Attack of the Women Gamers
So here's something thats always cool to hear:According to the International Game Developers Association and the Entertainment Software Associations latest report, 40% of gamers are female. So much for stereotypes.
If you don't have the energy to peruse the entire report, WomenGamers.com did a nice rundown on the highlights, so I won't repeat them all here. Among other statistics (such as increased parental involvement, overall rise in average gaming age, etc), the meat of it is that there's more women aged 18-35 (the stereotypical male gamer age demographic) playing games nowadays than there are 17 year old and younger boys. Sure, theres a lot of factors that go into this: the meteoric increase in the cost of games and systems, a general lack of quality youth-oriented games (of course thats just one elitists opinion), but I'm pegging it more on the rise of casual gaming. It's no shock that 11 of the 20 top selling games of 2007 were either music (Guitar Hero) or Nintendo DS titles, and of course sites like Cafe.com, Pogo, Yahoo Games, and more are attracting women in unprecedented numbers with their simple, quick, and mostly (or in the case of Cafe.com, entirely) free play.
What does this mean for the future of gaming? Well, more women playing games means more women interested in making games (right now, women only account for about 12% of developers worldwide, a huge majority of them centered in the US casual market), which means we could be seeing a very different gaming experience in the coming years.
Personally, I can't wait to see what direction the industry takes. Be sure to share your own feelings in the comments section.
a woman's touch in gameing development will be a breath of fresh air every thing is starting to look alike be alike theres nothing new in gameing cant wait to see what women bring to the board
Posted by: Shaden | July 29, 2008 at 08:54 PM