Seems a bit odd to me, since there doesn't seem to be any great disparity between the number of women, minorities, and the elderly, who watch TV compared to men.
There's not a huge disparity in gender among gamers either. Whatever the public perception, we are frequently wrong. We think teenage males play games - the average gamer is over 30, and the gender bias is something like 60-40.
How do we know we are not wrong about violent game consumers too? And where do you draw the line on "violent" - Survival Horror? Carmageddon? Mini Ninjas?
A major problem is that we can't check any of this accurately through self-selecting samples. Have you ever been in a multiplayer lobby with a female gamer who dares to use her mic? The reaction from many males is either rejection or immature sexual advances, which is hardly encouraging female gamers to "out" themselves. And the Fragdolls, through no fault of their own, have remained a small group of pro-gamers who seem to hold an exclusive or minority place in gaming society - just as most male gamers will never be "MLG" contenders, most females will not be recruited by Ubisoft or winning tournaments, so the female-positive message is (perhaps only slightly?) overshadowed.
When you're that good at something in a male-dominated field, it can be perceived as "...despite gender" rather than "...and it has nothing to do with gender", no matter how you present yourself or what the truth is.
Anecdotally from my friends list, there are males who play more Viva Pinata than the females, females who could win by fair means or foul in Burnout Paradise and have been breezing through arcade fighters since Soul Calibur 2, males with 250/250 on Peggle and 1250/1250 on Beautiful Katamari, and females with thousands of Halo 3 ranked matches behind them.
In fact, if it wasn't for the sheeplike marching off to Modern Warfare among the males, there would be somewhat of a balance between music games, RPGs, casual/cute games and "male" games.
Perhaps the core question should be "why do males shout louder about their exploits in violent games than the rest of their collection?" instead.
Or we should stop asking the consumers, since they can only consume what is out there.
Seems a bit odd to me, since there doesn't seem to be any great disparity between the number of women, minorities, and the elderly, who watch TV compared to men.
There's not a huge disparity in gender among gamers either. Whatever the public perception, we are frequently wrong. We think teenage males play games - the average gamer is over 30, and the gender bias is something like 60-40.
How do we know we are not wrong about violent game consumers too? And where do you draw the line on "violent" - Survival Horror? Carmageddon? Mini Ninjas?
A major problem is that we can't check any of this accurately through self-selecting samples. Have you ever been in a multiplayer lobby with a female gamer who dares to use her mic? The reaction from many males is either rejection or immature sexual advances, which is hardly encouraging female gamers to "out" themselves. And the Fragdolls, through no fault of their own, have remained a small group of pro-gamers who seem to hold an exclusive or minority place in gaming society - just as most male gamers will never be "MLG" contenders, most females will not be recruited by Ubisoft or winning tournaments, so the female-positive message is (perhaps only slightly?) overshadowed.
When you're that good at something in a male-dominated field, it can be perceived as "...despite gender" rather than "...and it has nothing to do with gender", no matter how you present yourself or what the truth is.
Anecdotally from my friends list, there are males who play more Viva Pinata than the females, females who could win by fair means or foul in Burnout Paradise and have been breezing through arcade fighters since Soul Calibur 2, males with 250/250 on Peggle and 1250/1250 on Beautiful Katamari, and females with thousands of Halo 3 ranked matches behind them.
In fact, if it wasn't for the sheeplike marching off to Modern Warfare among the males, there would be somewhat of a balance between music games, RPGs, casual/cute games and "male" games.
Perhaps the core question should be "why do males shout louder about their exploits in violent games than the rest of their collection?" instead.
Or we should stop asking the consumers, since they can only consume what is out there.