Women gamers: How many in each community or kind of game?

[isiolia]

I think there's also an aspect there regarding the traditional role of woman as tenders of the household. So during the period where the kids are at school and the husband is at work the wives can get together as part of a book club. Now obviously that has gone down tremendously with the large number of two working parent households but the book club stereotype is a holdover from earlier times.

I don't know if that's a necessary correlation. There's little about a book club that inherently makes it a "while the husband and kids are out" kind of activity.

It's not that I disagree that a housewife would possibly find a hobby or social interaction that she indulges in during that time - it makes a lot of logical sense - it's just more that she could be using that time for any number of activities. She could be sculpting, kickboxing, in a string quartet, rebuilding an engine... why pick a book club?

Personally, I'd see it more in Ivo's line of thinking. A book club is probably much more about the creation of a topic of conversation for people who want a reason to get together and talk. It creates a common ground, and a premise on which to hang out. Perhaps sitting around and hearing about other people's feelings is something that appeals more to women than to men.


In a nonspecific reply, regarding multiplayer, I think it's partly a matter of examining why someone is averse to it. Fear of not doing well. Inability to trust others to do well. Not that online gaming is a requirement, but I do think there are far more people that enjoy it only within the confines of an already-established group. I've got no problem playing fighters or FPS games with friends, but I have little interest in dropping in and playing against random people. Other people thrive on it.

[pakopako]

What about general gamers; the "casual crowd" as it were, playing games-on-the-go like Tetris or Bejeweled? This might make for a large increase in gamers in general (which might skew equally toward females as these games are supposed to be "general audience").

[Erik_Twice]

It's me or is everyone waiting for people posting so they can get their thoughts running? Because that's what is happening to me

What about general gamers; the "casual crowd" as it were, playing games-on-the-go like Tetris or Bejeweled? This might make for a large increase in gamers in general (which might skew equally toward females as these games are supposed to be "general audience").

I don't have any data but it's probable more new gamers are female, simply because there are more female non-gamers than male.

The evolution of involvement is not instant either, it takes some time for a new gamer to "progress" to more involved form of gaming, in the same way that that retrogamers start with the Megadrive or NES instead of buying a Neo Geo and Saturn imports.



@Book clubs
I haven't found any info on the topic but I was under the impression that book clubs have been historically female. On the very least, there are many, many "female book clubs" out there if you look in Google.

[SpiderFem]

Hi!

I know this thread may be dead, but I found it while trying to google statistics on gender ratios in gaming, and it's such a thoughtful and adult contemplation of the subject that I had to sign up just to post here. I don't claim to represent all female gamers, but I can generalize from my own experience and that of females I know.

My experience, with myself and my female friends, is that female gamers who put in the most hours (excluding Farmville and similar games) are usually RPG gamers. Many do play MMOs socially, but there is a unique attraction to solo games like the Sims and Skyrim, particularly those that allow customization of characters. I think an earlier remark about females preferring games with narrative is bang on; and many of us like to be able to craft some of that narrative ourselves.

Niceness of communities is indeed also a factor. I have friends who have learned to avoid mic use or disguise their voices in order to pass male in some of these environments. I've done it myself in Dungeons and Dragons Online after negative experiences, and that game is extremely mild and adult compared to many other MMOs. Consider this when it seems to you that females are less represented in your games than statistics suggest.

The Sims is the fourth bestselling video game franchise. The three above it are Mario, Pokemon, and the Wii series, none of them exactly Call of Duty in their on-screen testosterone levels. Some of that is that those games are family-friendly, and that is worth a lot of dollars in the larger market. Some of it is that those are games that women also choose to play. Most of us are not keen to be told someone else's story about a stubbly-chinned, monosyllabic thug. Having him be pretty adds incentive and interest - that is, having him represent a female ideal of male beauty rather than a male one -but it's still ultimately boring for most of us.

Oh, and a side note on that. As long as Lara Croft, Lineage II, and every other female-eyecandy-only game exists, no male gamer will be able to complain about females liking bishonen eye candy and "weak" sensitive males without some level of hypocrisy. The bottom line is that the more pretty faces we get to see, the less likely we are to complain about the breast physics and crop-tops that you want to see. Characterization has nothing to do with this aspect of the larger debate. It never has.

[flojocabron]

wow!

I and many others here Welcome you to racketboy!

I hope you contribute more.

No thread is ever truly dead.

You revived this with clear, truthful, poignant thoughts.

you contributed another side of this conversation that we like to learn about!

