Meet and Build 2023

Meet And Build

Culture & society : Napoleon vs Marie-Antoinette: Gender Stereotypes in Video Games Consumption and Their Reproduction in Game Narratives

Guergana Guintcheva EDHEC

Guergana Guintcheva

Guergana Guintcheva is professor of Marketing at EDHEC Business School. She holds a PhD degree in Marketing from the University of Montpellier. Her academic research and personal passions revolve around entertainment marketing (cinema, museums and video games). Her current research projects study sustainable culture and diversity issues in the entertainment sector. She works on a regular basis with audio-visual arts institutions.

One example of a consulting project she has contributed to is the implementation of a pricing pass, la C’Art (http://www.lacart.fr), involving 15 cultural institutions. Her recent academic articles have been published in International Journal of Arts Management (2023, 2019, 2015, 2013, 2012, 2009), Psychology & Marketing (2014), Revue Française de Gestion (2015), Décisions Marketing (2010), Revue Française de Marketing (2014).

Her talk proposes first a qualitative and quantitative exploration of gender stereotypes portrayed in game narratives in Role Playing Games (RPG) and their perception by gamers. The results show that game narratives reproduce and legitimate the gender stereotypes from the dominant culture by :

  • using prevalent numerical and speech presence of male characters in game narratives
  • assigning them wider and competent professions (vs gender stereotypical ones for female characters)
  • choosing history-based plots as a justification of portrayal of gender stereotypes.

Secondly, her talk will introduce a test developed to measure gender parity in the narrative of scenario-based games (e.g., Role Playing Games). The Test for D&I in Gaming consists of 5 questions aimed at analyzing the representation of playable female characters or non-playable characters and the significance they hold within the storylines of video games.