Virtual inequality: a woman's place in cyberspace

Abstract

EVE Online is a space-themed Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) that to date has remained largely unexplored in an academic context. This particular MMOG has a reputation among players as being both extremely difficult to learn how to play, as well as being unattractive to female players. In this paper I describe my proposed dissertation research that will trace the relationships between the human and non-human actors that have resulted in the EVE Online player community's demographic makeup being so different than other, more gender-balanced, MMOGs.