I'm used to reading lots of 'no, really?' news on a variety of subjects, but it does seem that gaming gets the worst of the lot. In a report that Reuters describes as "shatter[ing] a widely held industry belief,' it's revealed that ... men like casual games, too! They just don't like to admit it. And don't want to pay for it, thus are more likely to look for ways to obtain free copies or get around anti-piracy measures. I'm not sure why this is a shocking disclosure, considering we're talking about games like Bejeweled, not Dash For the Manolo Blahnik Clearance Rack:

"Everyone always thought that casual games were something that only appeal to women," Jessica Tams, managing director of the [Casual Games Association], said in an interview. "We have always been obsessed about making games for women."

Surveys of players showed that while nearly three-fourths of people who bought casual games were women, the players of such games were split 50-50 between the sexes.

The reason men have not been reflected in the data so far is because most males are fans of realistic, "hard-core" games, and many do not admit that they like to play simpler games involving shiny gems or lines of colored balls.

I can't understand why having some casual games on your laptop (or your 360, for that matter) is some shameful secret - a case of 'real men don't play PopCap games'?

Men also avid players of casual video games: study [Reuters via CNET]

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