A question for the female escapists....

[Amir Kondori]

I really enjoyed Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, I really did, but I have long since grew to abhor that whole franchise and its hoo-ra, rah-rah, go team America kill all the funny brown people shit. Its "hey, how do we take this game up to 11? Let's have a level where the player guns down tons of innocent civilians in an airport".

Of course I am a guy.

 

[Talvrae]

No i don,t tried it, but honestelly millitary shooter bored me

 

[Cat Cloud]

I'm not too interested in FPS games, and most of the women gamers I know aren't either. For the ones that don't like the genre, it's more of the culture associated with it than anything else. If I had an xbox 360 I would try out an fps or two, but as it stands that is not a reality.

 

[Xelien]

Well that chart of the first page just showed how small of percentage female players are for Call of Duty, it be more interesting to see a chart just comprising of female gamers. To gauge how much of female gamers are Call of Duty fans, and how much are not.

I know thats the purpose of this thread, but to see an actual chart about it would be cool. Also, I'm not a fan myself.

 

[Colour Scientist]

I've played Blops and MW and MW3 but they were gifts, I probably wouldn't ever buy one myself.

I find the campaigns to be pretty dull and predictable and I never settled into the multiplayer.

I did enjoy that survival multiplayer in MW3 though. It was mindless but it was kind of fun to see how many waves you could get through.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

I mean I know a number of girls who pretty much ONLY play call of duty. None of which are the types youd see around a forum like this but they're definitely out there.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

I played CoD4 a lot online, but ever since MW2 was released I've mostly taken to buying the COD games if they go on sale. It is not that they are bad games or anything, I just find games like Left 4 Dead, Payday and Red Orchestra 2/Rising Storm to be much better in satisfying my need for team based first person shooters.

 

[LaoJim]

I'm actually suprised that it statistics quoted are as high as 7%, CoD being the stereotypically male game. I'd be really interested to see any statistics breaking down male:female games in each genre or ever by each popular game. Whenever I read an article in newspapers about female gamers it always starts by saying that more than half the gaming population are gamers and then usually gives some details about one lady who plays Bejewelled, one who plays WoW, and one who plays CoD. (Not that there's anything wrong with any of these games). I'm sure every game has at least one female fan, but it would be interesting to know which games attract women more.

The thing is, those who want to keep the games industry as a boys only club say "Yeah, ok so 50% of women play games but they probably all only play Farmville for 15 minutes a day at work". While I'm sure this is not true (Hell my mum, 60 years old, has completed Skyrim, twice) it sure would be nice to have detailed break down of who plays what.

 

[Lieju]

I do play FPS's, but COD is just dull to me.
I want to shoot interesting looking aliens and robots and demons with guns that shoot lasers and make black holes. Also there should be at least one dragon and some dinosaurs and I should have either the ability to turn into a cat or to summon cat-like demons to eat my enemies alive.

And online-multiplayer isn't for me either.

 

[Saucycarpdog]

I'm actually suprised that it statistics quoted are as high as 7%, CoD being the stereotypically male game. I'd be really interested to see any statistics breaking down male:female games in each genre or ever by each popular game. Whenever I read an article in newspapers about female gamers it always starts by saying that more than half the gaming population are gamers and then usually gives some details about one lady who plays Bejewelled, one who plays WoW, and one who plays CoD. (Not that there's anything wrong with any of these games). I'm sure every game has at least one female fan, but it would be interesting to know which games attract women more.

The thing is, those who want to keep the games industry as a boys only club say "Yeah, ok so 50% of women play games but they probably all only play Farmville for 15 minutes a day at work". While I'm sure this is not true (Hell my mum, 60 years old, has completed Skyrim, twice) it sure would be nice to have detailed break down of who plays what.

Found this study done by a university about gender preferences in video games. Hope it helps.

http://usabilitynews.org/video-games-males-prefer-violence-while-females-prefer-social/

 

[LaoJim]

Found this study done by a university about gender preferences in video games. Hope it helps.

http://usabilitynews.org/video-games-males-prefer-violence-while-females-prefer-social/

TH
Thanks for that, but it's not quite what I was after, as it really just shows the stereotype of men play violent "real" games on their PCs for hours while women occassionally play a social game on their phone for fifteen minutes on the bus.

While this may be broadly true, I'd like to look into the finer details. Now I'm not going to suggest that there is anything wrong with playing Angry Birds or Farmville, even though I really don't care for either game, but it is very different in nature from playing the AAA titles I'm usually interested in.

Put it this way my sister has Angry Birds and Plants vs Zombies on her iPad but doesn't ever play anything else. My mum (60), bought an Xbox 360 three years ago so that her grandchildren would have something to do when they visited, bought titles like Viva Pinata and the Lego games, started to play so she would be able to help them and found she loved it. She bought Skyrim when it game out and has now completed it twice, and she also bought and completed Kingdoms of Amalur. On the other hand my brother-in-law bought her Portal 2 for her birthday and she couldn't get her head round it at all. Similarly I've tried recommending Fallout to her, but the desolate setting doesn't appeal to her at all. She watched me play Dragon Age for a few hours and then decided it was not for her, I'm not entirely sure why.

