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Hey Guys, There Are More Ladies Gaming Than Ever Before
Denver, 7:41 PM
Mon Nov 30
39 posts in the last 24 hours
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Hey Guys, There Are More Ladies Gaming Than Ever Before |
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06/30/09
06/30/09
You're not really a "gamer," in my opinion, until games are something more than a coincidentally available option to you. Games have to occupy a decent amount of your free time. You don't have to be hardcore, but you should generally be able and willing to seek out new games, unaided, because the subject interests you. And try as I might, I just don't see my girlfriend doing that if she didn't have a Wii. Nor do I see many other girls with Wiis doing the same. These girls aren't gamers; they're people who happen to own games. Merely owning games or gaming systems doesn't make you a gamer anymore than owning a tennis racket makes you a tennis player, or owning a set of golf clubs makes you a golfer. The accoutrements are a necessary, but not sufficient precondition.
That's not to say that there aren't legitimate girl gamers out there. There are. But if we took a serious look at the numbers, subtracting all the fairweather Wii chicks and Sims chicks, we'd see a more realistic picture of who, among actual gamers, really has a vajayjay.
06/30/09
A lot of young girls today are going to grow up to be playing more serious games like us. When that comes... expect a major shift in video gaming as we know it.
06/30/09
Look at music or movies or whatever you want to as an analogue. Does the fact that "chick flicks" get made in any way, shape, or form mean there are fewer tentpole action movies being released? Or dude-centric comedies? Hardly.
Furthermore, it's not like the girls who are entering gaming are replacing guys going out. So the pie is getting larger, not getting split. More girls means more gamers OVERALL, which means a bigger industry, which means more games. I don't see how this can be anything other than a boon to all of us.
06/30/09
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06/30/09
For those, there are so many reports on the percentages of female gamers out there that it is difficult to nail down. But from various studies posted online, it seems that women gamers are between 38 and 43 percent of the total gamer population.
In 2006, the Entertainment Software Association reported that 44 percent of women play online. And make up 38% of the market, too. Whereas Nielsen Entertainment's third annual Active Gamer Benchmark Study, also released in 2006, stated that 64% of the US nation's 117 million online gamers are women.
IBISWorld in 2008 reported that 38% of gamers in the US are female.
In 2008 as well, International Games Developers Association reports that 40% of gamers are women.
Personally, I think it is great. The industry and games can only benefit from more inclusion.
06/30/09
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06/30/09
Why did you even read this article and then take the time to reply to it? Whyyy?? I just don't get it.
And why did I reply? Because i'm avoiding work, that's why.
06/30/09
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06/30/09
Gaming is opening up to a wider audience, and consoles themselves are becoming social devices for the common tech savvy individual.
Seriously, I was just thinking today how profitable it was of Microsoft to incorporate Facebook and Twitter to the 360. It would definitely bring my sister to operate a console instead of waiting for Rock Band or Guitar Hero to appear on screen.
06/30/09
Yeah, that's the thing. It's always been sort of appealing to think of girls playing the same sort of games that we play, but that's not what's happening at all.
The audience isn't expanding, so much as the types of games are expanding. There's is probably no more of a percentage of women playing core games than there were 5 years ago.
This articles seem to be asking for us to get all excited and yell "OMGA TEH HOT GIRLS ARE GONNA BE PLAYING LEFT 4 DEAD WITH ME!!!"
Unfortunately, that's not how it is. Teh hawt Girlz are not flocking in for left 4 dead. They are flocking in to play Guitar Hero, FUN WII GAMES, and to use Facebook on their brother's xbox.
Seriously, their kind of gaming is a whole different kind of gaming. It's like comparing feature films to 30 minute cartoons. They are wildly different animals, so it looks like the days of "PLAYING STARCRAFT WITH TEH HAWT GIRLZ" are still a ways off.
06/30/09
06/30/09
Yeah, there's that, and the fact that it's already a mainly-male community. I can't understand the hesitation to jump into a game with 7 people of the opposite sex.
