Ready Player Two:

Our project introduces a game-based intervention for supporting female and feminine-presenting video game players who may be at risk of the psychological effects of stereotype threat. Many female gamers face constant ridicule and aggression in online gaming spaces, to the point where they may hide their gender identities. The environments also put feminine-presenting gamers at risk for stereotype threat, which is the phenomenon where the stress of potentially confirming a negative stereotype about one's group, such as "women are not good at games," negatively impacts one's performance and self-image. Our project uses embedded design methods to teach players how to identify the signs that may lead to someone experiencing stereotype threat, such as a build-up of constant microaggressions, as well as, how to support those experiencing the psychological effects. Our game-based intervention seeks to equip players with microaffirmations that they can deploy to lift up their friends and teammates in gaming spaces and build more inclusive gaming environments and cultures.

BACKGROUND Research

Gender Stereotypes and Bias in Gaming

The prevalence of gender stereotypes and bias in gaming environments is well-documented. Kuznekoff and Rose (2013) conducted a groundbreaking study using prerecorded voices in Halo 3 matches, finding that a female-voiced player received approximately three times as many negative comments as the same player using a male voice or no voice at all. Male players demonstrated more negative reactions to female voices even when the content of speech was identical, often resorting to derogatory gendered insults. This study provided empirical evidence of the hostile stereotypes that women face in online gaming environments.

Kelly, Nic Giolla Easpaig, and Castillo (2023) further examined how gender stereotypes influence perceptions of player skill. Their research on the phrase "you game like a girl" revealed that female-identifying players are often perceived as less competent due to gendered expectations. Through experimental vignettes, they demonstrated that female players were frequently undervalued or judged more harshly than male players with equivalent performance, highlighting the implicit prejudices that persist even among younger generations of gamers.

These biases have tangible effects on player behavior. Zhou et al. (2022) explored the practice of identity obfuscation among female gamers, finding that many women choose male avatars or hide their gender primarily to avoid discrimination and gain fair treatment. In their survey of 3,658 women, they discovered that those who engaged in gender-swapping reported escaping negative stereotypes and harassment, though some adopted overly aggressive "hyper-masculine" play styles as a protective measure. This research illustrates both the prevalence of bias in gaming and the lengths to which female players must go to receive equitable treatment.

The origins of these biases have also been investigated. Fox and Tang (2014) examined personality factors that predict sexist behavior and attitudes in gaming. Surveying male online gamers, they found that players who strongly adhered to traditional masculine norms and harbored social dominance beliefs were significantly more likely to exhibit sexist attitudes toward women gamers and engage in harassment. This research suggests that toxic in-game behaviors stem from broader gender ideologies and implicit biases, reinforcing the need for interventions that specifically target these underlying attitudes.

Implicit Bias Reduction Strategies

Research on implicit bias reduction provides valuable insights for addressing gender stereotypes in gaming. Devine et al. (2012) conducted a seminal study treating implicit prejudice as a habit that can be broken with conscious effort. Through a 12-week intervention educating participants about implicit biases and teaching strategies such as stereotype replacement and perspective-taking, they observed significant reductions in implicit bias among participants who underwent training. Notably, those who became concerned about discrimination and consistently applied bias-reducing strategies showed the greatest improvement. This work suggests that by making players aware of their automatic stereotypes and encouraging self-correction, games can treat bias like a habit to be unlearned.

Building on this foundation, Lai et al. (2014) tested 17 interventions to reduce implicit bias, finding that eight methods significantly reduced implicit prejudice. The most effective approaches involved exposure to counter-stereotypical examples, priming procedures, or instructions to override biases. Interventions that showed participants positive exemplars of stereotyped groups or conditioned new associations led to measurable bias reduction, whereas simply asking people to empathize or focus on egalitarian values proved less effective. The most potent techniques induced high self-involvement or vividly linked out-groups with positivity, suggesting that immersive gaming experiences that present counter-stereotypical scenarios could effectively reduce gender bias.

Several studies have specifically examined the potential of games and virtual experiences to reduce bias. Peck et al. (2013) demonstrated that embodying a virtual Black avatar with full-body motion tracking and mirror feedback significantly decreased implicit bias against dark-skinned people compared to control groups. This "body swap" effectively merged participants' self-concepts with the out-group, suggesting that identity manipulation in games might similarly break down players' gender stereotypes.

Similarly, Gutierrez et al. (2014) developed Fair Play, a 3D narrative game where players experience subtle racism as Jamal, a Black graduate student. College students who played Fair Play showed lower implicit racial bias than those who only read an equivalent story, but only when they felt high empathy for the character. This validates the power of narrative and role-play in engaging empathy and System 2 reflection to reduce implicit biases.