This is the sort of information I'm interested in an a global scale. It occurred to me that Microsoft has all the achievement point information as well as knowing if your avatar is male or female. They could, if they were inclined, realease information of the form:

x number of people played game y of which z were female. The average achievement score in the game was k for men, l for women and n overall.

That's the sort of information that I think would result in endless interesting and informed discussion on this forum if only we could find it.

 

[Dragonbums]

Found this study done by a university about gender preferences in video games. Hope it helps.

http://usabilitynews.org/video-games-males-prefer-violence-while-females-prefer-social/

TH
Thanks for that, but it's not quite what I was after, as it really just shows the stereotype of men play violent "real" games on their PCs for hours while women occassionally play a social game on their phone for fifteen minutes on the bus.

While this may be broadly true, I'd like to look into the finer details. Now I'm not going to suggest that there is anything wrong with playing Angry Birds or Farmville, even though I really don't care for either game, but it is very different in nature from playing the AAA titles I'm usually interested in.

Put it this way my sister has Angry Birds and Plants vs Zombies on her iPad but doesn't ever play anything else. My mum (60), bought an Xbox 360 three years ago so that her grandchildren would have something to do when they visited, bought titles like Viva Pinata and the Lego games, started to play so she would be able to help them and found she loved it. She bought Skyrim when it game out and has now completed it twice, and she also bought and completed Kingdoms of Amalur. On the other hand my brother-in-law bought her Portal 2 for her birthday and she couldn't get her head round it at all. Similarly I've tried recommending Fallout to her, but the desolate setting doesn't appeal to her at all. She watched me play Dragon Age for a few hours and then decided it was not for her, I'm not entirely sure why.

This is the sort of information I'm interested in an a global scale. It occurred to me that Microsoft has all the achievement point information as well as knowing if your avatar is male or female. They could, if they were inclined, realease information of the form:

x number of people played game y of which z were female. The average achievement score in the game was k for men, l for women and n overall.

That's the sort of information that I think would result in endless interesting and informed discussion on this forum if only we could find it.

One thing that seems to be overlooked in regards to this are the numerous testimonies by male gamers with girlfriends about getting their mates hooked to their hobbies by using these specific games (or at least the most commonly mentioned ones.): Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls, WoW, TF2, any Mario game in existence, and Portal.

Some of these games are big AAA. Has all the things the survey would deem unlikeable to women, yet not only do those games get them hooked into playing them, but for the most part they tend to have a higher female to male ration in their gaming demographic.

Has anyone really looked into that?
I wish someone would do an in depth study about what makes those games "click" with a lot of women.

 

[LaoJim]

One thing that seems to be overlooked in regards to this are the numerous testimonies by male gamers with girlfriends about getting their mates hooked to their hobbies by using these specific games (or at least the most commonly mentioned ones.): Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls, WoW, TF2, any Mario game in existence, and Portal.

Exactly, it would be interesting to see if Mass Effect is more or less popular with female gamers than Dragon Age, whether Skyrim is more popular than Fallout. If TF2 is the most "feminine" shooter then it leads to an interesting debate about why? Did Mirror's Edge appeal to these "non-violent" women gamers or not? I've always imagined that JRPG's have a large female following. But at the moment no-one can show whether or not these are true.

 

[EeveeElectro]

I have played a small amount for a bit of fun when I'm in the mood to shoot something.
I prefer other games for various reasons and them adding a female won't make me want to play it any more.

 

[Dragonbums]

One thing that seems to be overlooked in regards to this are the numerous testimonies by male gamers with girlfriends about getting their mates hooked to their hobbies by using these specific games (or at least the most commonly mentioned ones.): Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls, WoW, TF2, any Mario game in existence, and Portal.

Exactly, it would be interesting to see if Mass Effect is more or less popular with female gamers than Dragon Age, whether Skyrim is more popular than Fallout. If TF2 is the most "feminine" shooter then it leads to an interesting debate about why? Did Mirror's Edge appeal to these "non-violent" women gamers or not? I've always imagined that JRPG's have a large female following. But at the moment no-one can show whether or not these are true.

Both Dragon Age and Mass Effect tend to be equally popular among female gamers. What largely appealed them to both games are a factor of free range customization, romantic options, and fleshed out characters and story that actually made the players feel an ounce of care for the game.

Those kinds of features tend to be prevalent in JRPG's as well. Even if they can't romance said characters in games, JRPG's tend to utilize the female version of tits and ass on their male characters. The best example of this would be Axel from Kingdom Hearts, or Dante from Devil May Cry.

