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Gender Inequality in eSports

A Closer Look at the Smash Bros. Community

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Gender Inequality in eSports

A Closer Look at the Smash Bros. Community

MSc Thesis Research Report

Thimon Bakker

Student number: 10012877

First Supervisor: prof. dr. R.F.J. (Ramón) Spaaij Second Supervisor: dr. M.D. (Marci) Cottingham

Word and page count: 23824 words (excl. bibliography and appendices)

July 2018

Cover Page Picture Credits: David Zhou (https://imgur.com/a/BPC1y#3)

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Preface

This thesis is the final work of my Master’s program in Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. It is the documentation of many hours of work during my study. The full process of preparation, research and writing took a period of roughly six months, from February 2018 until July 2018. This thesis focuses on the subject of Gender Inequality in eSports. In order to determine how gender inequality is produced and maintained within the Smash Bros. eSports community, a qualitative study using surveys, observations and a content analysis was performed. This thesis and author had help from many parties, which deserve acknowledgement.

Firstly, I would like to thank the Smash Bros. community for taking the time to take part in my survey, of which I knew could be perceived as quite time-consuming and controversial. Yet many people completed the survey and wrote extensive and passionate answers. Your participation made this thesis possible. Secondly, my supervisors Marci Cottingham and in particular Ramón Spaaij both helped me a lot in the preparation of my research and writing of this thesis. With their help I could always extend and develop my thesis further. Thirdly, I would like to thank my girlfriend Evelien, who continuously supported me mentally and emotionally through the whole process. The helpful suggestions and comments were often much needed, calming my sometimes distressed mind. Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family for giving me advice, checking my thesis and some much-needed distraction.

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Summary

This Master thesis examines how gender inequality is produced and maintained in the eSports community of Super Smash Bros. through behaviours, attitudes, ideas and language use. Current literature and research available on the subject of gender inequality is mostly focused on the playing of video games and traditional sports. Research that does occur on eSports has paid little attention to behaviour and ideas within a specific eSports community itself. Furthermore, gender disparity is almost non-existent in casual video game playing, whereas in eSports differences in gender

participation are highly prevalent. Therefore, the research question of this thesis is; How does gender

inequality develop in the Smash Bros. eSports scene and how is this maintained? In order to explore

gender inequality in the Smash community, the following theoretical concepts were used; masculinity, stereotyping and sexism.

Methods: This study combines three research methods; observations, survey, and qualitative

content analysis. Observations were used to explore both verbal and non-verbal behaviour by

eSporters. In addition to this, observations were also used with commentary and general language use within the Smash community. During the observational phase, findings were used to develop a qualitative based survey. This survey was employed under the Smash community to identify

individual perceptions on eSports and issues involving gender inequality. Finally, based on the survey results a qualitative content analysis was applied on the online media streaming and sharing websites, i.e, YouTube and Twitch.

Results and conclusions: Three chapters are described to answer the main research question,

these are; the experiences of the social atmosphere of the Smash Bros. scene and behaviour in general, the behaviour, attitudes and ideas of eSporters on gender inequality and finally, language use within the community. The social atmosphere is described as friendly, kind-hearted, and bustling. The community is predominantly consisting out of males. Consequently, joining might be intimidating for female players. However, the Smash community are being very open to accept new members

regardless of gender differences. Local and national tournaments are very different in atmosphere. As local tournaments employ a more informal setting, it also influences behaviour and the use of language. Commentary and language contains more swearing and is described as more tolerant on hypermasculine behaviour. Furthermore, stereotypical inclinations were found, as embarrassment of losing to a girl is still present at times. This was found to not happen much, and stereotypical behaviour declined after playing against females more often. All-female events were found not to be positive to normalization of female players in the long run. However, these positively segregated events do increase participation and create a safe place for female players. As sexism is described at times, this safe place can be important to the female community. Hostile sexism is not tolerated in the

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Smash community and penalties are ensured against perpetrators. Benevolent sexism is harder to fight, as it shows subjectively positive behaviour to the person in question. Survey results indicate that females are getting more unneeded attention due to being scarce, creating unwanted attention and behaviour. Finally, the online environment shows much hostile sexism and stereotypical behaviour. Future research can be done on the effect online hostile sexism and stereotypical behaviour has on eSports communities and gender inequality.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction to the topic 11

2. Theoretical Framework 14

2.1. Masculinity, video games and traditional sports 14 2.2. Gender stereotypes in video games and traditional sports 16 2.2.1. Gender stereotypes as cause of gender inequality 16 2.2.2. Stereotypes in video games and traditional sports 17 2.3. Sexism as cause of gender inequality 18 2.4. Operationalization of key research concepts 19

3. Methods and data collection 22

3.1. Research design 22 3.2. Surveys 23 3.3. Observation 24 3.3.1. Observation on behaviour 24 3.3.2. Observation on commentary 26 3.4. Content analysis 27

3.5. Research respondents and data analysis 27 3.6. Quality assurance and ethics 29

4. Social atmosphere of the Smash community 32

4.1. Introduction to Smash 32

4.2. Local and national tournaments 34

4.3. Acting as a winner 36

4.4. Being the loser 39

5. Behaviours, attitudes and ideas on gender inequality 41 5.1. Diversity in the community 41 5.2. Females as the dynamic changers 45

5.3. Stereotypes 46

5.4. Masculinity and its influence 47

5.5. Positive segregation 48

5.6. Sexism in the community 50

6. Commentary, language and chat 53 6.1. Language use within the community 53

6.2. Commentary 55

6.3. Online environment 57

7. Conclusion and discussion 59

8. Bibliography 63

9. Appendix 70

A. Survey questions 70

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1. Introduction to the topic

In 2016, a professional competitive Smash gamer known by the gamertag “Hyuga” was accused of sexually harassing another competitive gamer named “VikkiKitty”. VikkiKitty received massive backlash on the accusation before actual evidence was provided. In the end it turned out to be the truth. As a result, Hyuga received a full-year ban from attending Super Smash tournaments in America, Brazil, and Australia. When the year was over and Hyuga announced his return to the gaming scene, it did not go about very well within the community. Multiple sides arose on the issue, some found that Hyuga deserved a second chance, whereas others felt that tournaments wouldn’t be a safe place anymore with Hyuga present. With this news on Hyuga, other incidents surfaced on harassment within competitive gaming communities. As with “VikkiKitty”, the backlash was

