A new study out of Michigan State suggests that the fact that women in college have less leisure time than men may be the reason why they don't play video games as much. Another reason they looked at was straight up disinterest, possibly due to the fact that 88% of video game developers are men and creating games that are not women-friendly.
Then again, after my post on Wired's reviews of the over-feminized and esteem-killing games marketed towards girls, it seems all the more obvious that it may be just much as about the gendering of the industry than it is about who is creating the games.
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Not totally related, but I've always wondered why no one mentions the privileged aspect of assuming that playing video games is part of a normal lifestyle. Growing up in a lower-class immigrant family, my sister and I wanted to try this amazing thing that all our classmates were playing, but we coulnd't dream of asking our parents to buy it for us, because it was too expensive. Now that we live middle-class lives, video-games aren't out of our reach anymore, but neither one of us has any interest in it, even if we're the primary target age-group (17 and 19) for video games.
Video games are a huge status symbol, in my experience.
To clarify, I don't want to imply that this post suggest playing video games is part of a normal North American lifestyle, but I've noticed that attitude in general, when discussing video games, and I haven't really seen anyone adressing this on Feministing, even with all the video game-related posts lately.
That's interesting. My partner's family is low-income and he and his nephew love video games. Actually, his nephew doesn't do much else. Video games can be expensive. I always thought they seemed expensive. But your kids can get hours of entertainment from them. I'm going to guess that they're cheaper than a lot of sports and other activities, especially for how much one hour of using them can cost in the long run.
But also, I think there are more internet games nowadays that can be downloaded and it might be possible to find some things used. So maybe things have changed.
Thats definitely a factor, I'm pretty poor but I buy a lot of used games, especially PS2 games since they're so cheap now compared to PS3 games. I don't like to trade but a lot of stores have a trading policy too, so you can bring in a game when you're done and get a discount on a new game. Plus there's a lot of free games online to play. And, well, of course piracy is rampant as well for games, although thats a little harder with console games since you would need the console modified and that voids your warranty.
Whoa. It said that college students had less than 10 hours a week of free time. "...nine hours per week for men compared to about four hours for women."
Did they leave Friday, Saturday and Sunday out of the definition of a "week"?
When I was in college, Friday, Saturday and Sunday were the busiest days of all because of work, sports, and commitments to clubs/groups. The study isn't considering that time free time. I think by free time they mean time that is completely unscheduled that you can spend back in your dorm room playing a game.
Granted, I had more than 4 hours a week of free time (and I did play video games in college), but my schedule definitely wasn't your standard Monday-Friday deal with the weekends off.
Is that really a distinction? If female students choose to spend a larger portion of their leisure time at clubs/organizations then doesn't that merely demonstrate they gain increased utility from participating in those groups then they do from playing video games, not indicative that they have less time?
Well, those sorts of obligations do not exactly feel like free time. Yes, people CHOOSE to participate in those organizations, but by doing so they give up their free time... therefore, having less of it.
That assuming that you've got a regular course load, aren't doing tutoring, and don't have a job or family that require assistance (either parents, children, or occasionally siblings, here).
I was pretty lucky - I was doing 6 classes per semester (recommended amount is 5, but double-majors are what they are), and I live in Quebec, so tuition is incredibly cheap for residents, but I was still working 30 hours a week on 2 jobs to pay tuition/rent/electricity/heat/phone/net/books/food/clothing/transit/etc, completely aside from the amount of time I needed to spend in class/preparing for class/writing essays/studying. when you get to the end of a week on that schedule, I think 10 hours of free time is rather more than I had as a student, yeah. 4 seems about right, when it wasn't midterms or finals.
The assumption that college students' time is free if they're not actually in class is really problematic, here - that might be the case for upper-middle-class students whose parents can afford to pay for the full course load and all living expenses, but there's a whole lot of people for who that doesn't apply.
I remember leaving school
Gah. End of the comment got chopped off.
