevel analysis comparing harassment from clients or customers to harassment from other employees amongst 7603 Danish employees from 1041 organizations. BMC Public Health, 17, 675
  • Gervais, S. J., Vescio, T. K., Förster, J., Maass, A., & Suitner, C. (2012). Seeing women as objects: The sexual body part recognition bias. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42(6), 743-753.
  • Glick, P., Diebold, J., Bailey-Werner, B., & Zhu, L. (1997). The two faces of Adam: Ambivalent sexism and polarized attitudes toward women. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 1323-1324.
  • Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1997). Hostile and benevolent sexism, Measuring ambivalent sexist attitudes toward women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 119-135.
  • Gray, Kishonna L. (2012). Intersecting oppressions and online communities: Examining the experiences of women of color in Xbox live. Information, Communication & Society 15(3), 411-428.
  • Hammond, M. D., Milojev, P., Huang, Y., & Sibley, C. G. (2018). Benevolent sexism and hostile sexism across the ages. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 9(7), 863-874.
  • Hartmann, T. & Klimmt, C. (2017). Gender and computer games: Exploring females’ dislikes. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(4), 910-931.
  • Hilbert, J. (2019). Gaming & gender: how inclusive are eSports? The sports integrity initiative. https://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/gaming-gender-how-inclusive-are-esports/ adresinden 1 Ağustos 2022 tarihinde alınmıştır.
  • Houle, J. N., Staff, J., Mortimer, J. T., Uggen, C. & Blackstone, A. (2011). the impact of sexual harassment on depressive symptoms during the early occupational career. Society and Mental Health, 1(2), 89–105.
  • Huang, V., Young, M., & Fiocco, A. J. (2017). The association between video game play and cognitive function: does gaming platform matter? Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 20(11), 689-694.
  • Kuznekoff, J. & Rose, L. (2013). Communication in multiplayer gaming: Examining player responses to gender cues. New Media & Society, 15(4), 541-556.
  • Lenhart, A., Smith, A., Anderson, M., Duggan, M., & Perrin, A. (2015). Teens, technology and friendships. Pew Research Center, 1-75
  • Lopez-Fernandez, O., Williams, A. J., Griffiths, M. D., & Kuss, D. J. (2019). Female gaming, gaming addiction, and the role of women within gaming culture: A narrative literature review. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10.
  • McLean, L. & Griffiths, M.D. (2018). Female gamers’ experience of online harassment and social support in online gaming: A qualitative study. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 1-25.
  • Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). An expanded sourcebook: Qualitative data analysis. SAGE Publications, Inc.
  • Nakandala, S., Ciampaglia, G., Su, N. & Ahn, Y.-Y. (2017). Gendered conversation in a social game-streaming platform. Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, 11(1), 162-171.
  • O’Leary, A. (2012). In virtual play, sex harassment is all too real. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/us/ sexual-harassment-in-online-gaming-stirs-anger.html?_r=0 adresinden 20 Eylül 2022 tarihinde alınmıştır.
  • Pew Research Center. (2020). Gaming and gamers. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/12/15/who-plays-video-games-and-identifies-as-a-gamer/ adresinden 1 Ağustos 2022 tarihinde alınmıştır.
  • Riot Games. (2020). Beginner’s guide. https://playvalorant.com/en-us/news/announcements/beginners-guide/ adresinden 20 Ağustos 2022 tarihinde alınmıştır.
  • Ruvalcaba, O., Shulze, J., Kim, A., Berzenski, S. R. & Otten, M. P. (2018). Women’s experiences in esports: gendered differences in peer and spectator feedback during competitive video game play. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 42(4), 295-311.
  • Smith, A. (2022). Woman says she was virtually ‘raped’ in the metaverse while others ‘passed around a bottle of vodka’. Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/rape-metaverse-woman-oculus-facebook-b2090491.html adresinden 25 Ağustos 2022 tarihinde alınmıştır.
  • Stahl, S. & Dennhag, I. (2020). Online and offline sexual harassment associations of anxiety and depression in an adolescent sample. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 75(5), 330-335.
  • Stockdale, M. S., Logan, T. K. & Weston, R. (2009). Sexual harassment and posttraumatic stress disorder: Damages beyond prior abuse. Law and Human Behavior, 33, 405-418.
  • Tang, W. Y. & Fox, J. (2016). Men’s harassment behavior in online video games: Personality traits and game factors. Aggressive Behavior, 42(6), 513-521.
  • Taylor, T. L. (2006). Play between worlds. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
  • Uszkoreit, L. (2018). With great power comes great responsibility: Video game live streaming and its potential risks and benefits for female gamers. Gray, K., Voorhees, G., Vossen, E. (Ed.), Feminism in Play içinde (s.163-181). Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Veltri, N., Krasnova, H., Baumann, A. & Kalayamthanam, N. (2014). Gender differences in online gaming: A literature review. Proceedings of 20th Americas Conference on Information Systems. Savannah, Georgia, USA.
  • Williams, D., Consalvo, M., Caplan, S. & Yee, N. (2009). Looking for gender: Gender roles and behaviors among online gamers. Journal of Communication, 59(4), 700-725.
  • Woods, O. (2021). Feminist geographies of online gaming. Digital Geography and Society, 2, 100015.
  • Yang, G. S., Huesmann, L. R. & Bushman, B. J. (2014). Effects of playing a violent video game as male versus female avatar on subsequent aggression in male and female players. Aggressive Behavior, 40(6), 537-541.
  • Yıldız, S. (2007). Suçta araç olarak internetin teknik ve hukuki yönden incelenmesi. Nobel Yayınevi.
  • Zelinski, E. M. & Reyes, R. (2009). Cognitive benefits of computer games for older adults. Gerontechnology: International Journal on The Fundamental Aspects of Technology to Serve The Ageing Society, 8(4), 220-235.

