Virtual inequality: a woman's place in cyberspace

EVE Online is a space-themed Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) that to date has remained largely unexplored in an academic context. This particular MMOG has a reputation among players as being both extremely difficult to learn how to play, as well as being unattractive to female players. In this paper I describe my proposed dissertation research that will trace the relationships between the human and non-human actors that have resulted in the EVE Online player community's demographic makeup being so different than other, more gender-balanced, MMOGs.

[1]  Jordan D. Troisi,et al.  Effects of Everyday Romantic Goal Pursuit on Women’s Attitudes Toward Math and Science , 2011, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[2]  Victoria McArthur,et al.  All in a day's work: a study of World of Warcraft NPCs comparing gender to professions , 2011, Sandbox '11.

[3]  Constance Steinkuehler,et al.  Learning in Massively Multiplayer Online Games , 2004, ICLS.

[4]  J. Jenson,et al.  Girl talk: gender, equity, and identity discourses in a school-based computer culture , 2003 .

[5]  Yasmin B. Kafai,et al.  Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming , 2008 .

[6]  Melanie Swalwell,et al.  Little Jesuses and * @ # ?-off Robots : On Cybernetics , Aesthetics and Not Being Very Good at Lego Star Wars , 2010 .

[7]  Constance Steinkuehler,et al.  Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as "Third Places" , 2006, DiGRA Conference.

[8]  Shira Chess.  License to play : women, productivity, and video games , 2009 .

[9]  Louis Althusser,et al.  Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays , 1971 .

[10]  Mark Chen,et al.  Leet noobs : the life and death of an expert player group in World of Warcraft , 2012 .

[11]  Jennifer Jenson,et al.  Gender, Simulation, and Gaming: Research Review and Redirections , 2010 .

[12]  C. Hill,et al.  Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. , 2010 .

[13]  Kelly Bergstrom,et al.  "Don't feed the troll": Shutting down debate about community expectations on Reddit.com , 2011, First Monday.

[14]  Ross MacDonald,et al.  Play between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture , 2007 .

[15]  James Paul Gee,et al.  What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy , 2007, CIE.

[16]  Katie Salen,et al.  Gaming literacies: A game design study in action , 2007 .

[17]  John L. Sherry,et al.  Sex Differences in Video Game Play: , 2004, Commun. Res..

[18]  Sheri Graner Ray,et al.  Gender inclusive game design : expanding the market , 2004 .

[19]  Gabrielle Durepos.  Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor‐Network‐Theory , 2008 .

[20]  Scott E. Caplan,et al.  Looking for Gender: Gender Roles and Behaviors Among Online Gamers , 2009 .

[21]  J. Law.  After Method: Mess in Social Science Research , 2004 .

[22]  Jennifer Jenson,et al.  In and out of control: Learning games differently , 2009 .

[23]  Julie Coiro,et al.  Handbook of Research on New Literacies , 2014 .

[24]  Noshir S. Contractor,et al.  Focused on the prize: Characteristics of experts in massive multiplayer online games , 2011, First Monday.

[25]  J. Wajcman.  Feminism Confronts Technology , 1991 .

[26]  Constance Steinkuehler,et al.  Cognition and Literacy in Massively Multiplayer Online Games , 2008 .

[27]  Christopher A. Paul.  Don't play me: EVE Online, new players and rhetoric , 2011, FDG.

[28]  Robert J. Moore,et al.  Virtual “Third Places”: A Case Study of Sociability in Massively Multiplayer Games , 2007, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).