Stats on console and portable gaming device ownsership

[Erttheking]

Something interesting information about who owns consoles and portable gaming devices in the middle of a report on electronic ownership.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/the-demographics-of-device-ownership/

Turns out the gender ratio is evenly split for portable gaming consoles and 37% of men own consoles while 42% of women own consoles

So there's plenty of ways that this could be sliced. Men could still be dominate in the PC scene, maybe women only buy one or two games, but can we agree on something? They own consoles. A significant number of women own consoles. They play portable gaming devices too. They do more than just play dollar games on their smart phones like everyone says so. I'm tired of that old stereotype. Women have a presence in gaming. Can we admit THAT!? (If you're going to say "but I didn't say that" then this complaint wasn't directed at you)

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Apparently this study cited psp and sega genesis as examples of portables. It doesn't look like they know what they're saying all that much.


Also you must kinda differentiate between owning a console and actually using the console that you own. I own a ps1 but I haven't used the thing in like 15 years. I could see this being the case with some people and their reporting of their "sega genesis" lol.



But yes obviously women own consoles, nobody's saying they don't I don't think. People are just saying the statistic about the gamer population being 50% female is misleading. It's not something directly tied to console ownership.

 

[Erttheking]

Apparently this study cited psp and sega genesis as examples of portables. It doesn't look like they know what they're saying all that much.


Also you must kinda differentiate between owning a console and actually using the console that you own. I own a ps1 but I haven't used the thing in like 15 years. I could see this being the case with some people and their reporting of their "sega genesis" lol.



But yes obviously women own consoles, nobody's saying they don't I don't think. People are just saying the statistic about the gamer population being 50% female is misleading. It's not something directly tied to console ownership.

You'd be surprised. Every single time people bring up the 50% of women in gaming statistic, it's always rebuked by claims that women just play casual games (in a way that makes me feel like gaming hasn't gotten over its hate boner for casuals) on their smart phones.

As for the Genesis thing, yeah I thought that was weird too, but frankly it could just be a typo and I have little reason to suspect the data overall for being inaccurate.

 

[Aerosteam]

Just because someone owns a gaming console doesn't mean they use it for gaming.

I mean, there's so many things to factor in and the majority of them being subjective, there's literally no use for a statistic such as "50% of gamers are female" and surveys like these are just a waste of time.

 

[Erttheking]

Any source of how they gathered that data? What did they define as a gaming console and a portable gaming console and did they make that clear to the recipient (a tablet can be defined as both for example)? How do they define "ownership", my mother technically bought my PS2, does that make her own that. Also 1907 people is extremely low sample.

A gaming console is...a gaming console. What else what it be? And a porting gaming console is a porting gaming console. Again, not sure what else that would be (Though apparently they screwed up with the Sega Genesis thing) as for how, apparently they made phone calls. And would your mother reply that that was her PS2? I highly doubt it. People answered these calls personally and when a parent who bought their kid a console but never used it themselves were asked "Do you own a console" they'd probably say no.

Considering that apparently a 2000 person study has, on average, only a 2.2% margin of error, not really.

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/Soc_participants.shtml

 

[Phasmal]

Oh, erttheking, I know you mean well, but threads like this are just going to be a list of reasons why this "doesn't count".

It's so ingrained into these discussions that when I see a new study on this sort of thing, I don't think "Oh, nice, more information about lady gamers and how we're not unicorns and all". No, I think "Oh, I wonder why I'll be told this one doesn't count.

This does remind me though, when I bought my PS4, the bloke serving me looked confusedly over at my boyfriend (while I was paying for it) and said slowly "So... this is for... you then?". Pfft. Nope.

 

[Erttheking]

Just because someone owns a gaming console doesn't mean they use it for gaming.

I mean, there's so many things to factor in and the majority of them being subjective, there's literally no use for a statistic such as "50% of gamers are female" and surveys like these are just a waste of time.

Fair enough, but can you really say the same thing about handheld gaming devices? 3DSs and PS Vitas are really only good for gaming. Their internet capabilities are underwhelming.

 

[Erttheking]

Oh, erttheking, I know you mean well, but threads like this are just going to be a list of reasons why this "doesn't count".

It's so ingrained into these discussions that when I see a new study on this sort of thing, I don't think "Oh, nice, more information about lady gamers and how we're not unicorns and all". No, I think "Oh, I wonder why I'll be told this one doesn't count.

This does remind me though, when I bought my PS4, the bloke serving me looked confusedly over at my boyfriend (while I was paying for it) and said slowly "So... this is for... you then?". Pfft. Nope.

