Gender and Games

Gender and Games

People often look at gaming as something that unsocial males do alone, and only a few odd females play at all. 

In reality, games are becoming more and more social due to the evolution in gaming pushing it towards the internet for multiplayer gaming. On top of that, while it is true that males do play longer than females in general, both genders actually play just about the same amount of games.

This came as a surprise to me as a gamer, I have the mindset that whether an online character is male or female, one could assume it is probably a male player regardless.

Still, while females statistically play almost as much games as males do, when you look at the bigger picture, males still collectively spend the most amount of time playing games (by far). This would suggest that females are rarely attracted to non-casual games, which require a lot more time dedication from the player.

The question is, what is it about gaming that is less attractive for females than for males. On a logical level, gaming itself should be just as interesting for both genders, the main problem seems to lie in the target audience for triple A games. 

It is very common that triple A games (the ones being commonly sold and advertised) are mostly at males, and sometimes at both genders, and almost never exclusively for females. Knowing this information, it is no surprise that women play less overall in comparism to guys.

Think about it, as guys if all the triple A games were all about ponies and shopping for shoes we would probably lose a good part of our interest in gaming as well. (Sorry if that sounds sexist, I mean to say this in a humorous tone.)