I remember leaving school and having friends of the family go on about how I was entering "the real world" and was going to have to "learn to work" because "it won't always be this easy", and I couldn't believe my first job... it was like, you're kidding me? 40 hours - 50 with overtime (ok, first job, I sucked it up and switched as soon as I could)? And then I get to go home? And the rest of the time, all that time, ALL OF IT, including all evenings and weekends, is ALL mine? REALLY? ... wait, this is supposed to be ROUGH? what on earth do they think I've been doing that this counts as rough?
Gawd, that was a great realization. :)
Why do women have less leisure time than men in college? Something sounds really off to me.
Honestly, my guy pals didn't have less lesisure time....they just prefered to play video games more than study---then devote and hour at 3am to their paper and get a B or C instead of an A.
I think you make a good point - my female friends seemed more ambitious than my guy friends. Not that my guy friends were total slackers or dumb, but they didn't sweat so much about getting straight As and being the perfect students - it was more important to relax and have fun. The women seemed much more devoted to doing very well academically. I wonder if this is because women internalize the idea that in order to succeed, they have to be better than the best - whereas guys just assume they can coast and it'll still turn out okay. Hmm...
I also think video games have been targeted at men for so long and they're such a part of their socialization, that men make time to play them. Women tend to see games as not "for them," especially in childhood (boys get games, girls get dolls. Yay!), so when we're older we choose other ways to fill our time - like participating in clubs (girls are more social, stereotypically) and boys play the games they've been playing for years.
I think that's the reason too. Most of the people who were just slackers and did the bare minimum work needed were male; there were some women like that too, but not as many.
For me, my spare time was spent using electronics, but it was to read feminist blogs, contributed greatly to my degree in Women's & Gender Studies and made me a better researcher and debater. I wonder if the things women tend to do in their spare time, like work in student organizations and, in my case, read feminist blogs, actually enhance their education instead of provide an escape. Of course this is just my personal experience and the experience of some of my friends, so it could be off the mark.
Well, you have a gaming population that is shifting upwards in age, but is not necessarily more egalitarian than previous generations.
As gamers get older, they get married, have kids, etc, and would still like to have time to game, except that mom is still expected to all the work around the house. Women's free time is simply valued less than men's free time and women themselves often make themselves complicit in this by making the work that they do invisible, and men take advantage of that, whether consciously or unconsciously.
I like the Bitch Ph.D method: be a bitch about the work you do. And don't just say "I did the laundry and cleaned the bathrooms today," describe each action you took to do those things to your significant other while he's on the couch playing XBox in painful detail so that your work isn't invisible anymore, then point out that there's nothing you're doing (well, maybe short of breastfeeding), that he couldn't do himself.
I get why Dr. B said that, but I've always thought that nagging should count towards your bottom line in hours worked. Or more, since it's such unpleasant labor, the equivalent of scrubbing a toilet on your knees. After doing all that work, the last thing I want to do is work even more at nagging. I just want to chill out.
Oh, definitely. I don't really see it as nagging though (yeah, I've actually used this approach with some success). Because Lord Knows I've Nagged.
Nagging: "Take out the garbage. Did you take out the garbage yet? Why haven't you taken out the garbage? Any time you want to take out the garbage, that's fine with me. You know, that garbage isn't going to take out itself..."
Bitch Ph.D. approach: "You know what I did today? I sorted the clothes into different piles then washed and dried them, I emptied the dishwasher, putting each dish in its proper place, and cleaned the kitchen, including putting stuff in the dishwasher, wiping the counters and the stove, and making sure the sink didn't have rotting food hanging out in it, I scooped out the cat box, and I swept the living room and used a dustpan to put the dirt in the trash, and I folded the laundry. What have you done, because I suspect I would like to sit down and play a little XBox and I think there are things you could be doing around here."
This makes it clear that you did all of this without being asked, and also creates the expectation that your partner should be doing the same.
I've been playing a tiny bit more videogames as of late with my boyfriend and his friends - all guys - and I suck. And it's definitely because I never played them growing up - my brother only let me play with his so that he could win - he never properly taught me. It's weird that this gender distinction is still outcasting me NOW. Because I really suck.
