For those of you who are going to WisCon this year, you may be interested to know that Iris’ own Andrea Rubenstein will be giving a presentation on body types in World of Warcraft.
From the WisCon 31 Programming Schedule:
101 Playing for Self-Esteem: How Video Games Represent Females And Affect Female Self-Esteem/Idealizing Fantasy Bodies in Video Games
Academic Papers•Conference Room 3• Saturday, 4:00-5:15 p.m.
1) As females have developed a growing interest in video games, research needs to be done to study the effect these games can have on their self-esteem. The few journals which did mention concerns in the area of self-esteem had varied conclusions. My original hypothesis stated video games have a positive effect on self-esteem, which would give female gamers a higher sense of self over female non-gamers. Results showed a difference in general self-image; non-gamers had a higher self-image than gamers. No difference was found in the three areas of self-esteem: performance, social, or physical; however, gamers felt a relationship would not give them higher self-esteem in those three areas. This shows how, although gamers have a low self-esteem, a relationship may not help make them feel confident, and further research should work to determine what catalyst would give them higher self-esteem.
2) Through fantasy, anything—no matter how far-fetched—can become real. And yet, despite the elf ears or red skin, fantasy characters in video games still manage more often than not to fit into the idealized body types for humans. This paper explores the rationale behind making fantasy creatures conform to narrow standards of beauty/strength in games such as World of Warcraft, and examines what this may imply for our conception of fantasy as a genre.
Jason Nicholas Boggs, Andrea Diane Rubenstein
