Game Player / Buyer Types
Games have been put into categories over years depending on different gender and age of the players. This contributes to the statistics.
Categorization effects the developers as they need to design a game based around an audience. After many surveys the gender percentage of the gaming community was split for 52% male to 48% female. This percentage is always changing and the numbers depend on different devices and game genres. Generally Women are categorized as typical players who enjoy puzzle games and MMO's. They play games a lot around the plot which the stereotypical male audience will find boring. Men are categorized as active players who spend much more time than women playing games although the statistics show its almost a fair split. Men stereo typically enjoy action games such as FPS's which normally don't have a huge story. For younger ages story typically isn't a main plot point as the developers make the game for the young to understand. Young girls are categorized to enjoy games about life such as pg dating games and cooking games, boys at this age wont typically enjoy these games as they enjoy games with pg violence and action games where they are always occupied.
Games are generally categorized for the mass of the audience, although some girls may enjoy action games more than some boys the game will still be developed more for its stereotypical audience. Games are built around players so they rely on these stereotypes to become popular. As video games are very popular and sell well these categories aren't too big of an issue although they could be tweaked.
Some of the benefits of games being categorized is that they buyer knows what the game will be like in some sense as the marketing and advertising will appeal to the type of buying the devs created the game for. For example games categorized for teenagers may have issues that the character is going through that can be related too at that age which wouldn't appeal to young kids who enjoy cooking games.
Some disadvantages of categorization is that the games are too bland and try too much to appeal to one type of category. This means that they game is boring to nearly every type of audience and due to this some don't sell well. Some people get offended if a certain gender is used in a certain way, for example in games like GTA5 which was marketed for more of a male audience some female players may get annoyed about the lack of female screen time in the game.
Games are still working to create more diversity in their games to appeal to more people, this will increase sales and the overall gaming landscape may change due to this. Some ways they will change this is giving main characters more diversity in games, being different genders and ethnicity's.
Game abbreviations
MMO - Massively Multiplayer Online
FPS - First Person Shooter
Statistics and evidence
Statista, one of the best websites for stats did a distribution from the united states.
as seen from these stats 12 years ago the percentage was 38 percent female and as the years went on more females slowly started to play games. By 2012 onwards the increase of females playing games began to rise at the same rate as male with it being 45%. This doesn't mean that the increase in female gamers has stopped it just means that the male increase in going at a somewhat same pace.
statista also did a distribution for the united kingdom, here showed 2011 and 2014 which compared to the statistics of the us doesn't give us a good statistic because it was only two years with a three year gap.With what little information we have we can see like the us that there has been an increase of female gamers over the years
Categorization effects the developers as they need to design a game based around an audience. After many surveys the gender percentage of the gaming community was split for 52% male to 48% female. This percentage is always changing and the numbers depend on different devices and game genres. Generally Women are categorized as typical players who enjoy puzzle games and MMO's. They play games a lot around the plot which the stereotypical male audience will find boring. Men are categorized as active players who spend much more time than women playing games although the statistics show its almost a fair split. Men stereo typically enjoy action games such as FPS's which normally don't have a huge story. For younger ages story typically isn't a main plot point as the developers make the game for the young to understand. Young girls are categorized to enjoy games about life such as pg dating games and cooking games, boys at this age wont typically enjoy these games as they enjoy games with pg violence and action games where they are always occupied.
Games are generally categorized for the mass of the audience, although some girls may enjoy action games more than some boys the game will still be developed more for its stereotypical audience. Games are built around players so they rely on these stereotypes to become popular. As video games are very popular and sell well these categories aren't too big of an issue although they could be tweaked.
Some of the benefits of games being categorized is that they buyer knows what the game will be like in some sense as the marketing and advertising will appeal to the type of buying the devs created the game for. For example games categorized for teenagers may have issues that the character is going through that can be related too at that age which wouldn't appeal to young kids who enjoy cooking games.
Some disadvantages of categorization is that the games are too bland and try too much to appeal to one type of category. This means that they game is boring to nearly every type of audience and due to this some don't sell well. Some people get offended if a certain gender is used in a certain way, for example in games like GTA5 which was marketed for more of a male audience some female players may get annoyed about the lack of female screen time in the game.
Games are still working to create more diversity in their games to appeal to more people, this will increase sales and the overall gaming landscape may change due to this. Some ways they will change this is giving main characters more diversity in games, being different genders and ethnicity's.
Game abbreviations
MMO - Massively Multiplayer Online
FPS - First Person Shooter
Statistics and evidence
Statista, one of the best websites for stats did a distribution from the united states.
statista also did a distribution for the united kingdom, here showed 2011 and 2014 which compared to the statistics of the us doesn't give us a good statistic because it was only two years with a three year gap.With what little information we have we can see like the us that there has been an increase of female gamers over the years
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