“Behind Every Great Gamer…”

Performing Heteronormativity in League of Legends

Jameson Hogan, NCSU

Why don’t more women play

League of Legends?

E.S.A. Statistics

(2013)

Riot Games Infographic

(2013)

Player Survey Data

(2010)

Male: 55%

Female: 45%

Male: 92%

Female: 8%

Male: 93.6%

Female: 4.1%

Declined: 2.3%

Thesis

We see here the Gendering of a gaming

community along the most limiting and

conservative of labor divisions:

– Males DO

– Females SUPPORT

Scholarship

• Stereotype Threat Theory

– Steele & Aronson (1995)

• Subordinate Roles of Females in Games

– Taylor, Jenson, & de Castell (2009)

• Gendering of gaming spaces / leisure time

– Bryce & Rutter (2003), Carr (2005)

‘Learning to LoL’

• Seventeen participants

• Intro/Exit Interviews

• Screen-Recorded Matches

• ‘Spectator Mode’ Recorded

• A/V of Players Recorded

• Collaborative Field Notes

• Review Match with Players

• Collect player resources

• Record player stats

Ethnographic study of how players learn, and improve at, the game.

Welcome to Summoner’s Rift

118 ‘Champions’

LoL10 | Female, 21

• Self-identified gamer

• Plays with boyfriend & other

friends

• Would continue playing if friends

all stopped

• Likes the “variability” of the

game

• Dislikes frustration when “your

teammates aren't very happy

with you or something.”

(Toxicity)“I first started playing because I saw my

boyfriend playing, and I thought he was

doing really bad”

Competency Markers

• Level 30 (game maximum)

• Zero kills, 4 Deaths, 6 Tower Assists

• Use of in-game terminology

• Numerous “Rune” and “Mastery” sets

• Customized key bindings, video settings, etc

• Predicting enemy lane selections

• Near-constant clicking of mouse button

• Drawing team attention to DC’d enemy

Gendered(?) Distinctions

• Dodging questions that emphasize her skill

• Nervous laughter when self-describing

• Highly vocal during matches

• Reticence to use chat, reliance on ‘pings’

• Internalizes response to community hostility

• Working to “break out” of the support role

Conclusions

• Female players are demonstrably as

capable of mastering League of Legends

as male players.

• Even skilled female players tend to be

relegated (or self-select) to supporting roles

• “Toxic” community remains hypermasculine

and sexist, discouraging female success

• “Geek Masculinity” creates a negative

experience for all, but the preponderance of

this negativity falls on women.