Kadın Valorant Oyuncularının Karşılaştığı Tutum ve Davranışlar: Nitel Bir Çalışma/ Behaviors and Attitudes Toward Female Valorant Gamers: A Qualitative Study

Year 2023, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 23 - 48, 30.06.2023
https://doi.org/10.47105/nsb.1189549

Abstract

Valorant, 5 kişilik takımlar halinde oynanan, amacın rakip takımın tüm oyuncularını öldürme ve kendi takımını savunma olduğu çevrimiçi bir oyundur. Benzer savaş oyunlarınkinden farklı grafiklere ve kadın karakterlere sahip olması, genç bireyler arasında tercih edilmesi ve ücretsiz olması gibi nedenlerle çalışmanın bu oyun üzerinden yapılması kararlaştırılmıştır. Çalışmanın amacı kadın Valorant oyuncularının, oyun içinde cinsiyet ayrımcılığı temelli maruz bırakıldıkları durumları, bu bağlamda karşılaştıkları tutum ve davranışları, bunların etkilerini ve karşı tepkilerini tespit etmeye çalışmak olarak belirlenmiştir. Ayrıca, oyun içinde kadınlara yöneltilmiş toksik davranışların ortaya çıkmasını tetikleyen faktörler de incelenmiştir. Son olarak, oyuncuların Valorant dahilinde yaşadığı olayları adli sürece taşıma durumları da ele alınmıştır. Bu doğrultuda, Haziran- Ekim 2022 tarihleri arasında, sosyal medyadaki Valorant toplulukları aracılığıyla ulaşılan ve en az 1 aydır Valorant oynayan 19 kişi (12 kadın, 7 erkek) ile derinlemesine görüşme yapılmış, elde edilen verilerin kodlama işleminden sonra 5 temaya ait 21 kategori ortaya çıkmıştır. Bulgular sonucunda kadınların cinsiyet ayrımcılığı temelli hakaret, küçümsenme, tehdit, iltifat, alay gibi birçok davranışla karşılaştıkları gibi destekleyici ve olumlu tutumlarla da karşılaştıkları görülmüştür. Kadın oyuncuların istenmeyen durumlardan kaçınmak için birçok tedbir aldıkları, bu durumları deneyimleyen kadın oyuncuların birçok alanda etkilendikleri raporlanmıştır. Suç kapsamına giren birçok olayın yaşanmasına rağmen hiçbir katılımcı adli mercilere başvurmamıştır. Tüm bulgular uluslararası ve ulusal yayınlar çerçevesinde tartışılmış ve ele alınmıştır.

