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"Gaming Habits of Teenage Girls (and Boys)" - SHOCKING STATS [video]

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This got me lol-ing.
 
Mortal Kombat 3, DOOM, and Prince of Persia were some of my first videogames I played as a kid. Parents didn't care back then, they probably don't even now. As long as they know their kid can distinguish reality from super cartoonish fantasy violence. Shit, my 8 year old cousin's dad has let him play Call of Duty, Hitman Absolution, and a few other pretty violent games. He always tells me that each time so I can let him play mature rated games lol like Shadow of Mordor or Bloodborne.

This is my personal opinion but even if I knew my kid was able to distinguish what is real and what isn't, I would absolutely not want them to play MK X, there are fatalities in that game that have adults saying it's too much. It's not about worrying if they are going to turn into psychopaths and more about just not wanting them to be exposed to that kind of things because it's not pleasant. Obviously it depends on the age and what the game is but it would be very difficult to come up with an age system that tailored that specifically.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Honestly probably isn't surprising to anyone who's actually worked with kids at all. The Minecraft class I taught last summer was like 60% girls
 
I'd like to know the data of females going to a Gamestop. I know it's not the end all be all store for games but they do still bring in customers.
 

PillarEN

Member
Yes, I am also surprised that girls liked a character with a personality and not a blank avatar who only appears to be a girl if you catch her visage in a portal on occasion. I didn't even know the lead character of Portal was supposed to be a woman until I saw her on a magazine cover after I already played through the game.

Would you say that you assumed the MC was a male? Not picking on you just wondering if that was your immediate thought process.

I would kill to see some studies like this in central Europe. I always get the impression that it's still very much a "boys only club" in that region just judging by the random game store workers and clients who you can tell are buying for themselves and who shows up at the random game expos. I was observing some CS competition and then some MOBA competition (as well as some wacky PC racer that looked like toy cars). It was all dudes. In fact when I bought my Wii U I was surprised that the store actually had a female employee who was there to help me that day.

This got me lol-ing.
Not actually surprising as they likely assume this from their immediate friend group or if they happen to play one or two of those genres online they are bound to run into female gamers and then they assume "well I hear them on voice chat so I guess girls are into these kinda games". That's why every genre has a large representation.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Sorry for the off topic question but Minecraft class? Was South Park parodying something that actually happens in real life?

No idea, haven't seen that episode. Two summers ago I ran what was really just an excuse to get a bunch of 12 year olds on a local server for a week, and that was mostly boys.

But last summer it was a "Minecraft crafting" class in which we were building a giant Minecraft diorama together and making swords and pickaxes and costumes and stuff and that was, IIRC, 7 girls and 5 boys
 
Not actually surprising as they likely assume this from their immediate friend group or if they happen to play one or two of those genres online they are bound to run into female gamers and then they assume "well I hear them on voice chat so I guess girls are into these kinda games". That's why every genre has a large representation.

I guess I was expecting more stereotyping, it's just funny that boys think girls play everything lol.

As for what games girls are actually playing, yeah that sounds about right.
 

Kinyou

Member
Would you say that you assumed the MC was a male? Not picking on you just wondering if that was your immediate thought process.

I would kill to see some studies like this in central Europe. I always get the impression that it's still very much a "boys only club" in that region just judging by the random game store workers and clients who you can tell are buying for themselves and who shows up at the random game expos. I was observing some CS competition and then some MOBA competition (as well as some wacky PC racer that looked like toy cars). It was all dudes. In fact when I bought my Wii U I was surprised that the store actually had a female employee who was there to help me that day.
League of Legends player base is over 90% male and DOTA 2 is even more extreme, so that experience is probably not unusual.
But this study is about the upcoming generation so there might be change in the future
 
No idea, haven't seen that episode. Two summers ago I ran what was really just an excuse to get a bunch of 12 year olds on a local server for a week, and that was mostly boys.

