I Have A Somewhat Adult - But Odd - Question About Video Games .

Why do women play video games less than men?

It used to be cultural. Back in the day it used to be even negative for a female to play video games, nowadays you Twitch stream with some cleavage and you’ll barely need to work. Games were largely “boys’ things”.In today’s market, it largely depends on the game. Some games’ communities are outright hostile to female gamers. Dota 2 is one, I’d say League is much more female-friendly.If you’re playing online it is obvious that you will get harassed somehow, it is even a staple of the genre having people curse you to death after making one small stupid mistake—or none at all!.In addition to that there’s an unending list of online losers who almost beg for a modicum of female attention, if you add that the male to female proportion in MOBAs is basically nine to one…you get the idea.Then there’s genre preference by gender, not everyone likes the same types of games. If not, look at this data from a Quantic Foundry’s study.This is hard data on gender based preference for games. It becomes more than clear that males tend to prefer more violent games than females. Again Quantic Foundry had some data on player motivation by gender.This data can be somewhat correlated to Bartle’s taxonomy of player types. It seems that women tend to be more explorers and socializers than killers or achievers.So that’s more or less it. Not every game caters to the same player type, and some player types are have different gender ratios than others.

Why do certain adults find it immature or childish for someone in their 20s or 30s to be playing video games?

One of the things I’ve most lamented about becoming an adult has been that there seems to be a relatively short list of socially-acceptable ways to enjoy yourself.DrinkingGoing to clubsGamblingSmokingDoing drugsHaving sexBuying luxury stuffWatching sportsIf your interests are outside of that list, it’s not necessarily bad, but you’re a little bit weird and there’s something a little bit wrong with you. Watching TV is probably the most acceptable thing that isn’t on that list, but if you’re watching TV it should really be sports, and if it isn’t sports, that’s a little bit weird.At least that’s the message I’m inundated with through advertisement and films, and I have to make an active effort to find people who want to do things that aren’t on that list. When I was a kid, it was pretty easy to find people who wanted to play laser tag, go play at a playground, play at an arcade, play a board game, or whatever else. Now, all those things are pretty niche.By comparison, if I don’t want to go to the club, if I’m not interested in the football game, if I don’t drink, or not just that, if I don’t have a list of my favorite drinks and an explanation as to why I prefer some brands over others, etc., I’m a little bit square. That doesn’t mean I don’t have redeeming qualities; it just means I “don’t get out much” and I “don’t party.”That said, just because those activities are in the mainstream of adult entertainment doesn’t mean there aren’t activities outside the mainstream that aren’t still popular. There is a massive community built around video games and it’s not that hard to find people who are part of that community. It is niche, but still a big niche, and obviously, once I’ve put in the effort to find people into stuff that isn’t mainstream, their reactions to my hobbies are more positive. It’s just, they are not mainstream.If you’re mostly interacting with people who agree with the notion that the only acceptable adult entertainment has to involve some degree of vice, then yeah, they’re going to think anything that doesn’t have vice is “childish.” I wouldn’t worry about that though. Instead of lamenting how the mainstream judges you, remind yourself of how toxic the mainstream is, and what a good idea it is to not participate.