Female's and gaming.

[Daniel Laeben-Rosen]

This again? Ok, I'll bite.

I know plenty of women who are into gaming, they just don't always go for the same games as their male counterparts. Or indeed WoW. You'll just not always know that sometimes the sexy Night-Elf chick you're playing with is an actual woman.

The big problem is that many women(of any ages) simply haven't come in contact with any games that interest them. Perhaps only seeing their brother's Super Spacemarine #55 games and thus dismissing the entire medium.
That and many games that do advertise to women are shallow and generally uninteresting for anyone.

 

[MassiveGeek]

Hmmm, such a difficult question. :/

I think there are too many factors to count, and I mean, some people just don't see appeal in videogames at all, regardless of gender. I know girls who play games, and have games that I wouldn't think they'd ever heard of.
But usually I find that they have an interest that far outweights their gaming interest. There's a girl in my class that plays almost all games I recommend to her, but if she were to choose between going out with her friends or pulling an all nighter with Fallout 3, she'd choose the former.

I don't really knooow, sorry, I think Daniel Floyd brings up loads of good points.

 

[Capslockbroken]

FIne, fine. Have a more serious answer:

Hey. Hey. Screw you, buddy. I love Hooters. The waitresses are ugly, but can you name a chain restaurant with better cheeseburgers? No you cannot.

I wouldn't know.

I live in Australia. I'm pretty sure we don't have Hooters here. Plus, it's been over ten years since I last ate a cheeseburger.

I have to wonder if Hooters exists in places other than America. It seems like something that would be rather heavily frowned upon pretty much anywhere else. There is no excuse, however, for not eating a cheeseburger at least twice a month. You must renounce your wicked ways and embrace the beef.

It's heavily frowned upon everywhere. I'm sure they have a loyal customer base but, other than them, the vast majority of people's experience with Hooters is try not to look at it as they drive past. Hell, I imagine most of the actual customer base pretends not to be. In case anyone is wondering, I am a hetero guy and am a huge fan of the female body, but I am genuinely disgusted by the idea that the owner of said body must be disrespected in order to admire it.

 

[moonlantern]

The same reason there aren't a lot of female football teams. Most people just don't think of it as something girls do. So they don't.

 

[K4ndY]

I'm female and playing Fallout - New Vegas as we speak. I've been playing video games since I was 3 and have I'm interested in a lot of genres that people usually qualify as "guy only". I own copies of games such as CoD, Assassin's Creed, Bioshock, Red Dead Redemption and Ninja Gaiden (just to name a few), and although I don't play much FPS's anymore, I did go through a faze with Counter Strike a few years back (our team entered a local lan tournament and won first place).

In my opinion it's not that there are less women playing video games, it's just that a lot of those who do don't go around advertising it. It weirds out other women who aren't into that king of stuff and turns guys into drooling idiots who can't get over the fact that a some girl could beat them at their favorite game.

But hey, I'm basing this on my own personal experiences. Chances are there are far more complex reasons behind this perceived inequity of the sexes in the video game industry.

 

[ChipSandwich]

My sister has recently been playing Halo 1 & 2, Mass Effect and Planescape Torment, so yeah.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

I was recently called all manner of horrible names by a girl because I got God of War III at the start of a week when she couldn't come over and play it. Seriously, she was REALLY pissed that she couldn't get her Kratos on.

Same here. My girlfriend LOVES God of War, like more than any other game I think. But I'm not really taken in by it myself, just seems like mindless violence.

How's that for a swap of gender roles? A girl who likes to tear mythological Greek creatures limb from limb and a guy who prefers the more story-centric games like Heavy Rain.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

Because Genetically speaking Men were charged with hunting and killing and overcoming obstacles since the dawn of humanity. And that's what almost ALL games are. Games appeal more to guys because they address concepts built into our code.
If you call BS, consider the fact that most researchers agree that Men are generally better at driving, traveling and navigation in general because in our race's infancy the men had to traverse harsh landscapes and use the topography to hunt and forage.etc.

Of course the only REASON for this is because the games industry today is basically guys designing games for other guys. before that is "nerds and programmers" designing for "nerds and programmers" and then it became more "general". All it will take for games to break out of the mold imo, is to get more women into game design.

 

[nuba km]

Gaming is solitary, females are social.

I find that most people that play video games end up discussing them with other people and that more and more people are playing multiplayer a hell of a lot more then single player.

 

[Rachel317]

I'm a girl, and love to game. I wouldn't say I'm hardcore, but I'm into games like Bayonetta, Prince of Persia, Fable, Dead Rising, Oblivion, Enslaved, Tomb Raider, yadda yadda.
I think some girls might not like games because they see it as immature, but that's largely generalising. I think chick flicks are immature, whilst another girl might totally disagree. I don't think it's a case of "guys like games, girls don't", but "that person likes games and happens to be a guy, and that person doesn't and happens to be a girl", and vice versa. Why does there have to be a generalisation? Why can't everyone just be judged as individuals, and like whatever they want to like?

Without asking EVERY SINGLE GIRL in the world why they do or don't like gaming, you won't get a definitive answer.
I also don't think it's necessarily fair that this generalisation still exists. It's like saying "Men are pigs", or "All men only think about sex". Well...yes, those statements might apply to a specific group of males, but not all. And it's very unfair, and unjustified, to assume it IS based on truth.

 

[imnot]

Games like Bioshock (1 at least <_<) look *really* interesting, and it bothers me that I don't personally have the balls to play them. L4D is meant to be kick ass, too, and I can't even watch someone else play it D: Lmao, I'm just a big scardey cat, and don't like war games, I suppose xD

But L4d is hilarious exploding fat people!

