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Why do men like video games way more than women?

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Games in their infancy were marketed almost entirely to boys. That made it a boys hobby, like dolls were made a girls hobby. That preconception is very powerful to try and overcome now
Definitely not true. Earlier game console ads often featured the whole family: mom and pop, little Jimmy and little Jenny. Atari famously had female employees who were treated as equals (which actually turned against Nolan Bushnell some years ago when he was due an award. I remember pre-Ree GAF being totally against Bushnell getting the award, because of course they would be). Games like Pac-Man, Space Invaders and all those early arcades where there was no princess-saving involved were a girls’ thing almost as much as they were a boys’ thing. Not a few children of the 80s in America and elsewhere had a mom who used to play them vidya games in the 70s.
 
Target audience. If you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one. It's reeaaaly not a big deal if you chose a target audience. Plus, majority of women gamers play the FREE shit.
 
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TonyK

Member
I see a lot of answers about games targeted to men (theme, gameplay or marketed mostly for men), but I think that doesn't covers the whole disparity.

My wife, for example, likes the same movies and books I like, and that includes Marvel movies, dark thrillers, LOTR, Star Wars, Fast and Furious, Bourne, Impossible Mission, Alien, Avatar, etc... But she doesn't like gaming. Not because she feel they are not targeted to women but because she doesn't like gaming itself. For example she doesn't like the concept of incremental difficulty, die and repeat, etc. Interaction is irrelevant for her, she doesn't want to become better and face challenges. And that's basically a game, and it doesn't have nothing with male themes or targeted to men. She loves what he sees on Last of Us or God of war, it simply she doesn't want to grab a controller and play. She wants a movie of Uncharted not to play Candy Crush.
 
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Males statically have better hand eye coordination than females. That's probably the biggest reason I can think of. It's easier for us to get into video games.
 
Most women i know that still play enjoy games with less controls, if you will.
Mario Kart
Crash bandicoot
Spyro
Harvest Moon
Etc.
Just some examples but everyone of these there's no controlling a camera or aiming a reticle, or intense combinations of button presses and joysticks movements.
 
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FStubbs

Member
So first, I think a study showed women actually spend more hours gaming than men do, because of stuff like Candy Crush.

Ignoring that, the popular genres of game emphasize competition and killing stuff. That gears toward men.

Games like "walking simulators", The Sims, Animal Crossing, and visual novels will bring in more women.
 
More women are gaming now than ever before. It also depends on the game. Women seem to be more into MMO/Multiplayer type games with a large social/community factor involved. Out of the recent multiplayer/mmo games I’ve put hundreds, if not thousands of hours into, I’ve run into quite a few females who play in the Phantasy Star, Halo and Destiny series of games. I have never run into a single female while playing Elite Dangerous, but that is more hardcore sim/sci-fi. I would imagine there aren’t that many females in the Arma 3 community as well. I’ve also run into quite a few females playing Sea of Thieves, especially here of late.

Fact.
 
What kind of question is this? Why are more men interested in cars? Why do more women love shopping and fashion? Men and women have different interests and I think that is a good thing and what draws them together. I think my life would be pretty boring if my wife would have completely the same interests like me.

That is why I don’t understand the whole discussions about more women in engineering jobs or more women in the gaming communities. Why do we need to force them doing something they have no interest in? Equally should mean having the same rights, being threaded equally (same salary for the same job) and have the same chances as men, but men and women will never be the same and that is a good thing. Unfortunately some people don’t get it.
 

Whitecrow

Banned
Biology and genetic print.

Men are more interested in tools and objects.
Women in taking care of creatures, since they bring them to the world and develop some instincs men dont.

That's how species survived for so long.

No matter how buried these instincts are in modern society. They are there.
 

Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
In the beginning, at the time of Pong, it was a lot more democratic.

But then very quickly videogames about killing things became extremely popular. Shooting and fighting, and even stomping on things like Mario. And that's mostly catered to boys.

I have no idea why it went that way, but it just did. Perhaps developers started making games for themselves, and that was prevalent for a long time.
 

01011001

Banned
I always find it weird that mobile gaming gets bashed so much when gaming use to be as simple as pong back in the day.

mobile gaming gets bashed because 99% of all mobile games are gatcha heavy lootbox infested games designed to manipulate people into buying microtransactions and they usually have no real meat beneath that coating of microtransactions.

there are good Mobile games, but even those are usually not that great because a touch screen is simply the worst way to play a videogame if said videogame is not 100% designed around the concept. and games that have been successfully designed around the concept of a touchscreen are very rare. most games still try to emulate a controller through virtual sticks and buttons.
 
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Kokoloko85

Member
2 reasons.

1. More women are playing games now than ever, and it was seen as a boys thing a couple decades ago.
I know a few girls who like playing games but when they were younger there parents wouldn’t buy it for them. But instead there brother got a console etc. It was seen as a boys thing. I think that has and will continue to change, more girls are playing video games and also reading comics, watching cool shit lol.