What are you playing? Don't think you suck at all video games just because you suck at a few, no one can beat me at Soul Calibur but I have yet to make it through five minutes of Halo.
Both my husband and I play video games (granted neither of us are in college), but he definitely plays more than I do. Personally, it's not that I don't have the time, or that I don't want to play more, but that the most addictive time consuming games seem to be multiplayers. Sadly multiplayer games also seem to be the games with the most shit talking, competitive, pissy people who feel the need to get rude once they hear a girl voice on mic. After only a few times being told that "girls don't exist on the internet" and "I must be a little boy pretending to be a girl for attention" I pretty much gave up on playing with other people. I'd rather play a less involved game for fun and get bored quickly than play a more challenging game with jackasses who suck the fun outta it. Of course this has just been my experience.
I wonder if it's more disinterest than lack of free time. Somewhere in the midst of three work-study jobs, two senior-level classes, intermediate Japanese and an elective I found the time to beat Kingdom Hearts. I think it's just not something most women seek out during whatever leisure time they have, probably due to the general gendering of games as masculine.
I agree with many of the above posters that the study's conclusions don't ring true for me. Maybe women do have less free time in college -- or maybe, as Athenia points out, we all spend the same amount of time in class and just choose to prioritize our free time differently.
If I had wanted to play video games in college, I would have made time for it. But why would I want to play, if:
--As Milena points out, gaming is expensive! In college I definitely couldn't afford a $300 console plus $60 for each new game. Still can't. Seems like most of my (almost all male) friends who gamed in college brought their systems with them, and it had been bought for them before college as a gift from family members.
--As sammylif points out, why would I want to start playing now, if I'm already waaaay behind my male companions? I've sometimes tried to play games with my boyfriend and his friends, too, and I quickly give up. I don't have the fine motor control, the 3-D spatial visualization skills, the reaction time, etc that they've built up over 15-20 years of gaming. And I don't like my socialization to be based on competition (even friendly competition... and I'm not sure how much of this is just my own personality and how much is because I was socialized as a woman to be noncompetitive).
--Even if I had the skills and the money, there are few games that appeal to me. I like puzzle games like Lumines, but are they worth buying the console when I can play Tetris for free on the internet? I also enjoy trivia games like 1 versus 100... but I do quite poorly at them because the questions are biased toward video games and movies that the (mostly male) players know about.
--Even if I enjoyed the competitive, violent games that make up most of the market, why would I want to play them when playing online I get to hear all sorts of sexist remarks (as Ubat points out) and rape jokes (as has been mentioned before on this blog), and get to see female characters totally objectified and sexualized (when they appear at all)?
I've played video games since the days if the Atari 2600. I'm now in my thirties and out of college, but I continue to be a casual gamer. I share an apartment with a male friend. We have basically the same work schedule, Monday - Friday office type job with occasional late nights. We both enjoy video games and the roommate's recently got me fairly addicted to WarHammer Online, a MMORPG.
He plays significantly more than I do. During the week, I do most of the cooking. While I make dinner, he's playing the game. I join him after dinner clean up and we have a good couple of hours of play before bedtime. He would be perfectly happy skipping dinner all together or simply ordering a pizza. I would prefer to have a somewhat healthy meal, so I choose to take over the cooking duties.
I think part of the descrepency in men's and women's free time is that women, consciously or unconsciously, still play the role of caretaker. I think another aspect is that it is much more socially acceptable for a man to spend all of his time playing a video game. A man with a messy apartment has a 'bachelor pad'. A woman with a messy apartment is a poor housekeeper.
Regarding why women don't tend to play games, it's often a bit of a chicken and egg argument that gets us nowhere: women in general play less (hardcore, i.e. console/PC) videogames than men because games are generally targeted at men, being made by predominantly male programmers and designers. This I think is beyond doubt. But the people who make videogames generally did so because they loved them growing up, and are predominantly men because games were targeted at them, and so they developed a love for them that translated into working in the industry (an industry which is often low-paid and demands enormous sacrifices of programmers etc, who have to work ridiculous hours for months at a time to get a game released on schedule).