Well...I'm not one to let the discussion die out.

To quote a famous play "Not being heard is not a reason to be silent."

 

[Phasmal]

Well...I'm not one to let the discussion die out.

To quote a famous play "Not being heard is not a reason to be silent."

Nah, and I appreciate that. It's nice, and I do find studies like this interesting... and also... find the reaction somewhat interesting. While I don't understand the reaction against them, it's certainly something to think about.

EDIT: I'd also be interested to know what stats wouldn't automatically make most dudes call bullshit. What numbers do they think are right? I spoke with someone about this before and they gave me a ridiculous number like 3%.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Apparently this study cited psp and sega genesis as examples of portables. It doesn't look like they know what they're saying all that much.


Also you must kinda differentiate between owning a console and actually using the console that you own. I own a ps1 but I haven't used the thing in like 15 years. I could see this being the case with some people and their reporting of their "sega genesis" lol.



But yes obviously women own consoles, nobody's saying they don't I don't think. People are just saying the statistic about the gamer population being 50% female is misleading. It's not something directly tied to console ownership.

You'd be surprised. Every single time people bring up the 50% of women in gaming statistic, it's always rebuked by claims that women just play casual games (in a way that makes me feel like gaming hasn't gotten over its hate boner for casuals) on their smart phones.

As for the Genesis thing, yeah I thought that was weird too, but frankly it could just be a typo and I have little reason to suspect the data overall for being inaccurate.

Yes and as I explained, owning a console doesn't necessarily mean you USE the console and not your phone or whatever. That's a very big logic leap to make.


How do you make a typo for two whole words that aren't akin to other words of names of portables. It's not like there's been any relevant sega portables in the last 20~ years and the game gear was barely relevant even back when it was new! I don't think this is a "typo" in any sense of the word.


Also, how many people do you think still game on their PSPs for that matter. I think these researchers sound too uninformed that they'd take something akin to the respondents owning their console from when they were young, ones that they don't actually use any more, and include it as equivalent to people who play on ps vita and 3ds. It kinda makes the whole methodology seem shaky at best.

 

[Aerosteam]

Just because someone owns a gaming console doesn't mean they use it for gaming.

I mean, there's so many things to factor in and the majority of them being subjective, there's literally no use for a statistic such as "50% of gamers are female" and surveys like these are just a waste of time.

Fair enough, but can you really say the same thing about handheld gaming devices? 3DSs and PS Vitas are really only good for gaming. Their internet capabilities are underwhelming.

Considering the examples for portable consoles they gave are a dead one and one that isn't even portable, I'm not even sure that part of the article is reliable, but I'll answer anyway.

So for the 3DS, absolutely, stats for both genders being the same is to be expected considering all the most popular games (Mario, Pokemon, Zelda) are really for anyone, even still you have Animal Crossing which is more popular with girls to balance things out. That being said, I'm sure everyone knows this, so stats for the 3DS are still, y'know, useless because they never surprise anyone.

As for the PS Vita... that's a VERY different entity to the 3DS, even if it's another handheld console. It's dying, even Sony have said they're not making any AAA games for it, and I'm not sure if you know this, but the Vita is really only used for JRPG's and visual novels nowadays, both that I'm sure are for males mostly (again, not surprising if stats are shown).

 

[Erttheking]

Any source of how they gathered that data? What did they define as a gaming console and a portable gaming console and did they make that clear to the recipient (a tablet can be defined as both for example)? How do they define "ownership", my mother technically bought my PS2, does that make her own that. Also 1907 people is extremely low sample.

A gaming console is...a gaming console. What else what it be? And a porting gaming console is a porting gaming console. Again, not sure what else that would be (Though apparently they screwed up with the Sega Genesis thing) as for how, apparently they made phone calls. And would your mother reply that that was her PS2? I highly doubt it. People answered these calls personally and when a parent who bought their kid a console but never used it themselves were asked "Do you own a console" they'd probably say no.

Considering that apparently a 2000 person study has, on average, only a 2.2% margin of error, not really.

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/Soc_participants.shtml

But still I'd kinda want to see their methods and their questioning methods to see if it really checks out, the way you phrase a question can dramatically change the response, if my mother were asked if she owns a gaming console in her house or if she uses the gaming console the answers are going to be different. And most people don't really know what is and not a gaming console, yes you can use a tablet for other things, but playing Candy Crush is gaming, no?

The question about the number depends on how differnt the people they took them from.

Well, sadly this is all I got on the matter. Anything else would probably require in depth knowledge on exactly how surverys work, which seems to be a bit more complicated than you might think. Absolutely true about the phrasing changing the answer. I wish I could give you more info but this is all I got. True, but since they have things like MP3 players under other surveys you'd think they'd be smart enough to avoid that.

