Hej or Nej? : An exploration of Swedish consumer value perceptions of female gaming organizations

Sammanfattning: Background: Gaming has emerged from a niche industry to a major global player making billions of dollars in revenue year after year. Many companies and industries alike are taking note of the increasing prominence and investing into the market. However, historically there have been many issues with diversity and inclusion due to the gaming and technology sphere largely being recognized as a male space. A phenomenon has been occurring of women carving out their own gaming spaces into cyberbalkanized communities to avoid gendered discrimination and harassment. Purpose: Research has been conducted on the topic of gender in esports and gaming by many academics but there is still room for further studies as many areas have not been explored. Limited studies have been conducted on female gaming organizations. Therefore, this study seeks to determine if women have a perception of value in relation to these organizations. Method: The method selected was a qualitative method to further explore this issue. Eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the perceptions of Swedish gamers on the topic of female gaming organizations. Thematic analysis was guided. Conclusion: The results show that while some of the previous criticisms are deemed applicable to this phenomenon, there continues to be a need for female organizations as they provide great resources to female gamers. Many are holding out hope that they will become unnecessary in the future but agree that they still hold value.