Understanding Gender Stereotypes in Video Game Character Designs: A Case Study of Honor of Kings (2023)

Abstract: In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive analysis of gender stereotypes in the character design in Honor of Kings, a popular MOBA game in China. We probe gender stereotypes through the lens of role assignments, visual designs, lines, and background stories, combining qualitative analysis and text mining based on moral foundations. Male heroes are commonly designed as masculine fighters with power, and female heroes are designed as feminine “ornaments” with ideal looks. We contribute with a multi-modal dataset for understanding gender bias in games and a moral-, visual-, and role-based inspection of gender.

## introduction gender stereotypes, i.e., generalized preconceptions about characteristics or roles of a certain gender, broadly exist in video games, especially competitive games such as league of legends (lol) @xcite . honor of kings 1 , the chinese, mobile counterpart of lol @xcite , was released in 2015. it had over 145 million monthly active users in march 2022 @xcite and topped the global mobile game best-selling list with a revenue of 220 million dollars in july 2023 @xcite . in this game, players can form their teams or randomly match teammates and opponents online. teammates cooperate to grab resources, kill enemies, and ultimately, destroy the other team's base. players can collect and play game characters/heroes who are categorized as warriors, assassins, mages, archers, tanks, or supports in the game. gender stereotypes in honor of kings have been studied through the lens of the female body @xcite . given the prominence of honor of kings in the chinese video game industry, it potentially has wide-ranging impacts on people's conceptions of gender. in this work, we provided a more comprehensive understanding of gender stereotypes in the game character designs through the analyses of hero role assignments, the visual design of heroes and their skins, hero spoken lines, and hero background stories. we conducted a moral foundation analysis @xcite on the background stories to understand narratives around human morality, which often sees gendered expectations @xcite . we manually analyzed visual designs and hero lines. we also calculated descriptive statistics, i.e., percentages of male and female characters assigned to each role to understand the gender differences in hero role assignments. we found that female heroes tended to be assigned to more traditionally feminine roles such as mages, while male heroes represented a wider range of roles such as warriors, tanks, and assassins. female heroes were always designed with idealized looks and body shapes with revealing clothes, while not all male heroes exhibited an idealized appearance. in the spoken lines, male heroes were shaped as being eager to fight and protect, and having supreme power; female heroes were sentimental, objectified, and caring beauties. in the background stories, male heroes were more narrated on authority, while female heroes more on loyalty and sanctity. our inspection of gender stereotypes is multimodal, leveraging text-, visual-, and role-based evidence, and culture-aware, discussing gender roles in ancient chinese culture. based on the analysis, we propose future directions to mitigate gender stereotypes in video game character designs. ## related works the scholarship on games has drawn attention from a wide range of research communities. some studies revealed the educational benefits of computer games @xcite and used games as an instrumental method for student engagement @xcite . others focused on the collaborative behaviors of players, such as team formation @xcite . there has long been criticism about stereotyping and representation of gender in games. one of the early studies on gender stereotyping in video games was conducted on super mario brothers, where the researcher argued that the narrative of the game could reinforce gender roles as players shared their identities as mario characters @xcite ). another study analyzed ten video games and argued that men were heavily over-represented in games as primary playable characters, power rested on male characters, and female characters remained supportive (e.g., nursing) @xcite . at the visual level, martins et al. found that female characters at low levels of photorealism were larger than the average american woman, while characters at the highest level of photorealism were thinner @xcite . the discrepancy between the real body shape of women and what was portrayed in games could lead to body dissatisfaction in women, attributing the media representation of a thin-ideal body @xcite . female character sexualization could lead to selfobjectification of female players @xcite , low self-efficacy and self-worth @xcite , and the acceptance of rape myths @xcite . researchers have discussed stereotypes in honor of kings in terms of the distortion of historical facts. yao and chen found hero stories in this game have significantly reconstructed activity processes while largely preserving spatial circumstances, and partly fabricated social relationships among characters, resulting in the distortion of the historical timeline @xcite . stereotyping and flattening of the hero images could affect the cultural image of the historical characters @xcite . so far, relatively few studies have focused on gender stereotypes in video games in china @xcite @xcite . we enrich this literature with the current study. ## discussion and future work by presenting a comprehensive analysis of visual designs, role assignments, spoken lines, and background stories, we uncovered the prevalent gender stereotypes in honor of kings. our role, text, and visual analyses echoed each other, depicting how the game character design consistently reinforced gender stereotypes. the idealized looks of female characters, combined with the single aesthetic perspective of women in media, i.e., being slim, fair skin, etc. @xcite , may create pressure and anxiety for women. in the game, male characters are designed as people in power, fighters, and decision-makers, extending the traditionally perceived role of men in chinese society @xcite . female heroes are designed as feminine ornaments with ideal looks. they tend to play supportive roles (e.g., mage) in battles. such findings echo prior studies on stereotypes in games @xcite @xcite . female characters are also stereotypically shaped as emotional and without decisive, competitive, and strong traits. in traditional/ancient chinese culture, male superiority and female inferiority were simultaneously emphasized -men tended to dominate economically and socially, while women were expected to be responsible for childcare and household chores in the family @xcite @xcite . the traditional division of gender roles in/outside the family still exists nowadays, though women are increasingly pursuing careers and independence @xcite . such power imbalance and stereotypical gender narration are reflected in honor of kings. while prior research criticized the distortion of history in this game @xcite , the gender dynamics are sarcastically true to reality. with this exploratory uncovering of gender stereotypes in a chinese video game, we aim to spur more research in this relatively underinvestigated cultural context. we suggest several lines of research for future investigation of stereotypes in video game design in specific cultural contexts. first, user studies on how chinese game players perceive such gender stereotypes are encouraged, as most prior studies were conducted in western contexts. the persisting, traditional gender roles in east asian society may lead to either people's desensitization to stereotyping or stronger resistance to it @xcite . second, the video game industry has been long known as a regime of masculine domination @xcite . including more women and gender minorities in the game design and development lifecycle, as well as providing educational interventions to equip designers and developers with gender awareness, are key to mitigating gender stereotypes in games @xcite .