References

  • Altınışık, C. (2021). İki farklı türdeki çok oyunculu video oyununda siber zorbalığın kurban üzerindeki etkisi [Yayımlanmamış Yüksek lisans tezi]. Maltepe Üniversitesi.
  • Alp, A. F., Çakmak, G. & Sarper Kahveci, M. (2020). “Ne bilir kadın oyun oynamayı?”: Kadın oyuncuların e-Spor deneyimleri. Türkiye Klinikleri Spor Bilimleri Dergisi, 12(3), 322-329.
  • Assunção, C. (2016). "No girls on the internet": The experience of female gamers in the masculine space of violent gaming. Press Start, 3(1), 46-65.
  • Barreto, M. & Ellemers, N. (2005). The burden of benevolent sexism: How it contributes to the maintenance of gender inequalities. European Journal of Social Psychology, 35, 633-642.
  • Burnay, J., BushmanB. J. & Laroi, F. (2017). Effects of sexualized video games on online sexual harassment. Aggressive Behavior, 45(2), 214-223.
  • Caudill, R. (2015). Altruism online: An ethnographic exploration into League of Legends. Summer Research, 237.
  • Cai, X., Cebollada, J. & Cortin ̃as, M. (2021). From traditional gaming to mobile gaming: Video game players’ switching behaviour. Entertainment Computing, 100445.
  • Cote A. C. (2015). “I can defend myself": Women's strategies for coping with harassment while gaming online. Games and Culture,12(2),136-55.
  • Dale, G., Joessel, A., Bavelier, D. & Green, C. S. (2020). A new look at the cognitive neuroscience of video game play. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1464(1), 192-203.
  • DelGreco, M. & Christensen, J. (2020). Effects of street harassment on anxiety, depression, and sleep quality of college women. Sex Roles, 82, 473-481.
  • Entertainment Software Association. (2020). Leading by example. https://www.theesa.com/perspectives/leading-by-example/ adresinden 1 Ağustos 2022 tarihinde alınmıştır.
  • Foo, C. Y. & Koivisto, E. M. I. (2004). Defining grief play in MMORPGs. Proceedings of the 2004 ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology.
  • Friborg, M. K., Hansen, J. V., Aldrich, P. T. ve diğerleri (2017). Workplace sexual harassment and depressive symptoms: A cross-sectional multilevel analysis comparing harassment from clients or customers to harassment from other employees amongst 7603 Danish employees from 1041 organizations. BMC Public Health, 17, 675
  • Gervais, S. J., Vescio, T. K., Förster, J., Maass, A., & Suitner, C. (2012). Seeing women as objects: The sexual body part recognition bias. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42(6), 743-753.
  • Glick, P., Diebold, J., Bailey-Werner, B., & Zhu, L. (1997). The two faces of Adam: Ambivalent sexism and polarized attitudes toward women. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 1323-1324.
  • Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (1997). Hostile and benevolent sexism, Measuring ambivalent sexist attitudes toward women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 119-135.
  • Gray, Kishonna L. (2012). Intersecting oppressions and online communities: Examining the experiences of women of color in Xbox live. Information, Communication & Society 15(3), 411-428.
  • Hammond, M. D., Milojev, P., Huang, Y., & Sibley, C. G. (2018). Benevolent sexism and hostile sexism across the ages. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 9(7), 863-874.
  • Hartmann, T. & Klimmt, C. (2017). Gender and computer games: Exploring females’ dislikes. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(4), 910-931.
  • Hilbert, J. (2019). Gaming & gender: how inclusive are eSports? The sports integrity initiative. https://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/gaming-gender-how-inclusive-are-esports/ adresinden 1 Ağustos 2022 tarihinde alınmıştır.
  • Houle, J. N., Staff, J., Mortimer, J. T., Uggen, C. & Blackstone, A. (2011). the impact of sexual harassment on depressive symptoms during the early occupational career. Society and Mental Health, 1(2), 89–105.
  • Huang, V., Young, M., & Fiocco, A. J. (2017). The association between video game play and cognitive function: does gaming platform matter? Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 20(11), 689-694.
  • Kuznekoff, J. & Rose, L. (2013). Communication in multiplayer gaming: Examining player responses to gender cues. New Media & Society, 15(4), 541-556.
  • Lenhart, A., Smith, A., Anderson, M., Duggan, M., & Perrin, A. (2015). Teens, technology and friendships. Pew Research Center, 1-75
