Stats on console and portable gaming device ownsership

[crimson5pheonix]

SegaGenesis.gif

OT: A useful bit of information.

 

[Mazinger-Z]

Just because someone owns a gaming console doesn't mean they use it for gaming.

what the fuck would you use a gaming console for other than gaming?

I mean, I know some consoles run hot enough to cook an egg on but just because girls own consoles doesnt mean theyre cooking on them exactly.

This is just more pointless goal post shifting.

There was, for a time, a subset if the 360 community who owned them specifically for the synched Netflix parties and ability to converse in the Xbox Live party chat.

Was great for long distance relationships and I knew a number of guys who bought an Xbox for their gf specifically for that purpose.

Even knew a divorced dad who did it so he could spend extra time with his kids watching movies.

There was a vocal community pissed as hell when they removed the feature.

With regards to the stats, I notice they only track adult ownership and that opens the question as to what is considered ownership. Do they only count the owner as the primary user or the head of house? Single mothers make up the majority of single parent households, therefore if you are counting console ownership by head of house its more likely a console bought for a kid would be owned by the mother, depending on how that data is accounted for.

The same research institute will also tell you 34% of US children are living with a single parent.

 

[Sampler]

Apparently this study cited psp and sega genesis as examples of portables. It doesn't look like they know what they're saying all that much.


Also you must kinda differentiate between owning a console and actually using the console that you own. I own a ps1 but I haven't used the thing in like 15 years. I could see this being the case with some people and their reporting of their "sega genesis" lol.



But yes obviously women own consoles, nobody's saying they don't I don't think. People are just saying the statistic about the gamer population being 50% female is misleading. It's not something directly tied to console ownership.

There's a handheld version of the genesis, called the nomad in Europe (not sure what the call it elsewhere, seeing how we got MegaDrive instead of Genesis)

 

[sXeth]

The cynical part of me wants to ask how many of those consoles are a Wii+Sports/Fit <_<.

I don't deny womens presence as gamers, I know more then enough to know they exist (and mostly not in my joking category above), but yeah, the study seems a little wonky in its details.

Also, unless the OP misquoted, its that a higher percentage of women own consoles, not that more women own consoles then men. Without knowing how many of each were polled, that doesn't really create a direct comparison.

I used to/still use my consoles for things like playing music, watching dvds/blurays, and have used my PS4 to play youtube videos and even been considering getting a netflix subscription through it <.<

I don't know whether it'd be more economical to purchase those devices separately if you didn't plan to use the console for gaming, but it'd certainly save some space.

You can get little Smart boxes for your TV around 80-100 that do most of that except for DVDs. You can get a DVD player at thrift shops for 10 bucks or less fairly consistently, so probably cheaper.

 

[Skatologist]

Ah, now I see it. Nobody(especially boys) under the age of 18 is represented in the survey and we all know that like, 90% of the gaming market is composed of pre teen boys and they totally own all the consoles. See, now you can harp on something and make excuses for this study other than the "Sega Genesis" thing Escapists. Speaking of which: http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Portable-Player-Not-Machine-Specific/dp/B0094H8H78

 

[Dango]

Smartphone Owners More Likely to be Younger, More Affluent and Highly Educated

Tablet Owners More Likely to be Younger, More Affluent and Highly Educated

Wow, people with more money more likely to buy expensive things. Also, I know plenty of old people and dumb people that own tablets and smartphones.

Also statistics are always weird and hard to make proper sense of so I'm not gonna touch any of the other stuff.

 

[Redryhno]

But all these things were still in ADDITION to playing games.

I think it's just dishonest for a lot of people to go "well, if 50% of gamers are women then they must be using phones!"

and then when proven that it applies to consoles too, immediately switch to "well I bet they dont even game on their gaming consoles!"

there's just no amount of information that will satisfy some people when it comes to proving how much women game

Dude, my mom plays an MMO almost exclusively, and it's only available on PC's. My girlfriend goes hard on anything that kills you for screwing up by single pixels. I'm well aware how much women can game. Thing is, both of them are on PC. Most of my friends are exclusively PC. And most of them converted to it as their primary gaming device because consoles were too limiting for what they were interested in. Guy's got rid of them, because they could get the same games on the PC. Girls kept them because they couldn't. This is just the general thing that happened, nothing else.

