Monday, October 09, 2006

A Look at Video Gamer Demographics

According to the Hollywood Reporter, those of us looking to have "gaming" experiences with those mysterious creatures known as women need look no further than our desk tops. Of the remarkably high 58.5 million "active gamers" who play online games, 64% are women. That's right, according to Nielsen if you want to play a game with a woman play online.

Does that mean that all those WoW players hiding in their basements are on the cutting edge of the dating future like Will Ferrell in The Wedding Crashers (he crashed funerals)? Not necessarily, the Nielsen study defines some of the terms a little differently than an MMORPG player might expect. First, "active gamer" means someone who plays 1 or more HOURS a week on a gaming device. To you and me that is more like what I would call a "casual gamer." Second, "older females make up the largest percentage of casual gamers, usually playing online card and puzzle games." Casual games are games similar in content to traditional boardgames. So if you want to meet "gamer women" the likelihood is that they love Scrabble, chess, sudoku, or some other traditional type games. Of course, this also means they like games that translate well into a "social" environment so if you meet a date via online Scrabble, you might actually want a second date.

The Hollywood Reporter article has a lot of information about other demographics, but the fact that females make the majority of online gaming is pretty interesting stuff.

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