Many women now play CoD
When thinking of a gamer your mind immediately goes to a spotty adolescent boy, eating leftover pizza in a dirty bedroom. Well not anymore, now adult women make up 30% of the gaming population beating teenage boys aged 17 and under who make up just 18%. And statistics look like they will continue to rise. Gaming experts even believe that by the end of this year, there will be more women gamers than men.
Many have said that this is down to the rise of smartphone and tablet games, also known as ‘casual gaming’, which women are thought to be more interested in. But while women consist of half of the ‘casual gamers’, they also make up a third of those playing consoles. All of the top ten games sold in 2012 are all stereotypically male targeted, with the exception of Just Dance 4 which came in at number 5. Violent games like Call of Duty, Halo and Assassins Creed are the best sellers making it into the top 4 of the best sellers. But why does that mean women can’t play them too?
In the past women have chosen to play as male characters in online social games because of the harassment they receive when they identify themselves as female, many choosing to leave their mic’s off so they don’t ‘blow their cover’. There have been many unsettling sexist trends that have developed online over the years which has forced women to feel like they need to hide behind male characters, such as the “tits or GTFO” trend where gamers in forums who identify themselves as female are told to either post an image of their breasts or “get the fuck out”.
Thankfully, use of this phrase has gradually declined in the last few years but this form of sexism continues to put off women who may be interested in getting involved in online gaming. Hopefully by the end of the year the experts will be correct and more female gamers will emerge, but in an industry where only 4% of game developers are female, how hopeful can we be?
By Sophie Atherton @SophAthers