Project 1: Game Study

IE179: Gender and Computer Games
Spring 2008

Overview

We are inundated with opinions about the role gender plays in computer gaming. From "Who plays and why?" to "Why should we care?", experts from industry, academia, and the gaming community offer a broad range of often-conflicting answer. In this project you will add another voice to the din. The importance, however, is that it is a voice you are likely to believe. This project is an opportunity for you to discover how gender informs your own views, and how gender critique can reform them.

Objectives

You and your teammates will

• Pose some interesting question about "women as other" in the context of gaming
• Devise some method to explore the question that involves querying your colleagues at the 5C.
• Analyze your finding in a 5 page paper.
• Present your findings to the class.

Project 1 Schedule

Date	Assignment Due	Classwork	Assignment
Thu 1/22/08		Project 1 description Brainstorming exercise	Project 1 Proposal
Tue 1/29/08	Project 1 Proposal (final draft)	Proposal Presentations
Thu 1/31/08		Proposal feedback & revisions	Project 1 Study
Thu 2/14/08	Report, presentation	Presentation of findings

Proposal

The proposal should describe the question(s) you want to explore and your approach. It should include any surveys or questionnaires you intend to use. It should include a timeline of your study.

Report

The final report should describe the questions you posed, your methods for answering them, and your findings including their statistical relevance. You should include an analysis of how your own views and expectations about gender informed your study and how they changed as a result of the study.