Female Gamers: Trends and Statistics

So every few years I put out a new survey to all the members on my text-based internet games. Most of the members of my games are teenage girls. All of my games are animal related and targeted at a tween/teen age range. Most of my members spend four hours a day playing my games in 20 minute intervals. Some of the members of my games have been playing for close to 10 years.

Video Game Demographics

Total Participants: 225

Age:

10: 2%
11: 2%
12: 8%
13: 13%
14: 7%
15: 5%
16: 4%
17: 3%
18: 4%
19: 2%
20: 4%
21: 5%
22: 2%
23: 3%

Average Age of Participant: 14

Gender:

No Answer: 16%
Male: 1%
Female: 83%

Current Video Game Habits

Which of these do you play video games on?

Cell Phone:	33%
Traditional Board Games:	37%
Internet:	76%
Console (Playstation, Xbox, Wii, PSP, DS):	46%
Computer:	80%

Do you play video games with?

	Yes	Sometimes	No
Violence	16%	24%	52%
Blood, Guts and Gore	11%	23%	58%
Drugs	4%	10%	77%
Alcohol	6%	14%	72%
Foul Language	10%	24%	59%
Adult Themes/Situations	13%	30%	49%
Sexual Themes	5%	16%	71%
Nudity	4%	12%	75%
Death	16%	22%	55%
Guns	12%	24%	56%
Fighting	16%	24%	52%
Killing	14%	21%	57%

What type of internet games do you play?

Facebook (FarmVille, Mafia Wars, SongPop, etc):	39%
Flash (MiniClip, Pogo, Habbo Hotel, etc):	26%
MMO (World of Warcraft, Runescape, etc):	22%
Console (Halo, America’s Army, etc):	27%
Computer (SecondLife, EverQuest, Free Realms, etc):	61%
Mobile (Draw Something, Angry Birds, etc):	56%

Video Game Ownership

Which consoles do you own or have owned in the past?

Wii:	61%
Playstation:	22%
Nintendo 3DS:	12%
Nintendo DSi:	22%
Playstation Vita:	0%
Nintendo 3DS XL:	1%
Nintendo DSi XL:	6%
Gameboy:	31%
Playstation 2:	34%
Playstation 3:	14%
Xbox:	31%
Gameboy Advanced:	25%
GameCube:	16%
Nintendo DS:	53%
PSP:	9%

How often do you (or a parent) buy video games?

Once A Week	0%
Once Every Two Weeks	1%
Once Every Three Weeks	0%
Once A Month	13%
Every Six Months	28%
Every Year	33%

What type of video games do you currently own?

Music:	25%
Puzzles:	40%
Trivia:	20%
Arcade:	31%
Kinect Motion:	10%
Adventure:	71%
Exploration:	43%
Role Playing:	38%
Strategy:	45%
Racing:	45%
Building:	35%
Sports:	33%
Fighting:	29%
Simulation:	49%
Brain Training:	24%
Educational:	24%
Dancing:	31%
Party (4+ player games):	28%
MMORPG:	22%

How many video games do you currently have?

1	3%
2	1%
3	4%
4	3%
5	7%
6	3%
7	2%
8	1%
9	3%
10+	57%

How often do you play video games?

Several Times A Day	12%
Once A Day	19%
Several Times A Week	12%
Once A Week	15%
Several Times A Month	6%
Once A Month	11%
Several Times A Year	7%
Once A Year	4%

How many hours straight (without leaving the game) do you spend playing video games?

5-10 Minutes	0%
10-20 Minutes	10%
20-45 Minutes	15%
1 Hour	22%
2 Hours	19%
3 Hours	10%
4 Hours	4%
5 Hours	0%
6+ Hours	5%

Video Game Preferences

I would make sure my video game had:

	Yes	No
Violence	21%	73%
Blood, Guts and Gore	15%	79%
Drugs	5%	88%
Alcohol	8%	85%
Foul Language	12%	81%
Adult Themes/Situations	25%	68%
Sexual Themes	11%	81%
Nudity	6%	87%
Death	22%	71%
Guns	18%	76%
Fighting	26%	66%
Killing	20%	73%

Some things are more important than others in my video game are:

