Why Girls Don't Play Videogames

[nova18]

...But I know a lot of 11-12 year olds who play games.
(Or at least, they were that old when I met them. I was a creepy 14 year old I guess?)

Lmao, this thread could get people in trouble.

I have a little cousin, I think shes 6/7 and she plays LOADS of games. She has 3 brothers, 2 of whom play a lot of games and shes picked up some skills. She once beat 3 of us at SSBB, forcing me to spend 3 weeks playing the game so that no-one would ever beat me again.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

i just find it funny how everyone gets all uppity about "oh this group isn't doing this" or "this group isn't doing that" honestly who cares, people will do things if they want to do things

i mean frankly most guys don't like to knit, i don't see everyone all up in arms demanding they make knitting more accessible and likable by guys

 

[Yog Sothoth]

And why do we care if 10 year old girls play video games or not.....?

 

[poet_lawreate]

And why do we care if 10 year old girls play video games or not.....?

Because if the accessability and ease of use of Wii et al means that they become the main market (it's likely, there's that lovely theory that 8-14 year old girls are the music industry's main market) then we're all screwed?
Apart from people who like to play coloured princess block games. And I'm not sayin' I don't.

 

[cystemic]

this is like 11 years old, at least find some 21st century reasons why girls dont game. after sudying the behaviour of some of my friends id say its because they're too busy doing their nails and have to scream everytime they see a drop of blood.

 

[Yog Sothoth]

And why do we care if 10 year old girls play video games or not.....?

Because if the accessability and ease of use of Wii et al means that they become the main market (it's likely, there's that lovely theory that 8-14 year old girls are the music industry's main market) then we're all screwed?
Apart from people who like to play coloured princess block games. And I'm not sayin' I don't.

I just think the whole question is silly... Why don't infants play video games? Or senior citizens? Or homeless people? Or purple platypuses?

I think the only reason that we keep seeing these kinds of questions from the industry boils down to greed. "What demographic hasn't been exploited yet....?"

 

[Dyskresiac]

Nintendo Wii has made all of her points invalid.

But since this was before the Wii was released... I'll give her credit. I'm sure she has a different tune now.

 

[Flishiz]

My girlfriend plays games all the time, so maybe, uh, it's a MATTER OF PREFERENCE?

 

[sky14kemea]

i played sonic when i was 6, and ive been playing games ever since ^-^
maybe its the type of household they grow up in? i grew up surrounded by my bro and our 2 male cousins, so i was never very girly

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Well, the way to get little girls to play games is: Put Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus on the cover. Or the Jonas Brothers. Simple really.

we are training our children into being mindless slaves to hollywood. their music is terrible. if I have kids, they are going to be smart and not fall for this sludge.

I need to advance my plans for World Domination now, Holly wood is becoming too powerful. My GeoThermal Ion Array is almost complete. My Daleks keep vaporising themselves they keep falling into the central core. messes up the alignment.

 

[Kyari]

I've always played video games ever since I was about eight.
My cousian was the same and she is two yrs younger than me.
I don't think it matters what kind of household you grew up in cause I grew up in a girly household.
I think its cause they all want to be WAGs or Superstars and videogames don't count in that.

 

[Trako]

i just find it funny how everyone gets all uppity about "oh this group isn't doing this" or "this group isn't doing that" honestly who cares, people will do things if they want to do things

i mean frankly most guys don't like to knit, i don't see everyone all up in arms demanding they make knitting more accessible and likable by guys

I refuse to crochet.

I agree with your sentiment, cleverly. I'm really not sure why this actually is a big issue, it may be of interest to those greedy blankity blanks who just see an untapped potential market. I thought games were about fun, not domineering different demographics into playing them.

I suppose environment has a lot to do with it. I know a few couples who have their kids cut their teeth on older MMOs and other similar games. I suppose it's because they want to be like mom and dad. In my case, it was an escapism originally, now I can't seem to find a good game anymore. Almost every game is about marketing or demographics or sales or who has the most subscribers or who had the largest shares or who has the biggest budget. To put it bluntly, games suck nowadays. Few exceptions of course, but they're really really scarce.

