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

[brandman]

How many young parents were affected by situations like this? Were they themselves not allowed to play any snes/ps1 games and now that they are older do the same to their kids?

These are the girls that make up that missing percentage. They like to game but they dont want to admit it.

I have to agree with you. There is a stigma about games being only guys that are losers do it, unless it's call of duty, sports games, or casual games. And a lot of parents I'm betting didn't allow their kids to play games because of all that controversy in the 90's early 00's about ratings and censoring.

"You can't play dem vidya games, you'll shoot up a skoo liek dem Columbine kids"

And that ignorance is probably getting passed down through the generations. Especially here down in the south ignorance is REAL bad. Obviously no KKK or something but dumber stuff such as video games.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

"You would hit a girl in self-defense? What a barbarian!"

I don't think people would actually frown upon a man hitting a women if it is in self-defense, right?

I wouldn't think so either, but for some reason male-on-female violence is treated respectfully while female-on-male violence is a hilarious joke.

[Forlorn Drifter]

And that ignorance is probably getting passed down through the generations. Especially here down in the south ignorance is REAL bad. Obviously no KKK or something but dumber stuff such as video games.

And yet the ignorant one speaks... Don't generalize.

Now, I personally don't believe there are as many women gamers who are open about their habits as many believe. I actually know a lot of girls that play on handhelds near to religiously, but don't tell anyone. I also know the girls who play a game of Call of Duty with their brother once, and then act as though they are the biggest gamers ever. Really, I think the biggest section of girl gamers are like many of the male gamers today- they'll admit it when asked about it, but otherwise don't bring it up unless they're with someone they feel safe talking about it with.

[Key-Glyph]

*the entire post*

^Loved it. It's true. I had a friend growing up whose mother refused to buy their family a console for many years on the grounds that it was an inappropriately masculine activity. The mother finally give in, but only because her daughter's best female friend just happened to be an avid gamer whose example defeated the argument. What if my friend hadn't known another gamer girl? What if she'd known one, but it hadn't been her best pal?

I think it's interesting to note that "not playing video games" is a stock trope that can serve to help women bond with each other. Using the stereotyped "otherness" of the opposite sex as common ground with someone else is a quick technique to get on the same page with an acquaintance. Discussing something like "can you believe how many hours guys sink into the Halo games?" is akin to the more classic "can you believe how worked up guys get over their favorite sports teams?" or "what's with men and naming their cars?" I'd never thought about it this way before, but maybe this could be a motivating factor for women to keep their distance from the hobby -- the need to connect with their girlfriends on a certain level by drawing and maintaining those separate spheres? (The male equivalent might be something like, "no way am I going to go watch some chick flick!")

In response to General_Norris' first post, I'm curious about something: in the first question, "the more involved the hobby is, the less women in it," what do we mean by "involved?"

[BoringSupreez]

The study that say 46% of gamers are female, I'm sure that's true. A large chunk of them, however, only play stuff like The Sims or shovelware for the Wii. At least in my experience.

I do know one girl who plays Zelda because Link is cute. Too bad she chose Twilight Princess instead of OoT or Wind Waker.

[Erik_Twice]

how many girls are closet gamers? How many parents play favorites? They let the boys play videogames but not the girls?

Many of my friends didn't really get to play videogames as a kid, only to watch or they simply didn't own games.

The reason for this seems to be not favouritisim but simply not buying her daughters games. Which means many girls didn't have any in the house, that the games were seen as unfit for her age or simply weren't hers. Games, specially some decades ago, were seen as boy stuff and thus not usually given to girls.


Concerning closet gamers there are a lot, but how much is that is anyone's guess. Most girls I know that play games don't tell anyone or go speak about it in the internet so it's very probable we will never know.


Viking is onto something with the female-oriented sex appeal. Sure, I don't like that in my games, no matter the kind, but if you are going to do it, why not pander to more audiences? Besides bishonen in RPGs, the only other example I can think of right now is BlazBlue, where every character male or female caters to a different fetish.

I wouldn't think so either, but for some reason male-on-female violence is treated respectfully while female-on-male violence is a hilarious joke.

I used to have a link to a quite sickening video where two actors hit on each other to see what reactions it had in the public. When the man hit on the woman, it was stopped inmediatedly but at the inverse? Not only people didn't stop her but cheered and comented afterwards that he "probably deserved it" or that he might be a "cheater" and thus hitting him was the way to go. Hell, a woman thought that it was progresive to hit on men.

But according to the "feminists" and laws of my country, domestic abuse is a female-only thing so I guess I'm wrong :V

EDIT; Fixed missing "don't" that changed phrase meaning

[Zing]

The study that say 46% of gamers are female, I'm sure that's true. A large chunk of them, however, only play stuff like The Sims or shovelware for the Wii. At least in my experience.

Look at the top 20 games for the PC. Seven of them are related to "Sims 3".

I'm also curious how they got the data. Is it truly women "gamers" or just women "game purchasers"?

[gtmtnbiker]

Concerning closet gamers there are a lot, but how much is that is anyone's guess. Most girls I know that play games say it to anyone or go speak about it in the internet so it's very probable we will never know.

Both of my daughters (12 & 9) love to play their games but they don't really talk about it with their classmates. They both mentioned that the boys will chat about games, Pokemon, etc.

[Zodd]

In response to General_Norris' first post, I'm curious about something: in the first question, "the more involved the hobby is, the less women in it," what do we mean by "involved?"

It probably means the more you are into the hobby of collecting, playing and discussing video games the less women will be seen in those activities.

The prominent reason might be that women are not so interested in analyzing a game but rather in just playing and experiencing what is placed in front of them.


I think saying the majority of women play shovelware games is so untrue....There are tons of women playing the same games men are playing......they just are not interested in having a long discussion about the ins and outs of the games.

[Erik_Twice]

Sorry, Key-glyph I missed that part of your post

Involved, as in, effort, time and proportion of your life spent into something. Someone who only plays facebook games from time to time is less involved than a competitive FPS player, for example. I think the number of women in each division of gaming is related to the involvement neccesary, though it's just a rule of thumb.