	Important	Not Important
Storyline	80%	14%
Character Development	77%	17%
Sound Effects	44%	49%
Animation	74%	20%
Graphics	79%	14%
Music	45%	48%
Easy To Learn	77%	17%
Easy To Play	72%	22%
Easy To Navigate	82%	11%
Easy To Start/Install	83%	11%

My perfect video game would have:

Contests:	38%
Flash:	12%
Social Interaction:	37%
Turns:	8%
Fighting:	19%
Shooting:	15%
Killing:	16%
Businesses:	21%
Sports:	18%
Racing:	30%
Strategy:	40%
Adventure:	61%
Polls:	26%
Role Playing:	47%
Puzzles:	23%
Exploration:	45%
Weapons:	18%
Action:	55%
Building:	29%
Simulation:	51%
Design:	38%
Free Downloads:	35%
Music:	40%
Storyline:	52%
Magic:	40%
Vampires:	21%
Experimentation:	24%
Building & Construction:	25%
Management of Other Players:	15%
Music:	40%
Animation:	52%
Lifecycles (birth, growth, death):	56%
Pay To Play:	2%
Free To Play:	62%
Upgrade For Extra Features:	21%
Upgrade For Game Perks:	12%
Lots of Graphics:	43%
Minimal Graphics:	4%
Drag/Drop Interface:	14%
Expand/Collapse Interface:	14%
Customizable Site Layout:	30%
Zombies:	12%
Aliens:	6%
Werewolves:	21%
Phone Friendly:	32%
iPhone/iPad App:	27%
Role Playing:	49%
Insects:	9%
Fish:	20%
Birds:	19%
Conquest:	16%
World Domination:	14%
Resource Management:	16%
Economics:	18%
Witches:	20%
Animals:	86%
Fantastical Creatures:	37%
People:	44%
Clothes & Fashion:	32%
Creativity:	56%
Discovery:	42%
Surprises:	47%
Player vs Player Competition:	28%
Player vs Computer Competition:	18%
Free For All Competition:	30%
Team Competitions:	19%
Advertisements:	2%
Prizes:	38%

Video game music would be:

Upbeat	51%
Dramatic	16%
Slow	7%
Spooky	5%

The video game would include these themes:

Romance:	47%
Comedy:	54%
Suspense:	33%
Drama:	44%
Horror:	16%
Violence:	19%
Family Friendly:	46%
Realistic:	60%
Educational:	25%
Science Fiction:	28%
Fantasy:	52%
Occult:	5%
Mystery:	52%

The video game would have these features:

Message Boards:	51%
Items:	64%
Stores:	67%
Maps:	51%
Level Ups:	52%
Bank System:	62%
Avatars:	61%
Weather:	56%
Customizable Characters:	69%
Customizable Clothes:	55%
Customizable Weapons:	30%
Live News Updates:	27%
Newspaper:	40%
RSS Feeds:	7%
Photo Gallery:	36%
Journals:	36%
Pet/Character Trading:	64%
Chat Rooms:	53%
Dynamically Colored Pets/Characters:	57%
Item Trading:	46%
Messaging System:	51%
Giving Gifts To Other Members:	52%
Random Occuring Events:	51%
Randomly Found Items:	60%
Quizzes:	37%
Polls:	40%
Limited Edition Items:	43%
Collectibles:	40%
Player Avatars/Tags:	47%
Pets/Characters:	84%
Limited Edition Pets/Characters:	52%
Currency Trading:	44%
Mini Games:	48%
Clubs:	41%

These results are provided for free  by
Design1online.com, LLC | Games For Girls.

Game Journal 1.5: Ten Games You Played As A Child

In my last post I created a game with a passive player. I also included a short blurb to describe what I consider a passive player. This exercise challenges you to list ten games you played as a child and describe what you liked most about them.