Yeah, it sucks that you have to disguise your actions, hopefully one day you wont have to do that infront of the immature 12 year old boys in a 30 year old body.

[ZeroAX]

Oh, and a side note on that. As long as Lara Croft, Lineage II, and every other female-eyecandy-only game exists, no male gamer will be able to complain about females liking bishonen eye candy and "weak" sensitive males without some level of hypocrisy. The bottom line is that the more pretty faces we get to see, the less likely we are to complain about the breast physics and crop-tops that you want to see. Characterization has nothing to do with this aspect of the larger debate. It never has.

If we make fun of the big boob, metal bikini characters, I think we have the right to complain about JRPG protagonists too .

Now I think about it, the FF games seem to have their fan service bases covered eh? Specially 7.

[Menegrothx]

Oh, and a side note on that. As long as Lara Croft, Lineage II, and every other female-eyecandy-only game exists, no male gamer will be able to complain about females liking bishonen eye candy and "weak" sensitive males without some level of hypocrisy.

I'm sure this has been already mentioned, but to many male gamers characters like that feel insulting, it's like the game expects us to be so primitive and simple minded that we can overlook everything else in a bad movie/anime/game as long as there are good looking women to stare at.
I dont want "female eye candy" in my games. I'd rather have no female characters at all than put up with that. I personally dislike all forms of "cock tease". I dont want to see scantily clad women in unfitting places (role playing games, commercials etc) and I dont want to be "slightly sexually aroused" while playing a game. I really hate revealing clothing in general, so I guess I'm a closet feminist (or a closet muslim).

I dont play Tomb Raider because of the way Lara Croft looks. She could be Pitfall Harry for all I care. I play it because it's a classic, and a once revolutionary 3D action adventure game. I'm not sure about Lineage II though as I've never played but, but I will tell you that the way many armor sets were alot more revealing on female characters in World of Warcraft pissed me off.

I didn't know that women like weak sensitive male protagonists (given that men like that tend to be unpopular among the ladies in real life). I always thought that the NGE Shinji-style weak, whining and timid male protagonists were popular because nerds can't really project themselves into the role of a super masculine character like Duke Nukem

Now I think about it, the FF games seem to have their fan service bases covered eh? Specially 7.

Final Fantasy X-2 is fan service. And by that I mean the whole game is nothing but fan service

[isiolia]

I'm not sure about Lineage II though as I've never played but, but I will tell you that the way many armor sets were alot more revealing on female characters in World of Warcraft pissed me off.

Most MMOs don't have anything on the Korean games in this regard. Tera actually got censored for the US market.

I didn't know that women like weak sensitive male protagonists (given that men like that tend to be unpopular among the ladies in real life). I always thought that the NGE Shinji-style weak, whining and timid male protagonists were popular because nerds can't really project themselves into the role of a super masculine character like Duke Nukem

Actually, two different issues I think there.

The more feminine appearances are, in part, due to the different perceptions of masculinity in Japan. They can be that way, and still be seen as masculine.

The way characters are written may have more to do with them often being teenagers or the like. I mean, Shinji is a little different because while, yes, he's a whiny little so-and-so, basically every character in Evangelion is flawed.

People's fantasies don't need to correlate to how they can actually picture themselves.

[ZeroAX]

Final Fantasy X-2 is fan service. And by that I mean the whole game is nothing but fan service

That game always confused me. It always seemed aimed at teenage girls from the 90s, but designed by men who had no idea about this stuff, so we end up with a clothes mechanic (ooooh, girly stuff, clothes and pink, girls will love this), but so much fan service exclusively for boys.

FF7 was a very good example cause you have:

Big boog "strong" girl, that many geeks (myself included...well the strong part, I'm really an ass guy, never cared about the boobs) tend to like

"Weak", pure, big hearted, sweet girl that needs protection and who will always "understand you" and how special you are.


Emo Cloud (if a girl would please explain why this character is adored by female FF fans I'd appreciate it. I mean as a guy I understand the 2 previous tropes, but I can't understand this character's popularity)

and...Vincent who I don't even remember a lot about.

I guess there is also RED XIII for the furries, Yufie for the pedophiles, Cait Sith for those guys who like doing it with dolls (he even has a cone thingy....) and Barret for....I don't know, people who find black negative stereotypes hot? Oh wait he doesn't have an afro

[3DSStrider]

I guess there is also RED XIII for the furries, Yufie for the ephebophiles Cait Sith for those guys who like doing it with dolls (he even has a cone thingy....) and Barret for....I don't know, people who find black negative stereotypes hot? Oh wait he doesn't have an afro

Fixed.