The current generation who dominate the industry (which is only about 30 years old) at a management/artistic direction level grew up in a time when it was often one or two guys in their basement putting games together, from which were born a number of the behemoths of videogame production. It was a pretty unfashionable, uncool, risky and badly paid labour of love for many of them, but that generation ended up creating many of the tropes and features that define what videogames would become, such as the objectification of women, the focus on violence, the sci-fi/fantasy world as a standard.
The question then is why women did not participate in the cottage industries of the 1970s/80s which spawned the current multi-billion dollar blockbuster videogame industry and defined it as an overtly masculine area of life.
Either way the argument that women aren't into videogames because they have less free time at college seems to me to be absolutely bogus as people tend to get into videogames in their early teens - by college age, it might be difficult to get into many of the more complex videogames, which require a certain skillset such as being able to use a 17-button, dual-analogue control pad, and present a not inconsiderable hurdle to newbies.
"The question then is why women did not participate in the cottage industries of the 1970s/80s which spawned the current multi-billion dollar blockbuster videogame industry and defined it as an overtly masculine area of life."
Because in the 1970s, women were even less likely than they are today to have been educated in computer programming, technology, etc. And they faced even larger barriers to entry into the male-dominated workforce.
I think many women in America tend to be put off by the regular Xbox 18-35 male gamers and the games that are marketed to them... Personally, in Brazil where I lived most of my life and in Europe where I've lived for 4 years now, the Nintendo games are much more popular at least among my friends and they are basically nonviolent/puzzle/adventure games that you can easily play without seeing one drop of blood or one crude remark about boobs... Maybe it's the american market that's so biased.
BTW, I've been a gamer since the Atari, and I play a lot... I don't know if I have less time that my male friends but I think it boils down to priorities: I basically choose to do other stuff that I think is more important instead of gaming...
There are only a couple of games that I play, but I play the heck out of them. I like fantasy based RPGs-- first and 3rd person shooters appeal to me. I vastly prefer ones where I can be a female character. I like wide open worlds where you can go off and do a lot side quests in addition to the main quests.
I never got to play video games as a kid so being an adult and getting married to a guy who came with a second-hand gaming system was completely wonderful.
The plot lines usually leave much to be desired, but the same is true with most TV and film.
"I like fantasy based RPGs-- first and 3rd person shooters appeal to me. I vastly prefer ones where I can be a female character. I like wide open worlds where you can go off and do a lot side quests in addition to the main quests...
"...The plot lines usually leave much to be desired, but the same is true with most TV and film."
Me too! Do you have any plot lines you'd like to see in mind that someone else hasn't already made into a game? I mentioned this in a comment to another post a while ago and think you might like it too, but just in case you didn't read it there:
"They have several progams with which you can create [a video game]. My personal fave is still RPG Maker 2000 (since I'm a total n00b at this). It's fun to play with even if I never actually complete a game. Other options include
"RPG Maker 2003
RPG Maker XP
RPG Maker VX
ika
Sphere
some more I just found listed here: http://rmlist.rpgsource.net/ (though some of the links are outdated)"
Are there any studies out there talking about what types of games women are attracted to? What types of games did this study include?
I mean, I had females friends that would play "videogames" in college, but they weren't your traditional Xbox game--they were internet multi-player games like Maple Story and World of Warcraft.
I game but I'm not going to play Madden all damn night like my guy friends do when it comes out. The time thing doesn't sound right to me.
I've played Final Fantasy games all damn night when they first come out.
lol I play SoCom all damn night when it comes out, that game is addictive as crack.
I actually like video games the way they are.
I think a lot of my disinterest is from the types of games (e.g., there seems to be a preponderance of first-person shooter games, which I don't play and never have).
