Electronic Games, Gender and

Frequency and Type of Electronic Game Playing

A consistent finding in the literature is that boys report playing electronic games more than girls do. Girls tend to be overrepresented among the nonusers. In addition, boys are much more likely than girls to be heavy game players (e.g., more than 30 hours a week), although this subgroup of males typically is small. Clear gender differences also are found in the type of electronic games that are played. Boys are more likely than girls to play sports, action, fighting, strategy, role-playing, and racing games. Heavy game players also are more likely to report playing violent games (e.g., fighting, action). Although girls also play violent games, they are more likely than boys to play educational games, puzzles, quiz and board games, and art games and to list them as their favorite games. Interestingly, girls and boys both are equally likely to report playing games that involve building model worlds. For example, girls appear to enjoy playing games such as SimCity and The Sims more than the more violent games that are popular with boys.

Explanations for Gender Differences

It is difficult to know the cause of these gender differences, but multiple hypotheses have been generated. For example, games are created for the most part by males for males. The content of the games (competition, speed, violence), therefore, may be more attractive to boys than girls. Critics argue that many games have stereotyped and weak female protagonists or no female characters at all. Others have argued that the male bias in game design has resulted in more games with features that might match boys' cognitive strengths. For example, some researchers argue that males, on average, tend to be better than females at skills such as spatial rotation and targeting (the ability to calculate trajectories of moving objects). These skills are rewarded in many electronic games. On the other hand, females, on average, may be stronger in object location, verbal memory, and color memory. Girls may prefer puzzles, card games, and board games because these games tend to draw on those skills. This is not to suggest, however, that girls lack the skills to play many electronic games; but at the beginning they may be at a disadvantage compared with boys. Importantly, this hypothesis does not appear to account well for the many games that require multiple skills.

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