There's still some heritage of past generations and what we let our sons and daughters believe they should play (and do in general), but there's no real biological reason for this dichotomy. I think it's also a sort of egg-and-chicken problem. People like to identify with the character they play, so if a gender is underrepresented, it may have an influence on who buys what. Which, in turn, tells the game makers which gender seem to prefer what. It does seem to be more balanced now, but I don't have any reference of stats.Do you think that half of gamers are female?I thought gaming still was a male dominated hobby although there are more female gamers than a few decades ago no doubt.
Hence why games that allow the player to chose will always be more popular.
Yet most games decided to only go one route instead of two.
Yet most games decided to only go one route instead of two.
largh
Keeper of the Watch
True what you write but don't you think there's a biological reason to *what kind* of games women prefer?
Males are the nastier and more aggressive sex. I have a feeling that males in general tend to prefer more violent movies than women. Viking stuff and AC games in general have a lot of violence. Maybe not the first choice for women if there ever was more action and interaction orientated games that did not have combat as their main element? AC has the climbing too, though.
Males are the nastier and more aggressive sex. I have a feeling that males in general tend to prefer more violent movies than women. Viking stuff and AC games in general have a lot of violence. Maybe not the first choice for women if there ever was more action and interaction orientated games that did not have combat as their main element? AC has the climbing too, though.
That's a good question, and I only have some general knowledge so it's more an impression than anything scientific. We know that young men are proner to aggressivity and physcially stronger because of the level of testosterone, but are those factors relevant for many games? If games were heavily relying on aggressivity, you'd think they'd be banned. Some are violent, for sure, and there were attempts to remove them; for ex. Mortal Kombat, but now they merely have a bad reputation. Games like AC are more challenging than a brainless, primal bashing of buttons; my daughter enjoyed Valhalla and she's not the violent type (she's not demure either).
We also know that, on the women side, oestrogen and progesterone tend to boost nurturing, social skills, and anxiety management - if I'm not wrong. That could favour some types of games.
But I'm convinced the better part of it is societal and insidious. What will you get as a present to a 3-year-old girl? A nice pink doll. And for a boy? A rattling plastic gun. Without even mentioning the classic cartoons and movies. It's no wonder that, a few years later, one will play The Sims and the other Commando.
I'd say there must be games on both extremes that tap into males and females' respective predispositions, but the bulk of them seem to be a reasonably balanced mix. Fortunately for us all.
Vaelith
Keeper of the Watch
The levels of testosterone and oestrogens affect the personality and mindset of both men and women, but most of this behavioral difference comes from cultural traditions and expectations.
It's been demonstrated that in ancient tribes, human women were warriors as often as men were, for example, and in many species other than humans (Eagles, sharks, spiders, to mention a few well-known cases), females, while being still packed with oestrogens, are bigger, stronger, and are the hunters while males are more like a harem the female chooses from as they battle it out to prove themselves.
It's been demonstrated that in ancient tribes, human women were warriors as often as men were, for example, and in many species other than humans (Eagles, sharks, spiders, to mention a few well-known cases), females, while being still packed with oestrogens, are bigger, stronger, and are the hunters while males are more like a harem the female chooses from as they battle it out to prove themselves.
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largh
Keeper of the Watch
Yeah, well, as a biologist, I would not begin to mix other species here, because those have completely different life strategies. At least the species you mention do. Maybe apes could be a better comparison, but they mostly follow similarish life strategies than humans. In humans, females have often been taking care of the young while males have been hunting, cultivating and waging wars. There is certainly culture mixed in there, but also physiology. Hormones have their role as @Redglyph wrote causing males to be stronger and more enduring on average than females, but hormones are just an internal factor. Maybe the hormones have lead to the more aggressive male gender, again on average, or maybe the phenotype and natural selection has lead to the effect of the hormones: aggressive females have died out from the population, while aggressive males have enriched.
Not a historian, but I seem to remember that there were a few cultures where females were more aggressive than males and none of those lasted for very long. The nastiest and most aggressive cultures had all males as warriors. The very reason we write English on these forums today. Not to downplay the role of women in anyway, however. Just that in aggression males tend to win. Unfortunately.
Not a historian, but I seem to remember that there were a few cultures where females were more aggressive than males and none of those lasted for very long. The nastiest and most aggressive cultures had all males as warriors. The very reason we write English on these forums today. Not to downplay the role of women in anyway, however. Just that in aggression males tend to win. Unfortunately.
Vaelith
Keeper of the Watch
No, the biology is there, it's clear to see that humans have evolved to have, on average, physiologically stronger males; and as far as we know, all evolution cares about is being able to produce offspring and ensure the perpetuation of the species, and for humans that's what seemed to work best. It could have been something else too, as evolution doesn't try everything and takes the best approach, it happens based on who survives and who doesn't from the existing gene pool, which is limited (it's said human population dropped to about 10,000 individuals at some point in pre-historic times). You say the species I mentioned don't closely relate to humans, which is true, but there are also examples of large mammals like lions or wolves, which similarly have females as their "aggressive" members, making up for the majority of their hunters and warriors.
In any case, the only reason I mentioned other species is to point out that testosterone or oestrogens don't automatically set the aggressivity of a species or gender, it's just one factor of many, and in turn, outline that the reason human behaviors are defined the way they are currently has mostly to do with cultural upbringing, social expectations and peer pressure. When a girl is given a doll and a hairbrush from her first awakening and a boy is given an ultrarobot with missile hands, that conditions the way in which each personality shapes, in a sinilar way as we are all conditioned to generally like our mom's spaghetti better than anyone else's or we build a patriotic sense towards our country when, in truth, it's no better than any other country, it's just the random patch of land we happened to be born on. Our brain bulds indentities around the things our culture feeds us with, because that's what becomes famliar, safe, and acceptable - and in evolutive terms, increases our chances to fit in and survive long enough to produce offspring.
As a curiosity, the reason drow and gnolls are matriarchal and female-dominant in the Forgotten Realms lore precisely seeps off their strong association with animals that are female dominant (drow - spiders / gnolls - hyenas). That's fiction, of course, just a little tidbit.
In any case, the only reason I mentioned other species is to point out that testosterone or oestrogens don't automatically set the aggressivity of a species or gender, it's just one factor of many, and in turn, outline that the reason human behaviors are defined the way they are currently has mostly to do with cultural upbringing, social expectations and peer pressure. When a girl is given a doll and a hairbrush from her first awakening and a boy is given an ultrarobot with missile hands, that conditions the way in which each personality shapes, in a sinilar way as we are all conditioned to generally like our mom's spaghetti better than anyone else's or we build a patriotic sense towards our country when, in truth, it's no better than any other country, it's just the random patch of land we happened to be born on. Our brain bulds indentities around the things our culture feeds us with, because that's what becomes famliar, safe, and acceptable - and in evolutive terms, increases our chances to fit in and survive long enough to produce offspring.
As a curiosity, the reason drow and gnolls are matriarchal and female-dominant in the Forgotten Realms lore precisely seeps off their strong association with animals that are female dominant (drow - spiders / gnolls - hyenas). That's fiction, of course, just a little tidbit.
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