As a self proclaimed “Video Game Scholar” I feel that it is my right to eventually write a book about video games. Whether I write about them as art, their roles in society, or whatever the hell, I know that I’ll definitely have a lot to say. Unfortunately the gap is closing for new material to be introduced about the subject. Most every aspect has obviously already been covered by authors and journalists and the media and I’m worried that these sources will find their way to the top of “Important Writings on Gaming”. While I do think a lot of these books are great (see Game Over: Press Start To Continue or Trigger Happy) I just hope that all books written around this time aren’t going to be considered the important works on the subject.
Today, my main concern is with this first article about video games in the news. I don’t really care about the whole “games are too violent” topic as much as I used to (though I will throw some of that the series of posts), the focus is on the following article:
Do Video Games Now Draw More Women Than Boys??
I’m going to take this opportunity to tear this article apart paragraph by paragraph. It’s not that I don’t think women shouldn’t be gamers or anything like that (I’m all for an increase in the number of female gamers and better female targeted games), but I just think their statistics are bullshit.
Challenging the stereotype that video gaming is the domain of teenage boys, an industry group on Tuesday reported that more women over 18 than young boys are playing games and the average age of players has risen to 29.
For starters we have this wonderful statistic above. Let’s give an example of another thing skewed like this. Imagine that I teach a bunch of 10 year olds a really fun outdoors game that nobody has ever played before: totally brand new to the world. Then, three years later, I can say that the number of 13 years who play this game has risen by a huge amount! That’s because not only do we have new players the age of 13 who are learning the sport… but we also have the original 10 year olds too. Of course the average age of gamers is going to rise! The original arcade gamers, who were say 12 to 19 when arcades first open, are now going to be in their mid to late 30s or 40s! Of course the average age is going to increase because the average person (I mean every person) is now increased. 20 years ago there were fewer older gamers because they weren’t introduced to games in that teenage stage. Now there are more older games who have been around for years and are still hacking away on their consoles, PCs, and cabinets. (And kudos to all).
A poll released by the Entertainment Software Association and conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates found 26 percent of game players are women 18 or older, while 21 percent are boys 6 to 17.
The average lifespan of an American woman is about 80 years according to a few various studies.
80 - 28 = 52. Now, to generalize, I suppose most women gamers aren’t going to be in the 80’s, but we can’t count them out of this statistic because they are in that age demographic. That is A 52 YEAR RANGE in comparison to the 11 YEAR RANGE on boys ages 6 to 17. And 26% for the women and 21% for the boys are very close statistics. I’m sure if you took into account the size of the age groups in questions and set up proportions the results would indicate a much denser concentration for the number of boys who play video games and are ages 6 to 17.
Video gaming has traditionally been seen as the province of teenage boys locked in dark rooms and twitching away at their game consoles, although in recent years the industry has worked to publish games catering to kids, women and older gamers.
Well thank you, Dr. Stereotype! I love the verb twitching used in this sentence to describe the actions of the “traditional” teenage gamer. I’d hardly say that the industry, as of late, has done a good job at catering to these groups. I don’t think women gamers buy the “female games” and are happy with just those. Most women gamers play the games that everyone else plays. The theme or topic of the game does not have a huge effect on whether they play or not. Just because it says Mary Kate and Ashley Teach Window Washing does not mean women will buy it. They’re not stupid. They play the same good (and bad) games as the males. I’m sure that certain games do cater to certain audiences better…. but not enough to have a serious effect on the game-playing population’s composition.
In line with that trend, adults over 50 now make up 17 percent of the gaming population, the ESA said, compared with 13 percent three years ago.
As people who do things get older they reach new age brackets. It’s probably the exact same group 48 year olds who now fall into different categories because they are older. This is not an important statistic.
The largest group of gamers, at 38 percent, is men 18 and up, while girls 6 to 17 account for 12 percent of game players, the poll found.
