Girls. They have stumped men for ages with their ways. The biggest mystery of all? Why they don't play games as much as men. A recent study from Michigan State University has discovered the conclusive truth (until another study comes along and proves it wrong). Women have better things to do and thus have no time to play games. They study found that men have more leisure time because women usually do about twice the amount of work each week than men do.
“Our findings suggest that one reason women play fewer games than men is because they are required to fulfill more obligatory activities, leaving them less available leisure time,” said Jillian Winn of MSU’s Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media, and one of the co-authors of the study, which studied 276 MSU undergraduate students. Aside from the fact that men are evidently massive slackers, the study points out the fact that games aren't really directed at women, and if they were they'd probably be more interested. Also games aren't designed by women... blah, blah, blah. We've heard that stuff before.
Also interesting -- maybe even more interesting -- is that while playing games does mean that less schoolwork gets done it does not mean a decrease in one's GPA. Hear that? Gamers are smart... or everyone had low GPAs to begin with.
Matthew Razak is Destructoid's Associate editor and co-founder of film site
Flixist. He began as community member "cowzilla" and was since sequestered to write brainy features material. He lives in Los Angeles with his beautiful wife.
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Contest:
5:00 PM on 07.26.2009
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the real reason is, they don't feel the need to dominate as do men.
Okay on a semi serious note, did they talk to women that actually play games as a hobby or are these the women that only play Wii with their families?
I'm not even sure what that means... like, because our hands our generally smaller, they should make us smaller controllers? or, most games involve fighting and women aren't about that? maybe they should have random conversations in games instead of random battles? ummm...
I do have to admit that my ds is pink though... i love it sooo much!
Video gaming usually starts at a young age and I feel this is where everything seems to go wrong for some female gamers. I use to work at a video game store back in the day and I saw first hand the misconceptions. When parents wanted to buy a game for their son, the choices for him were limitless. Everything on the wall was a potential game for him. When parents wanted to buy a game for their daughter, it was always the game in the pink box. Every single time. Without fail. Those other games? For boys only. As they get older, I don't expect many to continue the gaming habit when all they played were Disney Princess and Barbie Horse Adventure.
We also have a problem with stereotypes. Video gaming is still considered a child's toy by many. Having the stereotype spoon fed to someone can stop them from gaming as they get older or prevent them from ever starting. Either that, or they may stick to "acceptable" games like Brain Age or Peggle.
There are a lot of variables to consider and I don't believe lack of free time is the only cause here.
i have to agree with mystic violet that it has a lot to do with starting out early. if parents weren't so fixated on buying little girls anything pink or makeup related, maybe girls would get the chance to become lifelong gamers.
Also, they're right when they say games aren't designed for women. At least, they're not designed with traditionally common female personalities and interests in mind, nor are they designed for the "generic," average American female. Fortunately, those things are pretty boring and I'm glad they don't cater to them. :) The women who do enjoy games as they are are much more amazing.
According to the Dr. Archibald Schicsfurdenein, everyone hates everything.
That is all.
Therefor, it is a statistic. And therefor bullshit.
What the fuck does a female HAVE to do that a MALE doesn't have to do?
Im a single parent and i game like a motherfucker, so if i can find time to game AND am also obliged to raise a child, anyone can find the time. Female or not.
I don't even disagree with the findings... I just think that they need a much larger sample to come up with any sort of valid data.
Cereally if my woman spent more time on my xbox that would mean I'd have to share, and eventually I'd be making sandwiches for HER.
F*ck that Im glad she is exactly the way she is.
@Mystic Violet: I do agree that it does start young when it comes to any interests. Well I still don't like that idea that video games aren't designed for girls. I never needed Link to be a girl to love Zelda games.
I've known some pretty awesome female gamers, though. One of them is just mind-blowing.
For instance, one time at work, I noticed this girl playing DS. I didn't even bother taking the time to inquire as to what she was playing, because I figured that it was something retarded, something along the lines of, oh, I dunno, Nintendogs. I put it out of my mind. So, another day, I'm playing my own DS, as I'd started playing Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, since I'd finally figured out how to beat that fucking locust-spewing bastard while playing in Julius Mode. Well, in walks this same girl. This was close to when Order of Ecclesia was released.
