Os muros de Runeterra: os desafios de gênero enfrentados pelas jogadoras de League of Legends

Abstract

The popularization of digital games has contributed to the ascension of academic research on the subject and, during the pandemic, it has been noticed a rise in the gaming market, and the female public has shown the highest percentage of players in the Brazilian game scene. Therefore, this research aims to comprehend the experiences of female players of League of Legends (LoL) in addition to discussing, in a theoretical way, the theme of games based on ethnographic methods. Thus, with the insertion of the researcher in LoL, it was possible to understand how social relationships are developed in the virtual environment of the game and to elaborate an online form, through Google Forms, with questions about the experiences of the players. Later, semi-structured interviews on the present theme were carried out in online and face-to-face formats with the women who made themselves available for this stage. As a result, in view of the responses to the form and the reports, the women pointed out toxic attitudes from male players, such as: situations of harassment, sexism and gender violence. Such situations caused female players to lose interest in the game, even quitting LoL altogether, while others described their strategies when facing a similar situation. This study, therefore, points out that the basic principle of the game was corrupted due to the impediment to the fun of the players. Furthermore, to disseminate knowledge on this topic, it was necessary to review bibliographies on Game Studies, gender and masculinity studies.