enormous and topics of harassment and unwanted attention are highly controversial in the competitive gaming scene. How female harassment is dealt with further in the community is a discussion now fairly quickly ignored or labelled as causing “unneeded trouble”. The question now rises, how this gender inequality is experienced within competitive gaming communities and if it is still ongoing. This thesis revolves around a fairly new subject in the world of sports and sport sociology, namely: eSports. Hamari and Sjöblom (2015, p.2) describe eSports as “...a form of sports where the primary aspects of the sport are facilitated by electronic systems; the input of players and teams as well as the output of the eSports system are mediated by human-computer interfaces.” As mentioned before, a more familiar term for eSports would be competitive video gaming, and has drastically gained popularity in the last decade (Kozachuck et al., 2016). In 2014, the numbers on the spectating of eSports over the internet and television globally were over 70 million people, with these numbers having no intention of declining (Wingfield, 2014). Spectating audiences are predominantly male (85%) (Superdata, 2016) and dominated by men (Ratan et al., 2015). Additionally, eSports players are predominantly men (90%) (Superdata, 2016). Interestingly, there is almost no disparity in casual video game playing, as females consist over 49% of the player base (ESA, 2016). A significant gap lies in the lack of research done on eSports itself, with most literature being focussed on casual video game playing. The lack of documentation and scientific research on the discrepancy between female casual video game and eSport players begs the question as to why this disparity is prevalent. One of most prominent reasons is the unequal treatment women receive in video gaming (Taylor et al., 2009) and traditional sports (Coakley & Pike, 2014). As described above, some news of sexism and

unwanted attention towards women in certain eSports communities have come to light (McKinney, 2017), which causes the equality of genders in eSports communities to become an issue of further consideration and discussion (Taylor et al., 2009). However, there are more possible causes as to why

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this gender disparity is as evident as it is. Further causes of gender inequality are explored and researched within this thesis.

The subject of gender inequality will be used in relation to a specific eSports community, namely the Super Smash Bros. community (SSB, Smash, Smash Bros). Super Smash Bros. has existed for over twenty years, with new iterations coming out every five or so years. The most popular SSB game is the fifteen year old Super Smash Bros. Melee. (SSBM), and has one of the largest followings in the competitive fighting game scene. SSB is being played at big tournaments like Smash Summit and Big House, with first place prize money being over $15.000 (“eSports earnings”, 2017). With increasingly growing participatory numbers, players of Smash established a community, becoming one of the biggest in the eSports fighting genre. This development however, has led to the visibility of certain issues within the community. Gender disparity within the Smash community is quite prominent; “When you have a gender imbalance like one girl for every thirty guys at local events, as it often is in the Smash community, social dynamics can become… a bit skewed.” says a famous female SSBM player called Lilian “Milktea” Chen (“Ramblings of a Retired Gamer”, 2010). Lilian Chen is a female SSBM player who has played SSBM from its early stages, when the

competitive gaming scene was just starting. She mentions that female eSporters get unwanted (positive and negative) attention. Furthermore, Taylor et al. (2009) found that female video game players are risked being negatively labelled as “attention seekers”. Chen quit playing as an eSports player, but is still active in the eSports community. She established a yearly all-female event called Smash Sisters to normalize female gamers within male-dominated eSports scenes. Additionally, Gray et al. (2017) found that female eSporters that do emerge, often join a female only group as a form of social safety. Smash is one of the biggest (growing) eSports scenes in the fighting genre and has a big population to research. Research data will be limited to the Smash community as to give a more precise result on a specific eSports community. Different genres of games will attract a different population, comparable to traditional sports; football and tennis are vastly different in its sport as are their communities.

The aim of this research is to find manifestations and implications of gender inequality in a specific eSports scene in Western culture and how this persists. As academic research on eSports has focused mostly on quantitative methods, qualitative research on gender inequality in eSports is almost non-existent. The only significant research area has been on video games where the focus was on different aspects of gender inequality (Ivory, 2006; Ratan et al., 2015), such as physical and mental abilities and learning experiences. Consequently, this research also aims to examine the social and environmental atmosphere of eSports and its player base. ESports is a relatively new and therefore unexplored scientific field, it however shares multiple traits from the practicing of video games and traditional sports. However, to fully understand gender inequality in eSports, it must be researched in its own right. Through usage of an inductive analysis, this thesis provides a critical look at eSports and gender inequality.

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This leads to the research question of this thesis: How does gender inequality develop in the

Smash Bros. eSports scene and how is this maintained? The main research question is divided into

three sub-questions:

1.How do eSporters experience the social atmosphere of the Smash Bros. scene in general? 2.What behaviours, attitudes and ideas do (female and male) eSporters have towards gender inequality and how does this influence inequality in the Smash Bros. scene?

3.How is commentary performed in the Smash Bros. scene and how does it influence gender inequality?

The sub-question; (1) how do eSporters experience the social atmosphere of the Smash Bros.

scene in general?, provides a general context in which, how, and why eSporters perform. This

question encompasses how eSporters started playing and how the Super Smash Bros. scene is experienced. Furthermore, basic behaviour performed at tournaments, like winning and losing, is questioned and observed. After this sub-question, the more specific subject of gender inequality can be researched.

The second sub-question; (2) what behaviours, attitudes and ideas do (female and male)

eSporters have towards gender inequality and how does this influence inequality in the Smash Bros. scene?, questions the ideas and behaviours of Smash Bros. eSporters which can be analyzed on

multiple subjects, with in particular, gender inequality. Furthermore, specific concepts tied to gender inequality, such as masculinity, stereotyping and sexism are used to analyze the results found through the aforementioned research methods. Literature on gender inequality in video gaming and traditional sports will be provided in the next chapter to give a brief overview concerning leading concepts and theories on the subject.

Finally, the last sub-question is described as follows; (3) how is commentary performed in

the Smash Bros. scene and how does it influence gender inequality? Commentary is an important part

of eSports, as it brings entertainment and information to the spectating (online and offline) audience. Streaming and video sharing provides a publicly available manner of watching tournaments and matches. Commentary is the first thing you notice and hear throughout this usage of internet media. The use of language in commentary and the community is observed and analyzed to determine how this may influence gender inequality within eSports.

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2. Theoretical Framework

A brief literature overview regarding the subject of eSports and gender inequality will be presented. This literature is synthesised to explore certain theories and concepts on gender inequality and to identify similarities between eSports and traditional sports. On the concept of masculinity, the work of Anderson (2009), Connell (1995) and Messner & Bozada-Deas (2009) will be used. The concept of gender stereotypes will be elaborated through the work of Ridgeway (1999; 2009; 2011). Finally, sexism will be discussed using the work of Glick & Fiske (1997). This provides a small start to address the gap in literature surrounding gender inequality in eSports.

2.1. Masculinity, video games and traditional sports

ESports is a combination of two things, namely; sport and videogames. The functionality of video games has been greatly increased in the last decade, changing social context of play and the multiplying of video game genres (Bryce & Rutter, 2003). Video games are regarded firstly as a leisure activity, however women are vastly disadvantaged in these activities in relation to men.

