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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."
The rest are slashdotters.
Except me, of course.
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
I mean, that is the only game I have ever seen an adult woman play...
I don't read or respond to AC posts
Slashdotters with girlfriends? My world is crumbling! Ahhhhhh!
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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aren't we all just playing games with each other?
All it takes to fly is to hurl yourself at the ground... and miss. -Douglas Adams
Laura Croft was the only girlfriend i ever had.
there has to be some underlying fact here, (camps of korean chicks forced to play videogames to skew poll results)
My girlfriend's Sims get more action than we do.
AND they own all this cool stuff in their house.
On the bright side, those bastards can't own cars, so I guess it evens out. Plus, my girlfriend can't turn off my Free Will. (usually)
We recently had heard in the office over one of the Yellow Machine that's made by Anthology Solutions.
Men on the other hand like violent games like Quake. Not that women do not play these kinds of games but being masculine and outdoing each other does not appeal to them as much.
http://saveie6.com/
It's a joystick envy thing.
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
If you are going to lump all women over the age of 18 together and compare that to middle school and high school boys, I guess you could say that the numbers add up in favor of the disproportionately large population.
No wonder I can't find a date - everyone compatible with me is inside playing violent video games! I'd network with them, but they'd laugh at the speed of my dial-up modem...
Matt Fahrenbacher
James Tiberius Kirk: "Spock, the women on your planet are logical. No other planet in the galaxy can make that claim."
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.
is it possible that older females (18+) can afford more games/machines than those poor boys? imagine how hard a 6-year-old boy has to beg to get a game?
additionally, i would imagine younger children won't be too excited about reporting their game-playing activities since most of them are more or less restricted by their parents.
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.
BTW, this game is really good. Not your average rts/fps clone, but for those who like different games, worth a try .
If they're including on-line play of board games, bingo, and the like, then I'm not at all surprised. Old folks playing scrabble and bingo on the net vastly outweigh us young'ns.
Actually, I was trying to be Insightful, not Funny.
Does this mean that 21% are actually female, or that 21% identify themselves as female when playing online games? I suspect the latter. Polls based on a self-selecting group of individuals are never valid.
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
How does this mean there are more boys playing games than girls? The post is comparing two different age brackets.
more women over 18 than young boys are playing games
This means there is a higher % of women from 18 to ~80 playing games than boys 6 to 17. Well duh... there is a hell of a lot more people in the latter age bracket. Completely stupid stats.
I.O.U One Sig.
Who writes this stuff? Do people read more than just the headlines anymore?
I believe the headline compares "women" and "boys." Not "women" and "men." It is a long believed notion that videogame players are "little boys playing mario in the basement." The point is that times have changed. No longer are girls given "Barbie sidescroller junk" games. The sims and more are starting to appeal to them.
In addition, the main group of gamers is getting older. People who were teens or so when Nintendo, Atari, Commodore came out are grown up now. And you can look at the way game focuses have changed as a result (the successful platforms (PS2 and XBox) are the ones catering to older guys: more violence, mayhem, etc). On the other hand, consoles like Nintendo are pointed towards the same audience (and this is probably where women are playing most). I guess I've gone off on a tangent though, so I'll stop now. My point is that, to answer your question, yes, people read the headlines.
And what proportion of those included the occasional(OK, seven and a half hours during the week) game of solitaire, tetris, and spider?
I wonder if the stipulation of FPS, RPG or RTS playing were made, would the figure be quite so high, it would be nice to see the types of games each demography were playing.
Indeed how was the poll conducted, whether it was taken at game shops, or merely random questioning?
Why is this so suprising? Who has more disposible income? A 12 year old boy, or a 21 year old girl? While it's not the stereotype, I think it makes plenty of sense if you think about it.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
The number of 18+ women is growing and is more than at least 59% of the market. Ok so "women" outnumber "boys". But boys still play longer than the average gamer and they don't go into it, but I suspect they probably buy more games per capita.
I also wonder how skewed their info on Mature games is since probably a significant part of those sales are those Vice City. Actually, are they just going by who hands (a father buying a game for his daughter) over the money or who the game is for (the daughter)?
What is music when you despise all sound?
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.
More surprisingly, only 14% of male gamers live in their mothers' basements, whereas 82% live in other rooms in their mothers' houses.
taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
My girlfriend's Sims get more action than we do.
Plus, my girlfriend can't turn off my Free Will.