I suppose it would be nice to see more companies ask "what is fun?" rather than "what can we do to get this untapped market to buy our junk?"

 

[Koeryn]

I suppose it would be nice to see more companies ask "what is fun?" rather than "what can we do to get this untapped market to buy our junk?"

Heres to that!

 

[Susan Arendt]

I suppose it would be nice to see more companies ask "what is fun?" rather than "what can we do to get this untapped market to buy our junk?"

But fun for whom? What's fun for one type of player won't be any fun at all for another. That's what I think is at the core of this video, really -- expanding the definition of fun to include other types of personalities.

For everyone out there saying "who cares if girls play games" think about the situation in reverse for a while. What if virtually every videogame out there was about playing dress-up, tending horses, or making decisions about what high school party to attend? In other words, what if virtually every game out there was NOT directed at you? If you had to desperately search for an MMO or an RPG or an FPS, then how would you feel? It's easy to say "who cares if such and such group doesn't have games they like" when you're part of the demographic that does.

 

[CatAttack]

well i was playing OOT when i was 10.... even tho i got stuck and cudnt get past the water temple but c'mon i was only little

 

[Trako]

I suppose it would be nice to see more companies ask "what is fun?" rather than "what can we do to get this untapped market to buy our junk?"

But fun for whom? What's fun for one type of player won't be any fun at all for another. That's what I think is at the core of this video, really -- expanding the definition of fun to include other types of personalities.

For everyone out there saying "who cares if girls play games" think about the situation in reverse for a while. What if virtually every videogame out there was about playing dress-up, tending horses, or making decisions about what high school party to attend? In other words, what if virtually every game out there was NOT directed at you? If you had to desperately search for an MMO or an RPG or an FPS, then how would you feel? It's easy to say "who cares if such and such group doesn't have games they like" when you're part of the demographic that does.

To be honest I feel that most games are NOT directed at me. They were, perhaps 10 years ago, but now it seems that there are many games that just do not interest me anymore. I am no longer the target; I have fallen from developers' graces demographically. I probably will not experience the total frustration female gamers have, but I am definitely one of the misfits among male gamers.

I suppose you misunderstand me. I'm not saying "who cares" to those who want to play games but find the sexist stuff, I am saying why draw more into this crowd? To me it sounds too much like mining for gold than actually providing entertainment.

I pose the question to you. What would you like to see in a game aimed at females? I'm sure you cannot answer for everyone. The developers try to do this for men as well. "You are a male between 22 and 35 so you are supposed to like this." Well, I don't. As a friend of mine would say "I don't fit in your little box."

Fun for whom? Well, I suppose the problem is they never ask. To be honest I don't think I've ever even seen any development company just go out and ask what would be a game that the survey participant might enjoy. I of course could be completely wrong. But then again they never ask me, and they can go stuff it for not doing so. It may be closing in on the time for me to hang up the game habit.

What if the title was "why does so-and-so not want to play games anymore?" Would anyone really care? The game developers have my money, I suppose they don't really want to know more from me or take ideas to make a game that I and others like me (the tiny niche we are) would like to play. Perhaps my posse isn't big enough to garner attention, or we're just too demanding (what's this FUN they speak of?) I do caution against developers bearing gaming gifts, however; they'll kick you to the curb when they find some other demographic to exploit.

 

[poet_lawreate]

And why do we care if 10 year old girls play video games or not.....?

Because if the accessability and ease of use of Wii et al means that they become the main market (it's likely, there's that lovely theory that 8-14 year old girls are the music industry's main market) then we're all screwed?
Apart from people who like to play coloured princess block games. And I'm not sayin' I don't.

I just think the whole question is silly... Why don't infants play video games? Or senior citizens? Or homeless people? Or purple platypuses?

I think the only reason that we keep seeing these kinds of questions from the industry boils down to greed. "What demographic hasn't been exploited yet....?"

That's most definitely the case. Industries unfortunately are always going to want to make money and the pre-teen market is ripe for the picking. We'll just have to train our younglings to like super-intelligent story-rich FPS and RPG instead of Barbie and the Rainbow Ponies.