‘I Would Pretend to be a Dude’: NBA 2K Gamers’ Motivations, Use of WNBA Features, and Experiences With Harassment

When NBA 2K20 was released in 2019, it was the first time Women’s National Basketball Association players were included in the game. This study’s lead author conducted ethnographic fieldwork and 17 semi-structured interviews with American and Canadian NBA 2K players to explore how the presence or absence of female avatars influence male players’ perceptions of who plays the game, and in what ways NBA 2K serves as a platform for fostering or hindering female gamers’ participation in competitive gaming spaces. Since the game only had male avatars, participants often assumed their opponents were male. Female gamers said it wasn’t unheard of for NBA 2K players to exit the game when they realize there was a female player competing against them. In order to avoid this and other forms of harassment, women said they tried to change their voices in game chats to avoid being identified as women. In many cases, a male ally acted as a shield from such online harassment.