Male Gamers, Identity and Masculinity

This paper, presented at DiGRA 2020, offers preliminary results from a pre-study examining how young male gamers experience the ongoing schism in videogame culture between proponents of more inclusive, diversified games and those who view such changes as a threat to gaming as a traditional subculture. Its central argument is that male gamers' perceptions of their position as the core audience being challenged, set against broader narratives of "masculinity in crisis," must be understood through the cultural processes of inclusion and exclusion that shape masculine identity, rather than being dismissed as simple hostility. The project seeks to bring game studies and masculinity studies together, using a phenomenological approach centered on lived experience.

The pre-study relies on focus groups with young male gamers of varied socio-demographic backgrounds in a single large city in a Western European country. Rather than treating "gamer" as a descriptive label, the authors frame it as a term of identity, and they explore the apparent paradox that gamer culture welcomes self-described socially marginal "underdogs" while simultaneously policing its boundaries strictly. The research examines participants' emotional responses to growing diversity and politicization in game content and culture, along with the social meanings they attach to gaming.

The study's stated aim is not to amplify harassers but to demonstrate that the male perspective matters for understanding attitudes of misogyny and racism and for assessing how inherently gendered the gamer identity is. The project intends to include participants ranging from cisgender white men to racial minorities, immigrants, and queer men, looking at how each negotiates identity as both gamer and man amid polarized public discourse on identity politics. The work draws on Michael Kimmel's research on "angry white men," C.J. Pascoe's studies of masculinity, and a substantial body of literature on #GamerGate and geek and gamer masculinity.