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"You're really a guy, aren't
you?"
How did female gamers handle this seldom wanted attention? Why do female gamers play anyhow? Do female gamers, as one survey has suggested, stick to the "safer" games, such as The Sims and its many variations and imitators? Did females get involved in the rough and tumble world of action/adventure MMOs to cater to male friends and significant others? Or was it *gasp* because they were just as good players as the guys and actually enjoyed these games? There has been a lot of speculation about these and other questions. The game developers themselves are starting to realize that female gamers are a significant percentage of the people playing their games. So I decided to go to the horse's mouth, so to speak, to find my answers. During a four-month period in 2004, I interviewed 110 women who were either currently engaged in playing active MMOs, or had spent a significant amount of time playing these games. The women came from all walks of life, all ages, professions or careers, all parts of the United States and Canada (and a small number from other countries). The only two unifying and persistent qualities these women had were their gender and their love of playing MMORPGs.
I will be presenting nine articles based on the answer to these questions. This first article is a combination Introduction to the series, as well as covering the games female gamers have played in the past and the one game they each identify as the most important game to them. Each succeeding article will be based on one of the seven other informational questions, with a look at the results derived from the women on that question, my notes and comments thereon, a few quotes from the women, and a graph to visually present the information. The ninth article will be based on an overview of all the information presented, a compilation of the graphs, and my notes and comments thereon.
Here are the numerical results of the games girl gamers play. Please note a couple of things about this chart. Firstly, the survey was taken before some of the new blockbusters arrived on the scene, specifically EQII and World of Warcraft. Secondly, although we can take as fact the game that each woman indicated was her most important one, the ladies were enthusiastic and went a little beyond the scope of the survey by naming games that are not MMOs. I included them to show what other games these female gamers were interested in. However, not all the ladies added non-MMOs, so this list cannot be held as an accurate one regarding the non-MMOs listed. In addition, although some of the women indicated which games they had played beta only in, I have not included that factor, since some women did play beta and didn't specify. The games that were beta only (at the time of the survey) have been indicated as such beside the name of the game.
On behalf of the EQ players, Synjari had a representative answer: "I keep going back to Everquest.. there is just something in the lore and gameplay that draws me back to it. I started off online gaming in muds, so I guess it has the closest to the feel of a MUD. I've been playing EQ since '99 so that would be about 5 years."
Links - Additional interesting quotes from female players regarding the games they played can be found here. - A list of the questions is here. - Study Methodology is outlined here (along with a linked list of the participating forums). - A list of the participating girl gamers is here. - A short bio of Raya is here. Next week, article 2 in this series, exclusive to Silky Venom, will deal with the second question: Many people seem to think women get into MMORPGs via their boyfriends or husbands. Is that the case with you or were you the leader in your group/family to start playing MMORPGs? In other words, how and why did you begin gaming? The answers surprised and sometimes amazed me. I hope you will find them equally interesting. You are invited to comment on this article and state your opinions on the findings. You are also invited to email me at raya@twobells.com for private responses. This is the kind of survey that many people will find intriguing and want to share their thoughts on.
MMORPGs
- FROM THE FEMALE PERSPECTIVE © 2004-2005 by Raya |
The
foregoing MMO scenario is not as prevalent now, especially with
the huge influx of gamers, male and female alike, into such MMO
giants as World of Warcraft and EverQuest II. However, in the
early days of MMORPGs, the males outnumbered the females by more
than five to one. Therefore, when a bona fide female appeared
on the scene, she was frequently viewed with misgivings, suspected
of being a poseur, perhaps one of the surprisingly many guys who
played a female character for one reason or another. Once it was
established to everyone's satisfaction that the accused player
was actually female, the chase was often on.
The
women answered 11 questions altogether (click 
Out
of the games listed above, all but five women indicated EverQuest
as their main MMO. Some women (at the time of the survey) had
never played any other MMO. Although these statistics are
impressive, I have to, in all honesty, point out that the forums/message
boards where answers to the survey questions were solicited were
predominantly EQ-related, although a couple of these forums catered
to any female gamer. The five girl gamers who found a game other
than EQ to be the most significant, named Star Wars: Galaxies
(2),Ultima Online (2), and Dark Age of Camelot (1). Three of the
five women had tried EQ and moved on to another game; two of the
women had never played EQ.
Grumps
agreed: "If you define 'most important' as most influential,
I would say that EQ probably takes the cake as far as MMORPGs
go. The level of interaction between guildmates and others is
much higher in EQ than any other MMORPG I've played to date, probably
because, in the high end of EQ raiding, teamwork is an absolute
must."