Henderson (1990) found that multiple constraints, such as time and class, influence the way women have access to, and participate in, leisure spaces and activities connected to video gaming and technology. This is also reinforced through research of Schumacher & Morahan (2001), as they found that women experience barriers to the access of ICT use, technology and leisure activities such as computer gaming. Samuel (1996) further argues that; “males and females differ in their preference for various leisure activities, their access to leisure, and the control of female access to leisure by males.” Research has also shown that these technologies are associated with a highly gendered and masculine culture (Bryce and Sullivan, 2001). Furthermore, it is long been known that most video games target a male audience (Jenkins & Cassell, 2008). Masculinity is a socially constructed concept which

encompasses characteristics attributed to masculine features, such as power, aggressiveness and and sexuality (Franklin, 2012). Multiple forms of masculinity are found in many all-male groups. Therefore masculinity is not only found in video games, but also very much in traditional sports.

The dominant gender ideology within traditional sports is still masculine, especially in competitive contact (team) sport (Coakley & Pike, 2014). With the describing of a patriarchal organization surrounding sports and eSports, it is implied that hegemonic masculinity is the main perpetrator in social inequality in eSports. Hegemonic masculinity is defined as “the current configuration of practice that legitimizes men's dominant position in society and justifies the

subordination of women, and other marginalized ways of being a man” (Connell et al., 2005, p.829). This explains why men have dominant social roles over women and subordinated males within certain

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societal practices, e.g., traditional sports. Traditional sport is in itself organised by ideologies of patriarchy, and around discourses of hegemonic masculinity that value hypermasculine, heterosexual men (Spaaij et al., 2015). Furthermore, it has been researched that white males with a middle-class background have the most benefit in social mobility in sports, giving them an increased chance to occupy decision-making positions (Spaaij et al., 2015). Women competing and playing in sports are increasingly participating, however, other organizational positions within sports are primarily occupied by white men (Anderson, 2009), e.g., Lapchick et al. (2006) found that 95% of sports editors are men. Claringbould & Knoppers (2008) showed that women are far less likely to exist at higher levels of sports’ organizing bodies. “These positions are evidently advertised as gender neutral, but the qualities associated with desired managerial capital remains masculinized” (Anderson, 2009; p.8). Furthermore, Anderson (2009) found that 81% of all qualified coaches (at all levels of sporting participation) are white men. Sports is a hypermasculine institution, where gender is most naturalized than any other gendered institutions. “As a highly segregated, homophobic, sexist and misogynistic gender-regime, sport not only contributes to the gender order but it also reproduces a conservative and stabilizing form of masculinity that has considerable costs for both sexes” (Anderson, 2009, p.4). Hypermasculinity has been researched a number of times. As hypermasculinity means the exaggeration of male stereotypical behaviour, the terminology lays it emphasis on sexuality, aggression and physicality (Parrott & Zeichner, 2003), but also other dominant masculine attributes, such as hardness, stoicism and loyalty, which are generally associated with high profile contact sports (Hickey, 2008). High-hypermasculine men display higher levels of aggression towards women more often than low-hypermasculine men (Parrott & Zeichner, 2003). This, and other findings, suggest that an hypermasculine personality have certain characteristics associated with it, namely; violence is manly (Parrott & Zeichner, 2003) and behaviour towards women should be callous and/or dominant (Beesley & McGuire, 2009)

Another form of masculinity comes in the form of “soft essentialism”. “Hard essentialism” is a concept where in the past it was believed that men and boys were naturally suited to the

aggressive, competitive world of sports and women and girls were not (Messner & Bozada-Deas, 2009). This does not hold up in today’s society. Sports used to be seen as something boys/men are born into, whereas for women there is a certain ‘privileged femininity’; females are actually unsuited for sports but it is “accepted” (Ellings & Janssens, 2009). The focus of sports thus lies more around men and boys, rather than women and girls. Soft essentialism frames sport as “a realm in which girls are empowered to exercise individual choice, while continuing to view boys as naturally “hard wired” to play sports” (Messner & Bozada-Deas, 2009, p.68). Just like in traditional sports, it is argued that in eSports men are almost ‘hard wired’ to play videogames (Bryce & Rutter, 2003).

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2.2. Gender stereotypes in video games and traditional sports

2.2.1. Gender stereotypes as cause of gender inequality

According to Ridgeway (1999; 2009; 2011), gender inequality is reinforced by cultural stereotypes about gender. Stereotypes are defined as a “...mental shorthand, helping to convey ideas and image quickly and clearly” (Courtney & Whipple, 1983, p.205). They also refer to a group’s widely accepted and generalized perception on personal aspects of another group (Mou & Peng, 2009). Stereotypes also emerge when there are differences in power between groups (Fiske, 1993) and when different social roles influence environmental factors (Eagly, 1995). Significant research has shown that people hold well defined and consensual gender stereotypes and biases (Fiske, Cuddy & Glick, 2007; Glick et al., 2004; Spence & Buckner, 2000). Gender stereotypes can be both performed unconsciously and consciously, however, gender biases are mostly held unconsciously, influencing actors in their behaviour (Fiske, 1993; Glick et al., 2004). This can be found in non-verbal behaviour, as non-verbal behaviour is outside of conscious awareness and less easily affected by conscious attitudes and intentions (Aries, 1982). These gender biases have a profound influence on social contexts, as they shape the respondents expectations for their own and others behaviours. For example, when the social context is masculine and there is a mixed-gender setting, the expectation is for men to have an advantage in this social context. This in turn influences the non-verbal and verbal behaviour shown by both genders, e.g., showing more agentic traits by males, such as visual dominance (Ridgeway, 2011). Ridgeway (2011) describes that the traits that people use to

characterize each gender are termed as agency versus communal. Men are rated higher on qualities such as “instrumental competence, assertiveness, confidence, independence, forcefulness, and dominance”, whereas women are rated higher on communal attributes such as “emotional expressiveness, timidness, nurturance, interpersonal sensitivity, kindness, and

responsiveness” (Ridgeway, 2011, p.66). The traits for men can also be found in video games, especially fighting games, where one must establish dominance, assertiveness and confidence to beat another opponent (Taylor, 2003). This will be elaborated upon more in the next section.

Ridgeway (2011) describes that, even though these traits are descriptive in nature, through gender stereotypes they have a prescriptive quality. Deviations from such behavioural traits are frowned upon and are sometimes punished (Diekman & Eagly, 2008). Research has shown that prescriptive aspects of gender stereotypes are found in the desirability of such traits (Cikara et al., 2009). Traits of agency, such as aggressiveness and assertiveness, were found to be desirable in men, whereas communal traits, such as warmth, emotionality, sensitivity to others, were desirable in women (Cikara et al., 2009). However, traits that were undesirable in women, like arrogance and domineering, are in violation of the “...cultural presumption of women’s subordinate

status” (Ridgeway, 2011, p.67). These prescriptive aspects of gender stereotypes are found to be desirable and therefore embody and enforce gender inequality (Ridgeway, 2011). According to

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Ridgeway (2011) shared gender stereotypes act as a “common knowledge” cultural frame used by people to fall back upon when trying to make sense of one another in their interaction. Gender stereotyping is prevalent in video games and traditional sports in multiple ways, as will be described in the next paragraph.

