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More Women Than Men Play Games After 25 76

Posted by Zonk from the not-a-boys-club dept.
GameDailyBiz is running an article on a study recently conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association. They found that, in the demographic of people aged 25-34, more women than men play games. This is largely the result of the 'casual' games market. From the article: "The CEA study found that 65 percent of women in the 25-34 age bracket play videogames, while only 35 percent of men in that group said that they play videogames. Apparently, the key factor involved with these findings is the increasing popularity of casual games, especially among women. Women were found to be slightly less likely than men in the 25-34 bracket to play traditional console games on systems like the PlayStation 2 or Xbox, while they gravitated more heavily towards simple types of games like Tetris or other puzzle games and card games like solitaire."
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More Women Than Men Play Games After 25 More

More Women Than Men Play Games After 25

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  • This is a lowball estimate (Score:4, Funny)

    by Asshat Canada ( 804093 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2006 @10:24AM (#15148809)
    ALL the women I have ever met play games

  • Sure, here are some of my favorites ... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Do I look fat in this?
    Do these shoes match?
    How do you like my hair?
    How old do I look?
    What are you thinking about?
    Can I borrow your credit card?
  • A new dating service has been formed targetting females aged 24-35, promissing to link up gamers with gamerettes. Stock in Russian Mail-order Brides reported down.
    • Anybody remember the ad in it from April of a few years back where they offered a "mail order bride" parody service to get you in touch with Russian gamer girls? They were described as being fans of GURPS and games with heavy detail. Apparently, they got a LOT of calls to the number they gave from desperate guys who didn't realize it was a joke.

      You post reminded me ot this.
    • Don't worry, the mail-order-bride market will rebound once the potential suitors realize their new match is Gladys, 64, unemployed, with terminal hypochondria, who frequents Pogo.com.

  • yea... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Joe the Lesser ( 533425 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2006 @10:30AM (#15148878) Homepage Journal
    They just needed something besides killing. I mean, ever since NagMaster 2000 came out....
  • Women are more likely than men to be stay-at-home parents, so wouldn't that give women more opportunities to play casual games during their free time (and not get in trouble for doing the same thing in the office)?

    • Misconception ! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by bateleur ( 814657 )
      I'm about halfway through a sabbatical year (away from a fairly high-end programming job). During this year, my main activities consist of looking after the house and my two four year old twins.

      If you think I have time to play games during the day, you've got some serious misconceptions !

      On the other hand, my wife gets home from her job as a government economist and still manages to play video games most nights.

      Really I think what's going on here is that the 35% is total nonsense. They must have surveyed al
      • They must have surveyed all the guys in a golf club lounge or something.

        That, or any WoW server. It's quite lucrative having tits in a MMORPG if you choose to exploit it. Nobody would lie in an online survey after all, god forbid!
    • Who modded this flamebait? He / She stated a fact that (at least in the US) women are traditionally the stay at home parents. The second sentence was a bit of a jab but he / she does bring up a good point. This was probably modded down by some politically correct neo-feminist who hates men but hypocritically uses them to get ahead.

      See! Now THATS flamebait!

      (Its a joke. Laugh)
  • "More Women Than Men Play Games After 25"

    Because men have full-time jobs.

  • solitare and hearts (Score:3, Insightful)

    by sd.fhasldff ( 833645 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2006 @10:35AM (#15148929)
    Millions and millions of people play these pre-installed MS games. Most of them women in an office setting.
    • I don't even count it as gaming. But then, the article does say this:

      Women were found to be slightly less likely than men in the 25-34 bracket to play traditional console games on systems like the PlayStation 2 or Xbox, while they gravitated more heavily towards simple types of games like Tetris or other puzzle games and card games like solitaire. These casual titles are typically found on web portals like Yahoo!, AOL Games, PopCap Games, EA's Pogo.com and elsewhere.

      There's a major difference between play

  • Time (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Maset ( 190867 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2006 @10:36AM (#15148946)
    From my experience it is a time thing. Most guys of or about that age used to play time intensive (either in learning curve or actual gameplay) games but no longer find time to do so. Further more these same guys do not find satisfaction playing solitaire, bejewelled, whatever. I mean how many of us/we/me still find Konami games satisfying? I don't. The only short term game I play is settlers online.

