I'm always a little surprised when I see marketing analyses or research studies about girls and gaming. I know intellectually that most MMO players tend to be male (and, in fact, have been on the receiving end of both "Girls don't play WoW" and homophobic name calling, both in game and actually on this blog — which shocked me because you'd think those kind of people wouldn't have found it yet, being new and all — presumably because I said something girly?). But I tend to assume that most people play toons who reflect their genders, and thus assume also that WOW is split about 50-50. And, since the vast majority of the gamers I know, both casual and hardcore, are female ... well, it's easy to assume, I guess.
This isn't helped by the fact that many of the bloggers I read are also female, thus reinforcing that assumption.
But I was cruising about on the Internet looking for info, and did my link-hopping thing, and got to this entry on the Game Dame: What's the Real Life Gender Breakdown on WoW?
So now I'm curious. Based on studies and stuff, I think the estimates in the comments of around 20-25 percent are probably pretty accurate. I assume that many girls on more hardcore servers keep their mouths shut about it (while I'm quite open about being female on VeCo when the topic comes up over and over and over and over in Barrens chat, I would never have admitted it on Laughing Skull). After reading stuff like this, I wouldn't blame them.
Is there anything out there that has a more accurate breakdown of the gender gap on WoW? I'd be curious to know if the 5 percent figure Blizzard allegedly accepts is accurate or not.
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Various industry articles in the press seem to indicate that the female gamer could be up to 40% of the overall market. Wow has a fair proportion of actual, real girls as well. My guild has quite a few... though some remain hidden behind a male character and avoid the voice chat options.
The age range is also a lot broader than the stereotype might indicate. We have a handful of 10-12 year olds, but we also have their parents, and even a few grandparents playing. Gaming in general is definitely becoming mainstream and Wow in particular appeals to lots of girls.
... I'm working hard to convert one of my work colleagues... she's a hard-core sims player from way back!
My own stable of characters are running about 60/40 male/female. Sometimes, its not me but my wife behind the pixels.
I've been trying to get my mom to start playing, since she likes to play games every morning, but she's more of a Pogo kind of gamer. But I'm wearing her down — she said that next time I went up to her place, I could set her up and walk her through making a character. Since I go to bed after she wakes up, we could chill for half an hour or so every night.
I've seen plenty of anecdotal evidence that WoW hosts a wide diversity of players, but no actual figures. I'm just doubtful that only 5 percent of their players are female — a good number probably play on a father's or boyfriend/husband's account, or might just have "male" names, since that seems to be in with the yuppie set.
I'd bet their demographic is a bit older than they suspect as well — I bet a lot of gamers in my income bracket get into the game a bit older and later because we can finally afford to.
I've seen data for more traditional MMOs like AC1 and EQ2. Those numbers are, unfortunately, a bit lower, with females making up about 8-13% of the population. I strongly suspect that the broad appeal of WoW has leavened those numbers, though -- at least for WoW. (There is also quite a bit of data about women, especially older women, playing 'online' games, but those numbers generally reflect online casual games, not MMOs.)
I did look at quite a few articles for a class several years ago, but they're pretty out of date, I'm sure. A few were pretty interesting, though. Maybe I'll have to hunt them down.
I wonder how the numbers would change if it were video games in general rather than MMOs, though. I know a LOT of women who aren't into those, but who love everything from the Sims to Guitar Hero to Madden to GTA. The gender breakdown is probably similar in the last two, but I'd bet women dominate the first two, or at least break 50/50.
Its been a self perpetuating myth.
"There are no girl gamers" turns off lots of girls from even attempting to play. This in turn means that most of the game design is driven by males for males. SIMS was probably the first really big game that had large female appeal.
Now that larger numbers of females ARE gaming, more of their friends and relatives join in too and there's lots less stigma in being a chick who games.
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