Alhabash and Wise (2015) examined how the peace-themed simulation game PeaceMaker reduced entrenched ethnic stereotypes among high school students. After playing the game, which allows users to take the role of an Israeli or Palestinian leader, students showed marked improvement in their views of these groups, transforming simplistic stereotypes into more complex, empathetic understandings. This success demonstrates how scenario-based learning in games can challenge players' preconceived notions, suggesting that similar approaches could be effective in addressing gender stereotypes.

Persuasive Game Design for Bias Reduction

The integration of bias reduction strategies into game design requires careful consideration of persuasive mechanics. Kaufman and Flanagan (2015) introduced the Embedded Design framework for persuasive game mechanics, highlighting strategies such as intermixing (blending serious messages with fun content) and obfuscating the game's true intent to avoid player defensiveness. They tested two card games, Buffalo and Awkward Moment, finding that these games successfully decreased players' social biases and promoted more egalitarian mindsets compared to more overt "didactic" versions. Notably, versions that hid their persuasive aims were significantly more effective at changing attitudes than transparent versions, supporting the use of subtle persuasive elements in game design.

A comprehensive meta-analysis by Kolek et al. (2023) confirmed that narrative video games do influence players' attitudes on the topics they portray, with a modest but real effect, particularly on implicit attitudes. The analysis identified certain design features that enhance games' persuasiveness, including longer gameplay exposure and persuasive mechanics like stereotype activation and meaningful feedback. These findings suggest that incorporating stereotype-themed challenges and timely feedback can effectively engage players' reflective thinking and measurably reduce gender bias.

Three key persuasive strategies emerge from this research as particularly promising for our project:

Obfuscation: Concealing the persuasive intent of the game to minimize defensiveness and resistance. By embedding bias-reduction elements within engaging gameplay rather than explicitly framing the game as an educational tool about gender bias, players may be more receptive to its messages.
Distancing: Creating psychological distance between players and real-life identities through narrative and role-play. By allowing players to experience different perspectives and identities, games can foster empathy and challenge existing stereotypes without triggering defensive reactions.
Exaggerated Priming: Using vivid, memorable scenarios to activate awareness of stereotypes and prompt reflection. By presenting counter-stereotypical examples and providing immediate feedback on biased choices, games can make implicit biases explicit and encourage players to engage in System 2 thinking.

References

“Communication in Multiplayer Gaming: Examining Player Responses to Gender Cues” – Jeffrey H. Kuznekoff & Lindsey M. Rose (2013)
“‘You Game Like a Girl’: Perceptions of Gender and Competence in Gaming” – Danielle Kelly, Brona Nic Giolla Easpaig, & Paola Castillo (2023)
“Sexism in Online Video Games: The Role of Conformity to Masculine Norms and Social Dominance Orientation” – Jesse Fox & Wai Yen Tang (2014).
“Why Do Women Pretend to Be Men? Female Gender Swapping in Online Games” – Liling Zhou, Chenyan Han, Zeran Xu, Diankun Brian, & Siraj Hussain (2022)
“Long-Term Reduction in Implicit Race Bias: A Prejudice Habit-Breaking Intervention” – Patricia G. Devine, Patrick S. Forscher, et al. (2012)
“Reducing Implicit Racial Preferences: I. A Comparative Investigation of 17 Interventions” – Calvin K. Lai et al. (2014)
“A Psychologically ‘Embedded’ Approach to Designing Games for Prosocial Causes” – Geoff Kaufman & Mary Flanagan (2015)
“Fair Play: A Videogame Designed to Address Implicit Race Bias Through Active Perspective Taking” – Belinda Gutierrez, Anna Kaatz, Samantha R. Chu, Dana B. Ramirez, Christine Samson-Samuel, & Molly Carnes (2014)
“Putting Yourself in the Skin of a Black Avatar Reduces Implicit Racial Bias” – Tabitha C. Peck, Sofia Seinfeld, Salvatore M. Aglioti, & Mel Slater (2013)
“Playing Their Game: Changing Stereotypes of Palestinians and Israelis through Videogame Play” – Saleem Alhabash & Kevin Wise (2015)
“Video Games and Attitude Change: A Meta-Analysis” – Lukáš Kolek, Ivan Ropovik, Vít Šisler, Herre van Oostendorp, & Cyril Brom (2023)

DESIGN PROCESS

Brainstorming

Ideation

Storyboard 1

Storyboard 2

Narrative Mechanics

Character–environment interaction (mechanic): The player’s actions, such as picking up a headphone, are directly felt in the game world.

Perceived impact of stereotypes (stereotype threat): The same actions result in different outcomes based on implied gender or social framing.

Narrator bias: The tone and descriptions change depending on which narrator is active, shaping how the player and environment perceive the character.

Interactive perspective shifting: Players can actively switch between narrators, revealing how narrative framing alters both gameplay and perceived competence.

