Speaker
Description
Sports video games (SVGs) represent the part of the eSports industry that currently makes the most significant contribution to the redefinition of the boundaries of sports and physical activity. The International Olympic Committee intends to include SVGs in future Olympic events (IOC, 2019) and because SVGs imitate traditional sports, SVGs are the esports game genre that is most often included in traditional sport organizations. However, esports is also met with resistance from sports stakeholders (Parry, 2019; Tjønndal & Skauge, 2020). For instance, a significant gender imbalance across the esports industry constitutes a major point of concern (Darvin et al., 2021). In fact, women only make up about 2 percent of all SVG players (Yee, 2017).
While researchers have critically explored gender-related challenges within esports environments, few studies have focused on the SVG genre specifically (Mirabito & Kucek, 2019). This article aims to examine gender differences in player motivation, fandom, and spectatorship among SVG fans through a quantitative survey distributed on online gaming forums. The survey consisted of 54 items measuring 10 motives previously used in similar studies (see Qian et al., 2019; Rogers et al., 2020). A final sample (N=444) of 350 male and 94 female participants is included in this study.
The items were then measured on a 7-point Likert-type scale (1= strongly disagree to 7= strongly agree). Additionally, sociodemographic background variables were included in the survey. We then use descriptive statistics and regression analysis to examine gender differences and gender-related challenges in SVG-based esports.