She comes up behind me and asks, "What're you playing? Ooo! Castlevania! Is that Order of Ecclesia?!"
Somewhat stunned, I manage to say, "No, it's Dawn of Sorrow." I mean, holy crap...she not only knew what a Castlevania game looked like, but she knew one of the oddest titles in the series without so much as stumbling on it.
She then goes on to amaze me even more by saying that she's playing the same game, then proceeds to take out her own DS, which - sure enough - has a copy of the same game in it. She shows me the boss that she's stuck on and everything. We start talking, and she talks about how much she loves Castlevania. (It's my favorite series of all-time, so this it was awesome hearing this from a female.) She then went on to say that Symphony of the Night was her favorite one. (It's my favorite, too.)
Then she goes on this rant about people who like certain types of games, and she starts talking about how retarded people who are obsessed over Final Fantasy VII are. Really, I was thinking to myself, "Oh my God...this girl's basically a female me!" It was amazing. It was like she was reading my mind. And yes, this was the most mind-blowing conversation that I've ever been involved in. I'm sure that I probably had this stunned look on my face the entire time. I had to have been thinking that I was dreaming. It was totally awesome.
Sadly, she's already got a boyfriend. Lucky bastard. This girl has a Morrigan cosplay under her belt. I don't think that she can get anymore awesome than she already is.
Women go to the store to "get milk" come home 3 hrs later with 10 bags of groceries and 2 bags from JCPennys.... Want more proof? On average women take... what.. like 2-3 times longer showers and preparation time in the morning. Most of that is defiantly unnecessary. I tell my girlfriend over and over she looks so much better WITHOUT make-up and such... ANYWAY of course... women work way harder than men, NOT because men are slackers, but because women cause more work for themselves, for no reason.
Sound reasonable, no?
and yea thats an incredibly sexist statement of mine but, its true. girls just have better options in stuff to do that men do. maybe they'd get a little more respect out of us if they were actually cool enough to play video games with.
oh and that thing about women working more is bullshit. not a single woman in my workplace work more hours than i do. instead they're out drinking every night and being skanks at some party somewhere.
/end rant
All of the participants were undergraduate students at a large Midwestern university. Thirty-six percent took the survey for extra credit in an introductory “Information Society” course and 64% completed the survey as an optional, for-credit assignment in a junior level “Health Psychology” course... About one fourth (26%) of students were pursuing majors in the College of Social Science (most likely Psychology majors) and another fourth (27%) were pursuing degrees in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences (most likely majoring in Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media).
Basically, this means that all of the respondents came from two undergrad classes at one university and about half were liberal arts majors. Based on sample size alone, it is, as you say, hardly enough for anyone to start quoting this study as gospel.
I'm not saying this study was worthless or a waste of time; on the contrary, it's important to do these types of small, preliminary studies to test hypotheses which lead to further, more in-depth research. It's also important, though, for us to really look at what a study is and isn't telling us and not basing our reactions on a headline or an abstract.
I split up with my wife because we were both so fucking mental about gaming (Along with a host of other issues not gaming related). We each had a PC, and eventually we ended up sitting in different rooms while she micro-managed, and I shotgunned. After a few years of that, despite huge fondness for each other (which we still very much have), we'd basically come to realise that we liked games more than having sex/dinner/dates/parties with each other, and before we knew it the romance was dead. It wasn't long before we begun taking chunks out of each other. For our daughters sake (it aint no joke when your three year old shouts at you: STOP ARGUING MUMMY AND DADDY!!) we split*, and really things are much better now. She's not addicted to gaming any more, whereas I'm probably about the same. My daughter flicks a mean analogue, too.
*this might sound ridiculous to you, but believe me, this decision was NOT taken lightly. As a result of our split, my dughter now lives in Switzerland with her mum, and I have all kinds of mental-mind-fuckery to contend with. But her mum and I are still very close friends, and we both put a lot of effort into keeping my little Josie happy and balanced.
ROFL