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Videogames Attract More Women Than Boys?
Thanks to Yahoo!/Reuters for their story about a new Entertainment Software Association poll showing the demographics of gaming. According to the poll, "...26 percent of game players are women 18 or older, while 21 percent are boys 6 to 17", and the survey also revealed that "...the average gamer spends 6.5 hours a week playing games... while boys 6 to 17 average 7.3 hours per week of game time." Explicit games are also on the increase, as "13.2 percent carried a "Mature" or "M" rating, up from 9.9 percent in 2001 and under 8 percent in 2000."
I would've never believed that girls could play more video games then guys until I got my sister and girlfriend into playing Age of Mythology. Now everytime I see either one of them, they are CONSTANTLY playing that game non-stop. It's almost like a crack addiction...
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I wonder what percentage of games are rated mature now opposed to in the past? Perhaps the rating system is becoming increasingly strict and thereby artifically raising the number of mature games used by gamers.
I really don't think these statistics really indicate the truth.
First off, video games are frequently directed toward males. How often do video game heroines become sex objects? Lara Croft is the easy example, but there are dozens of others in RPGs, fighting games, adventure, horror, and practically every genre.
Perhaps the grain of truth in this is that women may be becoming more technically inclined than they were in the past. Certainly as a university student, the number of women in engineering is on the rise. Also, perhaps they see the presence of video game heroines as a show of the power of femininity in these games. Even while Eidos was building Tomb Raider, they were particularly cautious and uncertain about making their main character a woman.
Regardless, is the show of women a good sign? If it helps create diversity in video games and help manufacturers build more innovative games than "Adventures of Barbie," then this can only help the industry.
Not that women do not play these kinds of games but being masculine and outdoing each other does not appeal to them as much.
Yeah, most of the women I know prefer to be feminine while outdoing each other. It's easier, and less messy.
BTW, both of my 2 past ex gf's and my wife play(ed) FPS games online with me quite often (Starting with Duke Nuk'em, then Quakeworld, Q2, lots of Rocket Arena Q2 and Action Q2, some SoF2, and now Battlefield 1942 exclusively.)
everything in moderation
Actually when you get into the more team based FPS games like counterstrike or urban terror, I find you get more female participation in the game, especially in the clan tournaments. However the reflex skills are still somewhat daunting; I've yet to see a woman who completely owned all.
Considering there are lot more "women over 18" than there are "boys aged 6 to 17", this doesn't seem too surprising. While women don't seem to have as big a presence in FPS and RTS games, most women I know who frequently use computers like spending lots of time with things like Snood or Tetris. And my mom spends most of her free time (i.e. pretty much all day) playing Poker on-line.
Regarding average playing time per week--am I the only one who cringes every time I see "How many hours per week do you play video games?" on a survey? I usually end up pulling some kind of average out of my ass, because a) I don't exactly keep logs of game-playing time, and b) how much time I spend playing games per week varies widely, depending on how much free time I have and whether or not I have a game I'm currently hooked on. I don't think I'm all that unique regarding either of those points, so I'm always a bit skeptical of "People spend x hours per week playing video games" statements.
I was at an IGDA meet a few weeks ago, and the discussion was on Women in Gaming (which the IGDA have a forum on).
;-)
The idea of "female games" and "male games" was not taken very well. Most women gamers actually play action games, while it is the men (males 18+) who play the "female games" (The Sims[1], EyeToy, Pokemon etc). While the games played by kids did was the same regardless of gender.
[1] I'd argue that this has more to do with the Naked Patch than anything else
Wow, I should not post when knackered.
Man, what ever happened to the computer game porn revolution?
Serious question here! When you consider the amount of porn sold annually (billions of dollars, even if it almost universally sucks), there MUST be a market for a game that addresses sex in a deeper way than Duke Nukem.
As for maturity, I'd love to see an adult game with a hint of maturity, but that's never gonna happen. Sadly.
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My wife plays Animal Crossing quite a bit. Course, it's like the Sims meets Playmobil, but still :) She even has an eReader, a bunch of cards, etc for it.
The wife also plays RPG's sometimes (though as someone that reads a lot of classic literature, the juvenile plots and terrible writing drives her nuts sometimes) and she loves PopCap games too. She enjoys Bust a Move as well.
She doesn't like playing the "M" rated games, but she enjoys watching me play them (NGC Resident Evil, Vice City, etc) and yell encouragement like,
"Honey, grab the katana and gut those fuckers!"
She's a great woman =)
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
And similar games seem to get fairly mixed play at our local arcade, but I'd guess it is still about 2 guys to 1 girl I see playing. Girls are coming into the arcade more, and not just to find their boy friends. Driving games and (to a lesser extent) Soul Calibur II seem popular with the girls.
I still think that men are the primary game players and that this survey is slightly faulty. It only says what percentage of people consider themselves gamers. The fact of the matter is, this was a POLL, which assumes the people answering are telling the truth. I'm not saying anyone is lying, but now it's considered cool to be into games, to the point where people would say yes even if they really didn't play that much.
Also, I think most women who play games play because their boyfriend plays. I would bet that most women "gamers" don't really know all that much about games.
My buddie's Mom used to play Myst back in the day. Now that I think about it, I remember my Ex boss telling me back then that his sister was into Myst too.
Also, the girl that used to cut my hair was into the Leisure Suit Larry games. She thought they were pretty funny.
