38 percent of gamers are female, according to a report by the Entertainment Software Association, sourced by CNN technology.
According to the ESA, girl gamers spend 7.4 hours a week playing games, in-between hiding every television remote and moaning that we've left the toilet seat up.
Studies and sales data have shown that women are more likely to play casual handheld games such as the DS, along with "social games" like The Sims, where women apparently make up more than 55 percent of players (and not just because you can cook and clean!! Sorry, we had to).
"Women are out there in significant numbers playing MMOs, action games, first-person shooters," said Sony Online Entertainment marketing lady Torrie Dorrell. "What is lacking in the equation are women behind these games."
Despite the fancy new figures pointing to the amount of women playing games, they represent just under 12 percent of the industry, according to the International Game Developers Association.
Courtney Simmons, another PR women at SOE, said she wants to see "more women making games," and, "making more games that women want to play."
The MMO developer isn't sitting idly on its dream either; to help balance the sex equation it's setup G.I.R.L., Gamers In Real Life, a scholarship program to attract more young women to careers in game development.
"There is a lack of understanding about how women play," said Simmons, adding that she believes that women are being "gamed down to."
What about Jade Raymond? She makes games for girls, right? Stabbing Knights with throwing knives is wicked.
"Women are out there in significant numbers playing MMOs, action games, first-person shooters," said Sony Online Entertainment marketing lady Torrie Dorrell. "What is lacking in the equation are women behind these games."
Funny because I'm on Halo 3 more hours than is healthy and I rarely ever see a female gamer (you can tell most the time by their gamertags, bios, emblems, armor colour or voice)
I have a lot of female gamers on my friends list but all they play is arcade games, arcade games...oh and arcade games.
The only genres I've noticed female gamers on are in MMO games due to the social aspect, and the odd Arcade title on LIVE. Apart from that I know quite a few that own either a Wii or DS, so I think that tell's us all we need to know.
My wife isn't really a "gamer" a such; she amusingly calls the right thumb stick on the 360 the "looky stick" because that's the one that makes you look around.
However in spite of this, she absolutely hates all the cheesey tat that gets foisted upon the female demographic. She'd much prefer to play Guitar Hero or Katamari over Sing Star and Nintendogs. Maybe the sales say differently, but I think it's absolutely true to suggest that most games aimed at females are incredibly patronising and are clearly developed by men who have had very little interaction with members of the opposite sex.
More female developers may well give females more choice and could reduce the number of terrible virtual pet games and the like. Then all we'd have to do is reduce the number of terrible FPS's and we're laughing.
My girlfriend won't even go near a ds (especially not Nintendogs - the most infuriating "game" in the world) but Sims yes... it's just a virtual dolls house but what she really spends time on are Tetris (still), Rachet and Clank, Lemmings, Bliss Island, Lumines, Mahong Titans (the free game in Vista)... and really sadily buzz and singstar by herself.
I think she plays a lot more than she lets on; the difference is I will actually finish a game where she has no interest in finishing it. She's not been on the wii for a few months now either.
My question is this: Exactly how are these stats traced?
On XBL I've played with one chick in Halo 3 (who was kicking ass) and maybe one in CoD4 too, although I can't say for sure. That's definitely not 38% in my experience.
My girlfriend likes the cliched stuff, but she also plays a mean game of Civ and Worms. But she has no interest in FPS, try as I might to convert her
My other half used to love playing on the gamecube, games like zelda, and all of the resident evil series. The screams coming from her at a jupmy bit were always scarier than the game could come up with.
She likes saints row, tomb raider and dead rising on the 360. She enjoys watching me play mass effect but says its too complicated for her ........
She also used to enjoy playing cs on PC and the total war series. All sounds good .....but she does like sims 2
Girl gamers have always been around, I've met quite a few that love Sonic, Mario, Crash bandicoot and other games of that ilk. I've also met some that like action games like Halo and some that like footy titles like Fifa.
Not sure of the percentage but a lot of female gamers don't really bother with the "female oriented" games. I jokingly said to a friend once that I would get her a copy of Cooking mama for her birthday. She told me exactly what part of my anatomy she would stick it in if I did.
I have seen what women can do, women can make games just as good as men and even create beautiful worlds in away men can not, one of the top VR world builders is a female.
I also know a lot of female gamers who play MMOG's.
"Women are out there in significant numbers playing MMOs, action games, first-person shooters," said Sony Online Entertainment marketing lady Torrie Dorrell. "What is lacking in the equation are women behind these games."
Funny because I'm on Halo 3 more hours than is healthy and I rarely ever see a female gamer (you can tell most the time by their gamertags, bios, emblems, armor colour or voice)
I have a lot of female gamers on my friends list but all they play is arcade games, arcade games...oh and arcade games.
A lot of girls who play online games never admit to actually being girls because then they get the inevitable "Prove it!" from the idiots and also get people harassing them, so its just much easier for them to let people assume they're guys. I know a couple of girls who play WoW and do that because they got so much hassle from prats early on when they were honest.
