Men: the better casual gamer?

[baegsi]

There's a game portal here in Germany that seems to be quite popular. From time to time they offer a highscore competition with appealing prizes (e.g. 1st prize a motor-scooter, value €1400!). The last competition was about Magic Ball 2. Looking at the top 13 winners list, I was surprised about how many male player participated and won. I post the list here, in case you find it useful:

1. m 51 engineer
2. w 38 housewife
3. m 37 ?
4. w 44 consultant
5. m 14 student
6. m 44 ?
7. m 45 employee
8. m 44 ?
9. w 37 housewife
10. m 53 craftsman
11. m 35 chef
12. m 54 ?
13. w 65 housewife

Taking this result, male players are either better skilled players, more ambitioned or just in the majority. What do you think?

[soniCron]

Taking this result, male players are either better skilled players, more ambitioned or just in the majority. What do you think? It obviously depends on an infinite number of factors, but if all the numbers that I hear spouted around are true about the majority of casual gamers being middle-aged women, then I'd say it very well may be that men are more skilled. However, Magic Ball is a twitch game, so that could have a lot to do with it and may only be representing male abilities with action titles. Bring in some math, mazes, or logic puzzles, and I bet we'd have our asses handed to us on platters!

[lakibuk]

Maybe there are are more male casual gamers in germany than female?

[papillon]

*shrug* Too many possibilities to mention, really. There's also options like casual female players being less competitive and more nervous about entering contests like that, or the 'appealing' prizes possibly being more male-oriented and drawing more male competition...

You can't really draw sweeping conclusions from a handful of random data. All you can say is that of the people who entered that particular contest, most of the best players were male. :)

[Raptisoft]

It's all about evolution.

In order to get a mate, a male must go out and prove what a fit mate he is. This is because each man produces billions of sperm-- every second. So there's never a sperm shortage, and a man must distinguish himself as having "exemplary" genes somehow. High score lists are one of the best ways a man can do this.

But women produce only one egg a month, so they can just sit around and wait for the sugar to come to them. They have less incentive to dominate high score lists, since women are always in demand, regardless of their scores.

[arcadetown]

Cool, so my life of game playing has totally prepared me for women and mating... not!

Seriously think it depends on the sites your gathering your information from. Many big sites I know are dominated by male gamers but women are currently the ones breaking out the credit cards so that's what you're hearing about.

[svero]

So there's never a sperm shortage, and a man must distinguish himself as having "exemplary" genes somehow. High score lists are one of the best ways a man can do this.

Strange... I've always found my high scoring ability to be best "hidden" away until after I've... err.. scored.

[lexaloffle]

After seeing a large bunch of people together in close proximity of a famicom with 5 player super bomberman, I'd happily buy the explanation that males are much more competative than females when it comes to videogames.

http://www.moviewavs.com/cgi-bin/mp3s.cgi?Napoleon_Dynamite=anyskills.mp3

[tentons]

...Magic Ball is a twitch game, so that could have a lot to do with it....
The type of game is going to skew the results, because female gamers are less attracted to twitch gameplay. With fewer female competitors, it's going to be a bunch of guys on the highscore list.

$.02

[Bmc]

there are plenty of concrete statistics available. no need to speculate using a high scores list as the source.

Whoever called Magic Ball a twitch game was being very generous :) it's slow as molasses.

[soniCron]

there are plenty of concrete statistics available. Where can one find these available statistics?

Whoever called Magic Ball a twitch game was being very generous :) it's slow as molasses. I'd never played it. I figured it was "twitch" because it's a breakout clone. In that case, looks like our theories are wrong. Women probably find Magic Ball too slow, and much too easy! That's why there was such a poor turnout! Men aren't the better player, women just don't want to waste their time on such a measly example of their abilities! :D

[Robert Cummings]

So there's never a sperm shortage, and a man must distinguish himself as having "exemplary" genes somehow. High score lists are one of the best ways a man can do this.

Looks like svero's the resident ladies man.

[Bmc]

Where can one find these available statistics?

http://www.igda.org/online/ look in the 2nd issue of the quarterly and the whitepapers

more specifically

http://www.igda.org/online/quarterly/1_2/casual.php

and

http://www.igda.org/online/IGDA_WebDL_Whitepaper_2004.pdf

[soniCron]

Much thanks! :)

[electronicStar]

women don't like competition as much as men.
It's males' nature to compete against each other. Females prefer society and cooperation, they like to invite their female friends and chat in the living-room for hours and when I arrive dinner isn't ready yet:mad:

(Just kidding eh ;) )

[arcadetown]

Well if you read "high scoring ability" in a different way then many of us here must be absolute ladies' men ;)