 

[Death-of-Penguins]

I'm a girl, I like games. But I know several girls who don't. Though they generally use the excuse of being rubbish at them.
I knew a few of my friends were into them, but unless you ask, a lot of people don't bring it up. I only found out someone I've been speaking to for years is a big gamer when I saw her drawing some rather good Okami art in her sketch pad.

One girl likes FPS games, and anything by Valve and... well, lots. Another is big on zombie and survival horror. Third is an RPG person. Myself? I play most things... but things like Dragon Age, and Final Fantasy and Okami etc sit at the top of my shelf, just above Bioshock and Metal Gear Solid.

Though I have to agree with the above that FPS games tend to be the least popular genre among girls. I think there's an attraction to game with a big story behind why you're killing people.
Who knows.

 

[Aerowaves]

The girl gamers I know tend to love things by Valve, weirdly enough, though they're the intelligent sort as well, and I suppose they don't fathom why I'd want to play something like Halo, Battlefield, or if the mood takes me, yes, CoD.

Not a fan of Valve then?

Valve games are exactly the sort of games that I personally would imagine would have potentially universal appeal, and would consider them for the "intelligent sort" or, more broadly, for those that appreciate the atmosphere, narrative and sense of humour.

Again, this doesn't take personal taste into account.

Also: it's okay you're allowed to like CoD!

 

[pyrosaw]

My sister has played over 680 hours of Left 4 Dead. I think girls like games.

 

[Diligent]

Every single girl I know plays games in some form or another, even if it's just Farmville.
Its basically to the point these days where the statement "No way, I don't play games, games are stupid." sounds about as ridiculous as saying that about movies or music whether you're male or female.

It's just that more girls probably don't play the same genre as you.
While it's true that girls listen to death metal, I think its safe to say there is a higher ratio of females than males that listened to the likes of the backstreet boys or spice girls.
That doesn't suddenly mean that girls don't like death metal.

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

The girl gamers I know tend to love things by Valve, weirdly enough, though they're the intelligent sort as well, and I suppose they don't fathom why I'd want to play something like Halo, Battlefield, or if the mood takes me, yes, CoD.

Not a fan of Valve then?

Valve games are exactly the sort of games that I personally would imagine would have potentially universal appeal, and would consider them for the "intelligent sort" or, more broadly, for those that appreciate the atmosphere, narrative and sense of humour.

Again, this doesn't take personal taste into account.

Also: it's okay you're allowed to like CoD!

Oh, don't get me wrong. I enjoy Valve games a lot.
I just wish they actually made them.

 

[Something Amyss]

I can almost guarantee that if you meet a nice girl at a party she's not going to want to hear about how you owned arse on Medal of Honor last night... Ok, those discussions can be tedious... meh.

I can guarantee most people you meet aren't going to want to hear about it regardless of whether their reproductive organs are on the inside or out. In a social situation like that, at least.

 

[UnderCoverGuest]

Some of the female clients I've had who have mentioned video games usually say things along the lines of "It's brainless!" and "It's too complicated for me!"

It raises an interesting anthropological discussion though, since women are equally as capably intelligent as men, and thanks to the shifting of views on sex and gender roles, women are beginning to receive (and already have made significant advances in the past decades, towards) a more equal education. So women are quite certainly intelligent enough to play something as mind-numbingly thoughtless as...say...Call of Duty. Then there's the evolutionary perspective focusing on the genetic roles that we have been given as human beings; women are incredibly more attuned to sensory functions (evolutionary; for the purpose of finding mates with good genes); it would be rather low of me to state this could mean women are interested in things with more depth than your average first person shooter, and since most games on the console market are first person shooter or fantasy hack and slash games, they simply might not appeal to women...but maybe that thought will contribute somehow. I need to fly now!

But this is a rather silly

 

[minakorocket]

I think that to answer your question as to why girls aren't into games has to do a lot to do with two things.
1) they were never introduced to it properly
2) they don't know any friends (female) that are into it

From what I understand, I was fascinated by video games since I could see my father play them. He would put the game on pause and go make breakfast or whatever and I would unpause and play before I could even talk. (I find it hard to believe, but my dad swears to it)

I was never turned off by video games because I grew up constantly playing them before I could even make friends. I found out though, liking them as a girl made it hard to be friends with other girls. When I went to school and tried to find topics girls liked, it was either... fashion, celebrities, boys, latest diets, gossiping, jewelry... and I found that I was extremely bored by their conversations. In turn, they were very "bored" with me talking about the extremely hard boss that I finally beat after grinding away several hours. I myself enjoy all types of games, shooters, rpgs, action, horror, strategy.

As to how to introduce games to girls? I don't think throwing them right into your Halo game is the way to go. I started introducing games like Viva Pinata and Harvest Moon to a couple of my female friends who were typically turned off by my videogame conversations. Now one of them has moved up to playing Fable III and has been asking to borrow my Fall Out New Vegas game.

I'll also be the first one to admit, if I can play as a female character--I probably will. I think that maybe they could tone down some of the naked/sexy type things going on. It isn't that it bothers me but it bothers other girls who are semi-interested in games but frown upon how the girl looks like a skank. That's just my advice.

---

Unrelated to this thread but I've been trying to find it for quite some time. The first game I played when I was -really, really- little was a game where you played as a boy in a 'dream' or something? He wore pajamas and it was a sidescroller. I can't remember anything beyond that. ((edit : It was on the NES I believe... ))