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[DrLazy]

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- As part of a drive to attract more women into the male-dominated video game industry, a program for aspiring game developers at Southern Methodist University will offer a women-only scholarship, organizers said Thursday.

CNN link

 

[DrLazy]

According to the Entertainment Software Association, the games industry's trade group, 39 percent of game players are women, and women make around half of all game purchases.

And that stat suprised me. Of course my girlfriend plays games (she loves Monkeyball 2), but I thought she was an exception.

 

[Eggo]

Half the game purchases, I can see. It's called moms during Christmas shopping season. The 39% figure sounds like utter bullshit. Playing Tetris, Bejeweled, or Ms Pac Man once does not make you a gamer.

 

[Priz]

Half the game purchases, I can see. It's called moms during Christmas shopping season. The 39% figure sounds like utter bullshit. Playing Tetris, Bejeweled, or Ms Pac Man once does not make you a gamer.

I think you're talking out of your ass.

Considering the amount of women at both the GDC and E3...

If we switch over to anime instead of games for a moment, as most of my importer friends say, it's women who are the repeat/loyal customers, not men. A big percentage of the women who buy from them because of something they thought was cool usually start ordering from them online or from every show in that area they attend. (That's why one of them doesn't personally want to stock the Yaoi goods, but since that's what most of his customerbase demands...)

I can easily see the #of women gamers being in the mid 20's or low 30's range. 39 is a little high, but a portion of that could be as you said. You just have to step back and notice it... many people don't. I'm sure game store employees have better insight on it.

 

[B E N K E]

Basically all young people play games today, be it The Sims or Katamari Damacy. The difference between genders is found when it comes to time devoted and number of games...

 

[FortNinety]

Playing Tetris, Bejeweled, or Ms Pac Man once does not make you a gamer.

Wow, what a fucking stupid statement dude. Seriously.

 

[Oni Link 666]

No normal girl wants to program in C++ over 12 hours a day. Seriously, there's like 3 girls in the game design program at my school.

 

[Azih]

Considering the amount of women at both the GDC and E3

Those are booth babes, and kinda prove the point.

It's really an issue because gaming is the most technology driven form of entertainment and for some reason pulling all night C coding sessions don't appeal to the womens. Male dominated programming just kinda forces the other aspects of game creation (designing etc) to be male dominated as well.

Certainly girls are playing games a whole lot more now then they used to when I was 8 but I think it'll take a while for this more equal generation to make a significant impact on the older almost exclusively male standard.

And heck I'm convinced that men will always make up the majority. Hopefully it just won't be overwhelming in the future.

 

[Priz]

Those are booth babes, and kinda prove the point.

Talking about artists/programmers/press/etc. in attendance. NOT booth babes. Seriously, if you see any pics of the GDC alone with general shots of the attendees in the exhibit hall (or in panels), you'll see more than a handful of women in the shot.

 

[border]

The ESA/IDSA has always counted playing MS Solitaire or Yahoo Parlor Games as making you a "gamer". While technically correct, it's ridiculously deceptive.

39% of women is ridiculous, when you consider how many women over 35 there are that probably aren't playing anything at all.

I don't see what industry trade shows have to do with anything. The executives and PR people that populate those things aren't necessarily gamers in the first place, and even then I doubt that 4 out of 10 of them are women.