2.2.2. Stereotypes in video games and traditional sports

Not all too long ago, a female professional eSporter had been accused of using an illegal programs to enhance her performance in-game. In retaliation she live streamed herself playing without the use of any illegal programs, proving her innocence and skill. This accusation came from other male professional eSporters, who were in disbelief of a female playing on a professional level (McKinney, 2017).

One of the most important overlaps in video gaming and traditional sports literature on causes of gender inequality are gender stereotypes. Both video gaming and traditional sports are regarded as highly masculine and stereotypical (Taylor et al., 2009; Anderson, 2009). The image of video gaming is primarily represented by the male audience, even though its player base between genders is equal, one of the reasons is the primarily targeting of a male audience by video game producers (Jenkins & Cassell, 2008). Masculinity in traditional sports is mostly established by the fact that decision-making positions (among others) are occupied by men (Anderson, 2009). Gender stereotyping and harassment in the video game world is highly prevalent, as many female gamers who play online video games are often oppressed by males just because they are female (Gray, 2012). As eSports is based on the physical presence of people at tournaments and the like, relevance of online environment does not seem likely and harmful. Despite eSports being pictured as highly masculine, there is no evidence of males having more skill than females in playing video games. On the contrary, females are at least as good as males with equivalent effort made (Brown et al., 1997). However, the creation of these stereotypes instantly sees an decrease in performance and effort through fear of evaluation based on that stereotype (Steele et al., 2002). Video game characters, especially females, are often portrayed as sex objects in video games (Summers & Miller, 2014). “Media portrayals of this kind can affect the players’ behaviours and attitudes toward women” (Summer & Miller, 2014, p. 1030). Furthermore, Fox & Potocki (2016) found support regarding “the indicating of a relationship between video game consumption and rape myth acceptance via interpersonal aggression and hostile sexism.” This could regard to multiple accounts of harassment found within esports and its

communities, as the rape myth acceptance could indicate that males are more likely to disbelief females when being harassed, giving further discouragement in joining a eSports community.

Gendered stereotypes also exist in traditional sports when women practice traditionally masculine sports (Krane, 2001). Consistent with findings of Ridgeway (2011) on the desirability of stereotypical traits, Hartmann (2003) also describes how sport makes male advantages and masculine values (i.e. aggressiveness and physical power) appear so normal and ‘natural’ that they can hardly be

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questioned. When women play certain sports, they are sometimes seen to be invaders of the male turf (Coakley & Pike, 2014), challenging the male gender ideology. This can have as consequence to being labelled as being ‘unladylike’ and/or a lesbian. The trivialization of women’s sports also promotes gender stereotyping. Statements like; ‘women play sports, but they will never be as good as men’ assume that sports is to be ‘manly’ if it is to be ‘real sports’ (Coakley & Pike, 2014). These statements discourage females to join sports, as sports is perceived as masculine. ESports is also perceived as masculine, the difference here however is that it is not segregated.

Further linguistic conventions in traditional sports also contribute to the trivialization of females in sport. Terminology in women’s games are often male and reported by males. Commentary at sports’ games is biased towards specific gendered stereotypes and continue to invade sports’ commentary (Eastman & Billings, 2001). Messner et al. (1993) also found that commentary is ‘gender marked’; women’s sports is marked as women’s sports, whereas men’s sports is just marked as sports and these differences are still in play (Fu et al., 2016). Television commentary still contributes to the construction of gender hierarchies by way of gender marking and infantilizing women athletes and by framing the accomplishments of women athletes ambivalent (Messner et al., 1993). Outstanding performances of female athletes are dismissed through commentary such as “abnormal or deviant” (Duncan and Messner 1998, p.183-184). ESports also provides commentary at tournaments and matches, this is streamed through the Internet and is therefore publicly available.

This short section provides insight in stereotyping as cause of gender inequality in both subjects. The usage of literature on video game playing and traditional sports shows that stereotypes are highly prevalent in both subjects. Research has not specifically looked at the competitive level of eSports and its gender stereotyping herein, further research must be done to establish the relation between gender inequality and eSports.

2.3. Sexism as cause of gender inequality

Fox & Tang (2014) found that video game respondents who endorsed masculine norms were more likely to report a sexist attitude towards women’s participation in video games. Their findings also support the notion that social dominance is to be associated with sexist attitudes. “Given that masculine behaviour is typically rewarded in video games, this may provide men with the opportunity to express social dominance in the virtual world in a way they cannot in the physical world” (Fox & Tang, 2014, p.3). Within eSports, this dominance can be expressed through both the virtual as the physical world. Virtual dominance can be shown through the fighting in the video game, yet physical dominance can be performed by different means. Sexism can be defined through hostile and

benevolent sexism (Glick & Fiske, 1997). Hostile sexism is the reinforcing of behaviours that capitalizes on derogatory characteristics of women, exploiting women as sexual objects (Summers & Miller, 2014). On the other hand, there is benevolent sexism, which commend more on the

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paternalistic and protective behaviours and attitudes toward women (Glick & Fiske, 1997). Studies (Sibley & Wilson, 2004) revealed that benevolent sexism is showed more towards women who show positive communal traits and hostile sexism when employing more masculine traits, consistent with the traits described by Ridgeway (2011).

Lilian “Milktea” Chen wrote an article about her experiences in the American Smash community and how sexism is expressed within this community. “Female gamers are only doing it for attention.” or “You get attention, they think you’re really hot and they are super nice to you. This is female privilege.” Female gamers are experienced as attention seekers, while this does not happen with male gamers. This perspective is based on sexism. Hoeber (2007) showed that even when men do wish to address sexism in sport, they often look to “help women” within the existing system, rather than challenge the fundamental masculine values that underpin the institution.

Even though eSports is the combination of video games and traditional sport, they are significantly different from eSports in multiple facets. ESports differs from video gaming as in that it is mostly practiced in a physical space; tournaments and matches are predominantly performed on venues. This physical and social space is absent from online video gaming, thus having a completely different social level in which interaction takes place. Traditional sport experiences the segregating of genders in most sports. As mentioned in paragraph 2.1, eSports is not segregated as both genders can partake in competitions, the bodily component is not of influence in gameplay (Ratan et al., 2015). This literature overview provides a small start on the exploration of gender inequality in eSports. To fully understand gender inequality in eSports, it must be researched in its own right with the usage of qualitative methods.

