My sister and I have been playing video games since we were both about 4 years old
(1994; we're twins, so the same amount of years) I have yet to find any female gamers that are as hardcore into video games as we are. Most don't play Gears of War, Call Of Duty, Halo, Mass Effect, or Bioshock- they just play rock band or guitar hero (which yeah, I play too) How come there aren't very many girl gamers? I just figured it was because our culture teaches that women aren't supposed to be agressive or competitive, and that video games are for guys, so women don't really get that chance to play and get hooked to the games like most guys do. Plus, adolesents can conform to their culture better than anyone, so it kind of makes sense to me.
What I've heard is that guys like it because they're more of what a man was built to do- to defeat the game, but there's no hormonal barrier that prevents a woman from being as or more agressive than a man, so what's up? Why are there so few female gamers?

terellowens

there are alot of female games but they are ''casual gamers'' so may only play on the wii and DS for example and play games like mario etc where as a huge minority are hardcore gamers and play everyday and play games like gears of war and call of duty like yourself.

I consider myself a hardcore gamer but sometimes I go months without playing my Xbox 360 or PS3 but can then spend hours a day on my console and can't get off it lol

I seem to have a hibernation mode that randomly comes on when i realise I need to be studying etc

to answer your question I just don't think its that socially acceptable perhaps to be a hardcore female gamer maybe they are out there but keep it to themselves even with their girlfriends around they may still not admit it I have no problem saying I love video games most people think you grow out of it when your 18 no chance here

jaime90

Violence in the media is supposed to cause more violent thoughts, but not more violent actions. Games don't murder people, people do. And if someone can't distinguish a game from real life, then they shouldn't be playing it.

brittykitty

I love halo and all those games. and im a girl. Im into it hardcore and always have been. It depends on who you talk to and how many ppl u know. there are a ton of female gamers I know

BMI

I'm a dude but the topic was interesting

Most of the girlfriends I'vehad would always want to play games when the system was on, they all loved it, but none of them were ever into it enough to actually have their own system. I always wondered why I don't see so many girls into games? Good answers.

jaime90

Of gaming systems I've owned a PS1, Sega Genesis, Nintendo64, Atari, Xbox, Xbox360, and multiple PC games. The people I watched play video games before getting interested, was my dad and cousins. Oddly enough, I've been desensitized to violence. Probably because the first video games I played were Mortal Kombat and War Gods, yeah, when I was 4.

asking

I think it helps to start when you are young. I found it hard to get good at games because first I'm older and second, I always felt funny about spending the amount of time on it that I'd need to get good enough to compete with my kids. They didn't hesitate to spend hours getting good, but I always felt like I should be working on something "useful." My job, housework, bills....So I didn't master even the mechanics. So if I play, I'm awful, even though some of the games are appealing to me, especially the driving games. I've played some shooter games and done well, but only as a beginner--not tactics. But anyway, so I don't play because it's not fun to lose constantly and my two teenage sons are massively better than I am. I am guessing a lot of girls and women get a late start on gaming and then experience that feeling of not being any good. So they don't play.

On the other hand, in my life, I've done a lot of hiking and rock climbing, ridden my bicycle all over big cities, commuted on a fast motorcycle for several years, rebuilt my motorcycle's engine, worked on the engines of several cars, built a telescope and ground my own mirror, and so on. I got a friend to teach me how to shoot a gun and even asked him to take me hunting (he never did). So I do like guy activities and toys. But all these things, I did as an adult. When I was a kid, I kept asking for toys for boys and never got anything except dolls, night gowns, and paint sets. I was super athletic as a kid, but couldn't even throw a softball well because I'd never played those kinds of games. My parents didn't even buy me a bicycle...I grew up in Girlland, before Title IX. In school, sports for girls meant being a cheerleader. Period.

I'm so glad things are different now!

BMI

I think the topic of violence and how it corresponds to a woman's interest in video games is a valid take.

Most video games are either sports titles or games with some level of violence. Women, majority I'd say, are not sports fanatics nor do they want to see movies such as platoon or the like. Makes sense that video games tailor towards those who do enjoy these genre's.

Alternatively, some girls I know do really enjoy the cuter games, such as Mario Golf or something similar, same as movies, less violence more substance.

Would be a very fascinating study though.

jaime90

I also know how to shoot a gun, and shoot a bow, and I'm pretty good at it. When I was younger I took hunter's ed and am able to hunt now.

Girls do like to play more of the games like Mario and donkey kong and such. I would definitly agree that a majority of women don't watch violent movies. My first R rated movie was "the Matrix" when I was 11, my first chickflick was "The Notebook," that was 2 weeks ago. =) For the record, I'm supposedly heartless- I couldn't find the part where I was supposed to cry, so I laughed at the end and said, "that was a good movie!"

I'm definitly drawn toward action, and suspense movies. When I was a kid, I was never into sports, and I did ask for toys from the "boy aisle" mostly G.I. Joes, action figures, and legos. My first action figures were batman and wolverine. My parents never stressed to me that as a girl, I was supposed to be into dolls and makeup, I was free to be interested in whatever I wanted to be interested in. It would be cool if more kids grew up that way without all the pressure.

asking

I think it's a vicious circle--positive feedback. Game makers see that games pitched at boys sell better, so they make more of those and invest more money in making those types of games better. So boys and men and parents of boys are more likely to buy those good games. Meanwhile, girls start to feel like gaming isn't really a girl thing, so they are less likely to do it; most of them feel like a fish out of water (plus haven't got good at it, from not playing). They also really are less interested in the violence and, there aren't very many good games that are NOT oriented around traditionally "male" interests. So the become even LESS likely to play. So the gaming industry is less likely to make a "game for girls."

Another factor is that the average parent spends more money on toys for boys than on toys for girls. More generally, parents spend more on their sons than on their daughters (on average, I'm not talking about individual parents; there are always exceptions). But you only have to walk around Toys R Us to see how many more toys there are that are specifically pitched at boys than there are for girls. Count the pink "girl" aisles, then count the "boy" aisles. (In fact, parents of boys are less likely to get divorced than the parents of girls, another measure of commitment. )

So anyway, there's more of a market for games pitched at boys, which means more and better games, girls getting turned off and wandering off to do something else and gaming becoming a male preserve (for the most part).

asking

Similarly, in the early days of the computer industry, there was a much bigger percentage of young women involved than there is now. Women were not driven out, just overwhelmed by many more men coming in and then girls seeing computers as not "feminine." Kind of like the way not that many men become nurses. It's not that men can't do the work, it's just an image thing.