So I guess I'm not suprised at all that some girls like video games.
wbs.
Huh?
With games like this why wouldn't women play?!
I do not like blood and guts but play action games because I want to apply myself and feel good by winning. Not to hurt people. Same is true for the other players.
Yes men and woman are people and discrimination is wrong. But they think very differently. Different does not mean inferior or outcasted. Yes this is very unpopular and no I am not sexist. Let me explain what I mean.
If a woman lied to you it might bother you but it might not be a big deal. right? For a woman a lie is very very bad. That is universal across all woman despite cultures and geographic locations. Same thing with wanting to look pretty and being competitive this way with other girls. Its not just the western culture but woman all over the world want to look pretty and most base their self esteem on this. Of course some woman do not care about their physical apearance as much as others but its not culture but a biological way to attract men.
Did you know men and woman have less then half the same circuitry? Everything from processing visual data, to being apathetic, to communication skills are all different. Have any of your girlfriends said something to you and you heard but she meant something totally different by it? My mother always complained that me and my brother were lazy when we could not find things in the fridge. She talked to other women and they all said the same things about their husbands and sons.
Go read the book "Woman are from Mars and Men are from Venus". I do not hate women at all. Do I treat them differently? Yes, women like a man who is corteous and polite and respectfull.
Yes they have been opressed and disrespected but if you ask any biologist or physcologist they will tell you men bond from war and action games. Its in our nature.
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I hate to stereo type, but last night it was my mates and I playing 4 player deathmatch DieHard, while she was busy with world domination in Civ3.
Men=Destroy
Women=Create
Awfully simplistic (setting up the troll nets now) I know, but it is one of those stereotypes with a basis in reality. I am not alledging any causality here, only correlation.
To eventually finish my point: There are a larger number of games available that are not purely based around the see-something, shoot-it principle that has worked so admirably in the past. Perhaps it is this that is generating enough interest among the female gamers?
Q.
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At midnight that's the most indepth into the workings of this survey that we'll get. I would have to say that as far as measuring the appeal of games to women, it needs to be compared to actual population statistics in order to have any relevance.
I'm female and over 18 so I fit in that 26% statistic. I tried the Sims and The Sims Online so can fit that stereotype, but I didn't last very long with either one. I also enjoyed Tomb Raider. However; I've played Castle Wolfenstein and Action Quake. I gave Halflife a go too but got motion sickness on that darn ladder (of all things)!
I know many other women who are playing other FPS games. There are message boards devoted to just such gamers. As well as more devoted to all female clans.
If you want to see alot of women playing games look to the MMORPGs. Tons of women there. Myself, I've been playing them for awhile and have beta tested many of them, including Planetside, which is arguably more of a "male" game. Another tidbit that might surprise some is that one of the things that kept me playing MMORPGs was the PvP aspect of it. I enjoyed the competition even when most of my victims assumed I was male.
Bottom line: don't be so surprised at the statistics nor assume that these 18+ yr old females are only playing one type of game.
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- Soul Caliber 2
- Neverwinter Nights
- Resident Evil
- Final Fantasy
- Mario Sunshine
- Tony Hawk 4
- Dragon Quest
- Breath of Fire
I tend to prefer games with a storyline, though I still enjoy thumb-twitching games like mario and tony hawk. The resident evil series is one of my favorite game series, and my frends and I like to get together and play it at night. The idea of a games main character being either a "sex object" or a strong femail role modle never has really entered my head, nor have I heard any of my friends mention it.if you're wondering why Tomb Raider isn't on my list, it's simply because I found the game play to be rather bland and unable to compete with any of the Mario games
You'll also possibly notice my sig is from one of my favorite games of all times, Blood Omen: Legacy Of Kain, which had a male protagonist and was quite gory, but had an engaging story line and wonderful voice acting.
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I'm amazed that people would give any credibility to these statistics given how stats have been used relative to this circumstance.
....
Video game manufactures are just going to alienaite a segment of it customers. If the trend holds true, an industry following such advice will experience a short term gain with long term destabilization and an inability to derive and real solution other then blame. The
Heh, why bother.
IMO, the world need more...
To win an argument or just some great one liners see Arthur Schopenhauer, a writer from the mid 17th century. He writes about how creativity (beyond a crumpled up paper ball called art) amount women is non-existent and pretty much imposible, and how those short, squat, bowl-legged creatures are the accumilative imitated persona of a man and gives the reasons why. All in all a good read if you can find a direct translation.
From the entertainment industry to P&G
My sister is obsessive about Civ too. Every now and then she picks it up and plays it again for two weeks straight. It drives my dad nuts 'cause he can't figure what the heck is her fascination with that game.
I noticed that her and other girls enjoy games involving strategy. TBS or RTS doesn't matter. Most popular I've seen around are Heroes as well as Warcraft or Starcraft. The setting and story is important though, because they'll play the ones that are SciFi or Fantesy based rather than realistic ones like C&C or war simulations.
I'm not really surprised by the outcome of the survey. It only makes sense that women would be attracted to games that require planning and thinking rather than action games. And if they're gonna play something that requires reflexes it's gonna be something like Puzzle Bubble or Fast Tetris. I guess even if they do join in on FPS or other action types they are attracted by the strategic aspect rather than the sheer joy of killing.
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Hey guys, check out Zockerweibchen (German site) for surprisingly good-looking female counterstrike players.