That's true, but not so much when it comes to gender overall.

 

[Barbas]

I don't get it, I'm afraid. It's one thing just reposting or reporting information, but what did you want to talk about?

 

[Erttheking]

Snip

Technically true. But one thing that always drove me crazy is objections like that, while perfectly logical, only ever seem to get brought up when talking about how many women game. When it's just men you never see arguments like that. And it just drives me insane.

Hell if I know man...hell if I know. I just overlook it because there's no other indicator that the data is faulty. You see anything major that points to that, just let me know and I'll eat my words.

Actually that makes more sense than you might think at first sight, considering how pathetically the PS Vita is doing. People who played handheld are five times more likely to own a PSP rather than a PS Vita (Rounding down, 10 million Vitas have been sold while 50 million PSPs have been sold). Hell, my best friend has that set up going.

 

[Erttheking]

I don't get it, I'm afraid. It's one thing just reposting or reporting information, but what did you want to talk about?

That women had a presence in gaming as proved by the fact that more women own consoles than men because this is something that is frequently disputed on this very website...did I word my arguments that badly?

 

[Erttheking]

Just because someone owns a gaming console doesn't mean they use it for gaming.

I mean, there's so many things to factor in and the majority of them being subjective, there's literally no use for a statistic such as "50% of gamers are female" and surveys like these are just a waste of time.

Fair enough, but can you really say the same thing about handheld gaming devices? 3DSs and PS Vitas are really only good for gaming. Their internet capabilities are underwhelming.

Considering the examples for portable consoles they gave are a dead one and one that isn't even portable, I'm not even sure that part of the article is reliable, but I'll answer anyway.

So for the 3DS, absolutely, stats for both genders being the same is to be expected considering all the most popular games (Mario, Pokemon, Zelda) are really for anyone, even still you have Animal Crossing which is more popular with girls to balance things out. That being said, I'm sure everyone knows this, so stats for the 3DS are still, y'know, useless because they never surprise anyone.

As for the PS Vita... that's a VERY different entity to the 3DS, even if it's another handheld console. It's dying, even Sony have said they're not making any AAA games for it, and I'm not sure if you know this, but the Vita is really only used for JRPG's and visual novels nowadays, both that I'm sure are for males mostly (again, not surprising if stats are shown).

On the note of the PSP I think that was a good option because there are still 7 PSPs sold for every Vita sold as for the Sega Genesis...ok I have no idea what the hell happened there. I still think it's reliable but I can understand why you don't.

I dunno. People seem to really argue over these stats whenever they come up.

Like I said, there are still 7 PSPs out there for every Vita, so even if every person who bought a PSP bought a Vita and a million people who bought a PSP broke theirs and bought a replacement that would still be 5 million people who own a PSP and not a Vita. JRPGs and visual novels? I thought those were more popular among women (Thought, I can't find any stats to back that up.)

 

[Barbas]

I don't get it, I'm afraid. It's one thing just reposting or reporting information, but what did you want to talk about?

That women had a presence in gaming as proved by the fact that more women own consoles than men...did I word my arguments that badly?

Yeah, but...so? That's been a reasonably certain thing for years and I'm glad steadily less of them are feeling to alienated to join in. But I get the impression that you primarily made the OP as a body for the poll that says the views you're tired of are wrong. If that's the case, I think you may be overestimating how seriously views like that are actually treated, at least on this site. The poll's interesting enough stuff, but alone it's not enough for the thread, which feels more like retreading old ground than anything really profound. It's an informative titbit that seems more suited to a group chat, to be honest.

I notice you tend to make threads in this particular vein, which I'm not complaining about since it's your right to do so, but the last paragraph of this one in particular made me wonder where you keep hearing the views you mentioned and who it is you're actually addressing with the way that it's worded. I mean, when I was reading through some of that I stopped and raised both eyebrows, because the words "what are you really angry about?" jumped to mind.

Though it probably isn't something you want, I think you might get more people picking apart the stats in the poll because there isn't anything else I can see to talk about. I can understand that this is an important issue to you, but I think this might need some reworking because you've lost focus somewhere. As it stands, I don't think this has a lot of substance and approaches rant territory.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

It's a shame we have to keep doing these studies to show women are valid gamers, even though the gate keepers of gaming will not likely believe the studies anyhow.

It's a shame that the gate keepers of gamers are, bluntly, deluded enough to think that people like being forcibly marginalized, and on top of that should be quiet about it.