QUOTE (dchaosblade @ Jan 01 2008, 12:55 AM) A few things in reply to Mowerman
First, are those stats arbitrary numbers that you just pulled out of your ***, or are they actual figures? And if they're actual figures, please state your source; if they are arbitrary numbers, say so before you act as if they are real please.
Either way, I disagree that "80-85% of the gaming market" is aimed towards the male audience. As I said, there are many girls who play many games, of all genres. I know a lot of girls who not only play Halo, but are amazing at it - same goes for every other genre out there. The majority of games, especially in the modern day, are aimed at a multi-gender group; which is why a lot of them allow you to choose your gender, or at least your voice (even Halo allows you to choose a female voice for your characters).
Comparing sports to video games is like comparing apples to oranges. I mean, if you look at the situation seriously, we are basically discussing whether a common stereotype is true or not: There are less women gamers than men.
So lets take this stereotype further: that gamers are nerds/geeks. Now, according to this stereotype, male gamers do not play sports, ESPECIALLY games like football and hockey which are predominantly very physical games. Taking this stereotype in mind, how can you conceivably connect the fact that men like to play physical sports and women don't to the fact that men like to play video games and women don't? It doesn't make sense because the facts don't connect.
"But thats stereotyping! A lot of gamers do play sports!" you say. Well, if your going to say that, then you may as well throw out the stereotype that "Women don't play sports!" and the stereotype that "Women don't play games!" because there are many women who play sports, play games, and do both.
A final note, it has been stated before many times throughout this thread that a lot of the girls who play games are the ones who enjoy the puzzle games, or the collect them all platformers. Keeping this in mind, how can you say that QUOTE (Mowerman)Since games are goal oriented, i.e. highest level, best pk record, etc etc., it would only figure that males tend to gravitate to them more than females do. Females, being better multitaskers, in general, will be left being somewhat bored because their brain just doesn't focus on a single target like a males does.
while others are saying that girls are the ones who collect everything. Further, games like Warcraft, Starcraft, etc; which are Real Time Strategy games are nothing BUT multi-tasking, managing many things at once, and trying to make everything work together correctly. That said, wouldn't it make since that, if your argument were true, there would be many more female gamers (at least in the RTS genre) than there are male gamers?
I'm not saying that there are in fact more female gamers than male gamers; I'm just saying that the things you are spouting off as fact can't be taken seriously in light of other evidence. Although there may be fewer female gamers than male gamers, the reasons you stated are chock full of nothing but stereotypes, misconceptions, and arbitrary numbers; which unfortunately means that your argument doesn't hold water.
They are arbitrary numbers, but they are guestimations based on some of the games I play. Lineage 2, 5 million customers worldwide. I was on Seighardt and in one of the biggest alliances at the time. 250 active members. 4 girls. I dare you to say this one is not targetted at males. The female toons are eye candy and most of the games that have come after it follow suit. Shadowbane, again one of the larger nations on the server. 75 active players, 2 girls. Dark Age of Camelot. 35 players in the guild. 2 girls. EQ, 135 players in the guild, 10 girls. Planetside NC emerald server, Sturmgrenadiers, peak time activity, 7 squads. Zero girls. I have been involved with internet gaming since Quake first hit the market, around 1998. I believe I have a very good perception of how many females are playing games and the rate those numbers have changed over the years. Back in the day, finding a girl player was like finding a unicorn. Finding one that is actually a girl and not some dude that thinks it's funny to rp a girl toon or plays girl toons because he thinks he will get free hand outs due to the fact that most of the players on the server are male, is still few and far between, at least in my experience. Admittedly, I don't do the girly games anymore, since EQ. If it does not have pvp, in some form or another, I am not interested. It is just too boring to be stuck in a farm or die game where the only way they can make it interesting is to give the mobs astronomical hp and def values requiring that you invest a lot of time and personnel just to kill 1 mob.
Sport to video games is not apples to oranges. There is even an international gaming league that has become very large. The only girls you see at the competitions are the announcers, sometimes. I game, I also played football all the way from age 7 till I graduated highschool.
As to your RTS comment, have you actually ever played vs mode? It's not about multitasking, it's about building your barracks as fast as you can so you can pump out as many infantry units as fast as possible and zerg the other player before he zergs you. Very little actual multitasking goes into it.
QUOTE (michikodesu @ Jan 01 2008, 10:36 PM) Well, Mowerman, aren't almost every single video game out there "goal-oriented"? I mean, you want to beat the game, right? Even sports games have an incentive to getting all the way to the end. That's why you play right? Well, that's how I play, and coincidentally I am a girl. I want to beat the game. I want to see the end.
There are a ton of games that have no end. Tetris and the myriad of clones/spin offs that came from it. The object is to get a high score, not end the game, but you are bending what I was saying, or didn't understand. I'll rephrase. Males are more goal driven. Ego and testosterone will generally push them onto a single train of thought, not just winning the game, winning the game in a way that can't be beat by someone else. I.E. I am THE WINNER, not just a winner.
As I stated originally, I wasn't trying to offend females out there. I know that some of them play games. But, the majority of the market is male driven.