I do like to play things like The Sims and SimCity and SimFarm, and I even miss playing Oregon Trail, but I guess I feel like the games are something I've grown out of. I find myself preferring to spend my time watching a new movie or reading about current events or reading a book about an issue that matters to me. It leaves me feeling more satisfied with how I've spent my time, and less restless than after losing a video game for the zillionth time.
Like some other commenters mentioned, my brother and I grew up in the late '80s with some of the more innocent games on regular Nintendo and Super Nintendo: the Mario series, MarioKart, various car-racing games, tennis. I think playing games together as kids was probably some of our best bonding time. I do miss those games - and the easier controllers. But I pretty much quit playing in college when there were so many other things available I'd rather do.
I'm back in school full-time and working full-time, when I have free time I'd prefer to check out blogs (like this one, right now!), network with friends via livejournal or aim, knit/crochet, read for pleasure, play with my animals... then somewhere far down the ladder play video games. They just aren't that appealing anymore. Which is not to say they never were, I played Sega Genesis as a kid and beat games frequently, I played RPGs on the computer and internet as I got older, heck even before I started my degree program in earnest I was doing RPGs and a few resource management games (DungeonKeeper being a favorite). Since then, I've tried a little to get into MMORPGs (City of Heroes/Villains, WoW, Age of Conan) and a few other games, Silent Hill, Overlord and Neverwinter Nights without really being into them. Even simplistic games like World of Goo, Insaniquarium, Lego StarWars just don't hold my interest that long, although it isn't that I dislike them... just like I said, my freetime is differently proportioned.
I grew out of video games when I hit puberty. I LOVED video games before that, though.
One of the reasons that I think most women don't play video games though is because they feel like they should be doing something else more important.
If they are playing video games, they are being 'useless', when they SHOULD be cleaning the house or doing homework, paying bills or whatever other responsibility they have. It's the guilt.
Or, maybe it's because the man-child culture that sort of gives permission to men to play video games, whereas women are supposed to be 'real adults' and not play video games.
Why is there an assumption that playing games is a leisure activity that one "grows out of" when much more passive and anti-social media such as television and cinema are considered acceptable?
I said that I grew out of it. I never made nay assumptions about anyone else.
I have always had absolutely zero interest in video games even when when a lot of my friends thought hanging out in the arcade was the thing to do as a teen. That said, I went from being generally disinterested in video games to absolutely HATING them. My ex-husband was off of work with a back injury, and he would play video games from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. at night. AT times, the video game must've been kicking his ass because he would yell and swear at the game quite a bit throughout the day like it was a person or whatever. I worked night shift, and there is nothing worse than having a full-grown man waking you up during the day with his stupid outbursts. We lived in a small apartment, and there wasn't really anywhere to get away from the racket. To make matters worse, we had only one TV and I could never watch any of my shows unless I got to the TV first. Of course, I had to listen to him whine and complain because he wanted to play his stupid video games. The only time I got any peace or sleep was when he went to his friend's house (who were almost as obsessed as he was with video games). God, I fucking hates those video games, his friends, and eventually HIM. He was always complaining that I didn't like his friends, and that I should go over there with him more often. Actually, his friends weren't that bad, but ALL these people did was play video games. I was bored to death being around them. Anyway, one of the few times I went with him to play video games, he started in on me in front of them complaining that I never wanted to play video games, and if I was more interested, our marriage would be better, blah, blah, blah. I reluctantly agreed to play a video game against my husband, and I didn't have any clue what I was doing. Anyway, he started first and was getting excited about all the points he made. After several minutes, it was my turn. I picked up the controls, moved them around one time, and the game suddenly ended. I wasn't sure what I did wrong, and everyone was staring at me with their mouths open. My husband stared at me and said, "You WON!" Boy, he wasn't very happy about that at ALL. He refused to play me anymore, and he later told me that I embarrassed him in front of his friends (after he made no-so-sublte put downs in front of them). Our marriage was never very good to begin with, but it ended soon after that. To this day, I hate video games AND my ex-husband.
