47% of Australian Gamers Are Female

[ron1n]

Which leaves us with 17% of this 47% being actual gamers in this sense:

The irony being dodger doesn't actually play all that much. You ever seen her on the podcast? Has no clue what's going on.

This in itself is another type of person again who tends to be into geek culture/games/manga/sci-fi/comics etc. They exude the stereotypical 'gamer' look but don't actually play all that much other than casual stuff or some WoW/3DS stuff.

In my experience the most full on (in terms of hours and involvement) 'gamers' are nearly always just more normal everyday kind of people minus any excessive geek paraphernalia.

Really though, I just wish we could get past the whole 'gamer' tag all together. I mean, the medium is as common as film or television now, and we don't call people who watch tv 'watchers' so why 'gamers'?

 

[Erttheking]

snip

Because those people are the reason why we got Dungeon Keeper mobile and that it has mostly 5 star reviews?

No, EA being slimey assholes is the reason it has 5 stars. It has a five star rating on google because only ratings of five stars go there.

OT: You know, before I even clicked on this article I said to myself that there would just be accusations of them all being mobile gamers. Seriously, the internet is starting to feel like a boring routine.

To be fair, the study is lacking in any detailed classification. I'm just glad to see folks here showing critical thinking and not just accepting the statistics as presented. "Gamer" is too broad a term and the fact it's the hot, trendy thing at the moment makes me even more skeptical.

It's the men as well, I'd be curious to know how many of those participants just play mobile games/the Marios when they visit cousin Billy's house, regardless of gender.

Fair point. I'm just getting tired of everything that goes on the internet being as predictable as clockwork. Argument about sexism here, Americans are stupid there, bashing the latest AAA game in the middle then it all starts over again.

 

[Erttheking]

OT: You know, before I even clicked on this article I said to myself that there would just be accusations of them all being mobile gamers. Seriously, the internet is starting to feel like a boring routine.

When internet media stops posting 'studies' that 'show' half the gamer population is female, I'll stop posting rebuttals.

To be fair, you actually followed up your argument with reasoning as opposed to just basing your argument on stereotypes.

 

[iseko]

I try to be mature (-ish) on the internet but statements like these I find very hard to believe. The immediate response that popped into my head when I saw the title was: Tits or gtfo!

Back OT: Nope, Nope nope nope nope nope. If they added a survey of type of games and or hours per week I could start pulling some facts from this survey. I've already read the replies above and I saw people reacting to the OP's "gamers" thing. Meaning that they don't really refer to actual gamers, they only call themselves that.

To people who disagree: sorry but you are wrong. Playing angry birds on your smartphone does not make you a gamer. Just as making a tornado in a bottle does not make you a scientist! There are arbitrary lines that define someone as a gamer but really, angry birds is not it. I wonder how many of the female gamers just play farmsville and then go: I'm such a gamer. I reply: no you're not. You know why? You refer to COD as: the one with all the guns. And Mass effect as: star wars? And strangely starcraft: also star wars?

If you cannot bring forth a very limited description of modern AAA games then you are not a gamer. That is where I draw my line. You don't even have to play them (personally for me COD can go fuck itself) but you need to know what they are.

 

[ron1n]

Well I don't know Dodger personally but she seems like the real deal to me. She plays real games on her channel. I'm aware that there are girls who pretend to be gamers but I don't think Dodger is one of those.

Main reason I used Dodger as an example was that she was easy to google. You could put in place of that pic any girl who actually plays real games.

Not saying she doesn't play, just saying that despite appearances, people like her don't really fit into the small percentage of girls that play a ton. Which in the case of these studies, is the only real meaningful statistic.

It's like a lot of things though. You'll see some person wearing a band tee with the 'metal' look when in reality they often only listen to like 2-4 mainstream metal bands and aren't really into it otherwise.

It's not 'faking' it's more just a case of people who identify with the look and culture more than the actual pass time, which is fine.

 

[seditary]

Why don't any of these studies aim to gather useful specific information.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

A little more information is needed I think. What is the average age of female gamers and what is the average age of male gamers? For example.

But most of it is common sense too. I mean we all know mobile games are largely just time wasters for people, and we all know people play games for fun.

After all, I drive a car, but i'm the furthest from what you would call a "car enthusiast."

In fairness, you're still a driver, the same as someone who plays games is a gamer.

 

[saltyanon]

Just because they don't play triple A games doesn't mean they aren't a gamer.
This data is actually pretty valuable to Triple A publishers. It tells them to change their business model and target audience and where they produce their games, which they are doing. Go figure.

Yes! Time to market Spunkgargleweewee 2015 to females playing nothing but bejeweled and candy crush!

 

[Steven Bogos]

A little more information is needed I think. What is the average age of female gamers and what is the average age of male gamers? For example.

But most of it is common sense too. I mean we all know mobile games are largely just time wasters for people, and we all know people play games for fun.

After all, I drive a car, but i'm the furthest from what you would call a "car enthusiast."

In fairness, you're still a driver, the same as someone who plays games is a gamer.