Correlation, meet causation.
No wonder it makes no fucking sense. Here it is revised:
The number of 18+ women is growing and is more than 18- boys (21%) but the largest demographic is still 18+ men (38%). So that means males represent at least 59% of the market. Ok so "women" outnumber "boys". But boys still play longer than the average gamer and they don't go into it, but I suspect they probably buy more games per capita.
I also wonder how skewed their info on Mature games is since probably a significant part of those sales are those 18- year old boys getting their older brothers/parents to buy them Vice City. Actually, are they just going by who hands (a father buying a game for his daughter) over the money or who the game is for (the daughter)?
What is music when you despise all sound?
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.
Are you kidding me? I know some women in their 20s and 30s who I've worked with (I'm a programmer) whose whole life revolves around video games.
Try going to the mall, go to the games stores and talk to a few female clerks. You'll find the type I mean without that much trouble. (Might take more than one visit, but you'll meet one.)
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
The real question is why does the ratio between males and females close as women get older? I would say there are two reasons:
--
Luck is just skill you didn't know you had.
So when you look at it the 'effective' age range for boys is probably 12-18 compared to a 40 year age range for women.
What probably is better to look at is just that 38% of the gamers are women. Surprisingly high to me, but good for them!
To sum up the numbers:
6-17.......21....
18+........38.........26......64
The remaining 3% have morphed into an unidentifiable classification.
Hunger is the best sauce.
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.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Try going to the mall, go to the games stores and talk to a few female clerks. You'll find the type I mean without that much trouble.
/. pickup strategy. Any female into computer games is halfway home to stealing the average geek's heart!
Hmmm. I'm seeing a new
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
I think they have it wrong. Playing mind games is not a subset of playing video games. This planet would be a great place to be if women in those numbers played games. The HIP culture would move from racy two-door booming modded cars to the best counterstrike and warcraft players.
Even including games like Sim Online and cell phone games doesnt give you stats like those. Remember EVERY kid under 16 in the western hemisphere plays video games.
But then, if you consider playing mind games in relationships, that about includes all women in the western hemisphere above 16. Hmm.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
What have I been doing with my life! I can't believe that! Do you know what this means?!?!?!? My chances of picking up a gamer chick have just gone WAAAAAY up! All I have to do is figure out what game...God I hope it isn't the sims....
"On the Moon, we have advanced far beyond rules, and manners..."
Why can't all fpga/microcontroller manufacturers just release free optimizing compilers???
72 percent of all statistics are made up.
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.
If it were joystick envy they would all be stuck back in time playing The Games: Summer Edition.
I know for sure that game prepared me for my current sex life!
Do they include online games like pogo.com? I don't care what you say, something bejeweled and bingo are not true "games". They are, but good luck selling something like bejeweled for 40 bucks a pop. And I doubt they spend .00001 of a percent as much as valve on HL2 or something.
Also, I know from personal experince that the only people who answer surveys are stay at home types and female. When I worked for a survey place it was easily 25 women respondants for every 1 male respondants. And we didn't exclusivly call from 9a to 5p either. We worked till 10p.
Maybe the guys my age (17) are too busy being addicted to the game to fill out these sort of surveys? Or maybe they have their mom buy them if the survey is counted by who buys the games...
I would see my wife playing video games. A few months ago I bought a GBA SP cause it looked cool and I kept hearing great things about Advance Wars. Little did I know that 75% of it's use is by my wife who never touched my PS2. The 3D games "make her dizzy" she says. Seems she real likes the old school platformers like Yoshi's Island. She said she used to play it as a kid(much to my surprise). My daughter is almost as bad with the GBA, except I am ALLOWED to restrict her video game time. Probably going to need to get another SP within a few months if I ever want to finish Advance Wars. *sigh*
No Sig For You
"You can make up a statistic to prove anything. 14% of all people know that."
--Homer Simpson
but women attract more boys than video games :)
They are incidentally the female analogue of male slashdot posters. They aren't getting laid either.
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
"13.2 percent carried a "Mature" or "M" rating, up from 9.9..." The extra 3.3 percent is SOLELY from Dead or Alive: Extreme Beach Volleyball...
Now if more women were attracted to video games than men, that would be a problem.
- Chat to the NPC to find out if s/he has anything you need to know.