Team Fortress 2 holds those elements as well. While clearly they don't have nearly as much player customization outside of hats, Valve has made sure to flesh out the characters through comics and other promotional sorts.
Another thing is that they have a very high aesthetic appeal to them.
Look at the style of TF2. They are goofy, cartoonish, colorful, and dynamic. They have an appeal that draws the eye. It doesn't look like a gritty, multiplayer shooter, despite the fact that the basic controls are basically that.
And surprisingly enough, they have just their fair share of fangirls, shipping, and fanart from their female fans. (Just go on Tumblr for two seconds and you'll see what I mean.)

When you look at these games, none of them come off as girlish. Or appealing to the female audience. None of them have been watered down, nor do they alienate the male player base as some detractors would like to say would happen if games appeal to women. These games probably had no intention of getting this demographic and yet they nailed it on the head.

 

[trollnystan]

I'm not terribly interested in Call of Duty or the like but not really because I'm female, more because I just don't enjoy those kinds of games. I don't like multiplayer, or co-op for that matter; I don't like having to keep up or slow myself down to suit my team mates. I like doing things at my own pace, and I don't like forcing others to accommodate me. So if I do group up in an MMO, or play multiplayer or co-op, I often sit grinding my teeth in frustration instead of having fun because I force myself to go at everyone else's pace. A flaw of mine I guess.

 

[Nexxis]

CoD and other modern military shooters don't really appeal to me. I find the overall concept boring, even if the plots and things are probably good for most. However, I AM interested in the female marine for Natural Selection 2, so I wouldn't mind female soldiers showing up in these games as a whole.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

While I may not be a female I have had about 3 or 4 females in my CoD 2/4 clan back when I was part of one and played the game. I find females tend to play MMOs more than shooters but that is just personal experience and in no way backed by hard stats.

So there are some that do but they don't seem to be very prevalent.

 

[Thebazilly]

I've never really been interested in COD, and the addition of female avatars isn't going to suddenly sway me. I do appreciate the effort, though. I remember being a bit baffled when the female multiplayer characters in Red Dead Redemption had to be unlocked.

 

[LaoJim]

Both Dragon Age and Mass Effect tend to be equally popular among female gamers.

The reasons you give all make perfect sense and I agree with you pretty much everything you say, but how do you know that they are *equally* popular. What I'm getting at is that it's nice to have statistics to back up what we think is happening in gaming. The numbers would either prove us right or show us interesting trends that we are not aware of.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. I'm a member of TrueAchievements and if you go to their list of games, you can sort them by the number of gamers who have played them (got at least one achivement for that game). Now this is not an ideal sample of course because only generally people who are interested in chasing achievements are likely to join, if they are aware of the site, and it probably excludes a huge number of "casual" gamers, but it's still interesting to me.

Some examples:

The first ten or so entries are a solid wall of CoD, Halo and Gears as you might expect. (And Hexic HD which came with the machine) There are about 170,000 gamers on the site, and the numbers range between 157,000 down to 130,000 so nearly everyone has played these games, but Call of Duty 2 and 3 are both significantly less popular with on about 60,000, which makes sense as the CoD crazy really started with Modern Warfare. As for the rest of the popular shooters Borderlands and Bioshock are on about 110,000. (Borderlands is a lot higher than I expected, I knew it had a big following but not that it was so mainstream) Then Left 4 Dead (106,000) and L4D2 (90,000) The first Battlefield on the list (number 3) only has 80,000 players, so less than half of the site has played it.

The original Mass Effect has 107,000 players compared with Dragon Age: Origins 62,000 players. Fallout 3 has 120,000 whereas Skyrim and Oblivion both have 100,000. (Skyrim will probably still grow a bit) New Vegas has 70,000 and Dragon Age II has 35,000. Given that Fallout is similar to the Elder Scrolls, and Mass Effect is similar to Dragon Age it seems like futuristic RPGs are more popular that Tolkieneque ones. If your claim that women like ME and DA equally is literatlly true, then would mean that there are a greater ratio of women:men playing Tolkienesque RPGs than futuristic ones. Actually from my own personal experience I suspect that women like Tolkieneque ones significantly more than futuristic ones, but at the moment I don't have any evidence for this. One last (to me rather shocking) statistic is that Dead Island currently has more players than Mass Effect 3 (66,000 > 64,000)

The numbers for Assassins' Creed are interesting: I = 131,000 II = 125,000 Brotherhood = 91,000 Revelations = 63,000 and III = 62,000. (III has only been out a year so you'd expect that number to rise as more people pick it up second hand. The most played game from last year BlOps 2 only has about 80,000) So that suggests to me that Ubisofts strategy of annualising AC has paid off. Even if the numbers were dropping as they kept reskinning the games they were able to reinvigorate interest by substantially changing the setting for III) On the other hand we have Dead Space I = 76,000 II = 49,000 III = 23,000, which gives good evidence that, as everyone on the forum keeps saying, EA's direction with the franchise is not paying off. (At least with the gamers on the site, maybe the casual numbers are different)

Anyway once I start looking at it I could write a hundred and one other things I find interesting and I've already written a lot more than I was intending to. I think if we were able to break up the numbers into male and female (and idueally have Microsoft's achievement list of everyone on-line) we'd have a lot of good raw data to talk about.