Is the gaming demographic really almost half female?

It's a necessary distinction that people investing millions into developing games have to make. They have demographics and sub-demographics they target with their games. It doesn't make sense to pour millions into making a game oriented towards women just because there's a stat that says 50% of people playing games are women, not when that 50% might be a completey different demographic rather than an untapped one or not see significant overlap.

You're making a fallacy of the kind for which there is no name (that I know of). One where just because something can't be clearly defined it must not exist as distinct. The problem with that is that all cultural identites fall under that category. To quote myself:

All cultures have a rallying point that binds its people together under one identity; in the case of "gamers" it's the celebration of videogames themselves. Now, that's not to say you aren't a gamer if some or all of the above experiences aren't common to you. Cultural identities aren't defined quantitatively by how many criteria you meet on a checklist, but qualitatively, by broad sets of experiences that those within the culture have likely shared. After all, I don't stop identifying (and being identified) as culturally British because I don't get Monty Python references (although having said that, I expect the Queen to officially disown me any second now).

To say the term "gamer" is redundant because of diversification is like retiring the term "British" as a cultural identifier in the face of racial diversity. The term "British" only becomes useless if you are strictly using it as a descriptor, in which case diversification stretches the term to obsoleteness. My nationality (which has stringent criteria to avoid becoming a redundant categorisation) is one such descriptor: it defines me as British not by culture, but by residential status (amongst other things). But British-ness as a cultural identity can withstand diversification to include people of various ethnic backgrounds, myself included, without the identity itself breaking down. After all, my cultural British-ness reflects a group of experiences that others within the British cultural group largely share: a fondness for custard creams, a confused relationship with Marmite, and a general appreciation that Britain is kind of shit, amongst others.

I would have gone with more of over generalization or something like that. It like say athlete are the same despite chess boxing and track are very different. It also like saying board gamers and miniature war gamer are the same when there is little that are the same.

Also differences or contrast patterns are used to also classify items. Face book games, apps game and high demand games are different and not just in who plays them. They are different in the theories of the games themselves. In other words the core of them are base of very different ideals and techniques.

TO just say they are that gamers are all gamers because they play games is lazy at best.

well said

What is people's obsession with labels?

You come off as very insecure.

Gamers play video games. The sooner "enthusiasts" accept this and drop the elitist attitude, the better off gaming will be.

Marketing demographics are one thing. Calling people who play Candy Crush "not real gamers" is entirely another.

Yet it is sort of what you did when you claimed gaming had a gender bias. Candy Crush has ninety million daily users. That is one mobile game beating out the entire xbox live multiplayer library. If someone classifies Candy Crush as a real game they don't really have any basis on which bring up any sort of gender issue within gaming, as "highly gendered games" are a dwindling piece of a much larger pie.

The only way to claim the video game market has a gender problem is you dismiss Candy Crush, and games like it, as "real" games.

Your points make no sense. What does popularity have to do with gendered games?

Yet fenmists use study that include those that play candy crush while talking about type of games that candy crush is not apart of. No matter how much you try screaming that they are gamers it does not mean that they should be included. Are we going to add miniature war gamers in?

You are sort who linked the popularity of female among women and shifts away from gaming being "heavily gendered". Well, that sort of already happened if you consider mobile games real games. Candy Crush, alone, has more gamers playing it then Xbox Live. For every game with giggle physics that pops up, you have several dozen games specifically designed to be as innocuous as possible pop up on a verity of platforms.

So why did you take the time to rant about gaming's gender problem if you are the one claiming that mobile games, games that are often built around social aspects and cuteness specifically to be approachable to all ages and genders, are "real" games? Seems to me one can only claim gaming has a gender bias if they define gaming only as high profile AAA action games on consoles.

It wouldn't surprise me. Why not? I have no idea why these" hardcore gamers" *Eye roll* think women can't be a fair part of the community. These people make themselves out to be immature, insecure children.

In my personal experience. My Sister, and girlfriend both play PS3/X360, and my mother plays the 3DS daily.

