Making friends in online games: gender differences and designing for greater social connectedness

ABSTRACT

While online multiplayer games provide an opportunity for players to both maintain and establish new connections, male and female players have been found to experience these environments differently. Interviews (n = 22) and focus groups (n = 14) were used to explore these differences as they impact on creating new social connections, as well as to provide recommendations for the development of new social tools and features that account for these differences. While all participants experienced toxicity and performance pressure as barriers to forming new connections, female players uniquely reported the impacts of misogynistic targeting and stereotype threat. In turn, female players wishing to avoid these stresses would often mask their gender. The common practice of gender misrepresentation by both male and female players impacted female players’ ability to create social connections through voice technology, as well as building their distrust of unknown others. Recommendations are made to build social connectedness between players taking into account the specific constraints faced by female players. These include establishing mentoring opportunities as well as profiling players beyond their immediate skill or rank. Additionally, the desire for control of one’s online identity presents practical challenges that may be overcome through thoughtful design.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• diversity
• chat
• interaction design
• virtual community
• video games
• design

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 ‘Solo queuing’ refers to playing alone and ‘ranked Overwatch’ refers to a high stakes game mode in the first-person shooter in which wins and losses directly impact upon a player’s ranking.

2 ‘Cop it’: to be punished or spoken to severely because you have done something wrong.

Additional information

Funding

We would like to thank the Movember Foundation for funding this research, and the participants for their time and energy.