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September 04, 2004
The games UK women play
A consultation paper on women in gaming, prepared by researcher Aleks Krotoski for the UK games trade body Elspa, highlights how women are increasingly interested in video games.
Apparently, the typical female gamer in the UK is 30 to 35-years-old, plays around seven hours a week and spends £170 a year on games. There are differences, however, in the types of games that women like playing, and this is partly due to having less leisure time.
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According to the report, "women like games that are easy to pick up, play, and master, rather than those with complicated controls that require a lot of time to learn." And advances in technology - like Sony's EyeToy and mobile phones - have opened new avenues for gaming.
According to Aleks, if the games industry is going to appeal to more women, it needs to shift perspective "from one where you have to be hardcore or you are nothing, to one where you are respectful and it is fun."
From BBC News
Update: You can now download a pdf of the report
Posted by Foe at 09:31 AM in Gaming | Permalink
Comments
I've been unhappy for a long time that many games require such an enormous time investment for satisfying play. I still have that time (no children, intermittant employment) but I spend it doing a lot of other things. My ex-housemate was a 4-hour-a-night gamer and he was definitely more their target audience than I was.
Unfortunately, he also spent 10 times what I do on games, at least. So I've always thought the casual gamer market collectively spends too little money to aim at. You could possibly spin this argument around though, and say that there are probably ten times as many people willing to game casually than there are people willing to sink 30 hours a week into it.
Posted by: Mary at Sep 4, 2004 1:28:39 PM
