It might, but your question points the way to different interfaces, and perhaps different rules, for different demographics. And, to repeat myself, a family of articles on any given topic, each published from an identifiable perspective, such as, a "female-dominant" perspective. I remember visiting a bookstore like that years ago; they were debating whether straight women should be allowed to shop there... But that is only an absurd example; there is more than one canon of knowledge. Fred

I believe women are well-represented (possibly even the majority) in casual gaming. _____ From: wiki-research-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wiki-research-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Han-Teng Liao Sent: Sunday, 7 July 2013 7:43 PM To: Research into Wikimedia content and communities Cc: ee(a)lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wiki-research-l] Recruiting gamers to edit Wikimedia Will this move (inviting gamers to contribute to Wikipedia in "gamified" interfaces) further skew the gender demographics of Wikipedia contributors? Is there any alternative that provide customized interfaces that are more inviting to existing gender-balanced or even female-dominant sub-cultural groups? 2013/7/7 ENWP Pine &lt;deyntestiss(a)hotmail.com&gt; Hi Quim and Sarah, I should have worded my question more precisely. I'm asking what Wikimedia could do to recruit people who play video games on various platforms and in various types of games (casual, FPS, MMPORG, and so on) so that they convert the time they currently use for gaming into time spent contributing to Wikimedia projects of any kind or subject rather than on the important but narrower subject of video games. For example, what would it take to convert people who currently play crossword puzzles or Scrabble on their smartphones into editors of Wiktionary? What would it take to convert people who play geocaching into photo contributors to Commons? What would it take to convert FPS gamers into NPP or anti-vandalism editors? The people on the Research list are generating a lot of good discussion about gamification within Wikimedia to encourage more and higher quality participation, and we're also discussing how to recruit gamers to become new Wikimedia contributors. Please come over to the thread on Research-l and let's continue talking there. (: Pine <mailto:CAFk0ehVOcyV-N5KMchop-C0r7wY649adXMDHg5U%2BCVbjGhaVPw@mail.gmail.com into hear mobile Wikipedia:WikiProject_Video_**games<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped… ikiProject_Video_games>? wikis upload http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/**Template:Move_to_gaming_wiki<http://en.wi… dia.org/wiki/Template:Move_to_gaming_wiki>exists for a reason. Maybe if we would send gamers (also) to http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/**Subject:Games<http://en.wikibooks.org/wik… bject:Games>we could keep a bit more talent around... > > -- > > Quim Gil > > Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/**User:Qgil<http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/… :Qgil> > > ______________________________**_________________ > > EE mailing list > > EE(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/ee<https://lists.wikimedi… g/mailman/listinfo/ee> > > > > -- > *Sarah Stierch** > Wikimedia Foundation Program Evaluation & Design Community Coordinator > *Donate<http://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Donate/en <http://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Donate/en&utm_source=&utm_ medium=&utm_campaign=&language=en&uselang=en&country=US&referrer=http%3A%2F% 2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3D%26esrc%3Ds%26source%3Dweb%2 6cd%3D1%26ved%3D0CDMQFjAA%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fdonate.wikipedia.org%25 2F%26ei%3DYpsET93HN6isiQLIoJjSDg%26usg%3DAFQjCNG-7hzT9rkEvAjlNqBIOQ1ZDIpdYA> &utm_source=&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=&language=en&uselang=en&country=US&ref errer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3D%26esrc%3Ds %26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D1%26ved%3D0CDMQFjAA%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fdonate .wikipedia.org%252F%26ei%3DYpsET93HN6isiQLIoJjSDg%26usg%3DAFQjCNG-7hzT9rkEvA jlNqBIOQ1ZDIpdYA>today _______________________________________________ Wiki-research-l mailing list Wiki-research-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l

In addition to gender (politics), recruiting more gamers to Wikimedia content and communities may have different cultural and political impacts for Asian regions. Note that although the users from Asian regions are not yet the predominant group of Wikimedia content and communities in general, the largest group of new online users are from these regions. We may want to reconsider how the actual gamers are like in these regions, and what kind of the games they are playing. The state-supported game industries by South Korea and China have raised some concerns on the rise of "techno-nationalism" . http://www.com.cuhk.edu.hk/c-centre/pdf/Game_Jiang.pdf It is thus also important to see how gaming culture may intensify inter-nation or inter-cultural conflicts. So going back to the original question (and assumptions) that open this thread of discussion: There are many video game players of diverse ages, genders, languages, and locations. How could Wikimedia editing be made into an appealing activity for people who are currently video gamers? How could Wikimedia market itself to gamers, including console, LAN, FPS, MMORPG, and mobile gamers? Note that it is explicitly assumed that many video game players are of diverse ages, genders, languages and locations. I think it is an open question. Another open question is how Wikimedia communities compare to diverse of game platforms in terms of age, gender, language, geography diversities. It is also prudent to dis-aggregate the big umbrella terms such as Wikimedia projects and the world games without concrete case studies. Still, I share the belief the promotion and advocacy of Wikimedia content editorship and readership. As *cultural references* and *open-content resources*, I personally believe that Wikimedia should advocate (instead of market) the sharing and making of game-related content, references and resources. In Chinese Wikipedia, there are users who learn the basic concepts of copyleft through making and re-purposing the East Asian animation/game culture. It is NOT an accident that Chinese Wikipedia picks up the unofficial Wikipe-tan or Wiki-girl (made by a Japanese called Kasuga) during and after the China's "Green Dam Youth Escort" debacle. For images of Wikipe-tan or Wiki-girl https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Green+dam+Chinese+Wikipedia&um=1&… Thus, I think there is some space there to reassert the power and possibilities of open cultural references and resources when it comes to reaching out the gamers. Through more open sharing and creation of game-related content, Wikimedia norms may even help to influence games as we know today. Best, han-teng liao 2013/7/8 Han-Teng Liao &lt;hanteng(a)gmail.com&gt;