Examination of the Relationship Between Gender, Performance, and Enjoyment of a First-Person Shooter Game

Abstract

Purpose. The purpose of this work was to explore the relationship between gender, game performance factors, and player enjoyment of a first-person shooter (FPS) video game. Drawing upon the notion that FPS games are gendered spaces in which men are both the intended and ideal participants, we predicted that women’s game enjoyment, in contrast to men’s, would rest on their ability to positively violate negative expectancies associated with FPS games by performing at a high level. Method. Two inter-related studies were employed. The first (preliminary) study used an online survey to assess gender-based expectancy differences. The second (main) study was lab-based. Here, participants played the FPS game COUNTER-STRIKE: GLOBAL OFFENSIVE and provided data on perceived game performance and session enjoyment. Results. The data indicated that men’s enjoyment of a FPS game was not influenced by game performance while women’s enjoyment was, in fact, significantly influenced by both subjective self-relative and objective performance dimensions. Conclusions. The present findings may provide a partial explanation for the persistence of the gender gap relative to FPS preference. Moreover, the current work extends the current scholarly understanding of expectancy value theory (EVT) by investigating the effect of expectancy violations associated with one’s own behavior.