ResearchWomen Gamers - rare or extinct?
I have a great business plan! Let's create an entertainment industry that's bigger than movies, more fun than television, more ubiquitous than live theater, and higher-grossing than the rest of the toy market combined. And then, let's exclude half the human race from being our customers. Where's my promotion?
The male dominance of the gaming culture is so striking that it's a topic of discussion amongst that dominating male peer group. "Where's the women at?", the male gamers will ask each other in side-game chat. Then one of the screen names (leh38891) speaks up: "Erm, I'm a woman." The chat room swarms to life: "So what U wearing?" "Rilly a GRL? Got pics?" "U wanna cyber?" leh38891 will know better than to blow her cover like that next time. She leaves in disgust. A new nick claims her spot. Ten minutes pass. The new guy says, "Where's the women at?"
Tons of theories exist to explain the lack of females other than paid "booth babes" at an E3 Expo. For one thing, there's the booth babes. And the game babes. And the box babes. In a world where every single female, whether meat or electron, is objectified to the point of humiliation, there tend to be few women on the customer side. Kind of like why very few women hang out at strip clubs just for the fun of it.
Then there's the violence. Now, make no mistake, women aren't turned off by violence because they're pacifists. Women are turned off by violence because they find it boring after a while. And so many games involve shooting stuff, and shooting more stuff, and then shooting some more stuff, and then getting some ammo and health packs and going to shoot a big boss so you can advance to the next level and shoot different stuff.
Then there's the culture. Women can only stand so much of listening to a foul-mouthed fourteen-year-old, especially when they can't spell. What they don't realize is, the rest of us guys can't stand the foul-mouthed fourteen-year-old, either. As the gaming population spreads over a wider and wider age range with each year, this becomes more of a factor. Part of what kills online mutiplayer action for me is because it takes an hour to wait on the list and get a team together while the other three compadres delay hitting 'start' until they settle, once and for all, exactly who is the bigger faggot. I can listen to so much of that before I just want to smack their rears and send them to their rooms on time-out.
The gaming industry is seemingly baffled by this. Even when they hit it big, they don't seem to learn. The gaming industry hit it big with the Sims, and other simulator games. Note that women tend to prefer games with a constructive goal as opposed to a destructive goal. The Sims is a social-oriented game and, let's face it, does function on many levels like an electronic doll house. Before you say that that belittles women, remember that Quake is an electronic game of Cowboys 'n' Indians. But besides that, the creative aspect of decorating a house and outfitting each person or building little cities is a big draw to the female game fans, as well as the male creative fans, who tend to treat it as more of an engineering challenge.
The gaming industry will have to catch up with the other half of their market eventually. After all, it took them five years to notice that sports simulators weren't the only kind of game they could make.