Exercise 1.5

When I was 6 or 7 I had a best friend right down the street. Tyler was totally into video games, and better yet his dad got him nintendo, SNES and SEGA as soon as they came out — in addition to a number of game cartridges for it. Tyler was one of the reasons I started playing and love video games. I can remember spending hours on the floor beside him trying to beat the next boss or get to the next level and our pieces of paper with all the skip level passwords on them. Yeah, that’s right. When I started playing video games there were no saved games, only special passwords or codes that would advance you back to the level where you last left off. So thank you Tyler for all those hours we spent trying to beat Shredder on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

1. Mario for original Nintendo. This was the first game I felt like I could play over and over again without ever getting tired of it. Even though the controls were so simple (jump, duck, fire a fireball) this game was, and still is, one of the most challenging platform games I’ve ever played. One of my favorite things about this game was all the surprises that kept cropping up as you played it – hidden 1ups, beanstalks, and tubes with bonus coins or fire flowers.
2. Donkey Kong for original Nintendo. I loved this game because it was simple and challenging. I don’t think I ever got past level 3 but that never stopped me from playing it again and again. I loved not knowing where the barrels were going to fall and the crazy mad dance of the monkey when you finally get the top of the level and save the princess.
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for SNES. I probably played this game with my friend Tyler more than any other game. I remember we used to fight over who was going to be Donatello and who was going to be Leo. This is the first two player game I remember playing with someone. I know the graphics were bad and the sound was pretty pitiful but I think this game holds a place in my heart because it was the first one I experienced in 2-player mode — and that made everything else seem unimportant.
4. Pac Man the Arcade Game. I used to take Gynmastics when I was little and one of the things I loved about the place was the old Pac Man machine they had in the lobby. I use to waste quarters on it several times a week waiting for my mom to come pick me up from the gym. What I liked about this game was the foresight and planning it required. You had to think long term — keep in mind where all the ghosts were going, and save your power dots until the last minute.
5. Mario Kart for SNES. This was the first racing game I ever played with my friend Tyler. I used to kick his butt in this game and he hated every minute of it. What I liked most about this game was the clever use of items to give you advantages over other racers, and the obstacles on the course that could give you the speed boost you needed or condemn you at the same time as you weren’t paying attention and fell off the side of a bridge.
6. Super Mario World for SNES. This game was a cool mix of puzzles and reflexes. I loved the new items and the take off spin on the original Mario game. However what I loved best was the introduction of Yoshi. This was the first game I played where you could use another character beside your own character’s skill to complete a level.
7. Sonic the Hedgehog for SEGA. This game was all about speed and reflexes. I loved the fast pace, quick to finish levels and the fact that I could play as a secondary character (Tails) without worry about dying and as a helping addition to the first player — without being the main player.
8. Kirby for the original game boy. This was my first game on my game boy that I couldn’t put down. I’d spend hours trying to eat things and “puff” fly away from enemies. I loved the music, cute graphics, and the simple controls.
9. Tetris for the original game boy. Okay, so I rock at Tetris. Although it was also available on SNES I’ve always felt this game was best played on a small screen where you could curl up on a couch and work your way through the simplest and most challenging five blocks invented.
10. Paperboy for SNES. I loved this game for the random events and occurrences that would pop up but it was way too hard to play for more than a few levels. However this makes my list because this was the first game I played that took it’s inspiration from real life and made it into a game.

Game Journal 1.4: Create A Game With A Passive Player

In my last entry I created 5 games inspired by my every day life. This next exercise challenges you to start a game journal and design a new game every day. Since I’m already doing all the exercises from this book as my game journal I’m going to nix this exercise in favor of my own 🙂

Exercise 1.4

Create a game with a passive player. I guess the first thing I have to do is explain my definition of a passive player. A passive player cannot interact directly with the game, only indirectly. Direct interaction is anything the player does to change the state, status, movement, characters coordinates, or any other variables in the game. Therefore a passive player cannot use any sort of input device to interact with the game, including devices like the playstation Eye and the xbox Move.

Pinpoint

The game I came up with is called Pinpoint. It uses the GPS on your 3G phone. Aside from installing the game the player cannot interact with the game screen or any notification that’s displayed — not even to start/stop the game. The game runs as a background process so it’s always active when your phone is on.

As far as gameplay goes, think of trying to find a needle in a haystack. Each level in Pinpoint challenges you to find a location containing the object it’s looking for. For instance, level one asks you to find a certain brand of coffee. As you travel around during your normal day Pinpoint sends you “hot” and “cold” messages when you move closer to or further away from a location with the target item. When you reach a location with the target item you get a level up and can start looking for the next item. Pinpoint has two modes, easy and hard. In easy mode you’re told what the object is at the start of every level. In hard mode you’re never told what the object is until you find a location that has it.