    However I find a lot of ladies of my age prefer the immediate intellectual satisfaction of a short term, intensive game satisfying. Perhaps it is a gender preference (I knew a lot of girls that loved Doom, but I haven't kept in touch with them), but almost all the lady gamers I know play short, intense type games or social games.

    Rambling rant over
    • I think you got the jist of it correct. I also think there is a general lack of games for the older guys though. Like you mentioned, too many of the games take too much time and there is a general lack of high quality but quick to play games.

      I'm in my 30's. DDR is about the only game I have fun with any more. It's quick and your skill progresses over time. I do play the classic arcade games because they're quick and fun but the fact that you have to start over every time you play is a bit too repetitiv
  • I don't think solitaire, bejewelled, mahjongg, etc. are worth putting in the same category.

    It's not gaming, it's killing time.

    • Re:Does Solitaire count? (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It's not gaming, it's killing time.

      Welcome to the casual gaming industry!
      • It's not gaming, it's killing time.
        Welcome to the casual gaming industry!

        Welcome to the gaming industry. It's not like raiding the same dungeon in WoW 50 times just so you can get that last piece of armor is anything other than killing time either.

    • No kidding, I was shocked when I read the headline, then I realized that everyone in my mothers office, at least 16 people, all women, probably play Bejeweled for two hours a day.

      Got some time before work? Got a few minutes to spare? Maybe just no one's looking? Bejeweled!

    • Re:Does Solitaire count? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by patio11 ( 857072 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2006 @11:14AM (#15149334)
      Whereas if you make it massively massive and give you stats to grind up doing the (same, repetitive) activity, its hardcore gaming?
    • I don't think solitaire, bejewelled, mahjongg, etc. are worth putting in the same category.

      The category is games.

      It's not gaming, it's killing time.

      Gaming is killing time by playing a game that requires a $300 video card, has an inch-thick manual, a 1-800 number and its own Usenet heirarchy. Gaming is what game-playing becomes when participants take their games so seriously that they are no longer games.

    • Good to hear that anything you don't personally enjoy (or maybe it's anything that's free) doesn't count as gaming. Because gaming is some sacred, macho genre of killing time that must involve killing something else at the same time. Or spending hundreds of dollars. Or something.

      Why can't you accept that different people enjoy different types of games? That doesn't mean that some of them *aren't* games.

  • "simple types of games like Tetris"


    Only simple if you give up before it gets difficult.

  • Pogo (Score:3, Insightful)

    by szembek ( 948327 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2006 @10:45AM (#15149025) Homepage
    Women love pogo.com
  • I thought I TOLD her to get back in the kitchen!

    *duck*

    I wish my wife were more of a gamer, then I wouldn't get chewed out for the months-long blocks of time lost when I find a new addiction.

  • Sure, I believe it... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Henry V .009 ( 518000 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2006 @11:07AM (#15149249) Journal
    If they're talking about headgames.
  • I thought this was about dating at first.

  • 25 = out of college and good career? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by RingDev ( 879105 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2006 @11:08AM (#15149268) Homepage Journal
    When I was 18-20, I played games constantly. I was poor, an I could play a $40 video game for weeks of entertainment. At 21-23 my habits varied, work, bars and parties when I had contracting gigs, MMOs and ramen when I was unemployed.

    Now I'm 26 and play less video games than my wife. Instead of wasting away infront of the screen I work on my house and my other toys. Why blow $60 on the newest NFS game when I can drop $800 on a new 5 speed manual tranny for the fiero? Why sink $1200 into a new gaming rig when I can sink $2500 on a new HO TDI for the car? Why stare at the flat screen listening to speakers hum an exhaust note when I can fire up the beast, drop the top, and smell the glory of burning tires and diesel?

    -Rick
    • I wouldn't spend any money on a tranny. Ew....

      *duck*

    • Why blow $60 on the newest NFS game when I can drop $800 on a new 5 speed manual tranny for the fiero?
      There's a disgusting joke embedded in there, somewhere. :>

    • Re:25 = out of college and good career? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Wordplay ( 54438 ) <geo@snarksoft.com> on Tuesday April 18, 2006 @12:16PM (#15150071)
      I'm still wondering where you got the convertible diesel Fiero.

      Though I do have to give you props for having a car that properly implements the HCF instruction.
    • It sounds like you just got a new hobby, your car. So whats the point of your comment? Not everyone decides to play with cars instead of games when they hit 23, its not some rule which explains the findings.