I can certainly sympathize. I have an ex-boyfriend who acted similarly with video games. Ironically. I was the one who got him playing the darn things. It was something I was into, he wanted to see what it was all about, and it turned out that he liked playing. The problems started when he wanted to do nothing except play video games. All the frickin time. Like your ex, he would play them when I was trying to sleep and would yell and swear at the game (because we all know the game cheats). He got to the point where he would occasionally throw the controllers across the room. This broke more than one controller, and at $30 - $40 bucks a pop, I was not pleased. He would get mad when I beat him, so most of the time I would let him win just to not hear him pitch a fit. It sucked all the fun out of playing.
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't think that video games truely make a person violent. I do think that they can and do bring out anger/violence issues that lie just below the surface. What I've leanred is that if someone can't handle the frustations of a video game responsibly, than they certainly can;t handle the frustrations of a relationship or life in general responsibly, either.
"Now, don't get me wrong. I don't think that video games truely make a person violent. I do think that they can and do bring out anger/violence issues that lie just below the surface. What I've leanred is that if someone can't handle the frustations of a video game responsibly, than they certainly can;t handle the frustrations of a relationship or life in general responsibly, either."
You hit the nail right on the head. I don't have a problem with people wanting to play video games, but I don't want it forced on me either. However, I really hate them, and I absolutely refuse to play them. My current boyfriend plays them, but he doesn't yell and scream when he's losing. And thank God, we have mutual friends who don't want to play them all the time either. The day that changes is the day he can get out.
Now that was a most excellent vent :)
This is an easy one. Statistically, college women have higher GPAs than their male counterparts. My own experience backs this up.
So women may be studying more as well as participating in more clubs and/or service activities. This makes senses because women make up the bulk of the volunteers in this country.
If the women are living with a man or married, statistically, she is probably doing more of the housework and child care.
The research is very clear on this. Men tend to have more leisure time than women throughout their life spans.
I'm surprised anyone finds this surprising.
I work with college students and I think that there is probably a division in the population of students they looked at in that I would guess there are guys who play games almost 24/7 and those who never play at all, because they're busy a) doing homework or b) hanging out with girls. So it may average out to look like guys, on average, play more than girls but I would guess that the distribution is actually not normal.
Like people who spend all their time with porn, there is usually an inverse relationship between the amount of time spent playing video games/watching porn and time spent being with nonvirtual friends/having sex with live humans.
I think most video games are unbelievably lame. Maybe once a year I'll play Guitar Hero or something, but I haven't owned a video game system since the hand-me-down Super Nintendo my brother picked up somewhere circa 1990. I wouldn't date someone who played games because I find playing them to be so brain-killingly dull I wouldn't last more than a day. At least Guitaro Hero and Rock Band can make something social happen and they're about, you know, working together to do something cool(which, I would guess, makes people like eachother more and not less). For the girls out there who like games, more power to 'em for taking on what appears to me to be a truly horrid sexist dystopia.
But frankly, lots of college dudes leave home and are just thrilled to have no mom, no sister, and no girlfriend and to live in some disgusting, violent man paradise (aka frat house). Playing exclusionary video games just adds to the "no girls allowed" element.
Personally, I've been playing video games all my life. First system I received was a Sega and that was given to me rather than my brother. I have a lot of fond memories of that system :).
However, ever since starting college I've had basically no time for video games. I'm at the end of my third year now. My brother who just started college plays all the time, but it's because he doesn't devote as much time to studying as I do. I'm not sure why female college students have less time, but in my case it's because I feel that I must study harder than others. Also, my family puts more pressure on me than they do on my brother. I just feel guilty whenever I play video games during the school semester even though I love playing.
Also, I pretty much hate online multiplayer games. I feel like everyone is 14 years old on it. (I know that's not true) but lots of assholes on those games. That's why I never use a female avatar to play those games anymore. It's more fun that way. And I really wish they'd stop making those horrible girl games. They're sick.
I am a female gamer. I even play World of Warcraft.Likewise I don’t play as much as guys because for me there are other things that need done in my life, I do not have time to just sit back and play play play. What does any of this have to do with the study?