There is no ultimate winner or looser in Pinpoint. A high score board–shown each time you find a new object–will keep you up to date as to where you rank against other Pinpoint players.

Game Journal 1.3: Your Life As A Game

In my previous game journal post I explored a game I hate to play, listed all the reasons I hated it, and then offered ways to fix the things I didn’t like.

Exercise 1.3

Today’s exercise challenges you to list 5 areas of your life that could be made into a game. Then give a small explanation of the game structure and rules that you’ve designed. So here it goes.

Area 1: Dorkie Yorkie

Every morning when I wake up I find myself in a mad rush to get all my things together and get out the door in time for work. The biggest obstacle I face isn’t always the traffic (although Northern VA has bumped up to the number 2 spot in the country) but my 8lb Yorkie who I affectionately call Steven Tyler. No matter what tricks I seem to pull, he never wants to come in from our fenced in back yard. He’s constantly chasing the fence line we share with a neighbors dog — barking madly of course — and runs away defiantly any time I try to catch him.

So this first game is called Dorkie Yorkie. You have a timer that’s running out in the corner of the screen and your job is to try and lure your dog back into the house before the timer runs out. You’ll have a side menu of items you can use to try and get the dog inside but depending on the weather, if the neighbors dog is outside, and how hungry/tired he is, he’ll respond to the different items to try to entice him with. The faster you can get him inside the more points you get which you can trade in for bigger and better items in your toolbox. Each time you successfully get him inside you advance to the next day aka the next level.

Area 2: Green, Green, Green Light

As I said earlier traffic in our area is a huge buzz kill. Northern Virginia and the Washington, DC area has been bumped up to the number 2 worst traffic in the US. I find the amount of time that I sit at red lights frustrating along with how long it takes the driver at the front of the light to actually GO once it turns green.

This game is called Green, Green, Green Light. It’s a timed racing type game mixed in with a bit of Simon Says. Your job is to get through as many consecutive green lights as you possibly can without running a red light. If you hit a red light you have to stop and wait for it to turn green again. If you run the red light you get a 30 second time penalty. Your goal is to get to your destination as quickly as you can and before the timer runs out. For each consecutive green light you make it through you get time bonuses. Hitting pedestrians, other cars, trash cans, and anything else will give you extra time penalties.

Area 3: Little Space

One of the things I like doing in my spare time is designing floor plans for my dream barn and office space. What I struggle with most is getting everything to fit into the size space that I can actually afford.

Little Space challenges your ability to efficiently and logically fit items into a small space. Think Tetris meets a birds eye view approach. Instead of blocks you have cubicles, conference rooms, barn stalls, bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, fireplaces, stairs, etc. The interior spaces, dimensions and sizes would change depending on the floor plan you’re attempting. All interior spaces could be rotated 90 degrees. Some buildings would have multiple floors which you could switch between to place interior items. The goal of this game being to get all of the interior spaces into the floor plan in a workable layout (ie you can access each interior space and no doors/windows are blocked by another interior space). As the levels progress the number of interior items you have to fit into the space grows the space gets smaller.

Area 4: Color Palette

Recently my mother has taken to learning watercolors. In her attempt to learn she’s asked me to try my hand at them as well. The task is a bit time consuming but relaxing as well. One of the things that always bugs me is how dirty the water gets when I switch paints.

Color Palette is a game that challenges you to match colors on the canvas while keeping your water that you use to clean your brush from turning a certain color. So it’s a bit of a two for one challenge. As you match colors on the canvas you get close to completing a picture on the canvas. When the picture is completely colored in you win the level. But you have to rinse your brush between each color you put on the canvas. Every time you clean your brush and match the color you’re not supposed to you get a strike. Three strikes and it’s a game over. With every three successful colors you add to the canvas you can choose to clean your water (or leave it the way it is). The challenge is to see how many pictures you can “paint” before you strike out.

