Despite not being as many as the males, female video game players exist in large numbers, but there still is some stereotyping among the community when it comes to their standing in terms of skill. To refute this, a new study has been performed at University of California.
So basically, this study has collected evidence on the basis of sampling and figured out that gamer girls are actually equally skilled as their male counterparts – unlike a perception to the contrary that many have.
A team led by Cuihua Shen, assistant professor of communication at University of California took the task upon themselves to break this stereotype:
Even though more and more women have become gamers, and more are involved in designing games, gaming communities as a whole are still very hostile toward women. The prevalent stereotype is that women are not as good of players as men. We think the stereotype that women are worse players at games could contribute to a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In the study published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, they have analyzed as many as 11000 gamers on sampling basis from two games namely EverQuest II and Chevaliers’ Romance III – both of which are multiplayer online RPGs that are not a walk in the park for everyone.
Also, they have incorporated for the difference in playing hours, player guild memberships, character choices and so on between female gamers and male gamers, and figured that if these differences are accounted for, and both the genders are analyzed on similar levels, women are not behind men at all.
Instead, female gamers are as quick at progressing in the games as men are.
The study has also found that about 20 percent of the total population of multiplayer online games are female video game players. We definitely know that figure is down because of difference in preferences and attachments, though.
