Leisure Studies ISSN 0261-4367 print/ISSN 1466-4496 online © 2003 Taylor & Francis Ltd
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
DOI: 10.1080/0261436032000048966
Leisure Studies 22 (2003) 1–15
Gender dynamics and the social and spatial
organization of computer gaming
JO BRYCE1 and JASON RUTTER2
1Department of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE, UK and 2ESRC
Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition (CRIC), University of Manchester, Oxford
Road, Manchester M13 9QH, UK
The increasing popularity of computer gaming and its associated technologies are evidence
of the increasing convergence of new technology and leisure practice. The size and
popularity of the games industry stands out in contrast to the relative lack of understanding
of computer gaming as a serious leisure activity. Previous research on computer gaming has
tended to focus on the negative aspects of gaming such as aggression, addiction, and social
isolation, rather than viewing it as an activity which forms an important part of many
peoples’ leisure lifestyles. This paper examines the relationship between gender and the
social and spatial organization of computer gaming. The concept of leisure constraints and
resistance are utilised to examine the extent to which technologically-mediated leisure
activities, such as computer gaming, are part of wider changes in female access to private
and public leisure spaces. Computer gaming is still perceived as a highly gendered activity
which has the potential to reinforce traditional conceptualizations of masculinity,
femininity and associated leisure activities. However, the popularity of domestic and online
gaming among females, and the development of female gaming clans, highlights that leisure
activities and spaces are becoming less gendered, and can provide sites for resistance to
societal notions of the gender appropriateness of leisure activities.
Introduction
Computer games1 have been part of domestic leisure for over 25 years. The black
and white block graphics of the tennis game Pong first made their way onto
peoples’ television sets in the mid-1970s, and since then the popularity of these
games has created an industry worth over $6 billion in the USA alone last year
(IDSA, 2001). Gaming technologies have evolved from a virtual square ball being
bounced between two virtual rectangular bats, to near photorealistic images
based on the real life movements and physics of humans and objects. However,
the academic understanding of this leisure activity has, until recently, remained
relatively limited. While there is a developing body of computer gaming literature,
there is still a tendency to place games and gaming within discourses associated
with the media effects debate. Within these discourses games are predominately
understood as technological stimuli that produce measurable, and largely
negative, effects in the people exposed to them. Investigations that attempt to
place gaming within a broader social context are still very much in their infancy.
This paper is an attempt to contribute to this emerging body of work by distilling
previous and current research and repositioning gaming within its social and
spatial context to investigate the gender dynamics of this leisure activity.

2 J. Bryce and J. Rutter
The first section of this paper provides a context to contemporary computer
gaming by offering a brief overview of the popularity of the activity and
profitability of the industry. This demonstrates that the prevalence of computer
gaming and the constitution of gaming communities (real, virtual and imagined)
have often been radically underestimated in the academic literature. This section
also provides a summary of the major concerns raised over the consequences of
computer gaming, and the theoretical and methodological limitations of
associated research. However, the major focus of the paper is the examination
of the gendered aspects of computer gaming in relation to its social and spatial
organisation. We argue that there is evidence of the reproduction of the
gendering of specific skills, abilities and activities through computer gaming,
consistent with the reinforcement and reproduction of societal gender roles.
However, theoretical developments in feminist leisure theory and increased
female participation in this activity suggest a more complex view of gender and
gaming which incorporates possibilities for resistance to traditional con-
ceptualisations of masculinity and femininity, as well as their reinforcement. The
paper demonstrates that the gendering of computer gaming has often been
oversimplified, ignoring the range of game genres and gaming spaces, and the
complexity of the leisure activity in relation to broader societal gender
dynamics.
Computer gaming as a contemporary leisure activity
Computer gaming has been transformed into a popular form of mass enter-
tainment through developments in the multiplicity of the platforms and gaming
genres available, changing social contexts of play, and the expanded functionality
of gaming consoles. Computer games are now not only played on the family
television but on portable hand-held gaming devices, mobile phones, personal
computers and digital watches. Games include the highly publicized ‘shoot-em-
up’ games such as Doom, Quake and Unreal, but also strategy games,
increasingly sophisticated simulation games, role playing games, sports games and
(increasingly more common outside Japan) dancing games.
The actual size of the computer gaming market and its influence on routine
leisure is often underestimated. Industry figures suggest that almost three quarters
of people under 30 have played a computer game, and that the leisure software
industry is worth approximately $3.5 billion in the UK (Screen Digest/ELSPA,
2000). The size of this market can be usefully illustrated by comparing it to that
for e-commerce. While business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce has recently been
the focus of much media, academic and consultancy attention, the market is still
worth considerably less than that for gaming, especially when considering that
about 40% of all B2C e-commerce in the UK is purchase of computing hardware
and software (McMeekin et al., 1999).
These figures also call into question the prevalent stereotype of the solitary,
adolescent, male gamer, and this is demonstrated by available figures on gamer
demographics. For example, recent USA figures from the Interactive Digital
Software Association (IDSA) suggest that 42% of computer gamers are over 35
(IDSA, 2001).