Hypersexualism in Digital Games 20
This same pattern was found in regards to how likely the participant rated themselves as
to recommend the game to a male friend (F(2, 114)=3.466, p=0.035). Men were more likely to
recommend the game playing as the Curvy (M=3.05, SD=2.09) than playing as the Hypersexual
(M=2.15, SD=1.27). Women were more likely to recommend the game playing as the
Hypersexual (M=2.85, SD=1.79) than playing as the Curvy (M=1.85, SD=1.31). Neither one-
way ANOVAs conducted on the samples showed any significant differences. However, without
controlling for how the participant perceived the avatar, the pattern of engagement is opposite
what was predicted. Men indicated less engagement when playing as the hypersexualized avatar,
while women indicated more.
With controls. Although not explicitly stated in any hypothesis, as a large part of this
study concerned how men and women differed in their perception of the avatars, ANCOVAs
were conducted to see if controlling for these perceptions, and the participant's experience
playing games, would impact the level of engagement the participant had with the game. The
significant interactions are listed in Table 4, while the graphs for these interactions are displayed
in Figure 4. There were no significant main effects for participant gender or character type.
When the perception and experience variables were held constant, the presence rating and
recommendation to a male friend variables continued to show the same interaction pattern. Men
again had higher responses on presence (F(2, 107)=5.426, p=0.006) and recommending to a male
friend (F(2, 107)=3.985, p=0.021) when playing as the Curvy figure, whereas women were
higher at the Hypersexual figure. In fact, both of these interactions were strengthened. In
addition to these two variables, two other engagement variables became significant in the
ANCOVAs, and all interactions were in the same recorded direction.
Men said they would recommend the game to a female friend more often when they
played as the Curvy character, while women again indicated higher recommendation when
Convention