2.4. Operationalization of key research concepts

Using the literature and research described in the previous paragraphs, the main concepts will be operationalized in the form of a survey and observational guide. The research methods used in this thesis will be further elaborated upon in the next chapter. Main concepts of the research will entail; gender inequality, stereotypes, masculinity and sexism. These concepts are shown through the behaviours and attitudes of eSporters, mostly in the physical and social space of tournaments and venues. These concepts will be operationalized through survey questions and coding schemes based on literature. Survey questions will start with being open-ended and general such as; “What video games do you play most” or “Why do you play video games?”. Eventually more specific questions will be asked like; “How do you like playing video games with females/males?” and “how do you like playing eSports on venues?” The usage of the open-ended questions is to allow a view in the ways which respondents view the social world of eSports. For example, masculinity can be operationalized by asking an eSporters attitude toward the male dominated scene (tournament

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and/or why this is a good or bad thing (Anderson, 2009). Stereotypes in eSports may be more difficult to ask about, however Ridgeway (2011) described masculine and feminine traits which are desirable by both genders. Deviations from such behavioural traits are frowned upon and are sometimes punished (Diekman & Eagly, 2008). The prescriptive aspects of gender stereotypes are found to be desirable and therefore embody and enforce gender inequality (Ridgeway, 2011). 


Questions about how playing with female or males differs and if this affects behaviour and attitudes can be used for determining gendered stereotypes. This can also be used in the questioning about sexism. How benevolent or hostile sexism may have influence on gender inequality in eSports, may be questioned through behaviour towards different genders. Behaviour towards different genders may not necessarily be found in answers of respondents, which is why observation may find unconscious behaviour supporting sexism in the Smash Bros. scene. Sexism will be operationalized as benevolent and hostile sexism. Hostile sexism is the reinforcing of behaviours that capitalizes on derogatory characteristics of women. Additionally, hostile sexism also views women as power seeking and using their sexuality to gain advantage within a specific situation or environment (Summers & Miller, 2014). This can be researched through the attitudes that male eSporters have towards female

eSporters, e.g., they may plainly don’t like it just because females are intruding on male terrain. This also includes the excluding of female participation in tournaments and venues, just because they are female. On the other hand, there is benevolent sexism, praising the paternalistic and protective behaviours and attitudes toward women (Glick & Fiske, 1997). Studies (Sibley & Wilson, 2004) revealed that benevolent sexism is showed more towards women who show positive communal traits and hostile sexism when employing more masculine traits, consistent with the traits described by Ridgeway (2011). Benevolent sexism can be shown in behaviour of males towards females on the venues as in gameplay. Questions about playing differently against females than males can be

answered in line with the chivalrous ideology benevolent sexism entails, e.g., playing less seriously or “letting them win”. Protective and unwanted chivalrous behaviour where it isn’t needed may be observed and questioned.


The main concepts can also be operationalized in observational behaviours and attitudes. Gender differences in behaviour have been researched, e.g., touching behaviour is linked with dominance (Dibiase & Gunnoe, 2004) and as a way to express emotions (Kneidinger et al., 2001). Researchers also agree that differences are socially constructed by stereotypical ideas of masculinity and femininity (Tyson 2006). It has also been researched that sexist behaviour is practiced through physical means, such as unwanted touching (Rowell, 1974). Emotional expressions are more accepted for females to show, however when males do this, they can be regarded as “girly” (Tyson, 2006). This can also be said about smiling and the making of eye contact. Females are found to be more

emotionally expressive and empathetic to the emotional states of others than males (Eagly & Wood, 1991), however, in a competitive setting it is found that males had greater expressive reactions than females (Friedman & Miller-Herringer, 1991). This finding was explained as evidence that males are

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more comfortable than females in a competitive setting. Eagly and Wood (1991) stated that audiences are likely to increase the magnitude of existing sex differences because the actors may attempt to conform with social norms the audience is believed to uphold. When interacting with each other about an arm’s length is acceptable, yet this space can be less if the interaction is with a woman (Anderson, 2009). Kneidinger’s (2001) research showed that non-verbal behaviours are linked to emotions, with touching behaviour being a type of non-verbal communication, and that females should express more emotional responses than males in public settings and perform more same-gender touching behaviour. However, the outcome of an event may have influence on the expression of touching behaviour. Postures of men and women are also different, as males have been researched to assume a more relaxed, open and powerful posture (Henley, 1977). Men are more likely to be involved in attempts to establish dominance, e.g., through touching behaviour and showing traditional masculine emotions (Kneidinger, 2001). Women on the other hand, prefer to minimize status and establish affiliative relationships (Deaux & Farris, 1977). Such behavioral differences are consistent with gender-role stereotypes of depicting men as dominant, active and competitive, and women as quiet, nurturant and aware of the feelings of others (Anderson, 2009; Henley, 1977, Deaux & Farris, 1977). The usage of Kneidinger’s (2001) bodily components in interaction will be used as a guideline in the observational guide to account for unconscious and non-verbal behaviour. 


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3. Methods and data collection

3.1. Research design

ESports is a relatively new scientific field, consequently, available research is limited. Most research considering Sports comes from either extensions of research on video games or is fully quantitative in nature. This research does give some form of perspective on the subject, as it is known that eSports experiences gender inequality and is highly masculine. There are reports of sexism within eSports scenes. However, these have not yet been scientifically investigated, but are worth exploring. This knowledge is an important stepping stone to unravelling some of the meanings and causes of gender inequality in eSports. An inductive method, grounded theory, is utilized to analyze this social phenomenon. Grounded theory provides the framework of understanding social processes through the gathering of data and literary work during the research process (Charmaz, 2006). Grounded theory is generated through the use of induction. In order to generate a useful theory, it must be derived from data which explains the studied subject (Ong, 2012). Strauss & Corbin (1998) describe grounded theory as a process in which data collection, analysis and theory stand in close relationship to one another. Charmaz (2006) states that preliminary research on theory and literature should be reviewed for the further extend of knowledge and clarifying of ideas, which will be used to inform the reader on recent developments on eSports and its communities. Furthermore, as discussed above, eSports is an unexplored field, which justifies the employment of grounded theory in the analyzing of unexplored research. The unit of analysis are the respondents in the Smash Bros. eSports scene, mostly male and female eSporters and in lower quantities, commentators, which are also a source of information. The researcher attempted to avoid sampling bias through the purposive sampling of the population (Mook, 2001). Through the usage of purposive sampling (also known as selective or subjective sampling), a type of non-probability sampling technique (Mook, 2001), the researcher randomly selected female and male members within the population in order to retrieve the needed information. In order to answer the research question of this Master thesis; How does gender inequality develop in the Smash

Bros. eSports scene and how is this maintained?, a qualitative approach was chosen. The three

techniques used consist of; surveys, observations and content analysis. The combined methods of survey and observation has certain advantages; answers on surveys can provide insight in the behaviour of eSporters which have not yet been predicted/thought of and may additionally be more thoroughly observed, and through observation one might find behaviours which may be questioned in later surveys (Mook, 2001). In the next paragraphs the techniques will be explained as well as their usage in this research.

