Ethical Attitudes and Gender Gap in Video Gameplay

Content analysis of the gameplay video archive of “Grand Theft Auto3”

Abstract

The act of playing a game is an act that takes place in the secondary reality (magic circle), which is different from that of the primary reality, but in fact it is not completely separated from the way players are in the primary reality. In this study, we conducted a content analysis of the play data of “GTA3” in order to detect gender gap in violent behavior, especially during gameplay. The results showed that the frequency of aggressive behavior toward in-game characters differed between male and female.