The Entertainment Software Association just released figures that indicate that 38% of gamers are chicks. That number seems a bit high to me. While it would be great to have more girls in the mix, I think the ESA is trying to pad their numbers to look more lucrative to marketing buyers. Hit the jump then let’s talk this out.
We’ve been doing a research project for about 8 months now, through our podcast listener survey. According to those numbers, 96% of you are dudes. While it’s obvious that the ladies are growing in numbers, I can’t help but wonder what criteria the Entertainment Software Association used to categorize “GAMERS.” Do you just have to play a game of any kind to qualify? If that’s the case, I’m finding a new word to describe myself. The lady who works down the hall from my office does paperwork all day in between sneaking-in rounds of Bejeweled. If she’s a gamer, what the hell am I? (Please don’t answer that.)
Playing a game does not a gamer make. Sorry girls, you and your solitaire clan are out.
While great sites like The Blue Skittle, Gaming Angels, and Girls Don’t Game have long populated our Friends of SG list, compared to the number of dudes that I bump into, it’s an extremely inequitable ratio. Look at that World of Datecraft site that sprang up last year. Still mostly dudes, or pics of chicks whose accounts are no longer active. (It’s hard for fictional women to visit the site enough to keep their profiles current.)
There’s no denying that the number of women gaming is growing. They actually possess better manual dexterity and visual acuity than men, giving them an edge. For now, it’s rare (comparatively) to bump into a lady online playing games. I do wish it happened more, because most girls that game also seem to know how not to make an idiot of themselves in voice chat, which is a refreshing departure.
So, I guess what I am asserting is that 38% of you are NOT women. Our numbers say about 4% of you are, and that’s a lot closer to what I see here, in our research and on XBL.
Personal note: I think gaming would be a lot cooler if 38% of you were chicks. For one thing, the smell in the BYOC area of QuakeCon would be vastly improved.
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I love that this was featured here and all the ladies came out to represent.
I am a gamer and do frequent a few gaming sites…xbox.com, hawtymcbloggy.com, kotaku.com, joystiq.com, bungie.net, ign.com, gametrailers.com, etc. I go to these sites for general game information but only participate in the xbox forums just because I can’t keep up with so many posts.
I’m glad guys are curious and supportive that we actually exist in the gaming world/industry.
I’m a girl gamer and a girl geek. I run my own computer business. I have over 7 consoles all which are connected to my tv. I got an Atari 2600 modified to fit newer tvs with over 200 games, I got an NES, sega genesis, sega cd, dreamcast, wii, ps2 and a 360. Don’t have a PS3 yet because the games suck. Been playing games since I was 3 and I’m 30 now. So what does that make me exactly? As for boys being more interested in technology yea ok whatever you say. Statistics suck if you ever been in a statistic class you would know. Oh I also don’t play cutsy games. I’m a big RPG fan. I play FPS, sports, well anything I can get my hands on that is good. The problem is like most girls are saying here it’s not friendly towards girls.
I personally don’t feel that polls are accurate enough to be believed in the way some people seem to. It’s not as if every gamer out there, male or female, is sitting at their computer every day obsessively looking for the next “are you a male or female gamer” poll, or listening to this guy’s podcast for that matter.
I myself am an avid female gamer, but I can also admit that more than the majority of girls out there are not “gamers”. But, that doesn’t mean that we’re nonexistant.
The low numbers are probably the because of the fact that most girl gamers more than likely just don’t want to make themselves known. The amount of harrassment that we recieve when we do is ridiculous, disgusting really. I guess most guys can’t handle having a girl kick ass in their team, let alone being stomped by a girl on the other team. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
And please don’t assume that all girl gamers are “fat and ugly”. You would be sadly mistaken in a lot of cases.
SO, I think that perhaps whoever did the survey had told there listeners to (aka) subscribers to vote . if they have a mostly male based fan listenership then how could they not say that us gals were just not out here? perhaps if they realized that a lot of gals like the girl only clans,girls only gamer nights,ect. perhaps if they did more research into actually looking who is female, then just tossing in a number off the tops of there heads….then again I would want them to be the ones to really research it perhaps that is all they are good at? (just thinking up some odd number and saying that’s how many of you are gals.)
and now that my skills are starting to kill him more often then not he is very glad to see me gameing with others so he doesn’t die as often! SO GALS…. GAME ON!!!
As for the guys that get their GF’s to try gameing… Also remember we don’t need or want white knights. *ok sometimes we do.* But really standing back and letting us learn how to game on our own is better then sitting in the room and yelling at us because we don’t play it your way. And when we get to a point where we get stuck in part of a map or mission guess who we will ask before going online to one of the many game sites for the walkthroughs??? Yep, that’s right Mr. White Knight! Now if you GF, Sis, Mom, Neighbor are really kicking your bum then get them to start working with other girls clans! most are of the free sort. and we love having new gals to join everybody has skills but somebody might know a better hides and or another trick that we didn’t know!
Most gals are reading this say oh I don’t know if I can join a clan… it isn’t as scarey as it sounds…and it is just pixels! My Bf and I don’t fight about anything…*knock on wood* we are always saying that it is a good thing we game because that way we can kill each other and not get jail time!
Another girl here. Your “estimate” is wrong. “P
I don’t think a lot of girls give two you-know-whats about podcasts. We are more concerned with relaxing and playing games to sit there and listen to podcasts.
A fellow girl gamer who saw your site directed me here or I wouldn’t have even come here because I don’t spend a lot of time surfing the web either.
I play sports, I play video games, and I am very good at both. I am extremely competitive and learn new concepts quickly, making it easy to adapt to any game. Check out my gamertag (PositiveSpinKim) and you can see the facts.
I understand why a lot of ladies might avoid confrontation and not talk but I think the only way we can end the discrimination and the shock is to make it normal and not a big deal to run into a girl online. So hiding in a walled garden and only playing private matches or never using your microphone is actually hurting girl gamers even if it is helping you for the short term.
Also, I think the more times a guy attacks a girl gamer and gets flak for it instead of having the girl not fight back and just become a doormat – the less it will happen also. That’s why I don’t hide.
I am a gamer chick. We are out there in games kicking butt. We don’t always talk online. Sometimes we only talk if the others in the game seem receptive, if there are other chicks, or the guys think we are young boys (we don’t always correct that, hehe) I like to play FPS games, especially COD4. I am one of the original members of the charlieoscardelta site. It was so funny one time on COD3 a guy changed sides “because there ALL girls on the other team, like 6 of them!” and we all started to laugh because there were 4 or 5 chicks on our team and it was just random. He just couldn’t get over the fact the chicks like to play war games. At least he stuck around to play and talk to us. I thought we were past all that separatism. If you met me in person you would think I am a girlie girl, but online I am a soldier. In real life I have been a singer, drag racer, artist, and designer, so I don’t want to do those in a game. I like archery and target practice, but don’t get the time to do those much so FPS games are great. I think 38% female gamers is a lot closer to accurate than 4% and it’s growing!
Another girl gamer here, right now I’m spending a big chunk of my time playing Oblivion and Assassins Creed, I also play Resistance, Age of Empire series etc. and once in while I’ll play what I heard described as girlie games too. And I want to say that I don’t think you have to play FSG to qualify as a hardcore gamer.