Girl Gamers More Hardcore Than Guys 284
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."
Re:They're build for this (Score:2, Insightful)
Of course... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Actually, there are no girls on the internets (Score:3, Insightful)
so basically they use it as a graphical irc. Figures...
as for not revealing gender, not surprised. I still recall what irc was like if one managed to show up with anything remotely like a feminine nick.
Re:They're build for this (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh man, girl gamers. Anyone remember these comics [imageshack.us]?
Anyway my take on the headline is that girls are less likely to be one of the xbox-rockin beer-chugging football broes that play games casually and ruin the Male team's hardcore percentage.
Re:Crazy chicks (Score:5, Insightful)
Oblig. nitpick: if you dated and married a gamer girl, then you CANNOT say from experience what a non-gamer girl will or won't ever do. You'd have to have dated and married a non-gamer girl (actually, all of them) in order to make that blanket statement.
:). I normally get up at 7 on the weekends, she's up by 5:30. Sometimes I ask her to wake me up at 6 so I can get an hour of gaming in, and she has no problem doing that.
Now that I got that out of my system... my wife (a non-gamer) will wake me at 6 AM for a variety of reasons, occasionally for a very nice reason
Honestly, I think it's healthy for me that my wife is a non-gamer... because otherwise I'd game far too much. I think it'd be too easy to fall into a routine of hours of gaming nightly if she was going to game along with me (with kids and studying and other hobbies, 2-3 hours a week is my limit).
Re:I'm not surprised (Score:1, Insightful)
While I do agree that most WoW players are desperate enough to go for this the poster would be better suited to play EVE where any who accepts such a proposal would be more likely to come back for more of the same.
Just as a side note... chubby *is* overweight in the eyes of most people.
Re:Crazy chicks (Score:3, Insightful)
YOu assume he has only been married once.
And how many are actually female? (Score:1, Insightful)
Since you established that they lie. How much can you trust what they put under the gender option?
Re:Maybe they'll start marketing to females? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know that I buy that. I've frequently heard that as an issue but is it really? I see two major flaws with that argument:
1) Many, MANY games don't feature oversexualized women. You have games like Civ 4 or Need for Speed that don't really feature humans in any significant way. They are based around other things. Also, other games feature fully customizable characters. This is rather popular lately. YOU control how your protagonist looks, including gender. Games like Oblivion where you can be what you want to be. Still other games have women as just more characters. Mass Effect is a good example. The protagonist can be either gender, and in both cases is a strong, capable soldier (as that is the story) and other women and men on your team are likewise. So it seems that while there are some games that feature women only as sex objects, there are tons that don't.
2) Have you looked at men in games? They get the same treatment. I look at myself, being pale, a bit thick around the midsection, wearing glasses and I see few male game heroes anything like me. Generally they are extremely muscular, have rugged good looks, and often as not favour clothes to show that off. They are not designed to say "This could be you!"
So I'm really not sure I buy this argument. If that was the issue the solution would seem to be to just not buy games like that and buy the ones not like that. However the claim seems to be that because there are some games like that, women are put off by all games. Well there are some TV and movies like that, yet women are clearly not put off by TV and movies.
I think the issue is more simply making games to appeal to everyone, not trying to make games of men or women, but also for society as a whole to accept gaming as a more acceptable form of entertainment for women. Now by that I don't mean just men deciding they are ok with it, I mean women have to as well. I think a large part of the problem is that women have this idea that being a gamer isn't socially acceptable. That is the sort of thing they must get over themselves, nobody can really do anything about it.
Re:EQ?!? (Score:3, Insightful)
Having playing EQ for about 5 years and WoW for about 5, I'd say there isn't a whole lot of difference between the intellectual or social capabilities of the two players bases. Remember, the term "drood" came from EQ, not WoW.
How do you market them to females? (Score:3, Insightful)
That's what I don't understand. I mean a large number of games aren't marketed to any major extent. They send out copies to be reviewed and maybe buy some banner ads, but they don't do TV spots or anything. Of those that are marketed in a larger fashion, most seem to be marketed as, well, games. There isn't a gender bias I can see. It is just "Here is a game where you can do X. Look at the pretty graphics. Buy it."
I guess I don't see what is needed here. Do women need things specifically targeted at them? Must the ad say "Hey ladies, this is a game for you,"? That doesn't seem to be useful because it only acts to segregate. It says "You girls aren't good enough for most games, here's a special one for you." To me it seems that the message needs to be that games are for everyone, all games. Your gender doesn't determine what you can do for fun.
I'm honestly interested in what you think they need to do to market to women. What about current game marketing fails? What sort of thing is needed to attract women?
Re:How do you market them to females? (Score:3, Insightful)
Show me a mix of character types, not just one skinny, large breasted woman wearing little more than underwear. (One game I will never look at, and know virtually nothing about because of this is Evony).
Advertise the social/team aspect more. I believe someone earlier in the discussion mentioned they would like to see a study in time vs progression in male vs female players. It is possible that women play for different reasons. I personally see no need to be the first/strongest in the game world, but would rather have fun playing with others. I am not saying this differentiation is clear cut across the gender line.
And my pipe dream is to be able to play a game like Halo and not get hit on or screamed at because I'm a girl on voice chat. I don't go on there to hit on guys or scream at others, why should I have to deal with that? I won't even wear a headset anymore. I'm not sure how developers or marketers would be able to address this issue, but it does hamper my enjoyment of some games. I am well aware that I am not the voice of every girl gamer out there (nor am I necessarily even consistent in my own views of games since I quite enjoy DOA beach volley ball) Big boobs aren't always a deal breaker, but lets have some choice?
Re:boozing is the answer (Score:2, Insightful)
*darts and pool are the exception, as it's something to do in a bar, and yeah, motor skills suffer.
**And fencing drunk doesn't count either, it's a sport. (btw, our armorer is an undefeated drunken master)