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3.2. Surveys

The first and most important method used in the subject of gender inequality in the eSports scene is the usage of surveys. The researcher wanted to originally use semi-structured interviews to explore the subject, however, the use of interviews proved to be difficult to accomplish. To elaborate on the difficulty, the players were mostly preoccupied with competitive gaming during tournaments and they would rather answer some questions in their own time and convenience. After much consideration, the interviews were replaced by online social surveys. Surveys are normally identified as a quantitative method, but because the survey questions were almost all completely open-ended, it is treated like a qualitative method in this thesis. One of the advantages, certainly in this case, is when interviewees and respondents are online at home, they are essentially being provided with an

“anonymous, safe and non-threatening environment” (O’Connor and Madge, 2001: p.11), which may be especially helpful to vulnerable grups. However, spontaneity in the response is certainly lessened. Interviewees can reflect on their answers to a much greater extent in comparison to a face-to-face situation. In this situation this can be considered an advantage, as replies of respondents are probably to be more contemplated upon (Adriaenssens and Cadma, 1999). Surveys are limited in the amount of answers one can get, as semi-structured interviews provide follow-up questions based on answers the interviewee provides. This is not possible in the online survey. Thus, in order to achieve as much of a qualitative response on the matter, questions provided were very open-ended and broad, with more specific questions being asked in a latter part of the survey. These open questions were used to provoke lengthy answers with meaningful content. “When people tell stories, they select details of their experience from their stream of consciousness…It is this process of selecting constitutive details of experience, reflecting on them, giving them order, and thereby making sense of them that makes telling stories a meaning-making experience” (Seidman, 2006, p. 7). Through this process and reflecting respondents came to an answer, the survey was meant to be thought provoking. Through the survey the researcher got access to the context of people’s behaviour and their experiences with others, in which the context would be the eSports scene. The employment of the survey covered a list of questions and specific topics which the researcher wanted to be answered.

Development of the survey questions came during the observational phase, as the data gathered from the observation gained further insights in gender inequality and behaviour. This influenced the making of some questions not thought of earlier. The questions were divided into multiple blocks (only known by the researcher), namely; an introduction section, personal choice on Smash Bros, behaviour in eSports, gender in eSports and language use in the eSports community. All 62 questions were focussed on the specific eSports community of Smash Bros. Respondents were invited to think about why certain questions were asked and how they felt about certain answers and behaviours. The full survey can be found in appendix A. After completing survey question

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its easy use, its ability to make reports and use coding on the data and the subsequent possibility to export data unto other software. By observing and participating in tournaments, the researcher had gained access to multiple online groups and chats where the survey could be easily distributed. The respondents received a message in which the subject of the survey was loosely explained and informed that the survey would take around 45 to 60 minutes to complete. Furthermore, the respondents were informed that the given answers would be anonymized and treated confidentially. As the response rate of surveys are known to get lower depending on the amount of time it takes to complete (Bryman, 2012), a monetary incentive was provided in the form of a chance to win a Steam gift card to increase the response rate of the online social survey. The evidence suggests that the “small amounts of incentive have a positive impact on the response rate” (Bryman, 2012: p.236). The Steam gift card was anonymously provided to the randomized winner after the accumulation of enough data. A significant amount of responses was accumulated from the online survey (N=68), whereof 33 surveys were partially completed and 35 surveys fully completed. These partial and full respondents’ responses were textually analyzed to obtain significant results (Charmaz, 2006). As a final question in the survey, respondents were asked to describe if anything was missing or faulty in the survey. These answers also gave further insight in the subject of gender inequality within eSports.

3.3. Observation

3.3.1. Observation on behaviour

The second method consists of observations on eSporters in tournaments of the video game; Smash Bros. The use of observations provides insight into the unconscious and non-verbal behaviours of people, rather than conscious ones in the use of interviews and surveys. A benefit from being part of the field is the conducting of participant observations during games and tournaments. This gives the opportunity to get a closer look on the socialization and communication in between and during matches. As participants do not tell the researcher all the things they might want to know, observation gives information about the very things which might not be reported in an interview or survey (Becker & Geer, 1957). Subjects that respondents are unwilling to speak openly about may be observed through the behaviour shown by respondents (Becker & Geer, 1957). Subjects such as dynamic change through different gender presence in eSports or gender stereotyping can be difficult to answer. However, e.g., through the agency and communal traits described by Ridgeway (2011) differences in behaviour can be observed when mixed-gender situations occur. As eSports is male-dominated and performed in masculine social context it can be expected that the agency traits described by Ridgeway (2011) will be overly expressed by male eSporters towards female eSporters, whereas female eSporters would express more communal traits. Kneidinger’s (2001) research revealed that non-verbal behaviours are linked to emotions, with touching behaviour being a type of non-verbal communication, and that females should express more emotional responses and perform

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more same-gender touching behaviour compared to males in public settings. Taking such subjects and literature concerning gendered (non-)verbal communication, traits and physical contact into

consideration, a observational guide was developed. The guide devised for this research can be found in appendix B. Before starting observations, the researcher found and enrolled for a couple of Smash Bros. tournaments. These tournaments were held mostly in the bigger cities of the Netherlands. Because the availability of tournaments was limited during the research phase only three tournaments were attended to by the researcher. Furthermore, the attendance of female competitive players in the Netherlands was scarce, e.g., during one tournament there were no female players present. To compensate for this, observations were made through the live-streaming website Twitch and video-sharing website YouTube. ESport tournaments in the Western context (America and Europe) are often live-streamed on Twitch, where matches are available for many to see in a live setting. These

“streams” can also be rewatched whenever possible. Furthermore, YouTube is a video-sharing website where many Smash matches are shared and also publicly available. Through face-cams the researcher could easily observe behaviour of players during and after matches as one would when physically present. However, because observations were made in an Western context, as opposed to only the Netherlands, the results will be less specific from an observational standpoint. Cultural differences can be of influence on observational results and should be taken into account in the conclusion.

Observations began when arriving on the tournament grounds. Participants of tournaments greatly varied in size, from ten players at a small tournament as to over 50 players at a big

tournament. At every tournament attended by the researcher, there was a live-stream (sometimes multiple) available to record matches between players. The researcher wrote and noted down all observations regarding (non-)verbal communication and body language. As the researcher also participated in the tournaments, some observations were not immediately written down, but the most relevant data was remembered as well as possible to be described at a later time. Although this meant that not every relevant comment was noted and analyzed. Over 50 matches comprised of maximum five sets per match were observed when attending tournaments and watching online through YouTube or Twitch, with one match having an average length of ten to twenty minutes. Length of matches were mostly determined by skill and ranking in the tournament bracket, e.g., the semi-finals took longer as these take more sets to complete. Many matches were recorded and live-streamed on Twitch. As Twitch is publicly available, matches could be played back for further observation of behaviour relevant to the research. The observation guide had been used as a guideline to write relevant data during observations.. Firstly, the usage of body language during matches was observed toward opponents and toward the game itself. This included, but was not limited to; traditional feminine/ masculine emotions, the physical use of space, postures, behaviour and facial expressions. It is certainly possible that not all relevant behaviour was recorded. With the observational guide as guideline, tunnel vision may have caused relevant data to be lost. However, the researcher attempted to be as complete as possible as to also note behaviour not formulated in the guideline, but still

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relevant or interesting to the research. Particularly behaviour before and after matches shown by players were interesting, as the loss or win evoked certain emotions in players, which resulted in different kinds of behaviour. Secondly, verbal communication between players was also observed. As described by the observation guide, words and sentences indicating tips, compliments, critiques, comments about gaming performance, patronizing terms and other such forms of communication have been recorded when the researcher had the chance. During the (participant) observation specific attention was given on the manner of speaking (traditionally feminine or masculine) as to the spoken words (positive, negative, etc.).