- Wait for NPC to get distracted
- Beat seven shades of shit out of NPC
- Empathise with NPC as you loot the body
It's kinda like being married except it's easier to do it repeatedly.Nerd: Derogatory term typically directed at anybody with a lower Slashdot ID than you.
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.
http://saveie6.com/
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.
Insert Signature Here
So let's say that the average female lifespan is about 78. And women make up about 51% of the population, now, when comparing a group from 6-17 (11 years) with a group that ranges over about 60 years, doesn't really seem like the basis of any fair extrapolation. In all reality this is really a construction by someone to get across an idea that they have and make it appear to be an objective fact.
In addition, I really can't recall how often 6-10 year olds play video games, it may just be that I really don't know any, but I don't think it can be that many, you're primary market (especially the ones your pumping the M rated games to) would be about 12-17 or so.
Actually reading the article reveals that the answer to the title question would be a negative, as when you compare similar age groupings, boys still dominate the consumption and play areas. In the 6-17 range boys are doing 9% more gaming than girls and in the 18+ range, boys are doing 12% more gaming than women.
The lead of the article is Challenging the stereotype that video gaming is the domain of teenage boys, an industry group on Tuesday reported that more women over 18 than young boys are playing games and the average age of players has risen to 29. Now, let's make a logical conclusion, the United States of America has a population of 18+ that far exceeds the 6-17 range, thanks in part to the baby boom and the fact that the secondary boom (which was more in spending than in population) is now moving into the 18+ range.
The survey was compiled from gamer data, not from the general population of the United States. You are taking a section of the population (gamers) and seperating them into four units (women and men, over and under 18) and then comparing two dissimilar segments (in relation to size) and trying to draw a conclusion.
All right, let me be coherent for a second. Essentially what I'm trying to say is that the article is stating the obvious that out of the whole, a larger group will make up a greater percentage. What they needed to do was say, We poled 242 kids under 18, now 220 of those are boys, that's right 91% of gamers under 18 are boys. Now, we polled 806 adults, 3 times the number of kids that we polled. Now, the poll seems to have some mathematical problems based on it's 3% error (because 21+26+38+12 equals 97) and when we factor in the percentages for adults we get that out of the total there were 273 women (rounded up) and 377 men (rounded down), added together this is 650. In this group, 58% of gamers are men and 42% are women, almost a 20 point disparity. Overall men make up 66% of the gaming population.
Now, throw this all out because this survey is trash in regards to following an actual trend as to what gender is growing in game consumption. A real survey would need to be truly blind and poll even non-games to get a good sense of what is going on and see the actual percentages of the entire population which has a larger game following per capita. It's far too late to makes sense.
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.
~Fricka
OffLineTshirts.com
And guess what? There's a reason for it, on both sides.
I know no one will read this, but I thought I'd share it really quick.
There are tons of people out there. If you don't have any prospects for a SO, it's because you're not mature enough. Relationships are for adults.
In biology you can predict a lot of things based on evolutionary timescales (asteroid bombardment, etc). In fashion a lot of things boil down to the California lifestyle (flip-flops, chaotic "beach" hair). In dating, anything that makes you seem more mature is usually attractive to a MOTOS.
For example, people without acne either know how to take care of their body, or are bodily mature enough that it's no longer there.
So, here's the advice: forget about girls/boys for awhile. Focus on your goals and aspirations, taking care of yourself, developing social skills. It's been said that MOTOS can tell a desperate person at first glance. Don't be desperate. If you're desperate, you're incapable (ie, too immature) of taking care of your current problems. You'll eventually find a mate. Why? Because there will always be MOTOS out there that are looking for a mature person to raise offspring with. Evolution, eh?
Sorry for the rant. It was a recent revelation.
Who said anything about relationships? He said "getting laid."
- 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.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
This is something that seems liek a total shock to the videogame community and totally obvious to teh rest of us: Adults have more money than kids. I mean look at the PSX. It really supprised the shit out of Nintendo and Sega with its success. Well why did it succeed? Some people claim it was purely based on graphics but that has NEVER been enough to win a console war. Look at the Gameboy and its pathetic graphics. Other features (longer batteries, better games) kept it as king.
What Sony really did was go after adults. They still had kids games but I saw far more games targeted at adults on the PSX then I'd ever seen on any other console. Well, of course, adults are the ones making the money and are generally willing to buy more expensive toys for themselves than their kids. Add to that the large number of young adults with income but no children and you have a really large market.
