My fieldwork takes place at Northwest Insights, a market research firm based in Downtown Seattle that specializes in participant recruitment for both qualitative and quantitative research. I am the project coordinator for a research project that targets people who play heroic fantasy games and/or Magic: The Gathering. My primary duty is community outreach, talking to players in the Seattle area who play at tournaments, high school Magic clubs, and with friends. Even though I’m working with a population that’s primarily white male, there are aspects of diversity that I encounter engaging with players, one being gender and the other sexual orientation. My experience as a heterosexual woman has shaped my interaction with the gaming community,
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Of all the events I have been to, most, if not all, of the players are men. Sometimes, one or two female players are present. My experience of outreach at one local game store is an example of the heavily skewed gender ratio of gamers. On Friday nights, many game stores hold tournaments called Friday Night Magic (FNM). People sign up and pay a small entry fee to compete with others in a night of Magic. These typically take place around 6 pm and last until midnight, players receive promotional cards for participating and additional prizes for winning. The players are assigned into players and compete for four rounds. I went to a FNM last Friday to recruit participants for the research. The tournament was scheduled to start at 7:30 pm, but I showed up at 6:30 so I could have a chance to talk to the event attendees before the games. As I arrived in the store and set up my corner for people to sign up, I see a heterosexual couple sitting at the next table. The woman was working on her laptop, possibly on a school assignment as she also had a printed article next to her. A man sat across the table, fiddling with his cards. As I approached them, I first asked the guy if he was interested in signing up for a focus group. He was intrigued and put down his information. While he was filling out the survey, I had a short exchange with the woman, asking her what she was working on. She replied that it was a communication
Of all the events I have been to, most, if not all, of the players are men. Sometimes, one or two female players are present. My experience of outreach at one local game store is an example of the heavily skewed gender ratio of gamers. On Friday nights, many game stores hold tournaments called Friday Night Magic (FNM). People sign up and pay a small entry fee to compete with others in a night of Magic. These typically take place around 6 pm and last until midnight, players receive promotional cards for participating and additional prizes for winning. The players are assigned into players and compete for four rounds. I went to a FNM last Friday to recruit participants for the research. The tournament was scheduled to start at 7:30 pm, but I showed up at 6:30 so I could have a chance to talk to the event attendees before the games. As I arrived in the store and set up my corner for people to sign up, I see a heterosexual couple sitting at the next table. The woman was working on her laptop, possibly on a school assignment as she also had a printed article next to her. A man sat across the table, fiddling with his cards. As I approached them, I first asked the guy if he was interested in signing up for a focus group. He was intrigued and put down his information. While he was filling out the survey, I had a short exchange with the woman, asking her what she was working on. She replied that it was a communication