But last summer it was a "Minecraft crafting" class in which we were building a giant Minecraft diorama together and making swords and pickaxes and costumes and stuff and that was, IIRC, 7 girls and 5 boys

For South Park, there was a guy who taught the characters how to play the game, craft and all that. Just found it interesting to know. It's also good to know stats like that, I do think it's also to be expected, even from the big companies since minecraft is a game based more on creativity than violence (Even though it most certainly can be made to center on this) and I think it's a lot more gender neutral because of it. (The game can be whatever you want it to be sort of)

Out of curiosity, if you did manage to see and remember but what were the girls making in Minecraft compared to the boys? Or was it all planned and everyone was doing the same thing?
 

PillarEN

Member
I guess I was expecting more stereotyping, it's just funny that boys think girls play everything lol.

Yeah I would have thought that maybe some genres would have been much higher. I'll admit that if I was to guess I would think the 3 highest would be mobile, MMO, and Sims-like games. But the chart made me realize it's likely the way I mentioned in my previous post.
Heck my sister who rarely games is into cell phone games, Sims-like stuff (see how I got my assumptions? haha) and then... fighters. Which really surprised me. She loves Mortal Kombat and Dead or Alive. Last time we played Tekken 5 in the arcade she kicked my ass.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Playstation Live really opened my eyes, as I'd never realized girls were so into FPS titles. I know the stereotype is "dudebro", but in reality, there's a lot of girls playing these games.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Out of curiosity, if you did manage to see and remember but what were the girls making in Minecraft compared to the boys? Or was it all planned and everyone was doing the same thing?

No particular trend there. Everyone got really into the giant diorama (which I really have to get pics of at some point, it was 4' x 8' and damn cool). Off the top of my head one girl built a creeper costume, another girl built a sword, one boy built a pickaxe...ton of stuff
 

extralite

Member
Boy plays game he isn't supposed to play, thinks gory fantasy is representative of reality (italics are mine). Also, slut shaming:

Sexism In Games
Watch the boy and girl talk about this, they are really smart.
Theo (20:47)
Jade-Kitana-Mileena-Sindel-and-Sonya-the-ladies-of-mortal-kombat-19655919-500-270.jpg
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Theo: "This game, it's called Mortal Kombat. I really like it, but I notice a lot of the female characters are wearing very scantily clad clothing which doesn't make any sense because if you're playing a videogame like that, you expect everybody to be armored because it's a fighting game! If these girls are dressed how we think we they should be dressed, objectified like this, it just defeats the entire purpose of wearing armor. I just thought it's kind of polluting young kids' brains to think this is how they should dress. Like, this is how women will dress everywhere."

Rosalind: "And Theo, if you had a female character that was dressed in the kind of armor that you want to see, would you want to play as that character?"

Theo: "Yeah, a lot more. I would definitely respect the character a lot more for like having some dignity." [<- slut shaming]

"200 7th grade kids clapping in support of a boy in their class talking about sexism in games."

Rebecca (24:35)
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Rebecca: "I play Trivia Crack and on Trivia Crack, there's always these ads for Game Of War. In Game Of War, Kate Upton plays a female and she's barely wearing any clothes and her upper area is bouncing and it's disgusting and it makes me uncomfortable and I know that makes other kids uncomfortable...I personally find it sexist and if she's going to be dressed like this - and she definitely shouldn't have been - then why aren't other people, why is it just the girl? She's the only girl. This game is played by kids and I don't know any kids who want to see that."

This was kind of amazing. Theo had an excellent comment. Thankfully the MK team took notice of how disgustingly they were objectifying their female warriors.
You misspelled Rebecca. I think it's sexist that you ignore the comment that actually makes sense and applaud the one that doesn't.

Theo's going to get in trouble, Mortal Kombat is an M rated game.
Violence isn't bad, sex is.

I get the kids point about the armor or whatever in Mk but the particular argument itself doesn't make any sense

I mean you have a game where a good number of the male characters fight topless as well

Johnny Cage, Jax, Lui Kang etc. So you can't really question it one way without drawing attention to the same thing happening with the male characters on the other side of the spectrum.

Also surprised no one asked him why he was playing that with how sensitive people are in relation to that stuff nowadays lol.
Again, violence isn't bad, sex is. And let's not talk about those male hussies.
 

