The gender-offensive: Female gaming cultures between shooters and marketing

Abstract

The game industry is supporting or sometimes even “installing” them; the academic discourse is constantly overlooking them so far: female clans and web portals. Three different examples of current female gaming cultures with their preference of shooters, questions about their basic structures, visual representations, and relation toward the game industry are presented. This short glimpse into the lively female gaming universe explicitly goes beyond concepts of the “average” player and shows that “female gamer” seems to have become a brand for gender offensiveness and marketing conformity at the same time. But this brand can be played with - in different (gender) forms and with different (professional) aims….