Discussion Main / MostGamersAreMale

I think the real problem with the trope is that people assume "male tastes" to encompass everything except Bejeweled, Peggle and The Sims. The increasingly complex and artistic nature of video games has led to far closer gender parity in gamers than people are willing to admit. Many women enjoy mainstream games - a good story with entertaining characters and enjoyable gameplay can be appreciated by anyone, and people tend to ignore the fact that a game featuring a Third-Person Seductress will also invariably include some Mr. Fanservice as well - and while Halo and Gears of War may well be wildly successful, all that tells us is that most Xbox gamers are male, a point I wouldn't even begin to doubt. One can generalize across an entire population, but not between individuals. Now more than ever, the entire trope seems outdated.

"Now more than ever, the entire trope seems outdated."

I wouldn't be so sure. I live in a first world country, and it's a view that's commonly held up in the mainstream - if newspaper articles bother to point out that "much more women play videa games than the reader might think", it's because they suppose that most people think women don't play much videao games at all.

As for the gaming community, I've recently been told "wow, a girl playing video games? That's uncommon" by a MMORPG player less than 30 of age. He wasn't being ironic. So I'd that this myth still exists. Even if it's at least partly a myth.

Sure, it's still a commonly held view. Frustratingly commonly held. And it's still not true. As you said, it's a myth. As I said, now more than ever.

If you just say video games in general, then yes, this trope is false.

But, when people think "gamer", they often think of console games, e.g. Nintendo, Playstation, XBOX, etc...

While especially with the release of the Wii, even console games see a large number of female players, it's still easy to think that males outnumber them in this category by a fair amount.

I don't think it's a matter of gaming system, but genre and themes. Most female gamers I know aren't really interested in run and guns or hack and slashers, for example (not to say that it's always the case).

Truth. Girls tend to like games with well written stories (RP Gs, action-adventure) or are easily picked up and put down (Angry Birds, Farmville).

I think I really agree with Draco Kanji with the story thing. As a female gamer, I'm often motivated by the story of a game. Although I think I most often like possibilities, like having different ways to play a game. Is this typical with other female gamers?

I know that where I live, it is still very much a rare thing to meet a girl who plays video games. However, this is only if you don't count things such as Facebook games (farmville) or iPhone app games and the like.

As I said in the other topic, it's console gaming that still seems to be male-dominant. With the exception of the Nintendo Wii, game consoles like the XBOX still appear to have a primarily male population. At least in my experience.

Whereas most women I know would be insulted if someone suggested female gamers just play Peggle and Farmville. Saying women don't play "real" games is sorta like saying women don't read comics.

You might actually be surprised at how many female players play 'under cover,' as it were. I and many other girl gamers I talk to tend to keep mum about their RL gender in online games due to wanting to avoid criticism. Women being insulted due to their gender ("Girls can't play games!") or just plain being subject to sexist insults, ("Go make me a sammich" is a common and fairly mild one) can make some women hesitant about outing themselves. In my experience, possibly 10% of players I interact with on a daily basis in World of Warcraft are women, and those are the ones that I KNOW.

Well, if it's included games like Wii sports/fitness and Animal World or whatever it's called - basically, things that appeal to casual gamers - then a higher proportion will be female than if you only count hardcore gamers. There's still a stigma to females being hardcore gamers.

I think one study showed about 70% of casual gamers are female, while the 15-28 male range is now mostly FPS and sports games. Girls also tend to play a lot more JRP Gs, MM Os, and action-adventure games now than they used to, where the split is fairly even.

In short: genre matters. Over all, girl gamers still only make up a little more than 40% of all gamers.

I'm a girl, and I play games obsessively. Not just Sims or Animal Crossing, but strategy games, indie games, nintendo games (obsessed with tloz a little much), Portal, some Fallout, stealth games, RP Gs, JRP Gs (PERSONAAA), more indie games, Spore, and a lot of listening to video game music on my phone (especially zelda music and katamari damacy hehe). I'll admit I got my start on a nintendo DS Tinkerbell game, but hey, I was like 4 or 5, so... While my sister and I were asking for more and more cartridges every year, our friends (also girls) introduced us to Pokemon, which we loved. We played more and more Pokemon, Mario, etc. until my cousin showed us some You Tube gamers which was when we really started us on the path to liking every genre but maybe shooters, gta, and lots of others probably. I mean, I'm too chicken to watch horror without jumpscare times, let alone play it. My sister loves it though. I have friends that spend all their time on shooters, too.

Sorry for all that useless info. I got sidetracked a lot. I guess I'm trying to make the point that about half of my friends are female gamers and maybe you guys just haven't found us yet. We are often *realllllllly* secretive and I usually don't tell anyone until after we're friends while I force them to like games I like. To tell the truth, I haven't met any male gamers that know as many *different* games as I do. Ok, so I'm not very good at lots of them, but oh well. I'm happy just experiencing them :)