Girl Gamers More Hardcore Than Guys

TheClockworkSoul writes "Scientific American reports on a study published this month in the Journal of Communication, which found that women who engage in a role-playing game online actually commit more time on average than the male players do. The authors surveyed 7,000 players logged in to EverQuest II (PDF), and found that the average age of the gamers surveyed was 31, and that playing time tended to increase with age. Interestingly, however, the female gamers not only tended to log more time online (29 hours per week versus 25 for the males), but were also more likely to lie about how much they really play."

Comments

They think that's "Hardcore"?

[supersloshy]

Last time I checked, "hardcore" didn't mean "plays games a lot"; it means that you don't spend all of your money on "pet games" and "style-games" and "generic sports games" and instead spend it on games that are, as the hardcores call them, "good". "Good" games include things like Smash Bros., Bio Shock, Metroid, Metal Gear Solid, The Legend of Zelda (especially Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess), and other games that require a lot of skill and time. Just because girls play a certain online game more than males means they're more "hardcore"? Did they take the "genre" of the game into account? No? Then how the crap does this pass as being scientific?