Why The Gaming Industry Doesn’t Attract Girls – Video
July 25, 2009 by Ruibo
Ever wondered why there aren’t that many gamer girls? Well, I’m sure majority of us have our own ideas and perspective as to why, but a video lecture by Daniel Floyd (cowritten by Leigh Alexander) really brings out some the issues that needs to be addressed. His latest short animated series is created with a little spice of Zero Punctuation inspiration with fun and smart analysis.
Check out the video below.
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I’m female, been playing video games since I was 3 years old. I really don’t see this “gender line” mentioned in the video, simply because women seem more inclined to care about different things. I’m not actually all that sure what, though. I was kicked out of the “Girls Club” years ago and haven’t looked back.
Women are, in most cases, far less aggressive than men. Video games almost always portray some sort of violence. Except, of course, the casual games. To some even playing a Mario game is a bit too “violent” and even though they’re colorful, they just don’t tell them how to do their nails or how to attract men.
On the topic of sexism and trying to remove it from gaming culture, it’s not going to happen. Worse off, it wouldn’t work. Women look for men, while men look at women. A man can be completely content looking and women in video games, while a normal woman could only hold her interest if her character found a man to love.
My comment does’t make much sense. I guess I just don’t want regular women in my hobby. They suck the fun out of everything.
Tired phrases like it’s been male dominated or orientated ignore one underlining fact…
Men created video gaming and made it to appeal to men. Shock!
Women looked down at gaming and had no interest in what they perceived as boys toys.
How many gamers from the Megadrive/Snes days had girls roll their eyes when gaming was mentioned or ridicule it?
Sure the market was aimed at Men and wouldn’t appeal too much to Women but Women displayed very little interest so excluded themselves and they market continued to cater for the primary demographic. Horror!
Why do we need to care if Women aren’t playing as much as Men?
Why is it Mens interest are always asking why aren’t there more Women involved (then say the women that are are better than the Men flying in the face of results facts and figures?) but Womens interest and hobbies never even attempt to get Men involved? Never attempt to change to appeal to men? even at the expense of their primary demographic Women like ours does?
It’s great if Girls want to play and should have their interest looked after but don’t forget how the market got to how it is today and don’t put the blame squarely at Men. It was a Mans hobby that’s suited for Men so you can’t be annoyed that that over the years it’s catered to men.
There is scientific evidence and studies that show that gaming suits a Mans brain and the way Men think due to Spacial awareness and manipulation which is more developed in Males and the Girls that excel in gaming have higher levels of testosterone (I sort of believe that last one but not so much) but that’s ignored for backed up arguments like “Women are better than Men” or Men are more aggressive?
There is Sexism in gaming but it’s not a one way street and a lot of it that’s negative to Women was created by Women.
GIRLS DONT BELONG IN VIDEO GAMES. JUST COOK CLEAN AND DO MY LAUNDRY.
Zantoo, my gosh…
I really agree with the video’s message. I would also like to add that 85% of my gal pals are gamers, and they play a mean game of Tetris!
Hm, two points I want to make here.
1: You missed one major area where a sizable female demographic is emerging. MMORPGS. In the two I’ve spent a real amount of time playing, Perfect World and World of Warcraft, as a rough estimation I observed a roughly 30% female ratio, which is much higher than most gaming. I’ll tell you why. It’s social. In general, guys are more likely to be content locking themselves in a room alone with a glowing screen for days at a time than women, women simply tend to be more social than men. The more interaction and teamwork you put into a game, the more females you’re likely to draw. Plus it’s visually pleasing, and the female armors aren’t bikini chainmail.
2: Games for guys will always exist. Games for girls will always exist. It’s just like magazines, television programs, movies, or any other form of entertainment. How many men read Cosmo? How many women watch the “Alien” movies? It’s just the way it is. However, the thing we want to shoot for is to keep expanding that middle ground, and when you make a middle ground game, don’t whore up the female characters.
Also: “Maybe we’ll get some new archetypes(finally).” Yes. Yes yes yes yes yes. That’s probably the final problem. The game industry tends to find a formula that works and just keep hammering on it. (Space marines, alone in a dark mansion, murder simulator) When writers and programmers stop thinking inside the box and come up with new, interesting creative stuff, everyone will be drawn to it, sex won’t be an issue.
I totally agree with the video. We need more chicks in our hobby. Why should we care? Because c’mon, dont you want a hot girlfriend who can hold her own in COD or share your undying love for Final Fantasy? Man that’d be awesome. I also agree with the comment above me; make the game a social experience. If there could somehow be a creative coop game, because from my experience girls love coop over competition, there would be soooo many girls jumping on our bandwagon. Just a thought…