Visual design and interaction

overview of graphics and characters

To meaningfully convey our narrative and puzzles, we planned not only to design the game’s graphics and characters but also to shape the interaction through the storyboard. We understood that this game would be story-driven, so we focused on presenting polished visuals and graphics. Since none of our team members have a background in graphic design, we used ChatGPT to assist with the visual creation—allowing us to concentrate more on the interaction design. The visuals we aimed to design included:

Happy village background (1), Mysterious village background (1), Houses (6), Happy villagers (6), Mysterious villager (1), Mirror (1), Antique items (8)

Mood of our game concept

For the interaction, we planned to use a tablet device such as an iPad or a laptop to encourage participants to engage with the game. Therefore, we primarily incorporated simple and intuitive interactions like clicking and dragging to help users focus on the storyline. The overview of the prototype shown in Figure below.

overview of our prototype

PUZZLES

For our in-game puzzles, we focused on teaching players how to form microaffirmations to support others who may be experiencing stereotype threat. Stereotype threat is a theory coined by Dr. Claude Steele, that describes a phenomenon where an individual is at risk of negative psychological effects in a stereotype-relevant environment because they feel at threat of judgment based on negative stereotypes about their social group (Steele, 1997). Stereotype threat can lead to various psychological effects on an individual, such as higher stress, reduced performance, and an overall avoidance of activities (University of Colorado Boulder, 2020). These effects are partially due to the preoccupation and fear of confirming a negative stereotype, with evidence that everyday occurrences of microaggressions may build up to harmful effects on the self (Freeman, 2017). An example of stereotype threat would be a woman studying mathematics in college. There is a negative stereotype that “women are not good at math,” and many college-level math courses may be underrepresented in female students, making these courses a stereotype-relevant environment. The woman may need to work harder to perform as well as her male counterparts because she will also battle the psychological effects of isolation and stereotype threat, in addition to completing her coursework.

For the purposes of our game, we focused on representing stereotype threat in the gaming community. Gaming culture overall has a long history of exclusionary practices against members from marginalized social groups (Fox & Tang, 2019), on the basis of traits such as gender, sexuality, race, ability, age, nationality, etc. One stereotype congruent with exclusionary practices within gaming is that “girls are not good at video games” or “girls do not play video games,” among several variations of phrases targeted at girls and women. Our game used linguistic-based puzzles to explore 1) the types of verbal microaggressions feminine-presenting individuals may experience while playing multiplayer games and 2) how to teach players to use microaffirmations as a way to support others at risk for stereotype threat. Microaffirmations are subtle gestures of encouragement that can serve as a protective factor against stereotype threat (Estrada et al., 2019). Microaffirmations can be as simple as greeting someone or making sure they feel included in an interaction. To explore the types of microaggressions that feminine-presenting individuals may experience in gaming spaces, we used exaggerated priming and distancing via fictionalization by presenting microaggressions as phrases embodied into everyday objects. We intermixed microaggressions with the inner thoughts of the non-player character, to give the player an idea and a way to explore what events happened leading up to the stereotype threat, metaphorically represented using cracks in a broken mirror. To teach players a ritual for how to use microaffirmations as a way to support others who may be experiencing stereotype threat, we obfuscated our true intention behind a “Mad Libs” style template, where players completed microaffirmations by filling in the blanks on existing sentences. By having players repeatedly complete the microaffirmation templates, we provided them with an affirmations journal that they could take outside of the game and use to support their friends, co-workers, and family members. Our puzzles used phrases to guide the players in understanding the experience of someone vulnerable to stereotype threat in a stereotype-relevant environment, while also teaching the players how to support someone potentially with these experiences.

Conclusion & Next StepS

Our proposed design for our game is important because it not only addresses making gaming spaces more supportive by equipping players with a microaffirmation-writing ritual, but the design can also be generalized to other stereotype-relevant environments, such as sports, academia, and the workplace. We envision our finished product being implemented into a full-fledged interactive visual novel, where players can fill out microaffirmations for several different villager scenarios. By the end of the game, the player will feel confident about being able to ask their friends or teammates if they need support, how to best support them, and the best ways to shape microaffirmations to provide a protective factor.

The next steps our team will take to expand this game and get closer to the ultimate vision will be to iterate on our puzzles and narrative. In particular, we would like to expand on the puzzle interactions with the players to give them a variety of scenarios and feedback, where they would want to use a microaffirmation. To add to the variety of the experiences, we would also like to explore other types of stories where people may be at risk of stereotype threat and implement these stories into the narrative. We will evaluate our finished product by running an experiment to see which narratives help the most with players forming their microaffirmations. Using self-reported psychological measures and long-form introspective questionnaires, we can pinpoint what players felt before, after, and during the game, as well as track how often they deploy microaffirmations long-term. We are enthusiastic and hopeful that with a few more iterations, our game will be able to significantly help improve supportive behaviors in gaming environments.