Area 5: Conversation

I’m running out of ideas here so this one is my really reaching idea. So I spend a fair amount of time talking/emailing the members of my various games in a day which is the only way I can think to tie this one into my life as a game.

So Conversation is a multiplayer game that gives one person in the group a conversation topic and a direction in which to sway the other players about the conversation. They have 5 minutes to present their argument for or against the conversation topic. At the end of the 5 minutes everyone takes a vote for or against the argument. If they have the majority of votes they win a point, otherwise they loose a point. The game goes three rounds, with each player getting a chance to argue a conversation topic in each round. The person with the most points wins. If there’s a tie those members go head to head in a speed round until one person looses their argument.

Ehh, I know this last one is probably a bit of a stretch but it’s all I could come up with. It would probably need a lot of play testing to get conversation topics that could be swayed one way or another based solely on the presentation of the argument however if you could find enough of them it might be worth expanding upon this idea.

Game Journal 1.2: Games You Hate To Play

Exercise 1.2

In my previous post I analyzed how I play, how someone else plays and then compared and contrasted the two. For this exercise you’re supposed to find a game you hate to play. Describe what you don’t like about it, why you don’t like it, and how you feel it could be improved.

The Thin Line Between

So I used to be a fan of Farmville when it first came out. It was something I hadn’t seen before and harvesting my strawberries gave me a good excuse to jump onto facebook and check out what was going on. However that quickly became a love/hate relationship. I absolutely can’t stand Farmville now and here’s all the reasons why.

1. God that song. It repeats over and over again to no fricking end and it’s so upbeat that it reminds me of a poor attempt at a fake smile.
2. Plant, Grow, Harvest, Repeat. Hmm I’m starting to see a repetition pattern going on here. Other than a different image and a different amount of gold from harvesting one crop over another this game is extremely repetitive.
3. Time spent versus actual reward. So I wait 8 hours for a watermelon to get to harvest and then I only get 200 some coins for it? I find it takes way too long to advance through the game and the rewards don’t feel worth the time I spent waiting for them.
4. There’s no point to the things you can buy. Buying a goat doesn’t mean you have fewer weeds and building a barn doesn’t enhance how quickly you can collect coins from your animals — if you can collect coins from it at all. What’s the point of letting people buy something that doesn’t effect anything else? Why would I want to buy something that doesn’t do anything?
5. Damn you request messages. Would you send me a special green chicken or visit my farm to speed up the time it takes me to harvest a crop? Sure — if I didn’t have 15,000 requests all demanding the same thing. Famville you do a great job at sending me more spam in one day than all my email addresses combined.
6. Specials that aren’t so special. So… how does a green chicken do anything more than your typical white one? Oh wait, it doesn’t. Why would I pay $5 for a green one that doesn’t do anything when I can get a white one that doesn’t do anything for free.
7. Bad company reputation. I know this isn’t a mechanic from the game itself but it’s one of the reasons I don’t like it so I’m going to add it anyways. When your company motto is along the lines of “don’t make it, just take someone’s good idea and drown them out with a larger advertising budget, resources and staff” you get a big fat F in my grade book.

Suggested Improvements

Okay so the easiest thing is to go down the list.

1. Please change your song, or at least add a variety of music to the game so I don’t have to listen to the same thing over and over again. Maybe a sound off button would be a good choice too? I shouldn’t have to turn off my speakers just to have an enjoyable experience with your game.
2. Yes I know the game is about farming but a bit of variation never did anyone harm. Maybe you could harvest certain plants for their seeds rather than coins, or sell them to friends. What about adding dead/wilted plants into a compost pile to make fertilizer, or even using crops to create or trade for another useful object in the game. Emphasis on the useful.
3. If I spend 8 hours waiting for something I sure as heck want something more than a lousy 200 coins. How about a rare seed, or fertilizer or even a random event (for good or bad, anything to break up the monotony) that occurs as a result of being crazy enough to keep coming back to your game.
4. If I’m going to buy a goat please make it meaningful. Perhaps cows could decrease your growing time or increase the rate at which you accumulate fertilizer — something other than taking up space you could be using to harvest crops.
5. Limit the number of request messages a person can get in a day. Or at least stop sending me requests until I’ve answered (aka declined) the requests I already have. Maybe add an option to opt out of requests completely so I don’t have to be constantly bombarded with them.
6. Make your special items special. I don’t care if the green chicken doesn’t do anything more than run around and infect the other animal’s with it’s zombie virus. Heck, zombie animals could be crazy awesome.
7. I would really love to see what Zynga’s game designers can actually do — besides taking someone else’s hard work, re-vamping the graphics, and calling it a brand new game.

