Also, interesting sidenote: 78% of all statistics are made up on the spot to try and prove a point.

But I do believe game mechanics come into play a lot when I decide on a game, and I am almost always disappointed. Most important mechanics being: Challenging A.I., Proper Character Development (in essence, your character HAS to level up some on her or his own to advance in the game and you are never left wanting in boss battles), Intricate leveling system with varied abilities, of which you must actually choose wisely in order for your character build to work out late game, and a huuuge array of weapons, armor, accessories, etc. Also, items should NOT be overpowered. I would rather have 40 swords in game with an attack power between 10 and 15 than 40 swords with attack power from 10 to 100.

Now as for the statistics, though I do see Matt’s point, he misread the data. It says 58% male, 42% female, not 52%/48% and thus is represented correctly. Also, It states:

“The 2011 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry was released by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA)
at E3 2011. The annual research was conducted by Ipsos MediaCT for the ESA. The study is the most in-depth and targeted survey of its kind, gathering data from almost 1,200 nationally representative households that have been identified as owning either or both a video game console or a personal computer used to run entertainment software.”

It never claims to be a solid “statistical stance”, merely a survey, and states that it took sample data of around 1,200 households. Granted, this does not state how many “people” but it does give a general idea.

As for the comparison of 17 and younger boys to 18 and older girls, most people think of people who play a lot of video games as being male kids, and think of adult women as NOT being big gamers. This comparison was simply to show that the common opinions of “little boys play video games” and “grown women do not” to be highly inaccurate. I believe it to be a very well-proposed survey. Thanks.

A more useful and telling statistic would be “X% of over-18 women play video games, compared to Y% of 17-or-younger boys”. Worded and calculated that way, I suspect the difference would be reversed.

First, in the male vs female chart, notice how the numbers show 52% male and 48% female gamers, but note that the graphical presentation shows a much greater difference than the numbers support. You could argue that this is done for clarity, but it distorts the data regardless.

Second the observation “Women age 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (37%) than boys age 17 or younger (13%)” is an interesting tidbit and seems to imply something interesting, but it doesn’t really tell us anything without the rest of the data. Since we know what percent of gamers are male and female (from elsewhere in the data) we can actually derive that missing data. Turns out females 17 and under represent 11% of gamers and males 18 and older represent 39% of gamers, so the fact that female gamers 18 and over represent almost three times the proportion of gamers as males 17 and under is irrelevant. It’s only because 76% of gamers are 18 or older and only 24% are 17 or under.

Also it’s obvious because of the lack of margins of error or confidence levels, etc… that no actual statistical analysis has been done, so this is all raw sample data. Thus, it’s not really appropriate to draw conclusion from it. For example, for a 48%-52% split along gender lines to be considered a significant difference, the sample size taken (which we don’t know from this report) would have to be around 2500 people. With a smaller sample size, the appropriate conclusion should be “We find no evidence to support that there is gender difference in video game playing demographics.” or something similar.

Speaking personally, I buy a game because of a unique or bizarre gameplay twist. Katamari, for instance, I bought because it was strange. The sequels I bought because they were sequels of the most awesome game ever. But Final Fantasy, Suikoden, and a few others I tried because my brother said they’d be good. Those are the two reasons I buy a game.

My favoritest game in the whole wide world has no graphics, no story line that any writer came up with, and no premade social structure. It’s all their unique game mechanics and skill structure that appeal most to me. “Oblivion” appealed to me because it was the closest thing I had ever seen to my favorite game’s way of doing things. Granted, I found it word of mouth, but MUDs work that way if you weren’t playing them before. I could forswear most games (with the exception of some Mass Effect and Dragon Age), just to play dartmud. I’ve even given up my time with wow to return to my MUD. Graphics and predetermined story lines are nothing compared to true immersion to me, and most games are just an interesting story line mixed in with some awesome fight scenes you get to have some control over. But, to each their own.

They are right though, most people just want something pretty to look at and a story to watch, or something stupidly gory and dark. No two gamers are exactly alike, but the gaming industry has to do what the gaming industry has to do to survive, and they’ll cater to the main stream before they will go out on a limb and make something for a smaller demographic. I’m just glad that they realize that girl gamers are out there, and I wish they had acknowledged girls under the age of 17, because I started playing games when I was 12 (though earlier if you count my sucky years at nintendo and atari). However, I never would have labeled myself as a gamer then. I was just a kid that played video games when my friends were grounded. I also noticed that I liked many of the same games my little brother did.

It makes me kind of sad and sick that they make some really stupid “girly” games for girls, ignoring the fact that they might like something a little bit more in depth than ponies and barbies. Sad, sad world.

The Indie/Experimental Game Crowd is a relatively small portion of the gaming community. Games with truly innovative mechanics or applications of those mechanics tend to be available without buying, anyway — like Dwarf Fortress.

but that’s all just speculation.