Double D

Tue August 26, 2003 04:34 PM ET http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=3340020

By Ben Berkowitz
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

"I do see a lot more girls, especially the students that I'm teaching, that want to play games," she said.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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."

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.
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I've noticed that quite a few women here mention gaming and I was curious if there is a new generation of gamers coming up. Apparently there is, but the game designers better dump the notion that chicks want to play Barbie games -- *ugh.*

legolas

Is this real??? This changes like everything I ever thought. All those statistics are crazy. Do you have a link to the article?

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Double D

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=3340020

legolas, true to your moniker, you were too fast for me. I was still cutting & pasting the link & my comment as you read the article. Thanks for your interest!

BBtB

Well I know that what that article said is basically true. Although I don't know how much I trust their figures. I mean it is all based on a poll of about 1000 people which is far from all inclusive.

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"I would like about three fiddy"

spectre

I'm not surprised by this. The main audience of hardcore gamers are the ones that grew up with a NES, Atari, Sega Master System, etc. The fact that women are bigtime gamers doesn't surprise me either. I've been to a few arcades that have had more women than kids.

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TaLoN

i don't know about women playing that much, but im sure that most video game players are well over 18

MichaelFarker

Women make up 32% of gamers according to their poll. That doesn't seem like a large portion to me. It's about what you'd expect.

Double D

I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that older people are gradually becoming more comfortable with various technologies, either through desire, or forced choice due to employment.
Once a certain level of comfort is established, perhaps some of the older folks elect to explore the world of gaming?

I agree that the stats in this article could be rather sketchy, but the growth of gaming is an interesting phenomenon just the same, as I've watched it through the eyes of my children for the past 15 years.

Nisses

adults over 50 are the 30yr olds of the time when PCs started having games etc. So not only that they are becoming more comfortable with it, but they have already been alot more exposed than say, the adults over 70.

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SecretMethod70

My mom's over 50 - she loved Pac-Man when my brothers had an Atari, she loved Duck Hunt and Mario when I had a Nintendo, and she loved Tetris when I got a Game Boy. We don't have a family console system anymore so she doesn't have an oppotunity to play any video games really, but she loves playing minesweeper and some other games that came with their computer. And I imagine if we still had a Nintendo or another console in the family room and if we had family games for it (as opposed to Unreal Tournament, etc) that she'd probably still enjoy playing. So I'm not really surprised by that figure. I guess I'd have thought it was a little lower, but that's all.

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water_boy1999

The next hot girl I see that plays video games is gonna be the one I marry.

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SecretMethod70

Definitely do that - I highly suggest it I already took one though and you can't have her :-p

Just find one that likes stuff like LotR and it shouldn't be too hard to get her into RPGs - I know a couple!

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"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

angela146

Older people accepting the technology. It's kind of interesting to hear you say that.

Video games, the arcade ones that is, have been around for about my lifetime, since 1975.

The real explosion, space invaders, pac man etc. was in about 1978-1982. I remember being a gradeschooler, which would have been in 1981-1986, and my parents saying that pinball machines were disappearing, to be replaced by videogames.

Now, I was a little kid back then so my memory of the dates is more than a little fuzzy. but... it would seem like the original "core" group of arcade players would have been born in 1960 ish, making them in their early forties... or almost exactly your age.

Am I correct? Are you the pivot point?

onodrim

Well I'm gonna hope he's talking about me.

I've always loved video games. When I was younger, I could play them all day. I do remember unfortunately that I was basically the only girl I knew like that. (Although I can't say I didn't like all the time I got to spend with the boys ) Good to see that things are taking a new turn.

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Double D

In terms of the core group of *older people* accepting technology?

Well, I was born in the last 4 or 5 years of the Baby Boom, which ran from about 1947-1964. I tend to lump myself into that category (or get lumped ), so that would seem to jibe with the survey's assertion that the group of older (age 50+) gamers is growing (as the Boomers age into that category). We are a very large group, with the Echo Boomers--our children-- being the only group that rivals us in size.

But unless you consider pinball, which I love, I am not a gamer, so my knowledge is second-hand.
I remember in 1975 approx., at age 15, that my father came home from a business trip to California all excited about this new-fangled arcade game--Pong.
I also remember in 1983, having my infant son slung across my chest, attempting to play Donkey Kong --I sucked at it. (For the record, I was stuck in a teeny-tiny town and was at a two-game arcade.)

That's about it, until my oldest son started begging for Nintendo in the late 1980's. With a second son born 10 years later, and two hard-care gamers in the house, things have never been the same.

HeyAgain

I think the only reason the female demographic has gone up so dramatically is the game "The Sims" where 45 percent of the players are women.

legolas

Wow, I had no idea I was a complete racist when it came to video games. Thanks for clearing that up and educating me.

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collide

Ah! *subscribe* I remember my best friend's brother had an Atari but he would never let us play with it. I would just sit and watch. It wasn't until they released the NES that I really started gaming. It never occurred to me that these games were made with a particular demographic in mind. One of the reasons I continued playing console games was to compete against my little brother because I just couldn't let the little runt beat me at anything. Heh. Good times. It wasn't until the SNES came out that I started identifying with strong female characters in those arcade style fighting games. Girls who kick ass rule! At some point I moved on to RPGs and adventure games on the PC. Then I discovered FPS games, and watched my brother play Doom (I played for a while, but I enjoyed watching more than I did playing this game). I didn't really start getting good at FPS games until Quake2, where it actually required you to *aim* your crosshair over opponents to kill things. Finally, a game to exercise my reflexes! RTS games and SIM games are all big fun, but not nearly as addictive as FPS games. It's funny how often you get called a n00b or a h0m0 until they realize you're a girl who happens to have the highest frags. Then they either start flirting with you or start asking crude questions. Nowadays it is less common for guys to be surprised that a girl is kicking your ass in something like Counter-Strike. Anyway, to get back on topic -- I'm thinking about entering the interactive gaming industry, and I've been following stories about women and gaming development, so thank you for providing this article!

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mrquackers

I've got the other, so the search is going to be a little more difficult!

On that article, as I've mentioned in other threads, I'm a reporter who covers the gaming industry for a major news outlet. The survey's definitely true, but keep in mind that the ESB, which released it, is focusing beyond PC and console retail games and including things like Minesweeper and Solitaire as well.

Women are definitely getting more interested in gaming - as evidenced by the large number of women I saw at QuakeCon this year. But it's still, by and large, a male dominated hobby. Hopefully, the odds will even out a bit more in the coming years.