To use this percentage as anything but a single talking point in a much larger conversation that includes the actual numbers and context is silly. That was my point. Pretty sure that was what everyone's point that you just quoted. Yes, this says a larger percentage of women own consoles. That doesn't mean that it's primarily used as such. It doesn't mean that they're the ones that use it as they bought it for their kids. It doesn't take into account PC gamers or if people no longer use it as anything but a paperweight. And it certainly doesn't take into account if anyone uses it for a handful of exclusives or every title they can get their hands on.

To say that women don't game hard is silly(they're just as much people as men). For anyone to say that this statistic proves anything beyond them simply owning an NES from their childhood that they bring out every once in a while is nearly as silly.

 

[Skatologist]

Oh, and in case people were too lazy or smug to actually look for these things, here's the complete report, the questionnaire on its own, and methodology of the survey as to view and scrutinize them.

Captcha: Take A Survey

Fitting Captcha. Very fitting

 

[totheendofsin]

Just because someone owns a gaming console doesn't mean they use it for gaming.

what the fuck would you use a gaming console for other than gaming?

I mean, I know some consoles run hot enough to cook an egg on but just because girls own consoles doesnt mean theyre cooking on them exactly.

This is just more pointless goal post shifting.

When the PS3 first came out it was the cheapest blu-ray player on the market, there are reasons, though I doubt anyone with a ps4 or xb1 would fall into these scenarios as there are cheaper options for the non gaming functions those consoles have

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Snip

Technically true. But one thing that always drove me crazy is objections like that, while perfectly logical, only ever seem to get brought up when talking about how many women game. When it's just men you never see arguments like that. And it just drives me insane.

Hell if I know man...hell if I know. I just overlook it because there's no other indicator that the data is faulty. You see anything major that points to that, just let me know and I'll eat my words.

Actually that makes more sense than you might think at first sight, considering how pathetically the PS Vita is doing. People who played handheld are five times more likely to own a PSP rather than a PS Vita (Rounding down, 10 million Vitas have been sold while 50 million PSPs have been sold). Hell, my best friend has that set up going.

Nobody spoke specifically about women though. This study sure doesn't. This study speaks both about men and women and BOTH of these groups seem to be misrepresented due to the faulty methodology. You're focusing on the ramifications the study has about women but if you go there and look it doesn't seem to focus on women. It presents both sexes as equally relevant. It just so happens that this wrong methodology has as a result something that you like. It's what we call confirmation bias.


Also, again, for the third (and hopefully final) time, just OWNING a psp (which yes, more people own than they do Vita) does not mean you PLAY on the psp that you own. To presume that owning a system means that you use the system to play games on it, when the system is an ancient system that most people wouldn't use any more, is a LEAP IN LOGIC. You need more than you have right now to show the connection you're trying to show.

Owning a system doesn't mean you actually use it more than another system that you also own, phones included.

 

[Worgen]

I like how quickly this thread went right to the whole "fake gamer girl" thing without actually calling that. Is there anything that guys get called "fake" for?

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I like how quickly this thread went right to the whole "fake gamer girl" thing without actually calling that. Is there anything that guys get called "fake" for?

The survey isn't even a survey about women. It's a survey about both sexes. The topic here was just focused on the women-aspect but the actual study isn't all about women so to tackle it's methodology isn't an indirect method of claiming this or that about women, either, since the study's methodology doesn't only speak about women but it speaks about men too. I think a whole lot of confirmation bias makes people reluctant to think critically here.

 

[Worgen]

I like how quickly this thread went right to the whole "fake gamer girl" thing without actually calling that. Is there anything that guys get called "fake" for?

I'm not seeing it. But if you want the more universal concept outside of gaming, try "Poseur". You'll find lots of examples.

It's pretty easy to see with most posters doubting the data or suggesting that just because one owns a console, doesn't mean they use it for gaming. It's just another way of saying "fake gamer girls."

 

[Something Amyss]

This does remind me though, when I bought my PS4, the bloke serving me looked confusedly over at my boyfriend (while I was paying for it) and said slowly "So... this is for... you then?". Pfft. Nope.

Please tell me you bought this PS4 via use of a time machine from some 15th century market.

what the fuck would you use a gaming console for other than gaming?

The PS3 was one of the highest rated BD players for years, cost less than competitors, and had a lot of features on top. It did eventually lose steam to dedicated BD players, but at one point Sony was actually bragging about this. The PS2 was simlarly sold on its DVD capacities, and the PS1 on CD capabilities. Hell, media features were one of the reasons I ended up with a PS2 and a PS3, though I also planned on games for both consoles so I'm not exactly in the "non-gaming" market.

