Poll: Just less girl gamers?

[Jessta]

So I've been seeing a bunch of threads like are girls different for gaming and such, and my post has always been that they are not, there are just less girls who find games appealing than guys. Now I grew up on a REALLY isolated island with allot of bias opinions thrust onto me by my peers so it might just be there are only less female gamers 'here' not in general, hell theres only a handful of male gamers here who play more than the occasional round of halo and their I-phone games.
So this thread is pretty much to help me understand that whether my theory is right or wrong, and if its right to what extent. Heh it might also be because out of 100 students in our school 26 are girls, really terrible guy to girl ratio >_<

By making these threads your just making us feel more alienated and singled out btw.

Hmmmm you're right I can see how the threads could make girls feel more alienated, how do I delete this thing? if someone else strolls by, please don't bump it... Although to be fair I wasn't really targeting it as a 'you people' kind of thread, I was just interested in seeing if I was right before I blab my mouth, I understand that people can't be all clumped together and be said to have a singular opinion/interest type thing... but still if it makes you as an individual uncomfortable then I will try to undo the wrong I have done, I'm sorry.

 

[frozen_scarecrow]

I can at least give an example from my dorm, which is co-ed. Almost all the guys on my floor, about 20, play some kind of game, most of us are "hardcore." On the other hand, there are only 2 girls I can think of who play anything over Angry birds. So I think I agree. It's not that girls don't play, or that they are some different breed, they're just not as interested.

 

[ultrachicken]

Male "hardcore" here, and I think you'll find that there is quite an uneven split between the genders.

 

[TeeBs]

I'm gonna go on a limb and say English is not OPs first language.

If I got the general idea of what this thread is asking. I am a male gamer, somewhere between Hardcore and Moderate and the stereotype is slightly true, there are less girl gamers then boy gamers, but I would say that is become more and more untrue. Seeing as how more girls have started to play casual games.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

By making these threads your just making us feel more alienated and singled out btw.

I kind of go from hardcore to moderate depending on how I feel. I think the game industry stops needing to see us as a seperate entity and just be more considerate in the mainstream games. I lov ethe fact that mass effect allows you to play as a female Shepard for example. It's that kind of thing we need not Barbie's Vacation or whatever. I wouldn't even play that crap when I was little nevermind now. I actually enjoy playing the sims 3 because it's relaxing like Dwarf Fortress but somtimes I want to shoot somthing in the face.

I wish people would stop saying that women only play casual games too it drives me insane.

 

[Merkavar]

really terrible guy to girl ratio >_<

you might as well turn gay for a few years then

OT: i would say that if your looking at gamers as a whole then the proportion of girls as hard core would be lower than for guys.

but if you exclude all the non games like solitaire and bejeweled and farmville then the proportions i would think would even out but there are just less girls.

but i dont see why it matters if there are more or less males and females and whether or not someone is hardcore or casual. hell hardcore and casual dont even have a generally agreed upon definition.

I wish people would stop saying that women only play casual games too it drives me insane.

i think people say that cause statistically thats what you female types do. but like i said above casual games arent really games. the stats get scued(sp?) by all the 40 year old girls that play farmville and bejewelled. like i have heard a few times that the average game isnt a 20 year old male its a 30 year old female.

 

[ramboondiea]

male casual, i end up playing a couple hours a week max, just not the time for long sessions

 

[AngelicSven]

Hmm, I never got this "Girls that play games are rare." thing, wherever I've lived (That may be because I've only lived in large cities), there's always been more than a handful of women that play games and play very well, and play mainstream stuff...not Angry Birds. I've met women in WoW, CoD, Halo, L4D, MvC3, SF4, and many others.



Maybe it's just location thing, that and the "Hay. A gurl. Let's cyber." guys, which typically causes women to hide their gender. Though they aren't rare by any means and are increasing by the day.

 

[greatcloudninja]

Just going to point out that I joined Escapist Forums so that I could vote on this poll and put in my two cents.

