Really? That doesn't match my experience at all, and I know quite a few girl gamers. They seem to have just as many interests as the guy gamers I know. If you made a list of the games that they play and set it down beside a list of games that my male friends play I doubt you'd be able to tell which is which since they all have pretty broad tastes. They all overlap a bit but they all have distinct preferences as well. If anything, the girls I know seem to care a lot less about what other people think of their gaming choices than the boys do, who seem to make a bigger point of playing 'the right games'. About the only commonality I can think of is a greater emphasis on 'story' games and less interest in action games, like CoD, GOW, and Halo.

Would your friends fall into the 30s-40s category?

Several of them are in university (early 20's). Most of those I met through work (a video/game rental store). My gf is 32 and plays Diablo/Zelda/Mario/etc. on PC/Wii/NDS. I woman I know in her 40's is a huge survival horror fan, has a PS3/XBOX360/Wii. She's much better at them than I am, and it's tied with RPGs as my fav genre. One of the girls I met at work is a huge BGS fan (FO:NV in particular) and is gay, so not much of a 'male influence' there. Portal 1/2 are fairly popular (my gf likes puzzle games, too), L4D, and, of course, Tomb Raider games. If anything, I would say strong female characters + puzzles is a better indicator of what girl's like than 'whatever their bf happens to be playing'.

That's just my experience. Doesn't mean other people aren't hanging around with different crowds. I just think it's better not to generalize about things like this. The fact that the behaviors Daggerfallftw is observing don't match any of the girl gamers I know indicates to me that it's got more to do with the people he hangs out with than any kind of statistical norm. I'm sure there are plenty of girls who just play the games their bfs play, but I don't think that demographic matches the girl gamer demographic as a whole very well.

Except that you pretty much just listed older women as being the only ones who play outside the box, which is exactly what I was talking about. I'm also pretty sure that sixual orientation doesn't negate gender bias either.

I'm sure this has been said, but who cares if your a 'girl gamer'.

Who actually doesn't believe you that you played Skyrim for seven hours? Why would someone make that up in the first place?

Thanks, Leydenne. Needed that.

I think you vastly over-estimate the idea of how "pressured" a girl might feel to try anything her boyfriend is into, in terms of entertainment. It's generally the same amount as a guy trying things that the girl in the relationship might like. You have a rather old-fashioned view of how women view relationship activities.

Finding something that interests you is so often the result of the influence of others (friends, lovers, siblings), but the way you were stating things, you make it seem as if so many women - and there are a LOT playing games - are there sort of half-heartedly. Or playing only a certain class of games It just is not the case.

Having said all that, yeah, there are probably more guys playing the popular war-type games, but that is who the marketing is geared for.

Okay, end serious blah blah blah stuff now.

Must...resist...the...temptation...






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE

Hey WIFE! I know your in here can you pause your game and make me a coffee?

This must be exactly why every guy in a relationship all of a sudden likes romance comedies, Real Housewives, and Teenage Mom, while his 16-25 year old girlfriend or wife claims to be a gamer because she watches him play Call of Duty for 45 minutes every day and he let her win once when she tried to play it. Oh yeah and she got to level 60 on WoW with her ex so she knows all about video games in general. I understand that there are exceptions to generalizations, but damn if I don't speak for the majority.

Edit: Again, it's really only the older women who grew up on Kings Quest that know what they're doing, and aren't herded to a mainstream video game and left there at that.

I'm sorry, I just don't see what you're saying. Are you saying that girls make their decisions based on peer pressure and marketing as opposed to independent choosing and that boys are different?

I worked in a rental store for over a decade so let me assure you that that is absolutely not the case. There is absolutely no difference. I had plenty of girls rent games that had nothing to do with any of the games you listed. They certainly didn't rent Halo/GOW/CoD very often on their own, regardless of popularity and marketing budgets. In my experience there is exactly 0 relationship between a person's gender and how 'mainstream' their choices are or how easily they're influenced by peer pressure or marketing. If anything, girls rent far more non-mainstream titles because many of the big mainstream titles don't appeal to them so they have a tougher time finding games they enjoy. The girl gamers I know are every bit as knowledgeable and opinionated as the boy gamers. I'm just not seeing any difference between boys and girls as far as popularity/choice goes.

