A report shows that women gamers spend as much time and money on consoles as male gamers do, and that gamers are not, in fact, all teenage boys who lock themselves in their rooms to play Xbox Live for hours on end. Wait, gamers can be women? And adults? Gasp!
The social media network Pixwoo.com commissioned the search, and had this to say about their results:
The image most people have of a gamer is usually a young boy, holed up for hours in end in their bedroom, only stopping the game for food, drink and toilet breaks. But these results show that the stereotype couldn’t be more wrong. Not only are women just as likely to be gamers as men, but we are talking about fully grown adults who work, have a family and are in a relationship.
Go under the cut for statistics, commentary, and lots of exasperated sighing.
From The Daily Mail article:
The average gamer, who will spend up to 12 hours a week glued to their console, is actually 35-years-old and married, and earns £23k [approximately 34k USD] a year, according to a new study.
…It also revealed that gamers have one child, work an average of 32 hours a week and drive a Ford, Vauxhall or BMW.
What is frustrating about this information being touted as a “new discovery” is that it isn’t new and it isn’t a discovery, and treating it as such is reflective of the fact that the general public actually knows incredibly little about the real demographic of gamers. As glad as I am that someone is putting out more accurate information about the gaming community for people to see and absorb, the fact that most people still consider gaming to be a passtime for undeveloped manchildren is disheartening.
Furthermore, considering that the headline expresses surprise about the habits of female gamers it is apparent that women are still not accepted as “people for whom gaming is expected,” even while women make up 45% of the gaming population.
Well, at least we’re moving in the right direction.
(via The Daily Mail, image (c) Ryan Stewart/Moodboard/Corbis)
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