Yes, but that statistic is counting browser/facebook games.

The immature children are those the are changing the view point of a group that is questioning the use of a survey by lazily claiming there entire talk is just them saying women should not be allow.

I do not understand why mobile gaming is excluded. I wonder if the category "mobile gaming" that you have declared includes the Gameboy and DS family of handheld consoles and the PS family of portables or are you talking about the Android and iOS mobile platforms. In any case, I wonder if they all have Tetris, chess, or checkers. If they do have any one of those or more to the point, any game at all, then what makes them any different than the Witcher 3 which separates them as non-gamer platforms?

Casual gamers who play mobile, tablets and casual games on the pc like Farmville. Most hardcore gamers are men

I think of tablets and smartphones as mobile gaming. Handhelds are mobile gaming too but they're geared specifically for gaming while tablets and smartphones have multiple uses. I consider "real gamers" to be the ones who actually play on PC and consoles but not exclusively on tablets and smartphones. PCs and consoles are far more superior for gaming than a tablet or smartphone, so sorry, Farmville and Angry Birds doesn't make you a gamer in my opinion.

The PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Wii U are all gaming consoles. You could say that they are the big three players. In addition to them being gaming consoles, they have multimedia capabilities like tablets and personal computers. You can watch Netflix, listen to music, and surf the internet. Tablets and smartphones, with the exact same functionality in some cases, does not seem appreciated by your metric.

Greatly skilled, professional gaming is one acceptable form of gaming. However, in my view, the sort of elitism by which the only people who are viewed as true gamers are those who would not exclusively play via certain methods is illogical. If you are going to choose elitism, you might as well say that only professional gamers are real gamers in the same way that only statesmen and stateswomen can be called practitioners of law, but that is too extreme for anyone to consider as reasonable who knows about the way the law works because there are lawyers and police officers, advocates, and so on. In the same way, there are a variety of ways to play video games. While there are differences in play styles, they are more similar to differences in genres than differences in overarching categories which are forms of media such as television, radio, etc.

Another thing that I find puzzling about your opinion is that the basis for your exclusion on smartphones and tablets is performance. While an average smartphone or tablet by today's standards would not match the power of a Wii U, it would be several times more powerful than a cutting PC from twenty years ago. If you were to look back thirty years, you could find any video game ever made and it could be ported to a smartphone or tablet.

What I am reading is that, according to you, those who play Super Mario Bros., Doom, or Street Fighter II on a smartphone are not gamers because the system they would be playing it on is less powerful than modern video game consoles.

I think you can improve on that answer.

That said, I would like to hear more from females to let people know that they exist.

My sister got my hands-me-down World of Tank account. She's playing it regularly that is if there's no work days.

Sigh. That's the exact opposite of what my post said. I'm not sure you read it at all.

Females are more likely to be casual gamers. They are more likely to play tablet or DS games. Animal Crossing has a 50/50 split in gender. The problem is that games are marketed towards men so females are not interested in buying them.

and the thing is that no matter what you do you can never win. Ubisoft bowed down to these feminists but this is their answer.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate: Is Ubisoft exploiting feminism for easy PR?

I mean, do you want more female representation or you do not? To then when it finally happens they complain that it wasn't done in the way they wanted....

We're not talking about representation, we're talking about the female to male ratio of players. ;)

I want to know the percentage for PC and console gamers. To me that is a better idea what the demograph is at the moment.

Agreed, I'd like to know that percentage too.

I agree with Black Knight. Sorry, but a lot of us just won't accept Candy Crush, Farmville, and Angry Birds in the same boat as The Last of Us, Skyrim, and Far Cry 4. To me, a gamer, like Black Knight said, is someone who games as a hobby and not just when they're bored in public. While I think the word "enthusiast" is a bit extreme, I otherwise I agree with him.

I find the design and theory behind the apps games are too different to be lump with higher demanding PC and console games.

Second legacy games involvement should be limited in their involvements.

