Apr 10 2009
Nielsen’s State of the Game: What’s up, girls?
Why it took 3 days for this “news” to reach me, I don’t know. But it makes me angry.
Nielsen (yes, you know, the “Nielsen” family, the same who monitor Nielsen ratings on TV) released a report on April 7, 2009, about the state of the video gamer. Their subtitle? “Suitable for all ages.” But that’s not what caught my eye. It was this.
Females 25 years and older make up the largest block of PC game players, accounting for 46.2 percent of all players and 54.6 percent of all game play minutes in December 2008.
The most played games on the PC are card games from Microsoft, with Solitaire being the most played game in December 2008 with over 17 million players.
And you know how the media’s reporting this? “Female gamers make up 54% of all game time played, and they loves them their Solitaires.”
Yes. Solitaire. I call bullshit. Yes, my granny likes to sit and play Solitaire all day on her computer (along with Mahjong and poker.) But I know she’s not part of the majority population of female gamers. Surely, Nielsen can’t have a video game family that bad (although I’ll note I’ve yet to be accepted into it, which is probably good, since they’d be trying to figure out not only my gaming habits, but why I love watching “Let’s Plays” at 3 am in the morning.)
So I took a look at Nielsen’s full fourth quarter report. Skipping through the parts about PS3 and X-Box 360 as being the console of choice for “hardcore gamers” (No shit, Sherlock!), I found the meat of their data on female PC gamers (they made no discussion of female console gamers.)
Yep. See that block on the far right? That’s female gamers 55+. According to Nielsen they make 17% of all PC gamers with 26% of gaming minutes. Now, this means one of two things to me:
- Either Nielsen’s data collection is seriously skewed, or…
- Adult and teen female gamers are really not “representing” well.
Now, the first is a real possibility. Nielsen’s PC monitor is a voluntary program, and drums up participants from the survey taker crowd. It requires the installation of a program which monitors all of your internet and PC usage. Younger women such as myself are likely to pass on that opportunity; women tend to be secretive about their lives online. And besides hiding our secrets, we really don’t like the idea of what is, essentially, spy ware on our computers. Since the 55+ crowd is generally more ignorant of online dangers, and tends to have less personally revealing activity online, I can see where they’d drum up the larger crowd.
The second also disappoints me though, and unfortunately, seems to be the case (although it’s also true for men.)
Note the age group. Note that most of the games (in both sectors) are free Microsoft games. Note how Half-Life 2 shows for men as #10, and that PICTUREKA! game is #10 for women.
Ladies. Please, I beg you: get out of your casual comfort zone. I admit these card games are great time-wasters (personally, I prefer Facebook apps and YouTube). But there are so many great, engaging titles in every genre; titles that provide stories, that challenge your mind, that exercise your creativity. I’m not asking you to make a jump to World of Warcraft or Warhammer Online; I’m asking you to put away the humdrum click and drags and challenge yourself. Delve into the world of gaming we love; immerse yourself in a story, a game environment, a challenge that takes you out of the world of reality for awhile. I promise you, you won’t regret it.
