Vanessa Tan
Vanessa Tan is a copywriter, content creator, and pop culture junkie living in Singapore. This is some stuff she's done.

Published Journals

Sometimes I write things for Academia and they get published. Here's a short list of the journal articles.

 

Published Journals

 

Academic papers that are selected and published for various global communication journals

 
 
 

Play with Bad Words: A Content Analysis of Profanity in Video Games

Authors: Quang Anh Phan, Vanessa Tan
LUDICA -  International Journal of Game Studies
Volume 1, Issue 1, June 2017
ISSN: 2527-0257

This study uses content analysis as the primary method to touch upon the use of profanity in video games through a sample of 28 units released in 2015, across multiple platforms and genres. The selected games used to test are listed in the database of global top-selling games of the year and are narrative-based, with gameplay reached using walkthroughs published on YouTube. The results reveal that profanity could be used as a predictor for sales, and that profanity is dependent on the genre of video games played. In addition, with gender and video game content sharing a long history - in terms of research on the mutual bond within the two - this study provides more insights into this matter, with results revealing the use of profanity in games is also dependent on the gender of characters.

 
 
 
ThesisNUS

An Examination of Singapore Video Gamers' Perceptions of Female Video Game Characters

Author: Vanessa Tan
Supervisor: Dr. Lim Sun Sun
Master's Thesis, National University of Singapore
March 2017

Previous research on female representation in video games has revealed that women are often sexualised, objectified, minimised, or simply absent from games. These representations have also been found to influence and affect the psyche of video gamers. With the number of female gamers growing each year, there is a pressing need to continue examining how women are treated in video games, especially with the influx of games now featuring principal female characters. This study aimed to examine if how women are treated in these contemporary video games differed from older titles, and analyse if these portrayals mirrored the perceptions of video gamers. A content analysis of 34 video games released over the past five years was first conducted, and results revealed an increase in games featuring playable female characters with diminished sexualisation. However, results also showed that secondary or background female characters remain objectified and sexualised. Following the content analysis, interviews with 15 male and female Singaporean video gamers were conducted, and they revealed slowly changing perceptions of female characters.