The Gaymer Survey sought to find out about the gay gamer community. In the end, about 30% of participants in the survey are heterosexuals. It offers some depressing reading about the juvenile, or outright offensive nature of the language surrounding online play.
88% of respondents said they had heard the phrase “that’s so gay” while 84% said they had heard ‘gay’ used in a derogatory fashion. Over 50% said they felt that games portray gay people in a stereotypical way, while 42% believe gays are under-represented in games. 15% said the industry creates a culture where gay employees “feel like they must stay in the closet”. 52% believed that the gaming community is hostile to gay and lesbian gamers. Only 9% said they “never” encounter anti-gay sentiments from online gamers.
The ‘Gaymer survey" was conducted during the summer of 2006 by Jason Rockwood under the supervision of Dmitri Williams at the University of Illinois Department of Speech Communication. It attracted over 10,000 respondents from 30 countries.
Other stats found that homosexuals are slightly more likely to buy games featuring depictions of sexually attractive avatars, whereas heterosexual respondents said they were neutral on this. It also found that whereas homosexual and heterosexual gamers rarely play an avatar with a sex or gender different from their own, bisexuals show a mild preference for it.