Mesoian

Member
Frau Engel is great. She's in full control of expressing her sexuality, which you don't often see in older female characters. Even if she can be taken for an evil madam trope, she isn't sexualised like the evil demon seductress female villains often become as detailed in Anita's tropes video. Being cartoonish doesn't diminish that she's interesting for a villain in the context of most Nazis portrayed being men. Especially when you find out about her past from overhearing the conversation in the courtyard of the camp about the League of German Girls and her conversation with Bubi as you're near her office of having served for the country and given six children as a mother but "now it's time for me to have some fun". She doesn't take shit from anyone and is a strong second-in-command villain which is a position in fiction usually reserved for weakass righthand men when faced up close. She doesn't go down so easily.

I meant she was cartoonish because she, quite literally, resembles a female version of Colonel Klink from Hogan's Heroes. She is so over the top evil in her actions that she doesn't come off as a person, she comes off as an ideal that needs to be squashed. She isn't a woman, she is the walking embodiment of human oven, and it makes it hard to take anything she says or does seriously
and it makes her death a moment of comedy rather than a somewhat sobering and incredibly brutal act
.

She is cartoonishly evil in a game where most of the villains, what aren't 20 story war of the worlds walkers, come off as merely obsessive or dedicated to a fault.
 
League of Legends player base is over 90% male and DOTA 2 is even more extreme, so that experience is probably not unusual.
But this study is about the upcoming generation so there might be change coming up

And let's not forget about the difference between playing a game and paying retail-prices for an AAA-title. The boy ratios "played game a" / "bought game a from my own money" are probably significantly lower than the girl ratios.

Edit: I just had to laugh because for some people on gaf that ratio is probably approaching 0.
 

Mesoian

Member
Boy plays game he isn't supposed to play, thinks gory fantasy is representative of reality (italics are mine). Also, slut shaming:




You misspelled Rebecca. I think it's sexist that you ignore the comment that actually makes sense and applaud the one that doesn't.


Violence isn't bad, sex is.


Again, violence isn't bad, sex is. And let's not talk about those male hussies.

Bruh, these are kids.

Also, don't front like MK9 customs were good.
 
Criticism of skimpy costume design has nothing to do with slut shaming. This is a complete non-starter.

How dare you criticize the character design of a fictional character thought up by, drawn by, animated by, consumed by men! It's her personal choice.
 

The Adder

Banned
I get the kids point about the armor or whatever in Mk but the particular argument itself doesn't make any sense

I mean you have a game where a good number of the male characters fight topless as well

Johnny Cage, Jax, Lui Kang etc. So you can't really question it one way without drawing attention to the same thing happening with the male characters on the other side of the spectrum.

Also surprised no one asked him why he was playing that with how sensitive people are in relation to that stuff nowadays lol.

Difference being that bare chest, pants, and soft shoes is extremely practical fighting attire.

Clevage, thong, and heels is not.

MK prior to MK8 and post MK9 tended to do prettt solid designs for the female characters' clothes. Don't know what happened in 9 though.
 

QaaQer

Member
No the point is that women want more games that star someone that they can relate to like the games starring men.

Yeah I know. Secretly I've been hoping that more females in the industry would mean a broader range of games and some new stuff, not just same games with more females and less boob armour.
 

extralite

Member
How dare you criticize the character design of a fictional character thought up by, drawn by, animated by, consumed by men! It's her personal choice.
No it isn't. But it is the personal choice of actual women who would dress like that. Doesn't his dignity argument apply also to them?

Theo: "Yeah, a lot more. I would definitely respect the character a lot more for like having some dignity." [<- slut shaming]
 

Mesoian

Member
How dare you criticize the character design of a fictional character thought up by, drawn by, animated by, consumed by men! It's her personal choice.

Heh. I has chortles.

And yes, don't confuse criticism towards fictional outfits on a fictional character as slut shaming. Those are two very different things. It's not like we ever come remotely close to knowing the proposed mindset behind wearing a sling bikini to a fight against a man with giant metal spires coming out of his hands.