"Women are out there in significant numbers playing MMOs, action games, first-person shooters," said Sony Online Entertainment marketing lady Torrie Dorrell. "What is lacking in the equation are women behind these games."
Funny because I'm on Halo 3 more hours than is healthy and I rarely ever see a female gamer (you can tell most the time by their gamertags, bios, emblems, armor colour or voice)
I have a lot of female gamers on my friends list but all they play is arcade games, arcade games...oh and arcade games.
A lot of girls who play online games never admit to actually being girls because then they get the inevitable "Prove it!" from the idiots and also get people harassing them, so its just much easier for them to let people assume they're guys. I know a couple of girls who play WoW and do that because they got so much hassle from prats early on when they were honest.
Very true. My girl's pretty good at halo and as soon as people find out they got beaten by a girl they resort to calling her fat or ugly just because she's playing a video game.
If only they knew
Me and her: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v122/niknak106/?action=view¤t=IMG_2190.jpg
"Women are out there in significant numbers playing MMOs, action games, first-person shooters," said Sony Online Entertainment marketing lady Torrie Dorrell. "What is lacking in the equation are women behind these games."
Funny because I'm on Halo 3 more hours than is healthy and I rarely ever see a female gamer (you can tell most the time by their gamertags, bios, emblems, armor colour or voice)
I have a lot of female gamers on my friends list but all they play is arcade games, arcade games...oh and arcade games.
A lot of girls who play online games never admit to actually being girls because then they get the inevitable "Prove it!" from the idiots and also get people harassing them, so its just much easier for them to let people assume they're guys. I know a couple of girls who play WoW and do that because they got so much hassle from prats early on when they were honest.
Very true. My girl's pretty good at halo and as soon as people find out they got beaten by a girl they resort to calling her fat or ugly just because she's playing a video game.
If only they knew
Me and her: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v122/niknak106/?action=view¤t=IMG_2190.jpg
Yep gotta agree, my girlfriend used to play Halo 3 a lot and she loves COD4 but her all time favs are GOW and GRAW. There is a lot a harrasment online if shes beating someone shell get the usual 'get back in the kitchen' type of bollox, its either that or she gets random friend requests a lot too as soon as they hear her voice.
Does this steroetype that all male gamers are sweaty nerds who crave female attention still exist. I know female gamers and board members, that doesnt mean i treat them any differently to male ones.
I don't think under 12's, men who play women on MMOS, transvestites and Wiitards who marked female instead of male are to be included in these surveys in the future.
I think we all have to realise that when they say "female gamers play on average 7.4 hours a week on games" that means all the females in the universe play 7.4 hours a week between the lot of them.
A fair amount of girls/women play mmo's a fair amount of women/girls play the sims but no i'm sorry but not that many females play fps's. I know they're out there, but i'd say its like 1 percent of gamers who play fps's a lot are female. (there's 1 girl in my year and i think she goes on once a week for the hell of it) and is it just me (ps3 this is) but do all the female americans sound like EXACTLY THE SAME PERSON!!!
"Women are out there in significant numbers playing MMOs, action games, first-person shooters," said Sony Online Entertainment marketing lady Torrie Dorrell. "What is lacking in the equation are women behind these games."
Funny because I'm on Halo 3 more hours than is healthy and I rarely ever see a female gamer (you can tell most the time by their gamertags, bios, emblems, armor colour or voice)
I have a lot of female gamers on my friends list but all they play is arcade games, arcade games...oh and arcade games.
A lot of girls who play online games never admit to actually being girls because then they get the inevitable "Prove it!" from the idiots and also get people harassing them, so its just much easier for them to let people assume they're guys. I know a couple of girls who play WoW and do that because they got so much hassle from prats early on when they were honest.
Very true. My girl's pretty good at halo and as soon as people find out they got beaten by a girl they resort to calling her fat or ugly just because she's playing a video game.
If only they knew
Me and her: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v122/niknak106/?action=view¤t=IMG_2190.jpg
You are living the dream you lucky sod .
Would someone please point me in the direction of these female gamers, perhaps I could woo them with my Wii .
Why does it matter, some things only appeal to men, you dont see Hornby trying to sell their Train sets to women, women dont play Scalextric and they dont take part in recreations of battles of the English civil war. The women who want to play will play.
Seriously does no one know how patronising it is when the minute female and gamer are mentioned in the same sentance you all start talking about light wieght arcade games and rpg's etc.
While i occasionally play an arcade game its not often and it irritates the living hell out of me that i am left feeling i need to justify why i was playing an arcade game while the guys all play them whenever it takes their fancy and no one questions whether they are a real gamer or not.
I've a ton of girls on my friends list and they all play FPS as their primary game genre just like me and no we are not fat, ugly and hairy
Well if this statistic is true, then they probably only ever play games with the words "Sims" in the title somewhere,lord knows thats all my lady EVER plays
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