These days I spend a whole lot on gaming. I probably get at least 3-6 games a year, not to mention playing a game that requires a subscription. This plus all the hardware I buy (I'm a computer gamer). Well when I was a kid I was lucky to get a new SNES game twice a year, my folks just wouldn't buy me that many, I had to rent them or trade friends.
So that is it for the males. But then it turns out that women AREN'T just spending time in the kitchen and making babies. Turns out they have jobs, social lives and oh yes, they like to have fun. So gee, big supprise, they ALSO like to (and are able to) buy games, more than kids can.
It really amazes me how industires can get so supprised by the blinding obvious sometimes. "Women have money and want to spend it on fun stuff? Holy shit! Why didn't someone tell me??" DUH.
(as a slashdotter who has a girlfriend)
If you're desperate, you're incapable (ie, too immature) of taking care of your current problems.I'd allways thought that was just basic psychology, "if other people like it, it must be good." If you show a photo of a guy ( and it works for girls too) to a hundred girls, and tell half of them that hes married they will on average rate him as much more handsom than the other fifty.
This sig wasn't worth reading, was it.
Although peer pressure and prejudice probably do play a role in determining the gaming habits (or lack of them) of pre-pubescent girls, I think there's probably a little more to it than that: when you're a 6-year-old girl Barbie rocks. Barbie gets to change her clothes every 5 minutes and she gets to wear ball-gowns and wedding dresses. And she gets married. Often. (And without any pesky divorce proceedings in between, which just goes to prove what a wonderwoman Barbie really is.) Have you ever seen anyone get married in Quake? I don't think so. And no, changing guns every 5 minutes is just not the same as changing Barbie's clothes: it lacks that certain je ne sais quoi. Trust me.
In other words, I would say that the pre-pubescent gender gap regarding games is to a large extent due to the content (or lack of pertinent content maybe) of the games themselves.
Now, if we posit that the pre-pubescent gender gap is due to lack of Barbie in the games rather than some intrinsic value in gaming itself, and if we also posit a diminishing interest in Barbies as girls grow a little bit older, and if we further posit an increasing interest in boys (and as a corollary, in the interests of boys
The liver is evil and must be punished.
I looked through the article, but I didn't see the question they asked respondents. Consider the difference between "Have you purchased a video game in the past 12 months?", "Have you played a video game in the past 12 months?", and "Have you played a video game more than 10 times in the past 12 months?"
The first question would garner affirmative responses from parents, spouses, boy/girlfriends, grandparents and aunts/uncles. If we consider that women make most "gift" purchases, then women should show a history of purchasing video games even if they don't play games.
The second question would get hits from women whose partners pester them to play the occasional game, as well as those with idle interest in playing the occasional game.
Only the third question would really reveal whether we are talking about gamers.
That being said, I'm a married woman who loves games. And I don't work in R&D -- I'm a marketer. My husband? A software architect who finds games geeky.
Andrea
-- SYS 64738 --
Hey guys, check out Zockerweibchen (German site) for surprisingly good-looking female counterstrike players.
The Geek Dating Show!
...and on the right we have the Girl-Geeks...
...that would be the people on the other side of the studio... ...oh, come on people it's not that hard... ...look they're over there. No, not the floor, the other side of the studio. For goodness sake! They won't bite! Just look them in the eyes! Ahem. The EYES are a bit further up. Dammit! Go to commercial...
Hi, and welcome to The Show! Whether its hardware or software you're after THIS is the show for YOU! Hah ha!
So, without further ado, lets get on with the show!
On the left hand side of the studio we have the Guy-Geeks...
(cut to scene of large mass of desperate-looking guys)*applause*
(cut to scene of smaller group of desperate looking girls)*applause*
Some of these lucky geeks will leave together for a night of gaming, while the others will leave... alone.
Now to the first round - the personality check: If all the geeks would start by making eye contact with members of the opposite sex...
Hmmn. Maybe it wouldn't work after all...
If you can't think of something nice to say then don't say anything at all. No, REALLY.
People who follow hardware fanboy sites, buy $400 video cards, love throwaway games that you "win" once then never want to play again yet still complain that the games were too short, only play games fitting a narrow genre of 3D polygonal action...these are the hardcore game players. Hardcore games can be big, as witnessed by GTA3 and GTA:VC (over 5 million copies sold of each), but those are the exception. When you realize that the endlessly hyped Quake 3 only sold ~160,000 copies, then you realize what a slim and fickle market this is.