Heh, after writing this I somehow feel as if I’ve just gone 10 rounds with Zynga in a boxing ring. And the winner is….!

Game Journal 1.1: Become A Tester

So I recently got my copy of Game Design Workshop by Tracy Fullerton back from a friend and while I was flipping through it I remembered one of the reasons I bought it and would recommend it to anyone interested in becoming a game designer. Inside she has a lot of little exercises for game designers and one of her suggestions is that you start a game journal. So what better way to improve my game design skills than to do all the exercises once or twice a month and share them with you? So… here it goes.

Exercise 1.1 – Become A Tester

The first exercise is all about your experience as you play a game. It asks you to observe yourself playing a game (videotape yourself maybe?) and make a list about what you’re feeling and doing as you play. Now find a friend and watch them play, write down what they’re doing and how you think they’re feeling. Analyze the similarities and differences between your notes. What can you learn from this?

My Observations

So I spent about 30 minutes playing Skyrim (yeah I know not long enough but the mage path is freaking hard). The first thing I noticed was that I’d setup my surroundings before I even started playing. I made sure I had a drink ready, my PS3 controller was charged, and that I’d hit the lights to get the best atmosphere and reduce glare on the TV screen. Next I curled up on the couch with one of my dogs beside me and I was ready to go. As far as the controller was concerned there was an occasional button mashing when I was low on health or need to give myself a quick potion. Now as far as I was feeling — it depends on where I was or what I was doing. I don’t like waiting for all the loading screens so I typically take a sip of my drink or pet my dog during that time. When I’m exploring the world I feel a mixture of boredom and excitement. I don’t necessarily like having to discover a location before I can fast travel to it and the amount of wolves that are spawned can be ridiculously repetitive. On the other hand when an arctic bear runs up to me and nearly kills me in a few hits I find myself fixated on the TV screen. Later as I explore a new cave I keep expecting a Dragur to jump out at me around every corner and I was constantly on the lookout for traps. These caves give me the creeps but they’re the best place to find new Shouts so my need for the new ability typically outweighs my hesitance to enter.

Watching Someone Else

Later that day I watched my 70yo grandmother play a game on her ipad. Recently I told her about a Spider Solitare app and she’s been spending hours on it ever since. I notice how she seems totally engrossed in what she’s doing and how easily she navigates around her ipad. I feel I should mention she had a computer back in 1991 when having a personal PC was still a pretty new concept so that probably makes her a more advanced computer use than most. Her hands fly around tapping the screen and making swiping gestures pretty frequently. Her expression is pretty calm but every once in a while she sighs or mumbles to herself when she thinks she’s out of moves or can’t find a good move to make. Every once in a while she looks up from her game and converses with me or my mother also sitting in our family room. Overall she appears to be enjoying herself and is completely appears focused on the task at hand.

Comparison: Similarities

Both me and my grandmother enjoyed our time playing games and we played the game with relative ease. In addition we both felt moments of frustration or expressed an emotional response to the game we were playing. We both used a mixture of physical action (me with my controller, her touching her ipad) to interface with the game. Both of us were focused on what we were doing and both of us had momentary lapses in our focus — me petting my dog during loading screens and she pausing her gameplay to join into our conversation..

Comparison: Differences

I purposefully picked two extremes for this exercise. I’m from a younger generation of computer use and she is not. My interactions with Skyrim were done with a controller and hers were gestures made on her ipad screen. To state the obvious, we were playing two completely different games. While I setup my environment before starting to play my grandmother simply sat down where she was and started playing as and where she was.

The Analysis

This exercise is really an observation of our physical/emotional responses and interactions with games. Despite the obvious differences between myself and my grandmother we shared more similarities than differences. Despite our frustrations we play and continue to play because we love the challenge and emotional response these games evoke in us because playing games is fun.