More women, fewer boys?

[punkoffgirl]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/fun.games/08/27/games.women.reut/index.html
According to this article, there are fewer young boys (ages 6-17) playing video games these days than adult women over the age of 18. I'm sure their poll was done very professionally, but wow, I can't believe the results, personally.
What do you think?

[chadtower]

It's a marketing ploy. It's also dead wrong. I don't personally know a single avid female gamer. My wife will play occasionally, but not very often and only if I practically drag her over there.

On the other hand, EVERY SINGLE boy in that age group I've ever met, including when I was in that age group myself, has been at least a fairly regular game player. Most of them have been very regular, and some spend every waking moment playing games.

[AB Positive]

this is funny because everyone I know is the exact opposite of Chad's example. However this may also have to do with QoF's observation about women gamers and their sexuality *shrugs*

Hey, here's hoping it's true, I'd love to see a larger female base to the pool of geekdom here :)

-AG

[Half Japanese]

I work at a store that sells some games and I've hardly ever seen women buy games there (other than the occasional person there to pick up one of the Namco Museum titles for Ms. Pac Man), but I do recall a girl about 14 or so picking up Suikoden III and she was talking so enthusiastically about RPGs and games in general. All I could think was "Oh my God, this girl is going to be popular among the geeks in high school." :D

[davidbrit2]

The poll was probably skewed by all the girls I've gotten to play Dance Dance Revolution here in the dorm. Heh.

[lendelin]

Interesting poll; I wouldn't discard it right away as a marketing ploy; however, when I don't know exactly a poll I make five question marks behind it, and that means I have to look at the poll myself, not a report about it.

Polls can be terribly biased, from the wording of questions, selecting polling subjects, conceptualization of gamer categories, punching in the data, to interpreting the results.

Specifically, how is a "gamer" defined? Playing games once in a lifetime, once a year, once a month, once a week?? ..that means how is the amount of playing time related to age, gender, income and other socio-demographic data? Is "gamer" defined by objective criteria such as playing time or merely self-assessment? Who spends the money for games when two "gamers" are in a relationship? (good indicator who is actually interested in games) Are women/men playing because their spouse is playing games, and how does it relate to gaming habits? ...and last but not least, how was the randomly selected sample actually chosen? (if they used phone polling randomly selected by computers you can discard it right away because they are not relaible anymore in the age og answering machines)

It's a very interesting poll though becasue it would mean there is a lil revolution going on; in the last 15 years the gender gap was so far the only constant in gaming socio-demographics.

Too bad there is no link to the actual poll, but I'll have a closer look at it. If the poll is reliable and the results are not misrepresented, it would have lots of consequences for the industry, for publishers and gamers alike.

Thanks for putting the link up!!!!

[Sylentwulf]

The Average gamer in 2003 was age 29.

That's where the bulk of the numbers come from.

[djbeatmongrel]

you know i kinda beleive that cause i know a good percentage of girls that were bringing in various gameboys into to school and playing them all last year. this one girl i know occassionally brought her gamegear to knock out a couple levels on sonic. theres this other girl, a varsity cheerleader who was down to earth, would be playing her pick gba almost every morning.

i think another factor in this trend are those Texas Instrument calculators that are around a $100. my school requires them for a good percentage of the higher math and science classes and almost everyone who owns them loads them with some sort of game on them. And don't forget get the infamous cell phone game, Snake. i rest my case.

i think the poll is pretty accurate given these reasons.

[lendelin]

you know i kinda beleive that cause i know a good percentage of girls that were bringing in various gameboys into to school and playing them all last year. this one girl i know occassionally brought her gamegear to knock out a couple levels on sonic. theres this other girl, a varsity cheerleader who was down to earth, would be playing her pick gba almost every morning.

i think another factor in this trend are those Texas Instrument calculators that are around a $100. my school requires them for a good percentage of the higher math and science classes and almost everyone who owns them loads them with some sort of game on them. And don't forget get the infamous cell phone game, Snake. i rest my case.

i think the poll is pretty accurate given these reasons.

VERY good points, I knew that the GBC became more "fashionable" when my 9 yr old niece wanted one, played some for two weeks, but then played hardly anymore. (players like this might be in the category, too) Additionally, as you pointed out, maybe "systems" like cell phones which we don't usually associate traditionally with console gaming and handhelds became more common and "fashionable." and might be included in the poll. That's why it is important to look at the actual poll.

We can't tell just based on the report about the poll; without knowing exact gaming habits, definiton of players, conceptualizations, statistical methods, and WHICH "system" are played by whom, the report might be correct, results overstated, or the results might even indicate an increase of the gender gap in disguise.

[chadtower]

You're all talking about school age girls and the report is about women over 18. That's not the same thing.

[djbeatmongrel]

true but i'm sure the same thing happening within the highschools bleed off into college bound people as well who are just leaving highschool and are most likely over 18

[davidbrit2]

You're all talking about school age girls and the report is about women over 18. That's not the same thing.

No, the typical college student is at least 18. That's where I do my dirty work.

[ianoid]

Japan or US? Japanese girls play alot more games than US girls.

Now, where are the skateboarding girls? Not skate betties, I mean the ones who actually do it seriously. There's a similar fear factor in all countries, but the gap is narrowing for both skateboarding and video games.

ian

[Kid Ice]

NO WAY. There is no chance of this being accurate.

I also don't trust these statistics that say "The mean age of the videogame player is 29". Yeah right. Every time I play someone about my age (+-30) at anything I absolutely crush them because they never play games. I'm so desparate for competition I have to resort to:
-going to the arcade to play against teenagers
-driving a few hours up to Pompton Lakes every couple months :)

[davidbrit2]

Note they said "mean age" rather than median age. A few 60 year old Soul Caliber freaks could skew that way up. ;-)