Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Masculinity In The Virtual World Of Video Game : A Question Of Agency, Long Trinh

Honors Theses

Masculinity is an understudied topic in video games. Traditional literature considered video game as a traditional media and focused mostly on video games content, thus contributed to the common myth that playing video games make people more violent. However, recent studies suggest that video game is distinctive compared to traditional media, and that violence is not the motivating factor in video games. This study involves a content analysis of 22 video game reviews and a non-participant observation of 4 gamers playing The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. The results suggest it is not violence, but rather agency that governs the dynamics of …