The only broad generalizations I would feel comfortable making are that guys and girls usually look for different things in games. Guys more often rent Halo/GOW/CoD/sports/GTA/fighting games and girls more often rent platformers/RPGs/adventure/survival horror/puzzle/dance/music games, many of which are far less popular and have little or no marketing. That's only based on a small sample, of course, (x thousands over 13 years) but I'd bet it's more representative than the sample you're using. If anyone plays comfortably within the box, it's the boys, because the box is built primarily for them.

Unless, of course, you're just implying that there are no girl gamers and that the ones who claim to be gamers are actually just watching their bf's play CoD. Which is also not the case. I'm sure there are plenty of girls like that, but I thought the discussion was about gamers, not their significant others.

lmfao only if u get off the forum and give me a back rub. . .

I just can't come up with a funny joke for this. I need to re-evaluate my life. Or just get some sleep.

http://thechive.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/find-them-33.jpg (I'm too lazy to read through the whole thing)

Her armor rating must be terrible.

Don't worry, she has 100 in blacksmithing.

The majority of males stick to mainstream games. The majority of females stick to mainstream games. There is a far greater number of males than females that play games. A higher percentage of females are only 'casual' gamers than males. The percentage of males that game beyond 'casually' exceeds that of females. This is likely due to socio-sixual background and/or gender make-up.

Edit: Back to OP: Kissing someone that smokes equates to kissing someone that loves Skyrim.

Wait...you mean I didn't genuinely make that choice myself? I didn't choose to pick up Gears of War and Halo because I...actually genuinely wanted to...? Well, [censored] D:

Anyway slightly on topic, I don't see the big deal with girl gamers. Really. Who cares. Most of them only announce it because they want people to think they're cool. I had a friend who once said she wished she could game, because girls who play games are cool. It's almost a bit degrading, really. As if there's some reason why girls shouldn't be able to play games and when they do, it's such an achievement that it needs to be announced. Girls are perfectly capable of gaming and there's no reason for them to make a deal about it, because it's absolutely no different to a guy picking up a controller. Aside from the anatomy differences...

It just bothers me that ladies have some sort of need to loudly proclaim their love of video games. It's not an achievement, you haven't overcome some gender-hurdle, you haven't made progress for womankind, all you did was something all women are quite capable of doing if they want to, just as much as men.

Does FarmVille count?
Otherwise, I don't know any...'cept here...and I think all the girls here are very cool...and FarmVille is not very cool....in my book.

Oh wait..the OP says Skyrim...I know absolutely none personally.

I'd say, if anything, it's the other way around. Male gamers seem extremely concerned that their particular preference in games is seen as cool and edgy. They seem obsessed with proving they are amongst a small elite of "real" hardcoe gamers. One can't read more than two or three threads on these very forums without seeing an e-manhood being whipped out and waved around. I often wonder if it is the games themselves they enjoy, or the image their choice in games allows them to project on the internet.

Women, in my experience, just play what they enjoy, delightfully free of pretense.

I am a woman, and this is totally true. . . my husband plays lots of different games, like GOW, Assassins Creed, and numerous other small, slam bang action type games, but watching him play them doesnt "pressure" me into playing them. I am the type that finds one game that looks good and thats the one I play until another comes out that looks like something I might enjoy. Im new to gaming, only been gaming for a little over two years, and I only play a few select games because I refuse to play something thats popular if it doesnt look interesting. I play RDR, DA, DA2, Sims 3, and Skyrim, all of which I play because I like them, not because "thats what everyone else plays".

lol but they would have to leave the kitchen to play games so this is a silly topic, isnt it?

This issue has been covered already. . . we have tvs built into our fridges now, maybe u should try entering the kitchen and taking a peek for a change. . . just be careful, thats where we keep the knives. . .

is that so..? looks like you girls have been busy while I was asleep on the couch in my underwear.

you been asleep a while... that was like page 2...

you got some catch up reading to do...

apparently now girls are the only gamers who play what they want and men are all svckered into massive marketing campaigns no matter what their secret desire to play the Sims instead of CoD/BF/Gears because we must maintain our eRep