3.3.2. Observation on commentary

In addition to the traditional participant observation, an extension of the observational method is used in order to examine the Smash Bros. tournaments commentary, which provides significant information in the language used by important figures of the Smash Bros. community. Commentary during tournaments are streamed on Twitch. “Understanding language categories has been an important component of research involving observation, because knowing how words are used and the meanings of specific terms in the local vernacular is frequently viewed as crucial to an appreciation of how the social world being studied is viewed by its members” (Bryman, 2012, p.312). The manners of speech in certain eSports communities can have an influence on gender inequality and might explain the current existence of gender inequality in said eSports communities. Since

commentating of eSports has recently become more professional, more attention is paid to the use of language. Words such as "rape" were commonly known and used in these video game

communities.However, the usage of such jargon is not appreciated by everyone, yet it is apparent in the commentating of eSports. For observation, the observational guide on verbal communication was applied in the detection of multiple aspects regarding gender inequality in commentating. Among these were the usage of patronizing terms, gender marking, infantilization and swearing.

As commentating of Smash Bros. is mainly used to describe certain events during matches while being live-streamed, e.g., on Twitch, observations could be made while watching online matches taking place. This gave more freedom to the researcher, as commentating is mostly audio based and could primarily be listened, in order to retrieve the required data. Data comprising

commentary based observations acquired from YouTube and Twitch. Over 45 matches were observed through the streaming platforms, YouTube and Twitch. As for the participant observation, the researcher wrote down any possible relevant verbal observations, as directed by the observation guide. When unable to write down an observation instantly, the relevant data was remembered to be described at a later time, which was as quick as possible. Some data was inevitably lost during this process, as the researcher couldn’t remember or write down all relevant data. Additional loss of data can be attributed to unclear or inaudible commentary and the inability of discerning whether some comments were sarcastic.

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3.4. Content analysis

The final method conducted in this research was content analysis. Through the constant revisiting of survey data (Charmaz, 2000), during and after the analysis of data, it was observed that the online environment had a profound impact on gender inequality in Smash Bros. This further warranted the analysis of language use in regard to gender during live-streaming of Smash Bros. tournaments and in videos of posted matches on the Internet. After some consideration the decision was made to include a content analysis of certain media websites. These websites are YouTube and Twitch, as they are the biggest media sources involved with the Smash Bros. community, if not the entire eSports world. Currently, YouTube is the largest video-sharing website on the Internet. Many videos, including eSports, are shared through this website and are publicly available. People can, anonymously if they so choose, leave behind unfiltered comments underneath these videos. Subsequently, other people can react to these comments, making it possible to create a chain of comments where people react to each other. On the other hand there is Twitch, which is a live-streaming website. ESport tournaments are often live-streamed on this website, where matches are available for many people to see in a live setting. These “streams” can also be rewatched whenever possible. Furthermore, people who watch the live-stream also have the possibility to comment, much like a live-chat. This can be related to an audience at a football match, however, in this every individual has a chance to leave a comment anonymously and is publicly available. Comments can also be seen when rewatching a stream, and it is possible to turn these off if one so chooses.

Content analysis used in this online setting is considered to be a qualitative content analysis (Bryman, 2012), as the focus of the research method was on the comments and reactions that were made on these videos. Special attention was paid to how, when and what was written down, as the content of the comments were of importance. One disadvantage of content analysis is the question: “Why?” (Bryman, 2012). Why certain comments and reactions were made is difficult to understand as one can’t ask the people responsible. However, one can speculate answers through data found in the survey results. In this case, data found in the content analysis supported the data that was obtained with surveys and observations. Videos were analyzed, dating from 2015 to present time, as to acquire the most up-to-date data possible. Comments on 40 videos of matches were gathered for analysis..

3.5. Research respondents and data analysis

The online survey had 68 respondents, of which 33 surveys were partially completed and 35 surveys were fully completed. Surveys that were partially completed varied from almost fully completed to half completed. This data was included in the survey results as significant answers were provided in addition to the partially completed surveys. Of the 68 respondents, eight identified with

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the female gender and 60 with the male gender. The female respondents that fully completed the survey numbered seven, having a large completion rate (88%) in comparison to the male participants. Of the remaining 60 male respondents, 28 respondents fully completed and 32 respondents partially completed the survey. The respondents aged from fifteen to 29 years old, with an average age of 22. All respondents lived somewhere in the Netherlands and had experience playing competitive Smash Bros.

Furthermore, observations were made at three tournaments in the Netherlands by physical presence. Observations through online methods included tournaments in America and Europe. The decision to include observations from other Western countries was made to involve more female-versus-male matches. Although cultural differences can have its influence on observational data, behaviour in the Smash community is shown to be relatively homogenous in a Western context. Observational results included over 50 instances/situations of non-verbal and verbal behaviour, collected during and after matches by eSporters, with a preference for female-versus-male scenarios. Most observational results included 30 female-versus-male situations, ten male-versus-male and ten female-versus-female situations. These results were also subdivided into smaller local (weeklies/bi-weeklies) and larger national/international (bi-monthly/yearly) tournaments in order to find

differences within these settings. The same structure was used in the observational methods regarding commentary and language, where 45 observations were made. Priority was given to female-versus-male situations, but did not exclude the other types of situations as to look at similarities and differences.

Finally, the comments and reactions on 40 videos of matches were analyzed for the qualitative content analysis. The researcher has given female-versus-male matches priority over the other matches. Through YouTube videos and Twitch VODs (video on demand) the comments were found, gathered and later analyzed. This was performed after the results of the observational data and surveys were obtained. Because of this, any data resulting from the content analysis could not be questioned by participants at a later date.