What if the ratio is more 7 males for 1 female then should the 1 female words be values at 7 times what the male had?

Well, by definition, the word "enthusiast" means "someone who shows great interest in a certain thing or subject". I think that applies to gamers spot-on, no?

Hmmm...I suppose. :P

Could you explain what you mean by "higher demanding PC and console games?"

Ya, same here. But its hard to find a global study, most are american and are done over anything that is to be considered a game.

I remember the Bioware survey where they collected data from everyone who played Mass Effect 1-3 and there it showed that only 20% of players chose a female sheppard and 80% picked the male. So if that is anything to go by, the ratio Male to female at least in that game is aprx. 80/20 (Yes, i know that males play female and vice versa)

One screen simple puzzle, and time delayed worker placement can not be the main focus of the game. IT can not be a straight port from a board game. One screen puzzle like candy crush.

It control require more demanding control the person, a party or a culture.

The main different is their design and the theory behind them.

What is simple, to you?

A static system with some pieces that moves like tetris or candy crush.

Why do you think that games like candy crush and like SKyrim or CoD have so few differences than they could be though of in the same groupping?

Getting accurate numbers is close to impossible unless you narrow down the chategories. If gaming includes everything from the pc demographics,console and even mobile games demographics then you got lots of estimates that you need to put a final estimate about. If it also includes the industry as a whole, meaning you not only look at the games themselves and consumers, but also developers, store clerks, musicians, voice actors/actresses, journalists etc. Then you get a even harder job.

That said, Women who either consume videogames and/or starts to work within the industry is on a rise if you look at some of the trends within the various areas as opposed to in the past when there was very little to nearly none.

In the UK, that figure has increased last year:

UK gamers: more women play games than men, report finds

Female gamers now make up 52% of UK gamers, a slight majority of the UK gaming population. Among the female gamers, 68% of them play non-smartphone online games, 56% play console games, and 47% play disc-based games.

@wiouds: What exactly do you mean by "static system?"

Why do you think that games like candy crush and like SKyrim or CoD have so few differences than they could be though of in the same groupping?

My reasoning is that all three of those are video games because they are digital games which stream video.

A static system is where it is mostly just one screen with some changes.

Wow that is so wide that it is pointless. Please give me more details about why they should be called the same thing?

That like saying that Cat and humans are close enough for medical test cats are the same as medical test on humans since they are both mammals.

Are you trying to claim that the structure they are built on and the design have so little differences that they practically the same?

They should be called the same thing because of the technology involved and the purpose of these programs. Video games are a subcategory of games. There are different types of video games which vary in genre and complexity, but those do not mean the same thing. There is not a genre of simple games and another one about complex games, so it is different than contrasting a cat brain with a human brain. If you would like to explain why there should be genres of complexity, feel free to explain your reasoning.

At this point, you are claiming that Tetris and Galaga, Breakout and Pong, and other similarly dated games are not video games. You are saying that there are fundamental technological differences between these games and The Elder Scrolls or Call of Duty, but you have not stated what they are. What is your reasoning?

The problem with say because they are digital devices they should be the same is that miniature games are played on table just like board games. Both use the same technology and have the same purpose but It ignores the differences of board games and miniatures gaming and just looking at the poor link between them. Yes both are subclasses of table top gaming. A study about table top gaming should not be used when you are talking about table top gaming.

It base on the game design ideal and theories behind them. Tetris and the like like force and short low scale game play and unbeatable event with have different theories and design. Those difference are far more than the differences from one genre to another but a different type of gaming. There a reason I do not group Arcade game, video game, and ported table top gaming.

You classify as much if not more by differences than similarities.

I am sorry, what?

I'm not just talking about marketing demographics, but cultural ones as well. Playing Candy Crush dosen't disqualify you from being a gamer. But it doesn't qualify you either <<-- and that's a point a lot of people are ignoring because they're too focused on trying to wittle down an exact definition/criteria for being a gamer whilst completely missing that identities, particularly cultural ones, aren't formed according to checklist in the first place.