Gender perception in digital games: a research over the example of "Detroit Become Human"

Gender usually defines as "Social and cultural gender norms associated with femininity and masculinity, assuming to be compatible with the devoted gender". Women and men are expected to abide by these norms and act based upon the roles assigned to them by society. These roles are named as "gender roles" and may vary substantially among cultures. Roles are based on stereotypes and preconceptions. Etymologically, the term "stereotype" derived from the Greek words "stereos" (means firm, solid) and "typos" (means impression). Hence stereotype term points out to "solid impression on one or more idea/theory". The term was first used in 1922 by Walter Lippmann in his modern psychology book, "Public Opinion". Media reproduces these gender stereotypes and they can be found on mass media in different ways. A child, for example, who grows up with cartoons and children's books, with gender roles in them, growing up as a teen and reading magazines with gender stereotypes. Eventually the same person becomes an adult and watches TV shows and movies which promotes gender differences. People who grow up with gender preconceptions start to perform gender roles in the same way. Hence this limits the capacity of people. After the internet, media became more effective than ever. As assumed in uses and gratifications theory, audience members are not passive consumers of media anymore. By the virtue of Web 2.0, they have an interactive role. Social media is the biggest example of this interactivity. Beside social media, video games are the newest universe of new media. Video games may contain gender roles in different ways. Online games, for example, are male-dominated environments and women become targets just because of their genders. Besides PvP (Players versus Players) interactions, game designs usually contain multiple gender stereotyping. Female characters are mostly portrayed as helpers; like healers, shamans and supports. In addition to this, female characters are mostly sexualized with unrealistic proportions. They are presented as sexual objects with their over-exaggerated physiques. On the contrary, male characters are shown as icons of power especially with their muscles and other large portions of their bodies. In story-based games, players have to face with gender-stereotyped designs. Main characters in these games are usually men. Like in online games, women are the secondary characters whose only aim is to help main characters. These women are mostly become main characters' girlfriend or wife. If not so, they will fall in love later. A genre that is not new in the gaming sector but that recently gained popularity is interactive story games. These are games in which players decide how the story develops. The story shapes towards players' reasonable and emotional choices and doesn't follow a linear flowchart. The choices during gameplay determine who will survive at the end of the game, the relationships between the game characters, and whether the final achieved will be a happy end story. When it comes to gender in interactive story games, it contains both character designs towards gender roles and players' choices. In games with multiple playable characters, characters' roles are important. Developers of these games decide that roles. Because of that, players' can't go off the roles. An interactive game designed with these gender stereotypes makes people reproduce these gender roles. Games with wide perspectives let players' do whatever they want and let them decide which way they will follow. Players either can be aggressive and make their way hostilely or can be calm and make their way peacefully. In addition to this, players can choose a path by characters in games with multiple playable characters. For example; the player can stay calm with a female character but can be aggressive with the male character. In other words, "the player can choose to embody the initial personality of the character and make choices on behalf of them, or the player might put themselves in character, making choices based on their authentic experiences". In this dissertation, gender, gender identity, gender roles, gender stereotyping, gender presentation on media and games, history of video games and interactive story games have been examined as a literature study. The research objective is to find out if there are still gender roles in new media games, which is a new generation environment. The main purpose is to check if statements about women and men are true like "women are emotional" or "men are more logical than women". The method of this study is descriptive research. The game named "Detroit: Become Human" is chosen to see decision motivations by women and men. 25 women and 25 men game streamers' choices are analyzed.