I never said that people who play casual/facebook games aren't gamers. I said they they may not be "gaming enthusiasts"

 

[AstaresPanda]

Im sure this is somthing we've all known as what the mass media portrays most groups to be. But these 30 year olds are the gamers who grew up with it all at the start, who made it popular to break into the mainstream and not just be for kids, its as normal as TV is so i dont know why that stereotype of games are for kids despite having adult ratings on them and adult themes and story lines more these days. oR is the world really just ran by old closed minded assholes.

 

[Steven Bogos]

What do you think of these kinds of surveys? These days, pretty much everyone has a smartphone capable of playing games. Everyone can be a "gamer", but that doesn't necessarily mean they subscribe to gaming culture to the same extent that "gaming enthusiasts" (such as those of you with enough interest to read a website such as The Escapist) do.

This. This is exactly the problem with 'gamers' that feel they are the 'real' gamers. (I refer to the OP). I think it is a good thing that people feel it socially acceptable to refer to themselves as gamers whether the OP's attitude may accept it or not. I have mentioned in earlier posts before that some 'gamers' (those that may subscribe strongly to the 'culture' are a little phobic or distrustful of newcomers).

Hey there, friend! I never tried to claim that I was a 'real' gamer or that people who only play facebook/casual games are not 'real' gamers, i simple stated that they, and I quote, may not "subscribe to gaming culture to the same extent that "gaming enthusiasts" do"

I even provided the example of driving a car. I am a "driver", but I am not a "driving enthusiast" and I don't subscribe to driving culture (read car websites, watch competitive racing, go to car shows) as much as said enthusiasts.

I honestly don't know how I can make myself more clearer. Help me out here, bro.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

Meh, someone that lables himself as a "gamer" is more to me, than just someone how durdles around on his cellphone for 5min waiting on the bus.

Gettin' a free bungee-jump/skydive on your birthday doesn't make you an extreme sports nut. Jogging once a week doesn't make you an athlete. Playing for 5min doesn't make you a "gamer" in the sense of a hobbyist.
I know that's an unpopular opinion nowadays, but that's just how it is to me.

 

[RJ 17]

Not for nothing but...haven't they already done studies that say that the gamer population world-wide is just about a 50-50 split between guys and girls?

 

[smithy_2045]

Geez, people are awfully caustic towards these self-identified gamers for somehow not being real gamers, whatever that means.

 

[Trishbot]

There is a difference between a gamer and a games enthusiast.

Games are games, even the crummy ones. As a gamer myself, I'd probably rather play Bejeweled or Angry Birds over something like, say, Duke Nukem Forever or Superman 64...

Not everyone has to play Dark Souls to be a gamer.

 

[Schadrach]

It's like a lot of things though. You'll see some person wearing a band tee with the 'metal' look when in reality they often only listen to like 2-4 mainstream metal bands and aren't really into it otherwise.

It's not 'faking' it's more just a case of people who identify with the look and culture more than the actual pass time, which is fine.

Would you call such a person a "metalhead"? Would it make you a $DEMOGRAPHIC_CATEGORY-ist to suggest that such a person is not a metalhead, even if they photograph themselves in that outfit with the caption "I am *such* a metalhead!!"?

In fairness, you're still a driver, the same as someone who plays games is a gamer.

Worth noting that until fairly recently, "gamer" was more analogous with "movie buff" than "moviegoer", only really changing in anyone's minds as geeky subcultures became the new trendy thing. That is to say that just a few years ago, calling someone who only plays solitaire on their work PC during their lunch break "not a gamer" would not have been a problem to anyone, now it's whatever-that-person-is-ism to even suggest it.

 

[Ratty]

Oh hey, it's this discussion again. Most women who play games play casual/mobile games, therefore they're not "real gamers". Never mind that in this day and age that's probably true of men to.

We really need to move into a more descriptive term for enthusiasts. Like "movie buff" or at least an analogue for "couch potato"

 

[Something Amyss]

When I saw the link, I was wondering how many posts until someone tried to bring up the issue of 'real gamers." To my surprise, it was the article itself.

Can someone tell me where these female Australian gamers are? I'd love to meet some of them, but they seem a lot less common than us male Aussie gamers. I think I met one female gamer when I lived in a college boarding house out of about 215 residents. In contrast there were at least a dozen men I'd call serious gamers, and many more FIFA/COD etc players.

Women might not be as forthcoming about their habits for a number of reasons. There's a social stigma against women gaming, and there's one from within gaming, too. There's harassment, antipathy, resentment and outright anger at girls being allowed in the treehouse. A large number of women say they actively hide their gender because of the way gaming treats them.

You see all these on The Escapist: testimonials of women who have at the least been told they don't fit and at most have been harassed the to point they hide their identities.

It's also been posted here many times that the most popular games with women tend to be the same games men play. Anecdotally, The Escapist population would back that up.

Maybe the question shouldn't be "where are all the females?" but "why do we expect them to be open when the males behave like hateful, childish dicks around them?"

I'm surprised there are so many women gamers, but only for the same reason I'm surprised there are so many gay Republicans, not because you don't personally see them around.