Attention Whore! Perception of Female Players Who Identify Themselves as Women in the Communities of MMOs

This study examines how female players who identify as women experience massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), focusing on how they present their gender online and whether they encounter romantic advances, harassment, or subtler forms of gender-based treatment. Drawing on a survey of 120 Brazilian female MMO players with an average age of 22, the research concludes that women continue to feel they are not treated as equals within gaming communities, even though overt prejudice is rarely reported. The sample was self-selected through gaming communities, so its findings may not generalize to all female MMO players.

Most respondents used female avatars and described their experiences as mostly pleasant, yet a substantial minority reported unwelcome attention. Roughly 36% had received romantic advances, and 34% reported some form of harassment. The most serious finding concerns threats: 16.5% reported hearing rape threats that made them uncomfortable. At the same time, about 80% described the gaming community as largely welcoming, and 63.5% had never experienced aggressive behavior at all.

A central conclusion is that implicit, difficult-to-detect prejudice shapes female players' experiences. Nearly 43.5% believed their failures were attributed to their gender, and "benevolent sexism," such as patronizing treatment framed as courtesy, was a common experience. These patterns suggest that hostility in MMO communities is often subtle and may coexist with an overall receptive tone.

The study's scope is geographically limited to Brazil and focuses on the perspectives of adult female players in MMO communities. Its underlying framework draws on prior research on player demographics, gender and play, and avatar-identity conflicts, though the summary of that literature is not itself a source of original findings.