Running Head: WOMEN IN GAMING SECOND SUBMISSION

Women in the Gaming World

Christian Ruiz
University of Texas at El Paso
Instructor: Tafari Nugent
English 1312 Research and Critical Thinking

WOMEN IN THE GAMING WORLD

Women in the Gaming World

Throughout the world, many people have indulged in gaming, whether it be playing on a game
console (Xbox, Wii, etc.), online gaming, even a smartphone. Gaming is not just for one certain
type of person. It is made for everyone to enjoy and indulge in, no matter what gender you are.
Although most people think men are the only people playing, there is a growing population of
female gamers. The media facilitates this information by not only using electronic pamphlets, but
also videos, advertisement and other sources. But there is the case were women are afraid to say
that they are gamers because of sexism and myths of how the gaming world is a Male Domain.
Dr. Idit Harel Capertons The Huffington Post blog, Calling All Girls: The Video Gaming
Industry Offers Exceptional Opportunities to Young Women, talks about the opportunity and
importance of integrating girls into the video game industry, and what it means now and in the
future, and News of Legends blog by Chefo, Sexism in eSports Why Cant Women Succeed as
Pro Gamers?, explains a realistic perspective of why there is sexism in eSports and why
female players have been put in a negative perspective by the male gender. These genres will be
further discussed through the analysis to see how these blogs inform about these issues.
Audience and Purpose
The first genre, Dr. Idit Harel Capertons Calling All Girls: The Video Gaming Industry
Offers Exceptional Opportunities to Young Women, is a blog posted from The Huffington Post.
The purpose of this blog is to explain to readers the opportunities in a career in the gaming
workforce, and the reasons why there is a shortage of women in the video game industry. The
second genre, Chefos, Sexism in eSports Why Cant Women Succeed as Pro Gamers?, is a
blog from News of Legends. The purpose of this blog is to get the reader to understand why
female gamers are undergoing sexism, how this gets other people to have a negative perspective

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of the gamer and how a team unfortunately helped with that, and how female gamers have to
basically choose whether to expose or hide their gender to other players.
The intended audience for the Calling All Girls blog is for people that have the knowledge of
the companies being mentioned in the blog. It is targeted to those interested in the field to work
in and see what type of person a company, such as Electronic Arts who is a company mentioned
in the article, would mostly like to hire. The intended audience for the Sexism in eSports blog is
people with the understanding of what is the online games, such as League of Legends, because
it mentions Team Siren, a now disbanded all-female League of Legends team. Its mostly
targeted to players of any online games due to the fact that you interact with almost anyone
worldwide.
But both genres have their differing points. Calling All Girls is informing the reader that there
is a growing percentage of females integrating themselves in the gaming work force and why
many gaming developers are recruiting women in careers of engineering, artists, etc.
This soaring global industry offers an exceptional career opportunity tomorrow to those girls
who get the support they need in gaining mathematical and scientific skills, and attaining
computer science capacities today. (Caperton, D., 2012) Sexism in eSports is giving the reader
a realistic perspective (Chefo, 2014) to sexism in the gaming world and in eSports. Chefo is
addressing the points of stereotyping, how gaming is considered a male dominated culture,
how the mentioned Team Siren affected negatively the view of women in the gaming world, and
how female gamers are forced to make the decision of whether to say the are females or not and
how they are affected by their choices.
Rhetorical Issues

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Both genres show many rhetorical appeals, however the way both genres achieve these appeals
differs for both genres.
Ethos
In the first genre, Dr. Caperton has credibility in her blog because she is a women with high
knowledge in the field of STEM, which is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Math education. The blog establishes credibility by putting statistics that show why video
game developers want to include women in de development of new video games. Moreover,
boys 17 and younger account for only 13 percent of gamers -- versus adult women at 37
percent. (Caperton, 2012) In the second genre, Chefo has credibility in that he is a news writer
for News of Legend. The blog shows credibility in how it shows knowledge of the sexism that
goes around the game League of Legends and other gaming in general. The problem with
sexism in pro-gaming starts at the bottom of the pyramid; if the industry molds around female
interest and starts marketing itself equally for both genders, then well see the issue resolved in
more serious gaming. (Chefo, 2014)
Pathos
In Calling All Girls, Dr. Caperton uses positive emotional appeals that get the reader to be
excited that there are growing opportunities for women to get involved in the gaming industry
not by just being players, but also by being involved in the creation of games. That means the
game industry is -- or should be -- a career target for today's female students in elementary and
secondary schools as well as in higher education. (Caperton, 2012) In Sexism in eSports, Chefo
uses a more sterile emotional appeal because he is trying to get the reader to comprehend why
sexism in the gaming world happens and ways to stop it. Chefo is being as realistic and as easier

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for readers to understand how sexism affects the community. were not that far off as a
community to fixing it, we just refuse to acknowledge that the issue exists, due to the
preconceived notion that games, and the leagues the pros play in, are unisex.
Logos
Both genres give the reader logical views of themselves, but they are given through different
means. The first genre, Dr. Caperton uses facts that help prove her blog is logical. She uses
statistics to explain to the reader how these numbers affect the outcome as to why there isnt
much involvement of women in gaming industry. Less than 10 percent of the gaming workforce
is female, while 42 percent of all game players are female. The second genre, Chefo isnt using
statistics, but he is using real events and how he sees the gaming world through streaming (live
broadcast of a person or group playing a game trough the web), and what you could say is street
smart inside the game League of Legends. Ironically, the demise of Team Siren may have
actually benefited women who wish to compete in eSports, by bringing attention to the issue that
there are practically no pro women gaming currently. (Chefo, 2014)
Structure and Delivery
The structure of both genres is different considerably. In the first genre, Dr. Caperton starts
her blog a bit slow considering she mentions how video games are not just for entertainment
purposes, but they also bring an economic sector unto themselves.(Caperton, 2012) Then it
goes to talk about the how the Smithsonian Museum as an exhibit called The Art of Video
Games, which is an exhibition that shows 40 years of video game evolution through an artistic
medium. This bit of information is out of topic which makes it irrelevant as to why this piece is
there. In the second genre, Chefo starts his blog by stating which points he will be addressing to

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his readers. He is being direct to his audience saying that this is what they need to know about
sexism in the gaming world and the causes as to why it happens. He divides each point into
sections so the reader can pay individual attention to each point. The presentation of Dr.
Capertons blog is more formal because it is part of The Huffington Post website and it doesnt
have any images other than a picture with the tittle of the Smithsonian exhibition. The
presentation of Chefos bog has his points of discussion divided to get the audience to focus on
one point at a time. There is more pictures in the article with people that are mentioned as
examples in the article such as Lin Colalin Ying Hsuan, who is a female League of Legends
player.
Conclusion
Overall, both genres discussed the topic very well. The first genre was more formal than the
second and had more statistics. However, the second genre offered easier interpretation for an
average reader and was more interesting than the first. In the end, both genres were good sources
and provided a different side of how women are involved in the gaming world.

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Reference Page

Caperton, D. (2012, April 24). Calling all girls: The video gaming industry offers exceptional
opportunities to young women. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/idit-harelcaperton/calling-all-girls_b_1444526.html

Chefo. (2014, April 4). Sexism in eSports Why cant women succeed as pro gamers? Retrieved
from http://www.newsoflegends.com/index.php/sexism-in-esports-why-cant-women-succeed-aspro-gamers-17414/