Gamer representations

In lectures we have been looking at sexuality, gender and stereotypes. As we have learnt, the market that gaming companies think they are selling to is different to who really makes up the gaming market (proportion of female gamers and average gamer age). A new reality television show called “King of the Nerds” attempts to emphasise gamer stereotypes by finding the most geeky people they can for their show to compete to be the ultimate nerd. Half of the cast have gaming related jobs such as RPG designer, gaming blogger and pro gamer. They dress like a stereotypical geek, have ‘geeky’ quirks and 7 of 11 contestants wear glasses. Also, being a reality show, the cast are of course expected to exaggerate their character.

Although this ‘nerd’ cast do have many of the qualities of a stereotypical geeky gamer, they include five females and all the cast are in their 20s.  I think this is important to note as the show is more accurately representing the gamer demographic than gaming companies portray. Also, the cast that are part of gaming culture are mostly female. Instead of the assumption that ‘girls don’t and can’t play games’, the show has chosen to cast a pro gamer who is in fact, a girl. The cast are also seen as respected figures in the gaming community instead of ‘gamers with no life’. Gamers compete with other cast members like a geophysicist, neuroscientist and NASA engineer. This show could then be seen as an attempt to in a way break the social stigma attached to gamers and break the stereotype of who a gamer is. I think this is an important development in gaming representations and perhaps this could begin to change the way that gaming companies choose to market their games in the future.