What games do women play?

[iRevanchist]

Games with story/puzzles, for me at least (f18). Bioware is an excellent company that I and most of my female gamer friends like.
For example, I just finished Bioshock infinite and Bastion (i know, late for the bandwagon).

 

[Talvrae]

Hello I am a woman, we play the same games men do.

Pretty much this for me 3 games... Euh try to get a bit different
1) Mass Effect serie
2) Vampire the Mascarade: Bloodline
3) Baldur's Gate

 

[Lady Larunai]

I play all games and my gf plays, mass effect, saints row, pokemon and minecraft

 

[Zac Jovanovic]

Ex used to play Assman's creed, Skyrim, Dragon Age, The Witcher and a bunch of crappy eastern MMOS.
Most other girls I know either play WoWor stick to facebook style games and hidden object games.

 

[Mimzical]

Two women here. My girlfriend and I play games quite a bit, so I shall do my best to answer for the both of us.

What three games have you played and enjoyed lately?

Myself:
1) Resident Evil 6: I've played so much of this over the past few days it's ridiculous. Finish off Piers and a quick play of Sherry and then I'm done, I swear - likely much to the delight of the girlfriend. She doesn't like games with any kind of horror of jump scare moments at all.
2) Various Pokemon Games, from FireRed to Ruby and Sapphire to Pearl to White. Ahh, nostalgia.
3) Skyrim. I love this game. Free-roaming RPGs set in a time long past are one of my favourite types of games.

Girlfriend:
1) Minecraft: She loves building elaborate creations, and creating maps for us to play through together.
2) Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Awesome game. Doesn't like the horror elements, but loves the game for what it is.
3) Saints Row The Third: Another awesome game.

We usually play COD and Tekken with each other regularly as well.


What is most important for you to enjoy a game?

I like playing all kings of games. There isn't a particular genre that I don't like. What's usually important in most games is a good story (if it is meant to have one), a decent leveling system (if it has one), fluid and intuitive controls, and good aesthetics. And then there's the little things, like if it's an RPG I want to be able to develop my character and alter their stats and appearance as I see fit. If it's Survival Horror/Horror/meant to be scary, I want to feel scared and tense. Etc. Ultimately, whatever the game is trying to bring to it's audience, I enjoy when it's done well.

For my girlfriend,, it's mostly about customising her character and the story that she's following. With this in mind, she mostly like RPGs, MMOs, and whatever genre the Sims games come under (Simulators?).

I don't see the games we play any different from any other female gamers, or any male gamers. Everyone has their own tastes, regardless of gender - even if some games are marketed at a specific one.

 

[Girl With One Eye]

What's the deal with Magic the Gathering : Duels of the Planeswalkers? Do you get to build decks and play em like normal magic or is it another game type with a magic theme? I tried downloading a demo or trial from steam but couldn't get it to run. I'd like to just be able to play magic for fun, standard pauper on MTGO is fine but it'd be nice to play with better stuff without spending money for pixels.

Well I've never played normal MTG, a friend got me into DOTP. But from what I've heard it's basically the same. I've had a lot of fun with it and brought most of the DLC for it too.

 

[blackrave]

Minecraft
.
.
.
Yes, I know I'm not female
But
Minecraft
.
.
.
No, I don't have a girlfriend, or any gaming female relative
But
Minecraft
Because
EVERYONE PLAYS MINECRAFT!!!

 

[Lightknight]

I love the responses that are like "I'm a woman and I play all the same games you do!" then go on to list a bunch of games I don't play. XD In their defense though, it's me that's outside the norm, given that I've pretty much skipped this generation of games... and it's not like they were directly talking to me anywho.

Well, statistically speaking, women do play different or more casual games than males do. So comments like, "girls play the same games guys do" is somewhat contradictory to the studies that have been done.

We need a more modern study though, a lot may have changed since 2009 when 80% of female console gamers had the wii (compared to 41% of males). As far as I've read, the increase of 40% of the market being female to 47% may be directly related to the iOS platforms of gaming.

This is my third time repeating the study, but it doesn't seem to stick that there was an actual statistical difference in play style. As long as there are gender role differences (society driven) then we will see differences here and there. Who knows, maybe homornal differences lead to pyschological differences that impact game preferences.

To the OP, please keep in mind that you are not taking a random sample here. You are on what is largely a gaming website and so the responses should be skewed to the side of people who enjoy involved games and will miss the farm-ville mario party variety. Getting a randomized study sample is the very first step in creating a legitimate study.

 

[Devetta]

I'm a 22 year old female gamer and I soley play on desktop.

Recent games:
1. WOW
2. Bioshock Infinite
3. Arma III

Important factors in games:
Gameplay, to put it simply. I like the controls to be fluid, the difficulty on a nice ramp and the story (if there is one) to be interesting. Graphics aren't a major concern for me.

 

[xeyra]

Hello! I'm 22 and a female and have been playing FTL a lot lately.

I recently got into this too. It's so addicting and frustrating and amazing.