MK prior to MK8 and post MK9 tended to do prettt solid designs for the female characters' clothes. Don't know what happened in 9 though.

No they didn't, come on. MK10 has the most progressive the outfits have been across the board, regardless of sex or...species.

No it isn't. But it is the personal choice of actual women who would dress like that. Doesn't his dignity argument apply also to them?

When was the last time you saw a cop walking down the road with her shirt open and no bra?

Your argument would be a lot stronger if women actually wore outfits similar to those in MK9 in any setting outside of the beach, which is pretty much the point.

But you know that and you're fishing.

But yes, won't someone please think of the theoretical women who choose to wear sling bikinis in their everyday happenings and goings on.
 

extralite

Member
And yes, don't confuse criticism towards fictional outfits on a fictional character as slut shaming.

I'd say his criticism isn't limited to fictional outfits, he is talking about dignity:

Theo: "Yeah, a lot more. I would definitely respect the character a lot more for like having some dignity." [<- slut shaming]

When was the last time you saw a cop walking down the road with her shirt open and no bra?
What does that have to do with what I said, Theo said, dignity or slut shaming? If you want to argue my points, maybe you need to properly read them first.

Your argument would be a lot stronger if women actually wore outfits similar to those in MK9 in any setting outside of the beach, which is pretty much the point.

My argument was that MK isn't representative of reality either. You don't see the real problem here, that people think MK is equal to real life situations at all.
 

"The majority of boys surveyed said that women in games were too often treated as sex objects. In fact, only 19% of the boys said they'd be happy if more women-as-sex-objects made their way into games."

I think it's mildly curious that they would choose to draw that conclusion from that slide, given the wording. Especially when the following two slides phrase it as "Are women too often treated as sex objects," I'm not sure why they didn't phrase this question as "Are women too often treated as sex objects in games." This slide doesn't say anything about frequency or whether they would like to see more women-as-sex-objects, it just binary question of interpretation, whether they think women are treated as sex objects in games.

I think if you haven't been exposed to that many video games (Like you mainly play Minecraft and Dota), or are at an age where you aren't thinking very critically about the depiction of women in the games that you've played, I think it would be natural to say "No, women aren't treated as sex objects in games" as a sort of defense for video games. At that age, I think it would be easy to interpret a question like that as an indictment against your hobby.

I think if someone asked me that when I was 10-12 (that's middle school ages, right?) I would probably have disagreed if someone asked me if women were treated as sex objects in games. That wouldn't have meant that I wanted to see more women treated as sex objects, just that I was playing a bunch of Pokemon and Kirby.
 
No it isn't. But it is the personal choice of actual women who would dress like that. Doesn't his dignity argument apply also to them?

Sure? But the kid is like 12 and probably isn't knowledgable about social justice issues to a degree where he'd realize that the dignity comment is pretty bad and is probably just speaking about this in the very basic way you do when you first start trying to think about this stuff? Lay off Theo a bit.

And seeing as how the video and questions are about video games, I don't really see how this applies. If he said that about an honest to god real life woman, hell yeah that kid would get a talking to. But since this is talking about the costume decisions for video game characters said in super basic ways by children...
 

Mesoian

Member
I'd say his criticism isn't limited to fictional outfits, he is talking about dignity:

You know where your argument falls apart?

The moment you accuse an 11 year old of slut shaming for pointing out that MK9 has bad costume design.

Theo: "This game, it's called Mortal Kombat. I really like it, but I notice a lot of the female characters are wearing very scantily clad clothing which doesn't make any sense because if you're playing a videogame like that, you expect everybody to be armored because it's a fighting game! If these girls are dressed how we think we they should be dressed, objectified like this, it just defeats the entire purpose of wearing armor. I just thought it's kind of polluting young kids' brains to think this is how they should dress. Like, this is how women will dress everywhere."

Rosalind: "And Theo, if you had a female character that was dressed in the kind of armor that you want to see, would you want to play as that character?"

Theo: "Yeah, a lot more. I would definitely respect the character a lot more for like having some dignity."
 