2. More girls watch shit like the karadashians and eastenders than boys do, so there taste in entertainment can’t be taken seriously (kinda joking lol)
But in all seriousness theres guys who still think video games are lame and prefer to watch football and ball sports. So who knows
 

luffie

Member
This is something I’ve thought about a lot over the years, and I’ve never really come up with a good answer.

Standing theory: It’s just one of those things.

Like how young boys like to draw pictures of cars, dinosaurs, rockets, and the like, whereas girls like to draw pictures of flowers, houses, people, etc. These are traits that precede culture and education. So I guess it’s just how we are biologically wired?

Even more interesting to me are the girls who game. I’m not the neckbeard type, and I’ve been fortunate to have done a healthy amount of dating, but I’ve never dated a girl who likes games. I’m kind of curious to know how they tick!

One thing’s for sure: there’s way more men gaming than women. I know: there are surveys that show otherwise, but I’ll hazard to guess that the numbers within are misleading, and essentially define “gaming” as having played a few mobile games before or something along those lines. The way I see it is that some hobbies are just more appealing to a specific gender: men by and large like to game, and women by and large like to shop for clothes. Of course the boundaries are easily crossed, but that’s just how most people are oriented.

Would love to hear from male and female GAF alike.
This is not true. As many have mentioned here, you are looking at mostly AAA games that are marketed exclusively towards male gamers.

Then there is the bias in your perception, you perceive mobile games as "not equal" to those games you have in mind. Games are not tightly defined as fps, rpg etc, decades ago, we wouldn't even have games like Factorio.

Then these bias are also prevalent among the culture, hence they build only "certain" genre for girls. Many years ago, there was only a male option for Harvest Moon.

Girls do play and love games, but the culture, stigma and environments are not exactly conducive for girls to play the games that you play. As much as guys are looked down upon when they game heavily, its is even more so with girls.
 

Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
Men are born to be heroes. If they can't realize that mythological potential in their real life, they're more likely to live it out through virtual avatars. Being a hero in real life is hard these days, particularly when society tells men their drive and ambition to succeed and be great is "oppressive" and needs to reined in.

That's no criticism of video games, or the people who play/love them (because I include myself in that group), but maybe one of the answers to your question.

There's also real scientific data that men prefer "things" whereas women prefer "people". And videogames fall into the "things" category quite nicely.
 
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The answers in here are disappointing to say the least.

Men play videogames more than women for a very specific, very tangible, very identifiable reason.

White male patriarchy and systemic exclusionary mysogony. There is simply no other reason.
Have a look in the mirror to find the real problem...
 
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Mr Branding

Member
What age are you living in bro? As far as my experience goes, it is "weighted heavily on one side" only when I and all of my mates are at work. Somebody has to take care of the bloody things when men are not there. When I come back home, the 50/50 rule starts as soon as I enter through the door. We're not talking about single moms here, that's not your original point. Do you play your games when you, missus, and the kid is at home? I'm taking my gaming time from my sleeping time and feel grateful.
This 100%. As I work from home since forever, I usually spend more time with my boy. Can’t complain but let’s not pretend most men/fathers are what one can see in 90’s movies.
 

Meesh

Member
Men enjoy escapism?
Men enjoy women...
Men enjoy escaping women..?...
But... women know how to find their man....
And I'm on Gaf when I should really be sleeping!
 
I see a lot of answers about games targeted to men (theme, gameplay or marketed mostly for men), but I think that doesn't covers the whole disparity.

My wife, for example, likes the same movies and books I like, and that includes Marvel movies, dark thrillers, LOTR, Star Wars, Fast and Furious, Bourne, Impossible Mission, Alien, Avatar, etc... But she doesn't like gaming. Not because she feel they are not targeted to women but because she doesn't like gaming itself. For example she doesn't like the concept of incremental difficulty, die and repeat, etc. Interaction is irrelevant for her, she doesn't want to become better and face challenges. And that's basically a game, and it doesn't have nothing with male themes or targeted to men. She loves what he sees on Last of Us or God of war, it simply she doesn't want to grab a controller and play. She wants a movie of Uncharted not to play Candy Crush.
It may not seem like male related, but the idea of improving getting higher status, etc. is connected to the male need to get to the top of the social hierarchy to attract more females. I've also noticed that many men also gravitate towards pvp games with leaderboards, as that shows increasing status against other men, which is a more relevant increase in status.

Still the status and improvement gained by games is only gaming or tricking the more primitive parts of the brain, as they are not real social status or achievements.
That is why I don’t understand the whole discussions about more women in engineering jobs or more women in the gaming communities. Why do we need to force them doing something they have no interest in? Equally should mean having the same rights, being threaded equally (same salary for the same job) and have the same chances as men, but men and women will never be the same and that is a good thing. Unfortunately some people don’t get it.
Yup and it's only an interest in professions with status. They don't want more women being garbage collectors, or in construction, or septic system cleaning. What they don't realize is that men date down and women date up usually, when women get higher status their dating pool gets smaller and they tend to end up less happy.
Men seek competitions they can win.

