Are Games Good for Girls...or Anybody?

You look away from the screen; down at your watch…it’s 4:30 in the morning. You have just beaten Call of Duty: Modern Warfare…chances are you’re a guy. The gaming industry has always had a gender problem. More guys play more games for longer periods of time than girls do. But, the market has recently changed and girls seem to be playing more and more games. What has changed? I think the release of the iPhone has really changed the way society and girls view games. There is a divide (page 15-17) when it comes to hardcore games that are played on consoles and casual games on the internet or an iPhone. Guys seem to use console based games that they get really into and play for hours more than girls do. With the release of lots of mobile games I have seen more and more girls playing games and, not just un-educational games, but strategy and word building games like Words with Friends. So, is it a bad thing that girls don’t play as many console games as guys do? I say no because these types of games often absorb the player and have them waste hours playing a game that does not enrich them at all. If girls pick up strategy/educational games on mobile consoles, I see that a good shift in society.

It is shown (Page 15-17) that girls tend to play casual short-term games. When games like this come to mind I think of games like Bubble Trouble or Bubble Spinner. These are both games that I have played with many girls and that I have seen them play by themselves as well. I have played these games with girls on a computer, but what I have seen the iPhone do is create accessible and casual games that get girls into playing more games. These games are not limited to just “pink” games as some would call them, but games that they play with other guys and girls alike. The iPhone has created a gaming revolution that has taken over the country. Each time a revolutionary game comes out I see my whole school engulfed in the game, not just the guys. For a while I was playing Words With Friends, a popular scrabble-like games, with 5 girls and 3 guys from my school. I have seen the happen with other games as well. I know that Fruit Ninja was really popular among many of my friends that are girls and still is their go to game if they are bored or on a train etc. It seems that the popularity and the accessibility the iPhone has created has shifted the gaming paradigm that used to exist, but is this the best thing for society?

            I have always loved video games, but I am not the type of person that would spend hours upon hours playing a game until I got to a high level or I beat the game. I am not really into gaming and I don’t think that getting more girls into gaming is something that is really important. Sure, video games can be a fun thing to do when you sleep over at a friend’s house or you need to entertain your younger cousins, but when it comes down to it, do games actually enriches our lives? There have been many studies showing that playing video games give you better hand-eye coordination etc. but to what degree? And do the hand-eye coordination benefits out way the hours people spend just staring at a screen? I don’t think so. But, I do see the potential in having kids learn from educational games and I think they have a different impact on kids than games such as Call of Duty. I remember playing a lot of math PC games that I found really fun. I remember those games helped me learn to multiply and learn other areas of math that I had trouble with as a kid. With the creation of iPads and iPhones these learning games have become really popular with children and seem to be helping kids of all different learning abilities process information. It really depends on what type of gaming someone is doing whether it is a guy or a girl. There is the intense and engulfing type of gaming where someone will spend hours playing the night away and then there is the light form of gaming that seems to attracting more and more girls. This is the type of gaming that I think is here to stay and become more popular. Not to say that console based games are going to fall out of the spotlight, but I think that with the learning potential and growing popularity among a lot of different demographics we will see a rise in new and interesting gaming options on portable devices like the iPhone or iPad.