The PS3 is still my primary BD/DVD/Netflix device.

It's a shame we have to keep doing these studies to show women are valid gamers, even though the gate keepers of gaming will not likely believe the studies anyhow.

Well, these studies are very rarely done specifically to prove such a thing. They're usually done for purposes of marketing and basic demographic information. I doubt Pew is specifically setting out to prove women play games, for example. This sort of gender breakdown is nothing new, and definitely predates the gamer gatekeepers. Or gamers as a whole, really, as research like this dates back to before gaming was a thing (though they were likely weighted quite different).

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I like how quickly this thread went right to the whole "fake gamer girl" thing without actually calling that. Is there anything that guys get called "fake" for?

I'm not seeing it. But if you want the more universal concept outside of gaming, try "Poseur". You'll find lots of examples.

It's pretty easy to see with most posters doubting the data or suggesting that just because one owns a console, doesn't mean they use it for gaming. It's just another way of saying "fake gamer girls."

The point is that they're including things like the freaking Genesis man. They include ownership of ancient consoles that women AND men both aren't likely to be doing any gaming on so we can't rely on these numbers to then determine that these consoles are being used at all. Who knows how many consoles that their owners actually game on are out there when you sort out the ones that people own but don't play on...and I'm damn well sure one can put the Genesis (as well as most PSPs) on that pile yet those were their examples.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

It's a shame we have to keep doing these studies to show women are valid gamers, even though the gate keepers of gaming will not likely believe the studies anyhow.

Well, these studies are very rarely done specifically to prove such a thing. They're usually done for purposes of marketing and basic demographic information. I doubt Pew is specifically setting out to prove women play games, for example. This sort of gender breakdown is nothing new, and definitely predates the gamer gatekeepers. Or gamers as a whole, really, as research like this dates back to before gaming was a thing (though they were likely weighted quite different).

True, these studies aren't generally done just to say women game, but these are used to show such to counter arguments to keep certain demographics away from being marketed to.

 

[Something Amyss]

True, these studies aren't generally done just to say women game, but these are used to show such to counter arguments to keep certain demographics away from being marketed to.

Yeah, and that really is a shame. It's somewhat heartening though that research and marketing groups treat it as the norm, though. It means the protests are likely in vain.

 

[Strazdas]

i do wonder how did they account for families? Families tend to share gaming devices. Could not find that in their methodology. thous would have a significant impact in making both genders closer to each-other because no matter which member of the family answered the phone they would say they have a console.

Other than that, well i guess its nice to see confirmation of what we already knew?

It's a shame we have to keep doing these studies to show women are valid gamers, even though the gate keepers of gaming will not likely believe the studies anyhow.

It's a shame that the gate keepers of gamers are, bluntly, deluded enough to think that people like being forcibly marginalized, and on top of that should be quiet about it.

except that noone is claiming that women are not valid gamers, nor owning a console makes you a gamer. being a gamer requires gaming to be your hobby, and this is definitely not true for all consoles owners. some console owners i know haven't even played a single game on them.

what the fuck would you use a gaming console for other than gaming?

I mean, I know some consoles run hot enough to cook an egg on but just because girls own consoles doesnt mean theyre cooking on them exactly.

This is just more pointless goal post shifting.

for quite a while PS3 was the cheapest blue-ray player around and people bought them for that. Same deal with DVDs and PS2 though that probably is less relevant nowadays. I also know some people that do not use their Xboxes for gaming but only for Netflix. (they game on PC instead).

It's pretty easy to see with most posters doubting the data or suggesting that just because one owns a console, doesn't mean they use it for gaming. It's just another way of saying "fake gamer girls."

except that people explicitly mentioned guys buying consoles for non-gaming reasons.....

 

[Strazdas]

i do wonder how did they account for families? Families tend to share gaming devices. Could not find that in their methodology. thous would have a significant impact in making both genders closer to each-other because no matter which member of the family answered the phone they would say they have a console.

I feel like you could solve this problem with a few more questions; how many people in your household, what are their genders, which of them plays the console.

yes, you could, but as far as i see there was none of that in this study. thats the point of that paragraph.

 

[Josh123914]

I like how quickly this thread went right to the whole "fake gamer girl" thing without actually calling that. Is there anything that guys get called "fake" for?

I get called a "fake gamer" for playing on PC and refusing to buy an XBOne this year.
People are idiots.

Btw this thread is in dire need of a poll. Just to aggregate what people here play.