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

[Erik_Twice]

There's an often quoted study that claims women form 46% of videogamers:
http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2011.pdf

But how reliable it is? Who did they ask? And how are the genders distributed among each community or kind of game? Because there's a huge difference between facebook, Xbox live and what we have here.

Some thoughts:

1) The more involved the hobby is, the less women in it. There are relatively few women in retrogaming, wargaming, and train games and most gaming blogs are made by men.

2) If a community is rooted in the arcades, there will be very few women in it.

3) The amount of women is proportional to the niceness of the community. I think this ties to 1) in that the more bullshit the community has, the more you have to work just to have fun. Niceness also affects the apparent number of women as they start turning down their mics to not be yelled at by 13 year olds which, of course, reduces the overall niceness.

This is very apparent in TF2: You will see women talking only in the good servers, never in a bad one.

4) It seems there are many women playing pen and paper RPGs, which is surprising in that it's one of the most involved parts of gaming. However, it's a very narrative artform and if fanfiction is any proof, narrative tends to gather female players.

Let's see where this goes

[brandman]

You know this has to include BS like facebook and most of the App Store. And even if it doesn't it's probably most of the time with casual games.

1.) Agreed.

2.) If any. I figure though that as far as the modern arcade is concerned, there are very few men and women. If arcades were still prominent as they once were, even in Japan, then you would probably see pretty even figures.

Also, who else HATES the modern arcade BS ticket spouting machines?

3.) Agreed. You mentioned TF2, I actually hear a few more female games than you would think, but yeah, they have to be on nice servers with nice communities. I remember I was playing an orange map, and this female and this Russian were talking back and forth

R: Come here sweetah darling. Let me make sweet love to you through da nighta with some fine roossian vod-ka
F: Um I have to go to wor-
R: No no no! No work for you! I make sweet love to you!
F disconnects
R: My friends, she's coming to worka overtime on my ****

4.) There are actually a WHOLE lot more females playing RPG's than you would think as well. Most if not all female gamers I know are major RPG players, way more so than me. I think it's due to the fact that most of the men in RPG's (mostly JRPGs) are sexually objectified for women. There are also a lot of women who play the more mainstream (in the US) WRPGs like Skyrim and Fallout who may not even play JRPG. Honestly Western devs could learn something from these supposed boring Japanese devs, that being to make more characters sexually attractive to women. That's a huge untapped market right there.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

I know a lot of lady gamers who play Zelda only for Link. Well, at least they're playing Zelda!

In all seriousness, gaming for me has never been a "community" thing. I do it by myself or with one friend. At parties, girls and women play if it's not a shooter. And these aren't even gamer parties, just regular ones. I guess over here it's no big deal. No one is surprised if a girl plays games and no one mistreats one for doing it. Very nice that no one makes a big deal out of it, because I'm really tired of that. I run into it in every area of my life - martial arts, my literature club, my band. "You're a male novelist?" "You have a female drummer???" "You would hit a girl in self-defense? What a barbarian!" You hit girls in class. That's training, it's sparring. They have national tournaments.

Interesting point about the JRPG heroes. I play a lot of JRPGs and I almost always hate the male protagonists. The "masculine" ones are walking stereotypes of all the bad things attached to masculinity - dumb, impulsive, perverted, and so on. The more effeminate ones are usually spineless. It's rare to find a male role model.

I know a lot of women are attracted to the effeminate look. I would appreciate it (and I think the ladies would too) if we could get some better masculine heroes. Loyal, intelligent, strong, sensitive. Actually...look at Link.

[Gamerforlife]

I know a lot of lady gamers who play Zelda only for Link. Well, at least they're playing Zelda!

In all seriousness, gaming for me has never been a "community" thing. I do it by myself or with one friend. At parties, girls and women play if it's not a shooter. And these aren't even gamer parties, just regular ones. I guess over here it's no big deal. No one is surprised if a girl plays games and no one mistreats one for doing it. Very nice that no one makes a big deal out of it, because I'm really tired of that. I run into it in every area of my life - martial arts, my literature club, my band. "You're a male novelist?" "You have a female drummer???" "You would hit a girl in self-defense? What a barbarian!" You hit girls in class. That's training, it's sparring. They have national tournaments.

Interesting point about the JRPG heroes. I play a lot of JRPGs and I almost always hate the male protagonists. The "masculine" ones are walking stereotypes of all the bad things attached to masculinity - dumb, impulsive, perverted, and so on. The more effeminate ones are usually spineless. It's rare to find a male role model.

I know a lot of women are attracted to the effeminate look. I would appreciate it (and I think the ladies would too) if we could get some better masculine heroes. Loyal, intelligent, strong, sensitive. Actually...look at Link.

You mean the character who has absolutely no personality at all. Easy for a character to seem perfect when he has no voice and no personality to call his own.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

Exactly right. Link is a man of action! At least he's strong and intelligent enough to solve basic puzzles.

I was going more for the attractiveness angle there. Yeah, I agree he's a poor example, but the only one I can think of. Very few masculine JRPG heroes around. Zelda's not even the right genre.

Maybe Denam from Tactics Ogre? He's still pretty young. Cecil? Not much of a personality, but at least he wears a full suit of armor. I'm really having a hard time here!

[Opa Opa]

I was going more for the attractiveness angle there. Yeah, I agree he's a poor example, but the only one I can think of. Very few masculine JRPG heroes around. Zelda's not even the right genre.

Adol Cristin (from Ys)?

[Gamerforlife]

I guess I'm in no position to rate Link in terms of looks. To me, he's just a kid with weird elf ears. I have no idea what females would find attractive about him.

I just don't like Link because he's a character with no real depth or motivation. If anything, he's just a weak willed tool who does whatever people tell him to do. I never have a reason to root for Link, because I'm never given a reason to care about anything he's doing. He has no personal stake in any of the games he's in.

[flojocabron]

today, while I was exiting gamestop there was a little girl (5 or 6?) pleading with her mom to let her in to the store.

The mom said no. She was in a hurry and the girl seemed a little sad.

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

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?

Sure It may be just for the barbie/dora games or the UBIsoft imagine series. But how many kids move on to more classic or entertaining games?

When they get old enough do they buy their own consoles or do they forget and move on to other hobbies?

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

[Valkyrie-Favor]

Adol doesn't talk much either, does he?

[Ivo]

"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?