 

[AlexWinter]

I got my ex into playing World of Warcraft as a way of spending time together while I was away at university. Other than that she was into Sims. Sims seems to come up a lot with girls. Other than that I'd say they're into pretty much the same thing we are, if inclined slightly towards the more mainstream.

 

[fwlzdxil]

I'm 23, male. None of my few girlfriends had any interest in games whatsoever.

I like games that don't waste my time, are difficult and give me the tools to overcome their difficulty by providing tight controls or rewarding knowledge and patience. These are mostly fighting games (condenced gameplay, reward knowledge) and beat'em ups that feel "sharp", so no DmC(5), God of War and the like. Art games, that don't pretend to be movies, are OK too, like Flower, Journey, El Shaddai, Shadow of the Colossus.

So, to answer the question, three games I've really enjoyed recently are :
-Tekken Tag 2
-Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge
-Demon's Souls

Favorite game of all time:
-Bayonetta

 

[Clinky]

I admit, my three games are gonna be a little skewed. School has had me REALLY busy as of late so I haven't had time to play anything really intensive as far as gameplay and story goes. I've had to go for stuff that I can pick up and play and easily put down a while later, something tgat just distracts my mind for a little bit to approach my work refreshed. Though that'll likely change once school ends in the next couple weeks and I'm home for the summer. But for now? Not so much.

Three games I've played and enjoyed lately:

Plants Vs. Zombies
- Call it casual all you want this game is really fun. I also love how much they shake it up using different game modes like a slot machine mode, a mode where you play as zombies, and other fun stuff like that.

The Cave
- A pretty nice little game, the puzzles are nice and challenging without being hair ripping levels of frustrating. I'm also having fun learning about the characters and their backstories, I tend to really enjoy black humor. =P

Minecraft
- Honestly I've only really started playing, but I'm really enjoying it. I'm just playing vanilla creative mode with a different texture pack, but I'm having fun with building my dream house and exploring without worrying about dying.

As for what I usually play...

Genre tends to be pretty scattershot with me but in general I love a good story and good characters. Or just all around good writing. As of lately I've been wanting to play some adventure games (point and click, platformer-esque exploration, puzzle with heavy story elements) if that means anything.

Edit: Oh yeah and while I usually tend to really enjoy a game with good story I am also perfectly happy with something that just has enjoyable gameplay. Plants Vs. Zombies and Minecraft have barely any story (if any at all) and I still enjoy those immensely. Same with some other favorites like Rayman Origins and the SSB series.

 

[Hollyday]

Female, 25

Last 3 games were:
1) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
2) Planescape: Torment
3) Torchlight 1

I'm feeling retro at the moment

What is most important for me to enjoy a game?
1) Characters I can root for
2) A storyline that genuinely interests me (even if it's a cliched as hell "Hero's journey")
3) Gameplay that is varied and fun (a bit of puzzle-solving and a healthy dose of combat that isn't just button mashing)

 

[nekoali]

Well, as a lot of people have already said, women play the same sort of games as men, and for the same reasons. It's about personalities and interests, not gender. For the sake of the poll though, I'm female, in my 40s. I play mostly RPGs, MMOs, story based shooters (your Mass Effect/Bioshock/Fallout sort of games) with a smattering of other games.

My three latest most-played games are:
1. Star Wars The Old Republic
2. Rift
3. Minecraft

 

[prophecy2514]

Cooking, and or Ironing.







No seriously, they play the same games you or I do. Girls aren't so different then their male counterparts mate, there's just less of them.

 

[SoranMBane]

A 20-year-old female, the three games I've played the most recently are Minecraft, Don't Starve, and Torchlight 2 (along with a good amount of time with Fallout 1).

As for what I find most important to enjoy a game, it really depends on my mood, but in general I'd say it's either an engaging story or an interesting aesthetic that can get me to truly love a game. I also really enjoy a game that allows me to be creative in some way, whether in the Minecraft way of building things, the RPG way of creating a character and making story choices, or the Dishonored way of choosing my playstyle. Providing opportunities to horribly murder something is also a good way to keep me interested.

 

[Chemical Alia]

I haven't had proper free time to play games (or do anything) in a very long time. I'll buy games and they sit on the shelf in shrink wrap for months. I'd love to play more games, but my more important priorities don't really allow it (work, art).

That said, I'm 30, female. Last game I finished was the Walking Dead game, which was very fun (despite crappy art). I bought Tomb Raider and played about three hours until the story and gameplay got super boring. I played the first 30 minutes of Bioshock, and it's nice so far and I'll pick that back up in a few weeks. And I still play Tf2, usually with people at work. Been having a lot of fun with that. I also like to play Mario games and classic games with a group of friends.

I don't touch jrpgs (or rpgs in general, for the most part) or anime shit, just a strong personal preference. Don't care for sports games, either. I also have very little interest in "creating your own character", but maybe that's because most games that let yiu do that don't grab me to begin with.

 

[Terramax]

My 16 yo sister plays all Nintendo games. She laps that shit up. Mainly pokemon.

She also plays Kingdom Hearts. Your typical girlie gamer I guess.