CASE STUDYThe female gamerWhile the male-dominated console market remains relatively stable, mobile apps and games onsocial media display incredible growth.6 It is this market that is predominantly female, with somefigures suggesting more than 65% of all casual gamers are women.7 This change in consumerbehaviour has taken many developers in the video games industry by surprise and, as yet, therehas only been anecdotal evidence to explain why women are the dominant force in this rapidlyexpanding product category.Despite this market opportunity there is still an industry bias towards men. Employment in thevideo games industry is male dominated with only 10% of the entire workforce being female,the majority of them being employed in administration, human resources, and marketing withlittle to no input in game creation. As a consequence, the games being conceived and developedby the industry have their foundations in male appeal. So why do casual games appeal towomen? Game features that appeal to womenMany of the games that experience significant success for developers among women are thosethat are initially simple to grasp, that offer social interaction - both with friends, and anopportunity to expand their network - and those that offer the ability to help others. A greatexample of a game like this is Zynga’s Farmville which allows players to plant, interact, chat andhelp out other farmers in the world. So why do over 240 million gamers8 play Zynga’s socialgames every month? In contrast, the most popular titles for male gamers are those focussedupon competitiveness, mastery and prowess, typically first-person shooters, such as theActivision’s Modern Warfare franchise and EA’s Battlefield series.In looking at the types of games men and women generally prefer; a number of differencesemerge (see Table below). Men can be observed to be motivated more by externalachievements and rewards valuing both prowess in defeating gamers and non-gamers alike.9Men tend to be more extrinsically motivated;10 they are motivated by factors external tothemselves. Women however, have been observed to be motivated in helping others and beingdependent upon other players’ goodwill in the games they prefer to play and in doing so theyexperience high levels of internal satisfaction.11 Thus women tend to be more intrinsicallymotivated.12The future of gamingThe male-dominated industry used to targeting the traditional segment of console gamerscontinues to struggle to penetrate the rapidly expanding mobile games market, filled with tensof thousands of low-cost games from small development teams,13 while social mobile apps suchas Words with Friends and Draw Something are downloaded millions of times in mere weeks.14The companies that will succeed in the gaming market are those that can offer products thatappeal to the different market segments based on gender and usage (casual or hard-core). Byunderstanding the different motivations of the sexes, it is possible for games developers tocreate games that can satisfy the growing demand of the changing gamer demographic QUESTION:- Why would women generally not be interested in engaging with first-personshooters, like Modern Warfare 3?

Question

CASE STUDYThe female gamerWhile the male-dominated console market remains relatively stable, mobile apps and games onsocial media display incredible growth.6 It is this market that is predominantly female, with somefigures suggesting more than 65% of all casual gamers are women.7 This change in consumerbehaviour has taken many developers in the video games industry by surprise and, as yet, therehas only been anecdotal evidence to explain why women are the dominant force in this rapidlyexpanding product category.Despite this market opportunity there is still an industry bias towards men. Employment in thevideo games industry is male dominated with only 10% of the entire workforce being female,the majority of them being employed in administration, human resources, and marketing withlittle to no input in game creation. As a consequence, the games being conceived and developedby the industry have their foundations in male appeal. So why do casual games appeal towomen? Game features that appeal to womenMany of the games that experience significant success for developers among women are thosethat are initially simple to grasp, that offer social interaction - both with friends, and anopportunity to expand their network - and those that offer the ability to help others. A greatexample of a game like this is Zynga’s Farmville which allows players to plant, interact, chat andhelp out other farmers in the world. So why do over 240 million gamers8 play Zynga’s socialgames every month? In contrast, the most popular titles for male gamers are those focussedupon competitiveness, mastery and prowess, typically first-person shooters, such as theActivision’s Modern Warfare franchise and EA’s Battlefield series.In looking at the types of games men and women generally prefer; a number of differencesemerge (see Table below). Men can be observed to be motivated more by externalachievements and rewards valuing both prowess in defeating gamers and non-gamers alike.9Men tend to be more extrinsically motivated;10 they are motivated by factors external tothemselves. Women however, have been observed to be motivated in helping others and beingdependent upon other players’ goodwill in the games they prefer to play and in doing so theyexperience high levels of internal satisfaction.11 Thus women tend to be more intrinsicallymotivated.12The future of gamingThe male-dominated industry used to targeting the traditional segment of console gamerscontinues to struggle to penetrate the rapidly expanding mobile games market, filled with tensof thousands of low-cost games from small development teams,13 while social mobile apps suchas Words with Friends and Draw Something are downloaded millions of times in mere weeks.14The companies that will succeed in the gaming market are those that can offer products thatappeal to the different market segments based on gender and usage (casual or hard-core). Byunderstanding the different motivations of the sexes, it is possible for games developers tocreate games that can satisfy the growing demand of the changing gamer demographic QUESTION:- Why would women generally not be interested in engaging with first-personshooters, like Modern Warfare 3?

Accepted Answer

It is a common misconception that women are generally not interested in first-person shooters like…

Why would women generally not be interested in engaging with first-person shooters, like Modern Warfare 3?