06/30/09
I feel like most of this line of thinking stems from the fact that we're treated like a different species or something; like a girl playing an FPS or RPG isn't something that can happen in real life. It's pretty ridiculous, if you really think about it. What makes us so different from guys as gamers? Hell, I play Left 4 Dead, Starcraft AND Guitar Hero; Dead Space, Prince of Persia (classic and new), InFamous, Madworld, The Conduit, Uncharted, MGS, Civilization, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Modern Warfare, Dead Rising, Mirror's Edge, Fallout, even Halo, Gears of War, etc....a lot of us play a variety of games, even the ones you guys do.
Gaming as a hobby and as an industry could advance so much farther if they realized that the biggest difference between a female gamer and a male gamer is that they are less attracted to the half-naked, balloon chested women that are plastered on the game case. A gamer is a gamer is a gamer; gender has very little to do with it.
06/30/09
Also with the uh..........Imagine games -_-
06/30/09
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Granted, I'm about as male as you get without being male...
06/30/09
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06/30/09
Lordy Lou! Where is your mind at?
06/30/09
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06/30/09
No really, if someone can Photoshop them together, with that subtitle, or perhaps something better, then we've got ourselves a WINNER!
Please? Anyone?
"PWETTY PWEASE???" *shows puppy dog eyes*
06/30/09
Now, tell me, how many of them are in the 18-27 range, and good looking at that? Hm?
06/30/09
...and aren't sick of desperate guys hitting on them while they try and play.
06/30/09
A couple of them will brush it off, but most just roll with the punches and are just as lewd and perverted as the guys can be. It's a real treat hangin' out with 'em. Girls are people too. They don't always need internet e-knights coming to their rescue to save the day or stand up for them.
06/30/09
Where did that whole stereotype of "only fat chicks game" come from?
Last time I checked I weighted like 110 pounds.
@Xelmon: I only know one friend who's hot and she loves video games. Too bad a lot of people on WoW keep on asking her for blow jobs.
06/30/09
Wha--? Awwww...
*takes off shining e-armor*
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06/30/09
Oh god, if that's not a turn down for all of the ladies, I don't know what is.
Hell, just the other a lady joined our forums, and I jokingly asked her if anyone asked her to take away their virginity.
The answer was no, but an "OH Mah Gawd you are hawt! How old are you?"
06/30/09
.... YYyeeeaaahhhh, that's the kind of thing I'm talking about.
06/30/09
*plops down his nasty looking power armor next to it*
You got some de-greaser?
06/30/09
Oh no, rubbish! It's just the few that I know of, and all of them have boyfriends anyways.
As for Steve... Uhm... Maybe? :P
06/30/09
Oh, wait, I'm more than double the age range you are seeking. And married. Besides, do you want to marry a FPS fan? No, they are too quick-tempered.
Seriously, I suspect the older female gamer outnumbers the older male gamer. This is based on the totally scientific method of looking around at my friends in the 50-80 age range. The men don't game. The women do. You just need to wait around 30 years and you'll have our pick of gaming gals!
By the way, this string of comments have my vote for sexist comments of the day.
06/30/09
Aren't stereotypes fun?
06/30/09
P.S. My gf is also a kotakuite, as well as a gamer with a Wii as well as a 360. It's a great way for us to bond when I'm away. And yes, she is very attractive. So, yeah, you can tally one against your stereotype.
06/30/09
As far as the older demographic goes, however, just looking at my own family, the older women are far more inclined to play games than men (though it's usually free online stuff, mind you).
06/30/09
Generalizations ARE fun! Thanks!
06/30/09
06/30/09
Prolly promise of sugar or movies afterward.
06/30/09
06/30/09
-Girl: "Look, I'm sorry, but I'm getting tired of all these pick up lines from you lately."
"First you tell me 'Our love will be a Revolution.',
then you say 'Would you like to play with Mii?',
then you have to go so far and say 'Wii can Balance this out, girl.'"
"What's next?! 'Our love is Code for "Kind".'?!"
-Guy: "I was thinking more along the lines of, 'I can Sense our love like as if it was one Vitality'"...
-Girl: "GET OUT. NOW."
-Guy: *walks away, head down in shame*