Who are the casual gamers? Gender tropes and tokenism in game culture

Abstract

This chapter explores the casual game audience using a national, simple random sample (n=2611). Casual gaming is investigated in detail through principal component analysis and measures of correlation. Results show that social network games, casual puzzles, point-n-click, party, and racing/sports games cluster together, thereby constituting the casual category. Further analysis show how most casual and traditional games (e.g. chess and card games) are equally engaged in by men and women, contrary to dominating ideologies designating women as casuals and men as hardcore. Several age differences are also identified. Using a framework of token theory, the study concludes that current struggles in gaming culture can be understood as structural struggles, where the designations casual=feminine and hardcore= masculine safeguards core gaming culture from change. Through historical analogy the study hypothesises that struggle over gaming culture will only be over when women become part of game development.