This essay on the operation of gender in online gaming was written for a course in Media and Cultural Studies at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. For this project, I wish to examine the operation of gender in the online multi-player game, Quake 2. Quake 2 is a 'first-person shooter' game, the fifth in a series developed by id Software in 1992 with the release of Wolfenstein 3D, based on an engine which renders 3D models of characters and virtual worlds in real time. Players move freely around the environment, unlike games like Myst that use pre-rendered scenes. Myth's method allows images of a much higher graphic quality, but player movement is limited because the virtual world can only be seen from certain predesignated viewpoints.
Players just click on the server of their choice to enter the game.
Deathmatch games consist of anything from 2 to 32 players. I will use the term Quake to include both Quake and Quake 2 - most players have played both games, and both are still popular. To look at gender in operation in online gaming, there is not much to go on by the game itself. In Quake 1, players could only use a male model. Quake 2 came with both male and female models, and the ability to create an infinite number of other models.