The Adder

Banned
Heh. I has chortles.

And yes, don't confuse criticism towards fictional outfits on a fictional character as slut shaming. Those are two very different things. It's not like we ever come remotely close to knowing the proposed mindset behind wearing a sling bikini to a fight against a man with giant metal spires coming out of his hands.



No they didn't, come on.

State your case. And don't use Mileena's skimpy costumes because we actually DO know why she does it (compensating for her Tarkatan features. Her sister was the "pretty one" so she showed off her body while hiding her face).

Besides her I can think of Li Mei MK Deception Jade as being a character with rather sparse attire. Otherwise female character costumes made sense as something to wear in battle, or at leadst as something the character would wear. And absolutely no one (except maybe Sindel, who could fly) wore heels.
 

Akainu

Member
And interestingly, the girls I know who play Tales here have the same or similar complaints about female objectification in the later games. Most of my friends who jumped on at Symphonia got off at Xilia because of the complete lack of options for the female track.

And that being said, none of my female gaming friends have played P3:FES. I wonder what they'd think of the female track in that game.

I'm sorry, track?
 

extralite

Member
Sure? But the kid is like 12 and probably isn't knowledgable about social justice issues to a degree where he'd realize that the dignity comment is pretty bad and is probably just speaking about this in the very basic way you do when you first start trying to think about this stuff? Lay off Theo a bit.

And seeing as how the video and questions are about video games, I don't really see how this applies. If he said that about an honest to god real life woman, hell yeah that kid would get a talking to. But since this is talking about the costume decisions for video game characters said in super basic ways by children...
I think he is just repeating what he heard, including the slut shaming argument. Doesn't change the fact that it is a bad argument which is falsely applauded as smart.

You know where your argument falls apart?

The moment you accuse an 11 year old of slut shaming for pointing out that MK9 has bad costume design.
He explicitly says he is disrespecting women based on lack of dignity. That is the very definition of slut shaming.
 

Mesoian

Member
State your case. And don't use Mileena's skimpy costumes because we actually DO know why she does it (compensating for her Tarkatan features. Her sister was the "pretty one" so she showed off her body while hiding her face).

Besides her I can think of Li Mei MK Deception Jade as being a character with rather sparse attire. Otherwise female character costumes made sense as something to wear in battle. And absolutely no one (except maybe Sindel, who could fly) wore heels.

Until Mortal Kombat 5, every female character was in a multicolored sling. The only exception was Sonya, who was in glorified workout gear.

They were, literally, in bathing suits.

Then we got Frost.

FrostRender1.jpg


And things got slightly better, though it was mostly due to female designs being "desexed" through the cunning use of leggings.

http://www.trmk.org/images/mkda/lao2_trmk.jpg

And in MK9, they certainly care wearing heels.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/archive/c/c7/20140729082734!Jade_(Mortal_Kombat).png

TL:DR - Don't front like Mortal Kombat's custom design was ever good. It wasn't, we just didn't care as much back then.

Like, Melina is sort of a special case since she's super sex crazed in most of the games anyway, it's how sure lures people in. But we still had this.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MNx4YHqFXZM/T_mQG3RhFvI/AAAAAAAACrU/0H19QQUxzCc/s400/Mileena+flesh+pit.png

And yeah, it's contextualized, but come on man.

Come on.

Come on man.

Bruh, COME ON!



I'm sorry, track?

Their respective single player story mode.
 
I'd love this to be true but It all seems a little off to me.

From personal experience with younger people I found boys much much more readily interested in games than girls. All the young girls I know only 1 has an interest in games and it's flippant.

In comparison out of boys around a similar age the majority of playing games daily and dedicated in one way or another.

I'm not saying that girl gamers isn't a growing market. Just that the numbers and percentage shown here doesn't seem to add up with personal experience.

How was the trail conducted? Did they use volunteers? It seems skewed in that way.

The stuff about sexism is really good and the figures are a good basis regardless.
 
State your case. And don't use Mileena's skimpy costumes because we actually DO know why she does it (compensating for her Tarkatan features. Her sister was the "pretty one" so she showed off her body while hiding her face).

