I recently attended and presented at the 2014 National Women’s Studies Association Conference in Puerto Rico. As part of the panel on gender and gaming, entitled “Press X to Continue: Feminism, Gaming Technology, and (the Absence of) Women in Videogaming” organized by Kristin Bezio of the University of Richmond, I presented on a different part of my ethnographic research on game culture. During my 4 year study, I not only explored game player culture but game developer culture, by attending several industry events and interviewing developers. I presented on these results in my presentation titled “Designing culture and crafting play in digital space: Game developers’ understandings of social realities and constructions of gender, race, and sexuality in game culture.” In the presentation, I discussed experiences I noted at the big industry events (between 2010-2012), and perceptions voiced by AAA (or big industry) and indie developers across gender and race about designing for gender, race and sexuality. I also brought in seminal research on developer culture and perceptions, as well as my ongoing research on social identity theory, stereotype threat and gender (and its intersecting experiences with race, gender identity and sexuality) in game culture and computing.
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