      I do dev work in front of a computer all day for my job, and have things like housework, girlfriends, watching tv etc to try and fit into a few hours after work, what I otherwise had all day to do. Theres a lot more women out there without professional careers, or whos job consists of answering the phone
      • Women's employement aside, that is my point. At 26 most guys are getting into a financial position where they can aford to start playing with their toys (house, cars, electronics, etc...)

        I doubt there is that much of a difference between womens career employement and mens, but there is a social aspect. Women are not expected to be construction workers or grease monkeys. I would be interested to see what some surveys would respond with as to average women spare time spenders. I would guess the percentage of

  • Quick & Fun (Score:1, Insightful)

    by julienbh ( 969003 )
    Lots of people (ie: me) like better easy, quick, intelligent and fun games than long lasting games with a story. It's the case with most women I know and knew. My girlfriend loves playing tetris, mariobros and super monkeyball. And I think these are the games I'll be playing the most. Why? 2 words: Quick & Fun.

  • In other news . . . (Score:3, Funny)

    by kai.chan ( 795863 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2006 @11:37AM (#15149593)
    A massive influx of lonely Slashdot males have been seen to register on AOL Games, PopCap Games, and EA's Pogo.com.
  • Every girlfriend i've ever had has played all sorts of games. It's a real mindf@!#.
  • I play WoW, my mom plays Solitaire. Are we still in the same category?
  • Goddess... so many "get back to the kitchen" jokes... it's kinda tacky.

    Most women play minor games because they want more time. I'd rather have an involving game that I can play for 10 minutes waiting for something else, or on a short break from working over some insanely involving difficult game that'll suck up hours and hours of my time.

    These are more fun when you're taking a break from work, or doing something else.

    There are exceptions, mmorpgs and rpgs with lots of small side quests you can do quickly (

  • watch the questions (Score:3, Insightful)

    by PMuse ( 320639 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2006 @02:23PM (#15151322)
    It's all about methodology:
    Do you play video games? "No."
    Do you play cards? "Yes."
    What kind? "Solitare."
    Where? "On my computer."
  • Cell phones have also started to include games that may be considered casual.

    I think the comments about women wanting to spend less time with a game should be thought out more. I see a lot of women playing online RPG's (especially in the fandom world with play by email and posting boards) and while this is a different category than video games it does seem that women are willing to invest time in "gaming" it is just different types of games.
  • I would say that "male dominance forced women into a subservient position where they are resorted to wasting their lives in virtual reality".

    But I am no feminist, and I would just say that games are just games: mature people do not play them. They do not have time.

    PS. Obvious rebuttal to my assertions would be "mature people do not hang at /. for hours as well" and I do not have any excuse for myself.
    • mature people do not play them. They do not have time.

      I think you misspelled "boring". Because that's what I call people who don't have time for anything fun in their lives. And I don't really think that someone who does have time for fun, but spends it watching TV or hanging out at a bar or something can really be automatically classed as "more mature" than someone who spends it playing games.

      • "someone who does have time for fun, but spends it watching TV or hanging out at a bar or something" is not "mature" in my book either.

        Mature people usually combine fun and responsibilities. They are inventive enough to do that in real reality, not virtual reality.

        Mature people have jobs, families and friends. It is fun. Communicating with people who you like is fun. Changing activities is fun. Community projects are fun.

        • Mature people have jobs, families and friends. It is fun. Communicating with people who you like is fun. Changing activities is fun. Community projects are fun.

          So playing games (whether board or video) with my husband or siblings is not "mature"? Even if it involves communicating and changing which games we play now and then? "Mature fun" must involve charity work of some sort, or in some other way "combine fun and responsibilities"? If you're not fulfilling some sort of responsibility with your fun, it's

        • I hope you read the replies to your post and realize how judgemental and immature you're being. Just like me, but then I don't pretend to be mature except when I'm serving on committees.
          • I do not pretend to be mature. To have an idea what is mature and not and to be mature are two different things.

            when I'm serving on committees

            I am impressed. Like it works here on /.

  • Confessions of a (now post-30) woman gamer (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tokengeekgrrl ( 105602 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2006 @03:08PM (#15151722)
    The short version: Post-25 age women like playing games more than men? Duh.

    Long version:
    My love for gaming started with Loderunner and QBert on DOS in the early 1980s when my Dad first brought home a computer.

