Gaming is a Man's Game

[Logan Frederick]

Gaming is a Man's Game

In another almost obvious scientific discovery, a Stanford study has found videogames fill men's desires to dominate, conquer and control the world.

Most men like games, particularly ones with lots of tackling, shooting, and most importantly, bloody guts. Previously this was a pretty accurate assumption. Now, Professor Allan Reiss of Stanford's Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research has done the scientific research to prove the hypothesis.

After hooking up his test subjects, a selection of men and women, to an MRI machine and having them play simple games, Reiss' team noticed large increases in activity in multiple parts of the brain: the mesocorticolimbic centre, nucleus accumbens, amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex. All of these sectors are "reward centers" that give the person a feeling a gratification.

Excitement in men increased as their game performance improved and the began winning their respective games. Women were mildly amused, but were clearly shown to be less satisfied by gaming and winning than men.

"These gender differences may help explain why males are more attracted to, and more likely to become 'hooked' on video games than females," explained Reiss. "I think it's fair to say that males tend to be more intrinsically territorial. It doesn't take a genius to figure out who historically are the conquerors and tyrants of our species - they're the males. Most of the computer games that are really popular with males are territory and aggression-type games."

Source: Telegraph [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/3965269/Men-enjoy-computer-games-because-of-basic-urge-to-conquer.html]

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[HobbesMkii]

Kinda self-fulfilling isn't it? I mean, videogames are targeted towards the male population (for the most part, there are exceptions to any statement) so what this study more or less proves is that the videogame industry is successful in doing what it sets out to do: Entertain it's target audience.

"Most of the computer games that are really popular with males are territory and aggression-type games."

And correct it for reality's sake:

"Most of the computer games that are really popular are territory and aggression-type games." (Need some proof? GTAIV, World of WarCraft, etc etc)

Personally, I just want to know what they used for the study. Did they even TRY Nintendogs or The Sims? I mean, what were women's results for something that played to their strengths?

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

"aggression-type"? Can I refer to that as a basic category of gaming?

"And this stack over here folks, those are aggression games. They help contain my urge to kill you all."

 

[Jumplion]

When I read this this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8e_MKBfsvk] came to mind for whatever reason.

 

[Samah]

It doesn't take a genius to figure out who historically are the conquerors and tyrants of our species - they're the males.
Apparently it DOES take a genius if they had to do a scientific study to prove it.

 

[Chilango2]

Honestly, most gender difference studies are hogwash for lots of reasons that are not even worth getting into. This one, however, is particularly amusing, because as was pointed out just a bit above, it defined its own logical conclusion.

 

[Unholykrumpet]

...This is the problem with science. We could be developing new things, curing diseases, saving the world, developing super powers, etc. But no...we have to do an expensive study to figure out why guys like shooting each other, blowing shit up, and seeing naked women.

Next project for this researcher: Hooking men and women up to the same kind of machines and forcing them to cook, to see if women get more pleasure and sense of accomplishment through cooking than men do.

 

[MooseHowl]

Eeeugh.

I followed the source-link to the Telegraph and I have to say: That was some truly awful research and reporting. Got an article about men enjoying the domination, control and addiction aspects of videogames? Great story! Better use that stock photo of a black kid and a hobo-lookalike playing something-or-other, while we're at it. That'll get the message across perfectly. No one could possibly misinterpret that, could they?

On top of that, I can think of so many ways this study could have its results skewed... like whether they tracked if the players had previous gaming experience, for example... I really don't know if anything can be concluded from news articles about it. It's just sensationalism at this point. Might as well have been an article about the declining Mississippi River Yeti Population.

The simple fact is that there are women who also like "aggressive games". The differences between genders here can and are explained by nearly anything - genetics, hormones, prior experience, upbringing, availability... everything. No study as hamfisted as this is going to prove anything one way or another.

I should add that the game they describe sounds like Bejeweled, or something similar. How deeply invested in it did they expect people to get? Maybe all this study proves is that men can take a shallow experience - throwing a stick in the air, for example - and have more fun than women for a while. At least I'd be more likely to believe that, considering the amount of times I've played the "I bet I can hit [that thing there] with [this thing here in my hand]" game.

Eeeugh.

 

[Joeshie]

Kinda self-fulfilling isn't it? I mean, videogames are targeted towards the male population (for the most part, there are exceptions to any statement) so what this study more or less proves is that the videogame industry is successful in doing what it sets out to do: Entertain it's target audience.

Not necessarily. A game such as Civilization is inherently genderless in it's presentation and would have been an excellent game to use as an example. They could have also found out which path to victory each gender preferred using. It really depends upon what kind of game they are using.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter what results they find because it's always going to stir up some controversy.

 

[DamienHell]

lol you WISH video games satisfied my desires to dominate, conquer and control the world. NOT EVEN CLOSE.

 

[Ursus Astrorum]

OBJECTION! [http://objection.mrdictionary.net/go.php?n=2892653]

 

[hagaya]

That doesn't necessarily mean girls can't enjoy gaming. It's just that its male nature to feel more self-righteous or overpowering. Games are targeted toward guys because at the dawn of gaming; with Donkey Kong, Space Invaders and all that, the games weren't very guy-oriented but men enjoyed it more than women. I guess it's just the way it went. Casual games are starting to get girls into gaming. Rhythm games are a prime example of this because everyone enjoys music, and playing along or "dancing" to it is just entertaining. Gaming is and always will be dominated by males, but that doesn't mean its ours alone

 

[Calobi]

It doesn't take a genius to figure out who historically are the conquerors and tyrants of our species - they're the males.
Apparently it DOES take a genius if they had to do a scientific study to prove it.

Technically, all it takes is a scientist, or group of them. I'd bet there are tons of not-genius scientists.

 

[Hey Joe]

I know I totally play The Sims to tap into my male aggression complex.

"Yeah! Make that Baked Alaska *****! Pwned!"

 

[Pimppeter2]

erased

 

[sirdanrhodes]

Who the fuck is funding this research?

 

[MercurySteam]

".....and we broke out Guitar Hero 1 on easy monde in celebration of our manliness and complete lack of desire to fondle scrotums........." - Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw - Guitar Hero III Review

Wether you're the kinda guy who goes outside to play footy every day, or the kinda guy who stays inside all day playing his 360, chances are you'll GENERALLY be better than a female.

With the exception or any fighting games or 1 or 2 racing games i can beat my sister on almost anything. So i guess saying that "Most of the computer games that are really popular with males are territory and aggression-type games." may not be so far-fetched after all...

 

[Tirannwn]

So if playing video games is only scientifically proven to entertain males to any great extent, then what does that make me? According to this research, I shouldn't exist, being a female who enjoys video games that aren't watered down and come with a free teddy bear...

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

It doesn't take a genius to figure out who historically are the conquerors and tyrants of our species - they're the males.
Apparently it DOES take a genius if they had to do a scientific study to prove it.

Joan of Arc was a conqueror. Well, technically she was a liberator but she was a conqueror.