Think about the way we reproduce:
women - play it safe
men - the winner takes it all
this.
 
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Ballthyrm

Member
Why do men like video games way more than women?

I don't think it's the case.
Your question is basically asking, Why are so many more women liking Romance Novels ?
Why do so many more men Like Spy Novels ?

The simple answer is, because it's been tailored made for them. Same with games.
Some are tailored for men and some are targeting women.

Just because Women don't play the games you like doesn't mean they aren't interested in games.
They aren't just interested in what you are into.
 

nkarafo

Member
Games have the aspect of antagonism and competition. Even in single player games, you play against the NPC enemies and CPU.

These aspects are deep in the male DNA. Males had to antagonize other males in order to mate with the females so they can have their babies. It's the same like most other mammals.
 

Gentle

Banned
This is something I’ve thought about a lot over the years, and I’ve never really come up with a good answer.

Standing theory: It’s just one of those things.

Like how young boys like to draw pictures of cars, dinosaurs, rockets, and the like, whereas girls like to draw pictures of flowers, houses, people, etc. These are traits that precede culture and education. So I guess it’s just how we are biologically wired?

Even more interesting to me are the girls who game. I’m not the neckbeard type, and I’ve been fortunate to have done a healthy amount of dating, but I’ve never dated a girl who likes games. I’m kind of curious to know how they tick!

One thing’s for sure: there’s way more men gaming than women. I know: there are surveys that show otherwise, but I’ll hazard to guess that the numbers within are misleading, and essentially define “gaming” as having played a few mobile games before or something along those lines. The way I see it is that some hobbies are just more appealing to a specific gender: men by and large like to game, and women by and large like to shop for clothes. Of course the boundaries are easily crossed, but that’s just how most people are oriented.

Would love to hear from male and female GAF alike.
I want to come back to chat about this and read the thread more but alas I am just checking in between other tasks.
Here is the thing to remember
Gender is a social construct
People of all possible genders like games and like video games.

Right now the game industry has a lot of money invested in the military industrial complex which is specifically targeted at high impact, high reaction speed, high violence based video games. This particular bend of games is specifically targeted at male identifying people.

Because historically these games were marketed at young men the base player compounded by x-years has been men.

Non-binary folks and womxn being excluded from that marketing pool over the years. Thus the people who have developed the skills to play the games that are currently being developed and mass marketed end up being pulled from that male dominated culture. If you didn’t play FPS games growing up the chances of being able to sit down and pick up fort nite, overwatch, apex, call of duty, or any other fast paced first person game would be daunting because you just have to get your ass whooped on for 10,000 hours Before being able to play at a level that your peers are at.

But that is like so many structures in our society- designed to fit the white male patriarchal gaze. It is lame. And as we see more and more developers who are not cis-identifying white men we are seeing the pool of games and marketing expand.

It is one of the main reasons I love annapurna! They are making games that are just exceptional- with diverse characters and storytelling abilities and incredible gameplay. Games are the most incredible art form, narrative form we currently have and are capable of so much more Than the mass marketed games that are out there.

I think the more interesting question here is actually why in 2021 are we still seeing so many games made to perpetuate the white male savior narrative? It is not canon it is just misogyny, racism, and the patriarchy.

But even more interesting here is actually the thing you might be asking is - how to meet a love interest who shares one of your greatest passions which Is gaming. I am here to tell you those people are out there Living their lives. But meeting those people just requires luck like any other dating process. Finding someone you are compatible with is hard enough , finding someone you are compatible with who shares your interest even more rare. Growing with that person, supporting each other’s changing interests over time, and learning to walk together in life- takes a lot of work. Now imagine doing all of that during a pandemic- yup that’s even harder.

I dig that you are thinking about this and hope it leads you to examine some of the core values baked into the questions themselves. What would it look like to make games not directed at perpetuating the toxic white patriarchy Narrative?
 
This is something I’ve thought about a lot over the years, and I’ve never really come up with a good answer.

Standing theory: It’s just one of those things.

Like how young boys like to draw pictures of cars, dinosaurs, rockets, and the like, whereas girls like to draw pictures of flowers, houses, people, etc. These are traits that precede culture and education. So I guess it’s just how we are biologically wired?

Even more interesting to me are the girls who game. I’m not the neckbeard type, and I’ve been fortunate to have done a healthy amount of dating, but I’ve never dated a girl who likes games. I’m kind of curious to know how they tick!

One thing’s for sure: there’s way more men gaming than women. I know: there are surveys that show otherwise, but I’ll hazard to guess that the numbers within are misleading, and essentially define “gaming” as having played a few mobile games before or something along those lines. The way I see it is that some hobbies are just more appealing to a specific gender: men by and large like to game, and women by and large like to shop for clothes. Of course the boundaries are easily crossed, but that’s just how most people are oriented.

Would love to hear from male and female GAF alike.
Why are 90% of nurses female? Biological inclinations my dear friend, ask the Scandinavians
 
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