New research from Nottingham Trent University claims that 68% of women who play online games choose male characters, while more than half of men adopt a female avatar. The findings come from a study of more than 100 players of MMOs like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy.
The reasons for this virtual gender-swapping differ, though. Women apparently choose male avatars to avoid unwanted attention from men, while men either play as women in order to flirt with other characters, or to avoid… unwanted attention from men. Although of the aggressive kind, not flirting.
Other findings from the research were that one in five players of these games find it easier to socialise via online gaming than the real world (note, this is the negative way of presenting the results - the alternative would be to say that four out of five MMOers don’t have a problem socialising in the real world!). Meanwhile, two out of five respondees use online gaming to escape personal problems.
“The games are often seen as a means of escape and a coping strategy which gamers use to distract themselves from having to deal with other problems,” says co-writer Zaheer Hussain. The report’s called ‘Gender Swapping and Socialising in Cyberspace, and it’s being published in the American journal CyberPsychology and Behavior.
(via PA)
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