Age of Empires IV: A Unique Tale of Women’s Engagement with Video Game Play
(2025) MKVM13 20251Media and Communication Studies
Department of Communication and Media
- Abstract
- Through the analysis of the case of the Age of Empires IV community, this qualitative study investigates how the communal efforts of the audience can foster inclusivity, and the meaningful participation of women, in the context of contemporary video game play. Through the analysis of nine semi-structured qualitative interviews, this paper reconstructs the ‘Age of Empires IV tale’: as it evolved from being a game with little visible female playerbase, through the community-driven tournaments organized by Whamen, to a point where it has a bustling female audience. It examines the impact of this change, sparked by the tournaments, on the individual engagement-, and shared community practices of the audience.
In order to contextualize the... (More) - Through the analysis of the case of the Age of Empires IV community, this qualitative study investigates how the communal efforts of the audience can foster inclusivity, and the meaningful participation of women, in the context of contemporary video game play. Through the analysis of nine semi-structured qualitative interviews, this paper reconstructs the ‘Age of Empires IV tale’: as it evolved from being a game with little visible female playerbase, through the community-driven tournaments organized by Whamen, to a point where it has a bustling female audience. It examines the impact of this change, sparked by the tournaments, on the individual engagement-, and shared community practices of the audience.
In order to contextualize the experiences of the audience, and to reconstruct the mechanisms that nurtured the ever more inclusive environment for women in this community, this paper develops a conceptual model of inclusivity that can be applied to contemporary gaming communities. This model combines media engagement theory, the theory social figurations, and participatory media research, in order to account for the development of the parameters individual engagement, shared audience practices, and participatory structures over time.
The case, examined through the interviews, reveals that the tournaments, functioning as formal participatory contexts, led to a feedback loop where individual engagement and communal practices reinforce each other, resulting in an ever-broadening scope of participatory practices performed by the audience, and an increasingly larger female community. Furthermore, it is showcased that audience-driven content creation, including livestreaming, can be understood as an enabler-, as well as extension of community efforts.
This study contributes to an understanding of inclusivity that emphasizes its processual and community-driven nature, with the lived practices of those invested at its heart. It complements feminist video game research through centering a case where inclusion was successful. Furthermore, it expands the methodological toolkit of the field by introducing theoretical perspectives from the broader media and communication field. Beyond gaming, this paper contributes to the understanding of inclusivity and audience practices in the context of digital, and participatory media. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9209870
- author
- Muszta, Cecilia LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MKVM13 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Inclusivity, Media Engagement, Participatory Media, Audience Practices, Digital Media Research, Video Games
- language
- English
- id
- 9209870
- date added to LUP
- 2025-09-22 16:13:36
- date last changed
- 2025-09-22 16:13:36
@misc{9209870,
abstract = {{Through the analysis of the case of the Age of Empires IV community, this qualitative study investigates how the communal efforts of the audience can foster inclusivity, and the meaningful participation of women, in the context of contemporary video game play. Through the analysis of nine semi-structured qualitative interviews, this paper reconstructs the ‘Age of Empires IV tale’: as it evolved from being a game with little visible female playerbase, through the community-driven tournaments organized by Whamen, to a point where it has a bustling female audience. It examines the impact of this change, sparked by the tournaments, on the individual engagement-, and shared community practices of the audience.
In order to contextualize the experiences of the audience, and to reconstruct the mechanisms that nurtured the ever more inclusive environment for women in this community, this paper develops a conceptual model of inclusivity that can be applied to contemporary gaming communities. This model combines media engagement theory, the theory social figurations, and participatory media research, in order to account for the development of the parameters individual engagement, shared audience practices, and participatory structures over time.
The case, examined through the interviews, reveals that the tournaments, functioning as formal participatory contexts, led to a feedback loop where individual engagement and communal practices reinforce each other, resulting in an ever-broadening scope of participatory practices performed by the audience, and an increasingly larger female community. Furthermore, it is showcased that audience-driven content creation, including livestreaming, can be understood as an enabler-, as well as extension of community efforts.
This study contributes to an understanding of inclusivity that emphasizes its processual and community-driven nature, with the lived practices of those invested at its heart. It complements feminist video game research through centering a case where inclusion was successful. Furthermore, it expands the methodological toolkit of the field by introducing theoretical perspectives from the broader media and communication field. Beyond gaming, this paper contributes to the understanding of inclusivity and audience practices in the context of digital, and participatory media.}},
author = {{Muszta, Cecilia}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Age of Empires IV: A Unique Tale of Women’s Engagement with Video Game Play}},
year = {{2025}},
}