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."

Comments

unbelievable

[nsuttitinagul]

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.

Re:unbelievable

[Malor]

When the first Tomb Raider came out, we had it in glorious accelerated 3DFX loveliness at the computer store where I worked. It was a popular demo.

One of my coworkers brought her daughter in to see it; she stayed and played it for hours. The next day she brought her friends over, and we had a whole gaggle of teenage girls totally engrossed in the game. I remember being pretty amazed at how hooked they were; one of them would play and they'd all watch, and every once in awhile, they'd change who was controlling Lara. They were *mesmerized*.

At the time, I figured it was because it was a female protagonist. I remember being acutely uncomfortable with Lara Croft and her Breasts of Impalement being a role model for those girls; talk about your unrealistic images! Even Barbie is rather staid and normal-looking compared to Lara Croft.

Not sure exactly where I'm going with this. I guess I'm trying to point out that girls do indeed play video games if given material that interests them, and also that the typical male-oriented bimbo with the chainmail bikini may not be doing young women any favors. (or, probably, young men, for that matter.)

I'm not saying it's going to leave huge psychic scars, but conditioning is probably the single most powerful influence on human behavior, and I suspect that this particular kind of conditioning isn't very healthy.

(and yes, other media may be worse, but that doesn't make video games any better. It's still wrong for me to beat you with a stick, even if my neighbor would shoot you instead.)

Re:No way

[mlk]

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 ;-)

Re:I had no idea the Sims was so popular...

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

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 =)

My wife...

[quinkin]

Well I'm the first to say my wife isn't exactly average (smart and a babe? im a lucky geek) - but she enjoys a fair breadth of games. Civ3, Tekken3, JetSet Radio Future, any and all card/mahjong games, Sega GT, and especially carmaggedon (damn she loved that game - I pray she never gets her license...).

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.