World of Arts & Craft
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 by Robz
So after reading the ... reading (and thoroughly enjoying it I might add) I decided to venture forth and find out out how many people I know play the apparently popular World of Warcraft game. I even decided to be professional and ask (over text. Go technology!!!) an even six girls and six guys, all aged 19-20.
What I found was that out of the guys, only one admitted playing WoW on a regular basis, two have played WoW at some point and the other three have never played it and have no intention of doing so in the near future. I myself have never played it and I am not particularly bothered about it.
For the girls it was split even: three play WoW on a regular basis, while the remaining three have either never heard of it or are not interested in playing it.
So in this utterly amateur case the girls out play the boys in gaming. Why was that? I asked myself. Was it a random occurance or the beginning of a trend? I honestly had no idea and after a full day at uni I was in no position to think deeply about the issue. So I asked them. Only two responded (cheap nerdy so-called 'friends') and their responses were similar: They both enjoyed playing WoW on a purely escapist level (as in real-life is a tad depressing for these bonnie lasses). One also played it to have some type of social interaction with real people while sitting at home in the dark staring at a screen for hours on end while the other said that she did also enjoy "kicking other peoples asses". Neither of these girls have a problem with violence or gore in video games and they also do not have an opinion on the hyper-sexualised images of men or women (and their sub-human counterparts) other than the fact that its "just fantasy".
So are girls becoming more like boys in terms or video game preference and experience? Hard to say but if they are, I say about time. Being the youngest and only boy in the family with an Xbox and two controllers and two sisters is rather tedious.
What I found was that out of the guys, only one admitted playing WoW on a regular basis, two have played WoW at some point and the other three have never played it and have no intention of doing so in the near future. I myself have never played it and I am not particularly bothered about it.
For the girls it was split even: three play WoW on a regular basis, while the remaining three have either never heard of it or are not interested in playing it.
So in this utterly amateur case the girls out play the boys in gaming. Why was that? I asked myself. Was it a random occurance or the beginning of a trend? I honestly had no idea and after a full day at uni I was in no position to think deeply about the issue. So I asked them. Only two responded (cheap nerdy so-called 'friends') and their responses were similar: They both enjoyed playing WoW on a purely escapist level (as in real-life is a tad depressing for these bonnie lasses). One also played it to have some type of social interaction with real people while sitting at home in the dark staring at a screen for hours on end while the other said that she did also enjoy "kicking other peoples asses". Neither of these girls have a problem with violence or gore in video games and they also do not have an opinion on the hyper-sexualised images of men or women (and their sub-human counterparts) other than the fact that its "just fantasy".
So are girls becoming more like boys in terms or video game preference and experience? Hard to say but if they are, I say about time. Being the youngest and only boy in the family with an Xbox and two controllers and two sisters is rather tedious.