"The Gaming Trifecta: Understanding the Exclusion of Female Video Game Protagonists"

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About the Author

Kathryn Asay is an undergraduate student in the English Department at Weber State University in Utah. She will be graduating summa cum laude in December 2018 at the age of 21 with a bachelor’s degree in professional and technical writing and a technical writing institutional certificate. She is interested in gender equality, female representation, and botanical studies and hopes to integrate her interests in her future career as a technical writer.

Contents

Introduction

Background

Methods

Data/Findings

Implications and Conclusion

Works Cited

Works Consulted

Methods

In order to compile data and conduct research, I’ve employed a content analysis approach by combining empirical data and factual evidence retrieved from scholarly articles, websites, interviews, and social media platforms.  Evidence was drawn from game developers and gamers alike in order to understand the three points of the gaming trifecta (gamers, developers, and financial factors) from all perspectives. I have also collected data about each of the Assassin’s Creed video games (from the main franchise and select spin-off games) in order to introduce statistics about male-led games, female-led games, and optional or limited protagonist games within the franchise. To obtain a complete record, I have acquired every main franchise game available, played them all to collect data about the different protagonists in each game, and collected data from official game web pages and articles that correlate with my research topic. The following section is a compilation of my data and findings.