Most of people still consider gaming a male pursuit-but that is an error that could make many marketers miss an opportunity. Why should men have all the fun and entertainments while women have to stay at home, cooking or become a baby sitter? Or spending most of their leisure time at shopping mall? Gaming today is as much for women as men. Trust me, it’s not just men who wish to unwind after a long day, women too wish to do so! With their work day not just including professional tasks but those of their family as well, it makes sense that they need some rest and recreation.
Many statistics over the past decade or so have pointed to a rise in the numbers of women playing games regularly either mobile games or video games. According to new research conducted by game analytics outfit Newzoo has revealed that today over 46% of gaming enthusiasts are women. In addition, another study reveal that there are more women players than men; for example, on smartphones in the UK 60% of women aged 10-15 play games on their device, compared to 40% of men of the same age. Its true women spend more time to play games on any devices compare to men because they have more leisure time! Perhaps, there was as many as one billion women play games for the next coming year 2020.
Generally, men and women have different motivations for game play and different game style preferences. Women generally prefer to play games for entertainment, relaxation and education. They also typically prefer games with low violence, lots of social interaction, and a non-sexualized portrayal of women such as logic and puzzle games (Jewel Explosion). While men prefer to play games that are active and competitive provided by games such as action games (Counter Attack). Women actually more skeptical about the value of games for education and expressed more concern about negative behavior effects of games.
In particular, according to the study of Yee (2006) “Online survey of 30,000 MMORPG players over a 3-year period” he found that there were five factors to describe motivation for game play: relationship, manipulation, immersion, escapism, achievement. Women scored higher on relationship, immersion and escapism, while males scored higher on achievement and manipulation. Although it is common for both men and women to say that they play games, but it seems clear that men and women have different motivations for playing games.
In this next coming year 2020, the games developer must take further action to focus and design the best games for women too. As mention by Williams, Martins, et al. (2009) in particular, approximately 80% of game designers are male and about 80% of game characters are male. In particular, having both male and female game designers working together on the creation of games may help achieve the goal of designing games that appeal to a broad game playing audience especially for women. More female games designer is needed in future to achieve the target as a rise in the numbers of women playing games regularly either mobile games or video games.