Study Looks at What Girls Want Out of Games

While girls generally prefer problem solving aspects of videogames, they are not opposed to violent content, if it contains humorous undertones.

Student Lotte Vermeulen, of Belgium’s Ghent University, surveyed 983 gamers as part of her study entitled Girls Gaming Versus Guys Gaming. Her results indicated that females played about eight hours of games per week, versus 17 hours for men, but she explained away the disparity by stating, “…games are still looked upon as boys’ toys and that they are mostly tuned to the interests of men.”

Fine, then what do women want in a videogame? Vermeulen reported that women want a game to “be logical and easy to use,” and the combination of keys or controls should “not be too complicated.”

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Women tend to give up when the game is not that easy to handle. They are less motivated to sacrifice time to get the knack of the game. Therefore, they mostly opt for shorter and simpler games, such as casual and social games.

Females also seemed to prefer game environments that featured sharp and bright colors and expressed a fondness for games that allowed them to “choose their own assignments and to explore freely.”

Speaking to News.com.au, Vermeulen added, “They want video designers to give them more than just games about kittens and pink ribbons.”