CUSTOMIZATION:
PLAY AS YOURSELF
(ONLY IF YOU’RE
CISGENDER)
BY SHAURYA THAREJA
TRANSGENDER
Transgender is a type of gender identification - individuals who
identify with a different gender as compared to their birth-
assigned gender. Cisgender, on the other hand are individuals
who identify with their birth-assigned gender.
CUSTOMIZATION &
REPRESENTATION
Customization is a feature Representation, therefore,
which initially aimed at becomes an essential part of
allowing players to create this feature. This feature
characters that reflect should allow the creation of all
themselves and play the game kinds of characters, with any
with it. race, age, gender, and many
more aspects.
THE NEXT FEW
MINUTES
01 RESEARCH GAP & QUESTION
02 THESIS
03 LITERATURE REVIEW
01
RESEARCH
GAP
The representation of transgender individuals in
video games has long been a major issue. An
article by Williams et al. from 2009 studied over
150 games to calculate the representation of all
ages, races, and genders in game characters. A
worrying fact about this study is that the gender
demographic research doesn’t include
transgenders. Customization of a majority of
games also doesn’t include features to create
transgender characters.
01
RESEARCH
QUESTION
What are the barriers faced
by the representation of
transgender individuals in
video games, why is it
important to break them
down, and how can they be
broken down?
02 THESIS
I will aim to arrive at an informed conclusion about this question through an analysis
of existing literature and popular sources together on topics surrounding
transgender representation and customization in video games. This paper will be
segregated into themes that individually address different parts of the research
question, those being barriers, reasons behind a need for change, and suggestive
ideas for developers that can bring about that change. An implicit theme across
these three will be the negative impact of exclusion on transgender gamers and the
upsides that representation brings along with it.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The following few slides will have the themes as follows:
1. Barriers to Transgender Representation in Video Games
and Customization Suites
2. Why Customization is Important for Transgender Gamers
3. Future Directions for Developers for Better Transgender
Inclusion
03
BARRIERS TO TRANSGENDER REPRESENTATION IN
VIDEO GAMES AND CUSTOMIZATION SUITES
1. Overrepresentation of cisgender males has been a long standing
pattern (Williams et al. 824)
2. Popularity and fiscal success was greater in male-dominated games
(Williams et al. 829) and therefore it is viable to assume that developers
would follow the template.
3. Cis-normativity - the assumption that cisgender is the norm - causes
developers to take cisgender as the basic need, while also stopping
them from including transgender characters. The industry tends to
avoid concepts that are not palatable to the general public (Shaw qtd.
in Sipocz), and in earlier times, transgender was one such concept, This
therefore can lead to fiscal risks which developers would want to
avoid.
4. Misrepresentation has plagued attempts at including transgender
features in customization suites - such as in the cases of Cyberpunk
2077 & AEW Fight Forever.
85.23% 50.9%
Proportion of video game Proportion of actual US
characters that is male population that is male
WHY CUSTOMIZATION IS IMPORTANT FOR
TRANSGENDER GAMERS
1. Many players use their real-life identity as a starting point for their
custom characters (Mancini & Sibilla Section 5). If transgender
characters can’t find features to create a character like themselves,
their avatar identification goes significantly low.
2. Character identificatio increases player enjoyment: “It [gender] did,
however, significantly moderate the direct effect between
customization exposure and enjoyment, such that the relationship
between customization and enjoyment was significant and positive
only for women. It was not significant for men.” (Devlin 229).
3. Genuine interest from players in playing games that let them create
transgendered characters, as can be seen in a Reddit thread titled
“What video game can let you make a trans character”
(Outrageous_Dirt6717).
4. Video games have shown to help transgender individuals with feelings
of gender dysphoria. As demonstrated by the following quotes:
MANY TRANS AND GENDER-
DIVERSE INDIVIDUALS IN
“‘I FORGET ABOUT MY OWN
THEIR SAMPLE REPORTED
REALITY, I COMPLETELY
THAT THEY USED VIDEO
FORGET I HAVE A FEMALES
GAMES TO ESCAPE
BODY. I'M TOTALLY
DEADNAMING, I.E. CALLING
ABSORBED IN HIM AND THE
SOMEONE BY A NAME THAT
GAME. IN MY MIND I'M HIM.
IS NOT THEIR PREFERRED
EVEN AFTER I COME OFF THE
ONE, WHICH IS ONE OF THE
GAME I FEEL MORE
MAJOR ISSUES THAT
MASCULINE FOR A WHILE.’”