  • Lopez-Fernandez, O., Williams, A. J., Griffiths, M. D., & Kuss, D. J. (2019). Female gaming, gaming addiction, and the role of women within gaming culture: A narrative literature review. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10.
  • McLean, L. & Griffiths, M.D. (2018). Female gamers’ experience of online harassment and social support in online gaming: A qualitative study. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 1-25.
  • Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). An expanded sourcebook: Qualitative data analysis. SAGE Publications, Inc.
  • Nakandala, S., Ciampaglia, G., Su, N. & Ahn, Y.-Y. (2017). Gendered conversation in a social game-streaming platform. Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, 11(1), 162-171.
  • O’Leary, A. (2012). In virtual play, sex harassment is all too real. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/us/ sexual-harassment-in-online-gaming-stirs-anger.html?_r=0 adresinden 20 Eylül 2022 tarihinde alınmıştır.
  • Pew Research Center. (2020). Gaming and gamers. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/12/15/who-plays-video-games-and-identifies-as-a-gamer/ adresinden 1 Ağustos 2022 tarihinde alınmıştır.
  • Riot Games. (2020). Beginner’s guide. https://playvalorant.com/en-us/news/announcements/beginners-guide/ adresinden 20 Ağustos 2022 tarihinde alınmıştır.
  • Ruvalcaba, O., Shulze, J., Kim, A., Berzenski, S. R. & Otten, M. P. (2018). Women’s experiences in esports: gendered differences in peer and spectator feedback during competitive video game play. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 42(4), 295-311.
  • Smith, A. (2022). Woman says she was virtually ‘raped’ in the metaverse while others ‘passed around a bottle of vodka’. Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/rape-metaverse-woman-oculus-facebook-b2090491.html adresinden 25 Ağustos 2022 tarihinde alınmıştır.
  • Stahl, S. & Dennhag, I. (2020). Online and offline sexual harassment associations of anxiety and depression in an adolescent sample. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 75(5), 330-335.
  • Stockdale, M. S., Logan, T. K. & Weston, R. (2009). Sexual harassment and posttraumatic stress disorder: Damages beyond prior abuse. Law and Human Behavior, 33, 405-418.
  • Tang, W. Y. & Fox, J. (2016). Men’s harassment behavior in online video games: Personality traits and game factors. Aggressive Behavior, 42(6), 513-521.
  • Taylor, T. L. (2006). Play between worlds. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
  • Uszkoreit, L. (2018). With great power comes great responsibility: Video game live streaming and its potential risks and benefits for female gamers. Gray, K., Voorhees, G., Vossen, E. (Ed.), Feminism in Play içinde (s.163-181). Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Veltri, N., Krasnova, H., Baumann, A. & Kalayamthanam, N. (2014). Gender differences in online gaming: A literature review. Proceedings of 20th Americas Conference on Information Systems. Savannah, Georgia, USA.
  • Williams, D., Consalvo, M., Caplan, S. & Yee, N. (2009). Looking for gender: Gender roles and behaviors among online gamers. Journal of Communication, 59(4), 700-725.
  • Woods, O. (2021). Feminist geographies of online gaming. Digital Geography and Society, 2, 100015.
  • Yang, G. S., Huesmann, L. R. & Bushman, B. J. (2014). Effects of playing a violent video game as male versus female avatar on subsequent aggression in male and female players. Aggressive Behavior, 40(6), 537-541.
  • Yıldız, S. (2007). Suçta araç olarak internetin teknik ve hukuki yönden incelenmesi. Nobel Yayınevi.
  • Zelinski, E. M. & Reyes, R. (2009). Cognitive benefits of computer games for older adults. Gerontechnology: International Journal on The Fundamental Aspects of Technology to Serve The Ageing Society, 8(4), 220-235.
There are 44 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language Turkish
Subjects Women's Studies
Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

Ecenur Temelli 0000-0002-0635-9749

Neylan Ziyalar 0000-0001-9626-3734

Y. Tunç Demircan 0000-0001-7615-0265

Publication Date June 30, 2023
Published in Issue Year 2023 Volume: 5 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Temelli, E., Ziyalar, N., & Demircan, Y. T. (2023). Kadın Valorant Oyuncularının Karşılaştığı Tutum ve Davranışlar: Nitel Bir Çalışma/ Behaviors and Attitudes Toward Female Valorant Gamers: A Qualitative Study. Nitel Sosyal Bilimler, 5(1), 23-48. https://doi.org/10.47105/nsb.1189549


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