Besides her I can think of Li Mei MK Deception Jade as being a character with rather sparse attire. Otherwise female character costumes made sense as something to wear in battle, or at leadst as something the character would wear. And absolutely no one (except maybe Sindel, who could fly) wore heels.

*looks at OP*
Jade-Kitana-Mileena-Sindel-and-Sonya-the-ladies-of-mortal-kombat-19655919-500-270.jpg


Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh, nah man, nah. None of those would be practical in a fight.
 

Giever

Member
What do girls and boys want to play as? Do they even give a fuck?

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"One of the most common answers that games companies and marketers will trot out any time the topic of women protagonists enters the conversation, is that people simply don't want to play as a woman. The industry tends to assume that men are their primary audience and men only want to play as men. But Wiseman and Burch's study counters that base assumption as well. When asked, most of the boys they surveyed said that they either wouldn't mind playing as a woman, or would be happy to do so. Girls on the other hand, had an overwhelming preference, particularly as they got older, to see more people that represent them in games.

This summation of the statistics here is the only thing I really take exception with. Everything else seems good, and it's nice to have information like this. They claim that most of (i.e. the majority of) the boys surveyed either have no preference or prefer playing as women. If you look at those percentages for the MS and HS boys, it looks like this:

MS Boys either w/o preference or preferring girls: 41%
HS Boys either w/o preference or preferring girls: 61%

Averages out to about 51% preference towards that direction between the two age-groups. Seems a bit misleading to say 'most' when it's basically half. The main reason it bothers me data-wise is because they frame the girls as having an overwhelming preference towards playing as their own gender "particularly as they got older."

MS Girls either w/o preference or preferring boys: 54%
HS Girls either w/o preference or preferring boys: 40%

54% of MS girls either had no preference or preferred playing as boys. You can't really describe that as an overwhelming preference for their own gender when the majority (or about half) either don't care or prefer playing as boys. Obviously it's true here that the HS girls started getting interested more in that, since 60% of them would prefer playing as girls, but it's misrepresenting the data to say that their was an overwhelming preference all along that "particularly" shows up as they get older, when in reality it apparently "only" shows up when they get older.
 
Sorry for the off topic question but Minecraft class? Was South Park parodying something that actually happens in real life?
Minecraft is being used more and more in classes, that's for sure. 200 UK schools use the game, 3000 schools internationally. Instead of spending time at home and playing the game anyway, they're utilising that time in class for more constructive results. It might be used in creative writing classes, programming where kids are engaging with Boolean logic at the age of 9, strengthening and exploring social interactions between schoolchildren, maths and science, history, geography, learning disabilities, and more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI0BN5AWOe8
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Minecraft is being used more and more in classes, that's for sure. 200 UK schools use the game, 3000 schools internationally. Instead of spending time at home and playing the game anyway, they're utilising that time in class for more constructive results. It might be used in creative writing classes, programming where kids are engaging with Boolean logic at the age of 9, strengthening and exploring social interactions between schoolchildren, maths and science, history, geography, learning disabilities, and more.

The org I work with also has been offering "Real life redstone" classes (that someone else has taught) for the last couple years and they've been a huge hit. Basically translating the basic computer logic of Redstone into actual wiring and circuits
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
Heh, maybe I like Chell a lot, so I am kinda biased. I respect that she
basicaly derailed the game itself and even made an alliance with Glados in the end of the second game.
.

Still a nice research, just saying again because I think someone can think I wrote with sarcasm in mind.
Chell has 0 personality and nothing defines her, I'm not surprised most people aren't interested in her and instead take to Glados.
 

Mesoian

Member
*looks at OP*
Jade-Kitana-Mileena-Sindel-and-Sonya-the-ladies-of-mortal-kombat-19655919-500-270.jpg


Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh, nah man, nah. None of those would be practical in a fight.

And we'll know more tonight, but from what little i've seen of MK10, they're doing WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better than they ever have EVER.

I mean, it's still skimpy as hell, but at least it's interesting.

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