Avatars, Gender and Sexuality for Brazilian Players on Rust

Key insights

7 takeaways

01
Players largely treated avatars and their characters as distinct entities, distinguishing them mainly through customization and control, and showed no strong preference for particular avatars or evidence that avatar gender shaped behavior or identification.
02
Gender and sexuality still structured social interaction in Rust: women were more cautious around male avatars, and avatar gender shaped how other players responded, with female avatars eliciting more cooperation and male avatars provoking more reactivity.
03
A clear divergence appeared between participants' stated reasons for gender swapping and their stated reasons for choosing gendered avatars, suggesting that stated motivations and actual practices did not match.
04
Participants expressed discomfort with Rust's uncensored nudity and identified racial representation problems tied to local demographics, even though the game contains no explicit sexual content beyond nudity.
05
Some player-made videos depicted sexualized or coercive behavior involving avatar genitalia, despite the absence of explicit sexual content in the game itself.
06
Participants regarded heterosexuality as the default representation in games, while proposals for broader sexual representation such as bisexuality and asexuality were viewed as problematic or unclear.
07
The study's findings are limited by a small sample of nine Brazilian players aged 19 to 32 in Porto Alegre and by limited representation of non-white avatars, with the authors planning future intersectional research prioritizing race.

Summary

This study examines how nine Brazilian players aged 19 to 32, based in Porto Alegre, relate to gendered avatars in Rust, a multiplayer survival game that randomly assigns male or female characters. Positioned within game studies scholarship that has been dominated by North American and Western European work, the research combines nine months of self-observation, 30 to 45 minute gameplay sessions, and semi-structured interviews, with participants grouped by whether their avatar gender matched their own gender identity. Rust's binary gender design and optional nudity censoring are treated as relevant context for the investigation.

The central finding is that players largely perceived avatars and characters as distinct entities, distinguishing them mainly through customization and control. Participants showed no strong preference for particular avatars, and there was little evidence that avatar gender shaped their behavior or fostered identification. Gender and sexuality nonetheless structured social interaction: women were more cautious around male avatars, and gender shaped how others responded to players. A notable disconnect emerged between the reasons participants gave for gender swapping and their stated reasons for choosing gendered avatars, suggesting that stated motivations and actual practices diverged.

The research also documented specific reactions and representations. Participants expressed discomfort with the game's uncensored nudity and identified racial representation problems tied to local demographics. Although the game contains no explicit sexual content beyond nudity, some player-made videos depicted sexualized or coercive behavior involving avatar genitalia. Female avatars elicited more cooperation from others, while male avatars provoked more reactivity. Participants regarded heterosexuality as the default representation in games, and their proposals for broader sexual representation, including bisexuality and asexuality, were viewed as problematic or unclear.

The authors acknowledge limitations, particularly the study's limited representation of non-white avatars, and they plan future research on intersectionality, with race as a priority.