[MUD-Dev] Media: Women over 40 biggest online gamers

[Luca Girardo]

At 02:01 PM 2/12/2004, Christer Enfors wrote:
>From: J C Lawrence [mailto:claw at kanga.nu]

> This study is obviously skewed somehow. There are not more 40+ women
> playing online games than there are males playing Counter-Strike or
> EverQuest and such. No way. Perhaps they are referring to AOL's own
> games, or something?

I did not find in the press release about the survey any
quantitative information. AOL press release gives some more details
about the survey:

  http://media.aoltimewarner.com/media/cb_press_view.cfm?release_num=55253774

>From the press release:

  > When it comes to online gaming, there's a new champion in
  > town. Of > those who play games on the Web, women over 40 play
  > most often and > spend the greatest number of hours per week
  > doing so, beating out > both men and teens, according to AOL
  > Games' "Casual Games Report," > conducted by Digital Marketing
  > Services (DMS).

Nothing is sad about how many women over 40 play online games.  From
the press release:

  > Women players, however, have a much stronger preference for word
  > and puzzle games then men.

and

  > Methodology: This survey was conducted from December 14, 2003,
  > through > January 12, 2004, through OpinionPlace, an online
  > research site operated > by DMS. OpinionPlace utilizes
  > real-time, randomized assignment of > respondents to surveys
  > based on a scientifically proven process. A total > of 3,613
  > respondents were interviewed. The screening qualifications for >
  > this study were males and females who have played online games
  > within the > last three months.

and

  > The study, a nationwide online survey of more than 3,600 casual
  > game > players (i.e., those who have played online games within
  > the last three > months), uncovered additional surprising
  > results about men and women's > attitudes and behavior regarding
  > online games.

That seems to indicate that the definition of online game was pretty
broad (every game that could be played online starting from tic-tac
toe to MMORGS) and the people surveyed were mostly "causal games
players". A category of players that has a relevance for game
portals like POGO, AOL Games etc. Still it is interesting as the
interests and behavior of casual games female players could be
similar to the behavior of persistent online games female players.

Luca "Khefri" Girardo
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