    At my grade school there was one computer with an adventure-text game called something like "Go West" that everyone got to play once a week with a partner. I traded away parts of my lunch to bribe people to give me their slot so I could play more than once a week.

    My family was too poor for Atari so I becames friends with girls whose families did have Atari expanding my repetoire to Missle Command, Pitfall, Centipede, Haunted House (anyone remember that one?), Space Invaders among many others.

    The putt-putt (miniature) golf in town had an arcade I was not allowed to go very often but when I did I would watch the guys play Dragon Slayer (I think that's what it was called, they had competitions around playing it), play Donkey Kong and then found my true love, Tetris.

    I had the high score on that Tetris arcade for months. If when I came someone had beaten it, I wouldn't leave until I had restored myself in the number 1 slot. Once school started I didn't have much time so this was only during the summer.

    When the first gameboy came out I was in college. I saved my money and bought one with a Tetris gamecard. Tetris whenever I wanted! Pure bliss! My longterm, college boyfriend installed Super Tetris on his computer so that I would spend more time at his apartment (we both lived off campus at the time).

    I didn't get into the console games when they came out because they were too expensive. I was working and going to school full-time while in college and didn't have much disposable income. But I could play games on the computers at the computer lab and the guy who ran the computer lab really liked me and I was one of the few females taking intro to computer programming so I always got a computer when I came in. Hello Zork and EverQuest.

    When I actually had my own computer, a Mac, I downloaded and played free games and bought Myst.
    Eventually, I bought a gaming PC I had custom ordered online and bought BladeRunner (RPG) and Doom.
    I worked at a well-known gaming publishing and media company for a year and got to play all sorts of games at work, networked Quake was a blast, (4-dimensional Tetris on the Nintendo blew my mind).

    Throughout the years, I've always also played chess. At one point I was very focused on it, playing it constantly on the computer and studying strategies, I still hope to get back to it.

    Right now, definitely post-25, I love playing DOA and Burnout Revenge on the XBOX and this groovy little marble madness game my boyfriend downloaded for me because he thought I'd like it and he was so right. I also adore Kareoke Revolution on the PS2 in spite of my limited singing abilities, especially with a group of friends after a few cocktails. I also play a totally lame, text-only, web-based game called Legend of the Green Dragon [lotgd.net] which is only possible due to the kick-ass, gameplay automating, greasemonkey script my boyfriend wrote since I'm too lazy to do it myself.

    Tetris is still my favorite and while it may be simple, it's far more complex then you can imagine once you get up to the levels where the pieces are flying at you faster then you can effectively pattern match. I just love that.

    I think the real key is that once I hit my late 20s, I really didn't care what people thought of me, so playing games became more about having fun then proving to someone else that I'm better at it then they are.

    Unless it's Tetris. ;)

    Sorry for the long and rambling post. I kind of got carried away.

    - tokengeekgrrl

    • I'm with you in the 30-and-over gaming women category. I grew up playing computer games, and I'll play almost anything. WoW is my current addiction, but I've gone through tons of types of games, from solitaire to IF to console games to muds to single-player computer games to MMORPGs.

      I've found that most women like playing games, but no one really puts a controller in their hands in a situation where they're allowed and have time to actually relax and play. If they do, they'll get into the more hardcore g
    • At my grade school there was one computer with an adventure-text game called something like "Go West" that everyone got to play once a week with a partner.

      Sounds like that probably was Oregon Trail [classicgaming.com].

      B

  • Ok, obviously not everyone here is. But I see a number of scary replies on any women in gaming story (browse at -1 if you want to). Is there any reason for it? Granted, it really probably isn't any different than in the general population...

    I'm in that age bracket and play games - I'm not a stay-at-home mother, either. However, while I like games like tetris, qbert and lemmings, RPGs (and Diablo-type games like Fate) are my favorite ones. :) I have no insight as to why so many women do in this age brack
    • I do not know anyone (irl) that is same age/etc as myself that games. Im in the bracet, I have one son (4) and one on the way. At this house there is a PS2 (waiting on PS3), Dreamcast (not used so much now) Xbox, and somehow in the bit of time, I managed to lose my gameboy. PC gaming is COD2 and CSCZ now. Its fun, people need to laugh more, or they will just get mean. Girls get more stressed than boys, and gaming keeps me from yelling alot. lol

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