64% of Online Gamers Are Female

According to a report discussed on 1up, a new study by the Nielsen folks finds that more than half of the 117 Million U.S. online gamers are women. From the article: "The study's announcement release doesn't break down what games they're playing, though we expect sites like pogo.com, which feature a multitude of Flash-based games are rather high on the list. Even more surprising is how many older gamers are playing. While the teenage market dominates in numbers, the study says more than 15 million gamers, about 8%, are actually at least 45 years old."

Gamers?

[amirl]

I guess they consider solitaire.

Re:90% of gaming girls are guys playing girls

[EotB]

Being in New Zealand and playing a Half-Life mod called Natural Selection at clan level showed me what a large and tight-knit community can be behind an online game. I had met about half of the people that I played with regularly in real life, and the rest I had spent a lot of time talking to over voice comms. Out of perhaps 60 people, 2 of them were women. Even if FPS' are biased towards male players, thats still pretty indicative of any non-MMO games that I've played.

Definition Needed

[Jekler]

It really depends on how you define the term "gamer". To many people, a "gamer" isn't just someone who happens to play games at some arbitrary point in their free time, it's someone whose primary hobby is playing games. When they're not working, studying, or otherwise busy, they're reading about games, playing games, or otherwise involved in game-related activities (e.g. posting on game message boards, designing characters, planning on the next game to buy, etc.). I know a lot of women who play games, but I wouldn't call them gamers. Even though they play games, when they're not playing games they don't immerse themselves in game-related activities, they have a distinct separation between game playing and the rest of their life.

What I find interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Is how many under males under 24 frequent Digg

This was done by a company that prides itself on accurracy and is taken seriously by every major corporation out there vying for the consumer "entertainment" dollar.

Somehow, reality being what it is, you having stupid kneejerk prejudices does not make them true. Thanksfully.

I know a huge share of the market is pre-family, and most of those are male. But in the post-family crowd, the target audience of said company, many more women play things that the pubecent crowd would not believe them capable of.

Personally I know 11 women who play WoW, 3 who play EQ2, and 8 who play BF2 religeously. Somehow I find these numbers might actually be low. But I'll take them at face value.

.

Re:90% of gaming girls are guys playing girls

[syousef]

I have a new appreciation for some of the hassle girls go through.

Fuck this pseudo sensative snag bullshit. It doesn't matter to me now as I'm no longer single and failing one of us dieing I can see this relationship lasting. But oh to have had such hassles! Girls get lots of offers - many not very good ones, but some good - without having to work for it. Guys have to work very hard and often the girls go for good looking fucktards that treat them like dirt. (Yep men do this too - go for the bimbo that treats them like shit, but not as often, and the bottom line is it's much easier for a female to find a suitable partner, and they usually get a wide selection)

So girls get hit on. If the guy's unpleasant how hard is it to say "fuck off and leave me alone you small dicked loser". Many guys will get the hint if dropped on them like a sledgehammer. There might be a little bit of unpleasantness back but few stalk based on one conversation. If a girl's in an environment where it goes beyond a few lewd comments she should get out. Only when that isn't possible is there a real problem. But there's a world of difference between being hit on and being assaulted.

Wouldn't the correct title be:

[traveller604]

64% of US online gamers are female. That is unless you think only americans play online..

Can't help but think...

[Lorkki]

Woe are the times when FPSs are considered "in-depth" games.

Online gaming not gaming in general

[Aceticon]

Jokes about female avatars being all men aside, it's quite possible that this result is true. However this is only for online gaming, not gaming in general.

Given that on average women tend to be more adept of social activities than men (at least that's my experience), it isn't surprising at all that women go for games where they are in contact with other people.

In my long experience with online RPGs (from MUDs all the way to WoW and Guild Wars), women (as in confirmed women ;)) would spend a lot more time chatting than men (which tended more often to go exploring and slaying monsters).

Online gaming is usually more appropriated to socializing (pretty much the only exception being FPSs and RTSs) than offline gaming (unless you invite your buddies over for a session of drinking and blasting each other out with RPGs ;))

freedom and consequence

[deek]

Girls often (myself included) want to just "be" without having to worry about what to wear or having to leave someplace where we want to be just to avoid a situation that we didn't even start.

We live in a pretty free society. You have the right to wear anything you want, subject to decency laws of the area/society of course. As soon as you step out into public, you should realise that the freedom to wear what you want, also has consequences. If you wear short skirts, you're going to get hit on, and most likely pretty aggressively. That's a consequence of what you wear.

What you wear will affect how people treat you. You can wear almost anything you want, but you should know that it will affect others. If you dress up attractively, then expect to be attracted to. Isn't this just common sense?

If the attention of others curtails your freedom to wear what you want, then welcome to the myth of being free. Perfect freedom is only possible if you do not interact with anyone. We give up freedom as soon as we step outside the door onto the footpath.

I'm not saying that badly behaved guys shouldn't be responsibile for a bad situation. I'm just weary of girls who complain about bad attention, when they're attracting them like magnets with what they wear. I'm sure that you, as a GoddessOfDeath, does not suffer this affliction, what with the scythe and black flowing robe and all.

Back to topic ... gaming girls are cool!

Re:freedom and consequence

[deek]

The danger comes in when there are conflicting socially acceptable standards. For example, in Australian in recent years we had a spate of gang rapes in Sydney by a group of Lebanese muslims who were yanking anglo-saxon girls off the street because 'white girls are sluts and are asking for it'.

In their little segment of society, women are expected to be covered with a veil from head to foot when in public or they are being deliberately provocative. It is unreasonable in their eyes for men to be expected to restrain their sexual urges when confronted by women with exposed arms, or a shirt that shows a bit of cleavage.

  That is quite a good example actually. Muslim social expectations are very different to general western expectations. A girl walking down the street with a singlet top (tank top to you yanks), would be equivalent to some girl walking around in underwear. It is very sexually explicit to a Muslim man.

  That said, I'm an Australian-Lebanese guy living in Sydney, although I'm Christian, not Muslim. I know a few Muslim people, and they think the gang rapes are totally despicable. There's no excuse for rape, no matter how badly dressed (or undressed) a girl is. If the Muslim parents try to excuse their boys behaviour, by claiming that it's because of how the girl was dressed, it's generally because they're in denial of their sons actions. Typical psychological behaviour really; their son is wonderful, so there must be something that drove him to that behaviour.

  Yep, we sure don't live in a perfect world. Although gamer girls sure make the world just that little more perfect. How's that for dragging this back on topic? ;)