Now, let’s compare the 6 to 17 age group. Before we found that boys 6 to 17 made up 21% of the sample polled and we see that the number of girls in that age group is 9% less. That is a significant difference when considering both age groups cover the same range of people. It’s good to see that there are still a good number of female gamers up and coming (but just not as many as the title of the article would have you believe).
“I think that what used to be the standard in games, which was the female character in distress and the big macho man saving the day, is no longer the case,” said Vikki Hrody, a faculty member at the Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago, who teaches art for game design.
This person teaches art for game design. Not to disrespect her choice of profession (which I think is very cool), I will have to say that this was not the standard for games. Sure there are many games that feature this plot… but it has been that way since the beginning of time! It’s obviously a social construction that has carried through since the days when people first began to tell stories. This is nothing new. I’d say more games are about saving the world than the girl. The girl is usually just a mechanism to create another dimension to the story-line in order for it to seem more important to accomplish the task.
Toad: “Sorry, but the princess is in another castle.”
Mario : “Oh, I’m not that macho anyway and I don’t dare fall into that stereotype. I give up.”
(Not a very interesting game is it?)
“I do see a lot more girls, especially the students that I’m teaching, that want to play games,” she said.
Good. I can’t argue with what she sees and I hope this is true.
A random national sample of 806 adults, covering a total of 1,048 game players including kids, was used in the poll, the ESA said.
I don’t really know anything about statistics… so this point I can’t really make… but it seems to me that the number of adults represented in this sampling out number the number of kids by 4 times. I’m interested to know what they count as adults and what as kids and how the proportions are figured out. I’m sure there’s logic behind it, it just seems weird.
The average gamer spends 6.5 hours a week playing games, the ESA said, while boys 6 to 17 average 7.3 hours per week of game time.
Boys ages 6 to 17 don’t work 8 to 10 hour days and come how and have to support a family. Also, I’m sure that the number of hours put into gaming by an 18 year old adult is going to be more than a 50 year old adult. Let’s see some more breakdowns instead of “anyone under 17″ and “everyone else”.
As the age of gamers has risen, so has the number of games for adults. Of all games sold in 2002, the ESA said 13.2 percent carried a “Mature” or “M” rating, up from 9.9 percent in 2001 and under 8 percent in 2000.
This makes sense. Older gamers don’t mind bad words and violence as much. Not a big deal.
Hrody said she and her friends much prefer many of those mature games, like war titles, to the games specially designed and targeted by game companies at the female market, such as dancing themes or Barbie.
No Shit! You lie! How could a woman not want a Barbie game! She dances and does stuff! That’s so crazy! Why would she even think about playing a good game when she can have an awful piece of crap for girls!?!!? Anyone male or female likes good games and dislikes bad games. (Except for a few people out there and they know who they are. Freaks!). (PS: We’re all guilty of this on some occasions).
“They don’t hear enough about what the market is. I think they just assume that it’s boys that are playing these games,” she said. “(Girls’ games are) very boring, there’s no story line, it’s almost like they play it down for girls.”
Those girl games are bad there is no doubt about it. But someone is buyin’ them or else they wouldn’t sell it. Let’s just hope those buyers realize their mistake and stop so that developers can make a few new and better titles.
The poll found little difference in the relationship between game play and income, with 39 percent of gamers reporting total household income of less than $50,000 a year and 41 percent reporting an income of more than $50,000.
Quick! End the article with a random fact that seems totally misplaced and just thrown in for length and appearance!
Energy Booster 100 increased milk fat percentage by about 0.1% units while Ca-LCFA increased milk fat percentage in cows with low milk fat percent and depressed milk fat percentage in cows with higher milk fat percent. Like all dietary fat supplements, both Energy Booster 100 and Ca-LCFA depressed milk protein percentage. However, Energy Booster 100 depressed milk protein percentage by 0.1% units less than Ca-LCFA.
See what I mean?
I found out about this article at my favorite Female Gamers’ site: Game Girl Advance. They’re good people.
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