Spelkaraktärer i TV- och datorspel : En studie om spelkaraktärers betydelse för spelupplevelsen

Computer and video games have taken the world by storm, since their creation the interest for these games has increased and approximately 62% of the Swedish population now plays computer or video games. A game character is of tremendous importance in a game and plays a central part in the whole game, however, the portrayal of these characters are often unrealistic. The female characters, however few, are often portrayed as oversexualized or subjugated as sexual objects. In this paper, a research is made studying the game experience from women’s point of view, trying to clarify how women are affected by the game characters they are offered in these games and how they are affected by them. The method used to investigate the thesis in this study is a qualitative study where a focus group consisting of ten female gamers are interviewed. The data collected in this study is the responses from the interviews. The central parts of their answers will be the topics in the results and discussion. The results show that game characters and how they are portrayed as well as how the game is designed affects the gamers greatly.