TRANSGENDERED
(BALDWIN 16) INDIVIDUALS FACE.
(MCKENNA ETA AL. 40)
FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR DEVELOPERS FOR BETTER
TRANSGENDER INCLUSION
1. Developers need to educate themselves about topics like gender
dysphoria, transgender identities, and pronoun preferences to
implement them correctly in their games.
2. Ability to choose voices and pronouns independently of each other and
have a diverse set of options for both.
3. Gender-neutral customization features, such as in Sims 4 (Conditt), and
usage of gender-neutral language.
4. “When it comes to representation, it’s not a destination, it’s a journey
that we are continuously working towards across the board,” indicating
that they understand the importance of representation (Yetzer). This is
an ideology that developers need to adopt.
CONCLUSION
THIS PAPER EVALUATED MULTIPLE BARRIERS TO TRANS-
REPRESENTATION IN CUSTOMIZATION SUITES IN VIDEO GAMES
RANGING FROM HISTORICAL (POPULARITY OF MALE-DOMINATED
GAMES) TO SOCIAL (CIS-NORMATIVITY). IT SHEDS LIGHT ON HOW
EFFORTS HAVE BEEN MADE TO PROGRESS, BUT THEY SUFFER
FROM MISREPRESENTATION. THE FOCUS THEN SHIFTS TO HOW
THE INCLUSION OF THE COMMUNITY CAN BE AN ESCAPE FOR
MANY PEOPLE, INCREASE ENJOYMENT, AND ANSWER THE SLOWLY
INCREASING DEMAND FOR GAMES THAT LET PLAYERS CREATE
TRANS CHARACTERS. FINALLY, THERE IS A SUGGESTION FOR
DIFFERENT FEATURES THAT DEVELOPERS CAN FOCUS ON
STUDYING AND IMPLEMENTING TO MAKE VIDEO GAMES A MORE
INCLUSIVE SPACE OVERALL, SUCH AS VOICE AND PRONOUN
CUSTOMIZATION AND GENDER-NEUTRAL CUSTOMIZATION
CONTENT.
WORKS CITED
Baldwin, Kai. "Virtual Avatars: Trans Experiences of Ideal Selves Through Gaming," Markets, Globalization &
Development Review, vol. 3, no. 3, 2018. [Link]
Conditt, Jessica. “'Sims 4' Removes Gender Barriers in Create a Sim.” New York: Apollo Global Management, 2016.
ProQuest. [Link]
origsite=summon&accountid=14656&sourcetype=Blogs,%20Podcasts,%20&%20Websites
Devlin, M. Marie et al. “Gender Moderates the Relationship Between Avatar Customization and Enjoyment in
Popular Video Games”, Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, vol. 27, no. 3, 2024, pp. 227-231.
[Link]
Mancini, Tiziana, and Federica Sibilla. "Offline Personality and Avatar Customisation. Discrepancy Profiles and
Avatar Identification in a Sample of MMORPG Players." Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 69, 2017, pp.
275-283. ResearchGate. [Link]
McKenna, John L. et al.. “‘You can’t be deadnamed in a video game’: Transgender and gender diverse adolescents’
use of video game avatar creation for gender-affirmation and exploration.” Journal of LGBT Youth, vol. 21,
no.1, 2022, pp. 29–49. [Link]
WORKS CITED
Outrageous_Dirt6717. “What video game can let you make a trans character”, Reddit, 25 June 2023.
[Link]
trans_character/
ScreenRant, Team. “Cyberpunk 2077's Genital Options: Do They Actually Matter? [UPDATED]” ScreenRant.
[Link] Accessed 8 June
2024
Sipocz, Daniel. "Affliction Or Affection: The Inclusion of a Same-Sex Relationship in the Last of Us." Queerness
in Play by Harper, T., Adams, M., Taylor, N., Springer International Publishing, Cham. 2018, pp. 81-96.
[Link]
Williams, Dimitri, et al. “The Virtual Census: Representations of Gender, Race and Age in Video Games.” New
Media and Society, vol. 11, no. 5, 2009, pp.1-20. [Link]
Yetzer, Brandi. “‘The Sims 4’ Developers Explain Why Gender-Neutral Language in the Game is a Challenging
Necessity”, Showbiz CheatSheet. [Link]
[Link]/ Accessed 13 June 2024
THANK
YOU