After assembling the results these were put into Atlas.ti. With the usage of ‘quotes’ in Atlas.ti, passages with a certain level of similarity were selected. After quoting, coding was used. “A code in qualitative inquiry is most often a word or short phrase that symbolically assigns a

summative, salient, essence-capturing, and/or evocative attribute for a portion of language-based or visual data. (Saldana, 2013, p.3)”. Certain passages, words and phrases which proved interesting to the research subject were selected. The coding of these passages was an multistage process beginning with the development of a code structure based on variables defined through the data. Codes and subcodes were generated and added through the open coding process (Miles and Huberman 1994). Timmermans & Tavory (2012) describe the revisiting process as an important concept in uncovering significant information. This process was employed many times, as the revisiting of data was used to find new answers. This is related to the grounded theory method described by Charmaz (2006). As the

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constant revisiting of data with different perspectives can lead to further data being collected and the emerging of new questions and answers (Charmaz, 2006). With coding the use of memo writing was also employed. “The purpose of analytic memo writing is to document and reflect on your coding process and code choices; how the process of inquiry is taking shape: and the patterns, categories and subcategories, themes, and concepts in your data” (Saldana, 2009, p.33). Memo writing was used to reflect and question the recurring patterns found in the collected data. After compiling enough data and analyzing this through Qualtrics and Atlas.ti, the results were documented..

3.6. Quality assurance and ethics

To ensure the quality of this qualitative research thesis, Tracy’s (2010) Eight “Big-tent” Criteria for Excellent Qualitative Research were applied. Tracy (2010) describes eight markers of quality in qualitative research which include; “(a) worthy topic, (b) rich rigor, (c) sincerity, (d) credibility, (e) resonance, (f) significant contribution, (g)ethics, and (h) meaningful coherence” (Tracy, 2010; p.837). This thesis wishes to provide good quality in its qualitative research and shall therefore shortly describe how these eight criteria are performed. ESports and gender equality can both be deemed a worthy topic, as the relevance of both have never been greater. Competitive gaming is obtaining an increase in media attention and has accumulated more participants than ever.

Furthermore, the topic of gender equality is much discussed in present times. Publicly gender is used more increasingly as opposed to sex, where gender is socially constructed and sex defined as

biological differences. This is a difficult topic for some people and therefore interesting to explore in a relatively new field; eSports.

In addition to documenting a worthy topic, this research hopes to show rich rigor in its theoretical constructs, samples and data collection, and it process of analysis. The theories used in this thesis are on forms of gender inequality seen most prominently in video gaming and traditional sports, which are used in the making of a baseline for survey and observational methods concerning gender inequality. Data samples were collected through different means; surveys, observations and content analysis. Even though the amount of data is not completely relevant to the richness of the data, the researcher opted to have at least 30 fully completed surveys, observed a minimum of 40 matches, and analyzed comments and reactions of at least 40 matches in order to acquire an adequate amount of data for analysis. The data collection for surveys was not entirely pure, as surveys are mostly regarded a quantitative research method, yet these were used as qualitative means to enquire information from participants. Limitations of this were described in paragraph 5.2. This meant that follow-up questions were not possible, as it would be with semi-structured interviews. To balance this out, the researcher used many open questions to get as much information as possible from respondents.

Sincerity would be considered through methods of transparency.The researcher registered himself for the participating in tournaments and came in contact with other players. These invited the

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researcher into an online group with many other competitive Smash players, where the survey could be distributed among the players. As to show self-reflexiveness the survey also asked for the opinion and feedback from participants about the questions in the survey. As many did not have feedback, some feedback included negativity in the questions and possible suggestivity. This feedback is taken into account and the results are to be as objective as possible. However, the questions could not be changed after deployment of the survey, so answers could be influenced by the form of the question.

The credibility of this thesis is implemented through showing data in its raw form and to show detail to the readers. Many answers of the survey and some forms of observational data were included to paint the situation in the mind of the reader. Terms used in the community have also been described to include readers in the jargon of eSports and Smash Bros. Observations are sometimes also used to describe facial expressions and physical reactions rather than verbal behaviour. The form of crystallization notes that researchers “...gather multiple types of data and employ various methods, multiple researchers, and numerous theoretical frameworks. However, it assumes that the goal of doing so is not to provide researchers with a more valid singular truth, but to open up a more

complex, in-depth, but still thoroughly partial, understanding of the issue” (Tracy, 2010; p. 843). This is done by way of using multiple theoretical concepts and methods to encompass gender inequality.

Resonance within this thesis was harder to achieve, as to fully immerse the reader in the community is very difficult to manage on paper. Situations described by respondents and situations observed through online and offline measures were shown as complete as possible to reverberate with the reader. But as gender inequality is an issue much debated, it can be generalized within cases.

As this is a research not much discussed within the scholarly community, it tries to give a significant contribution in the theoretical and practical sense as well as to try and develop the curiosity of the reader. The describing of issues on gender inequality may motivate other researchers to explore the field of competitive gaming. Furthermore, this research wants to provide an insight on problems occuring within the Smash community and to try and show new perspectives on the matter at hand.

Ethical issues also arise in the doing of research through methods like survey use and observations. For example, gender issues and feminism can be a sensitive subject, especially when one of the genders is considered a minority. Women who are discriminated against during a video game, may experience anger, frustration, and be stressed out. Stress can be considered harm to respondents, which is a complete no-go (Bryman, 2012). As such, the researcher will give

respondents the freedom to discontinue the survey if any questions regarding gender inequality was too distressing. Question answers could also be deleted or changed whenever this felt necessary to the respondent. Respondents were fully free to participate or not participate in the survey, as were they free to delete any answers deemed unnecessary. Participants were informed as to the subject of the thesis and that results would be used in the writing of this dissertation. To give participants the freedom to answer anything they want, the survey was completely devoid of any personal

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practicable on the freely given informed consent of subjects” (Bryman, 2012, p. 138). This is a hard issue to deal with as the informing of the population may present different behaviour in subjects. To ensure no differences in behaviour during participant observations the competitive players themselves were not informed of the observation. However, observations were completely anonymous and confidential. No personal information was written down as this was not relevant to the research itself. Furthermore, most observations were done through the usage of online methods, as this is publicly available and easier to manage.

Finally, this thesis aims to provide meaningful coherence in the following manner; “(a) achieve their stated purpose; (b) accomplish what they espouse to be about; (c) use methods and representation practices that partner well with espoused theories and paradigms; and (d) attentively interconnect literature reviewed with research foci, methods, and findings” (Tracy, 2010, p. 848).

The following chapters will present the results gathered from the methods used in this research. The data analyzed from respondents’ answers and observations in this chapter are structured according to the research sub-questions presented in this thesis. As such, the results will be divided in the following subjects: Firstly, the experience of social atmosphere and behaviour of the Smash Bros. scene in general. Secondly, the behaviours, attitudes and ideas of eSporters on gender inequality and its influence on the Smash Bros. scene. And finally, the performance of commentary in the Smash Bros. scene and its influence on gender inequality. Because one of the main concepts of this thesis is gender inequality, special interest is shown to answers given by female respondents, however, answers derived from male respondents are not unimportant and give significant data towards answering main research question in this thesis. These chapters will be divided in smaller chapters accordingly to provide a logical and easier navigation of the results.

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