Heh, I saw this. She was playing Disgaea 4, Nuff respeck and all that.

davyK wrote:

It is projected that female gamers will be the majority by the end of this year.

I presume that in this country if this is true it will be purely down to Facebook and Android/iOS...

Yeah, what Moto said.

I think the status quo demographic of 360-PS3 owners in this gen and next will still be male. Do love my 3DS but will sell it when my girl buys me Shoe Shopper Max Turbo 4 as a legit game.

Imagine the world in which developers give money to make a shoe shopping game with the depth of Civ 5

No I'd say its legit.

Farmville, chefvile and Zynga in general would account for the mass increase in female 'gamers' and I'm sure 360-ps3 owners stats aren't too hard to find. What's the demographic in this place, 5 women?
That's not a slight on anyone just usual meadia bs. Its facebook and angry birds abd wii fit

I was more talking about the 'shoe shopper turbo bit' or whatever. You're right that the demographic is probably counting all those farmville types and iOS games. But plenty of the iOS folk here went nuts over Words With Friends and Draw Something... and so did every girl/woman I know. The issue with console games is that they cater mainly for men (mainly, not exclusively, but they are usually male fantasy driven) and that isn't changing just yet, but it will begin to.

There is something of a crisis over in America: mainly the quandary of 'the geek girl' or 'gamer girl' where this hobby so open and inclusive of anyone who enjoys a comic or a game is tripping itself up over girls and women who like the same stuff as them. How can they? Is this just ANOTHER tool for them to get sex and shit on men? No, it's just that attitudes are shifting, and girls are no longer required to be 'girly' by the media and stuff. So, the shift isn't dramatic, but it happening, glacially.

Tempy wrote:

"My liege, your glorious empire of shoes is without a reliable source of soles. My I suggest harvesting them from the dead?"

Solent Scene.

Tempy wrote:

So, the shift isn't dramatic, but it happening, glacially.

Nice observation.

I'd probably enjoy Words With Friends ALOT if I was on Facebook...
But fug' dat' shi'...

Anyway...

Putting the point about console games being made for blokes to one side, why do you think that it's often common to find women rolling around with two smartphones? 

I'm a techhead, and I don't own a single one... 
I'd question anyone rocking 2 modern phones (unless one of them was a cheap "backup" model) 

Conversely, as a bloke, I'd condemn no man for owning both a PS3 and 360... 
Even though it's an even greater illustration of excess that the 2 smartphone "meme".

I know very few single chicks who'd even consider buying an Xbox (though they have favourite games - even it's shit like Singstar - though I've know one or two chicks who are handy on CoD and Street Fighter).

I know a guy who has a PS3 for Buzz and EA Golf - had the same on PS2 as well. He wouldn't consider himself a gamer but pays a fair bit for 2 games that haven't really moved on (or need to to be fair).

Re my OP - My thinking is around this - if the market goes that way and piles of money are to be made from relatively low risk projects then do the monolithic FPS-es and such keep getting churned out to the degree that they currently are? Something has to stop that because the same old stuff getting refined over and over at seemingly greater expense and risk to publishers - so feeding the behaviour - is really getting me down.

Re the shift being glacial - I doubt it. People in this forum maybe don't see it because of our view of games - I certainly don't see it - but if there are now as many girls gaming (on whatever) than guys then it has already happened and the effects may be felt sooner than we are comfortable with. Or are there so many dev houses to soak the girls up (if you'll pardon the expression) that we won't feel it?

I'd argue it is fairly slow, at least the industry reaction to it will be slow.

No one who plays Disgaea deserves respeck, except Ulililia.

@bollockoff reminds me if the Jessica Chobot PSP lick

I reckon my missus plays more hours on games more than I do now.

Thing is, she only plays one game obsessively for months and months.

Single case observation obviously, but I get the very broad feeling women play one game a lot, rather than skipping round. I'm not sure what the implications there are.....but it feels like yes women are playing games more, but it's dangerous to think they're playing more games. I expect the people with big brains and speadsheets know this and it won't actually have a big impression on the types of games being released.

I also get the impression that many girls play the free stuff and wouldn't consider paying for something so frivilous - though we all know once a girl gets the taste for a product the retail limit is sky high.

It's the only way I get anywhere in a game.