I voted female moderate, but depending on the game I can go pretty hardcore with it. I just play a rather small selection of games: mainly RPG games, both pure and hybrid (like Mass Effect). To give an idea of the games I play, I play Pokemon, the Phoenix Wright series, most of the later Final Fantasy games (from VII onward, not counting XI), the Kingdom Hearts series (I got a PSP specifically for Birth By Sleep), the Mass Effect series, the Fable series, and various Wii games like Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. I also adore puzzle games like the Professor Layton series, although the only one in the series that I actually own is Unwound Future. I own a PSP, a DS Lite, a Wii, and a PS3, and I occasionally play games on my boyfriend's XBox 360.

I'm not a huge fan of FPS games or fighting games, but I also hate most of the games that are targeted toward girls. My female friends who play games like to play anything from Fable to Dragon Age to Batman: Arkham Asylum. No one I know has ever, or would ever touch America's Next Top Model, Babysitting Mama, or any of the "Imagine" series of games, because those games are really being marketed toward younger girls. I have yet to see a series being marketed specifically to older teen and young adult girls. If games are marketed to "women" instead of to "girls", it's likely being marketed as "buy this for your child/husband/boyfriend/brother!"

But while it would be nice to see the gaming industry take notice of all the female college age/young adult gamers, I would much rather see games being equally marketed to males and females. I want TV spots for Mass Effect 3 to show gameplay video featuring a female Shepard, regardless of whatever Bioware's "canon" is supposed to be. I want to see advertisements for the next generation of consoles where a woman is playing with a man, and the woman beats him because she is better--and he knows it. But I would be just as happy seeing a man and a woman playing together regardless of who wins.

Most importantly, I want a future where women can play Call of Duty or Halo without being told to "go back to the kitchen" or being harassed with vulgar, disgusting commentary (see www.fatuglyorslutty.com for some examples of what female gamers face on XBox Live or the PlayStation Network).

Sorry about the rant. But yeah, I'm a girl who plays video games; most of the girls I know own at least one console and don't just play "casual" Flash or iPhone games. It's just that most girls I know who play video games don't spend the majority of their time on web forums like these where polls like this are being answered; they're either playing their games or they are out living their lives. "Girl gamers", to me, are the girls who put up sexy photos of themselves on the internet to get items from guys on World of Warcraft, or who flaunt their gender on XBox Live expecting to get preferential treatment. They put their gender ahead of the fact that they play video games.

 

[moretimethansense]

Hmmmm you're right I can see how the threads could make girls feel more alienated, how do I delete this thing? if someone else strolls by, please don't bump it... Although to be fair I wasn't really targeting it as a 'you people' kind of thread, I was just interested in seeing if I was right before I blab my mouth, I understand that people can't be all clumped together and be said to have a singular opinion/interest type thing... but still if it makes you as an individual uncomfortable then I will try to undo the wrong I have done, I'm sorry.

For the love of god man!
It's one individual feeling somewhat offended by an honest question, grow some fucking cajones!

Male, Hardcore.

I find that it's just that gming is still considered a boys club, so to speak, and as such fewer girls are willing to give it a chance.
Also, fewer girls that actually play games will be inclined to make their presense known for much the same reason.

Incedently, have you noticed that when asked, most non-gamers will admit they've either never actually played a game, or alternitivly didn't give them much of a chance?

Snip

Nice rant, pretty much spot on, I also checked that site and I've got to say:

This is the first time I've ever been genuinely ashamed of my gender and my gaming habits, it's gets like that that make the rest of us look bad, men and gamers.

Also welcome to the escapist, *insert basement in joke* and enjoy your stay.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Male casual - moderate.

Not really known any women that are into games except my sister and even then she is strictly genre specific. Certainly I've known plenty of women/girls that might have a go on a game socially when hanging out round someones house when the games get switched on and some of them have got pretty good at certain games because of that but I've never met a woman that actually owns her own machine or routinely buys games for PC(except my sister).

Hmmmm you're right I can see how the threads could make girls feel more alienated, how do I delete this thing? if someone else strolls by, please don't bump it... Although to be fair I wasn't really targeting it as a 'you people' kind of thread, I was just interested in seeing if I was right before I blab my mouth, I understand that people can't be all clumped together and be said to have a singular opinion/interest type thing... but still if it makes you as an individual uncomfortable then I will try to undo the wrong I have done, I'm sorry.

For the love of god man!
It's one individual feeling somewhat offended by an honest question, grow some fucking cajones!

Listen to IRL Zoidberg, he knows what's what.