I am female and over 30, and the main reason I didn’t play MMORPGs was due to feeling a quite intimidated by the male-dominated realm. Also I was rather turned off by gamer things like E3 which had women in bikinis and high heels running around, or games that really seem to sell games with women’s sexuality. I started to play MMORPGs through my boyfriend (now husband), since I could check out a game first by watching him…then decide if I liked how it looked and played, as well as check out its online community.

I grew up with Atari and arcade games, and Lode Runner on a Franklin Ace. But I didn’t become more computer-savvy until after college, when I started working at companies that required use of computers. Hence I hadn’t been exposed to the world of online gaming. During my teens and 20s, the world I delved into was punk music (which interestingly was kind of similar to gaming, in its smaller % of females to men and more male-centric world).

I know others have mentioned this in some ways above… I totally agree that a lot of younger women do not get into games, since development & marketing is totally aimed at males not females. How often do you see commercials or ads that show girls or young women playing? The only females you see are the busty scantily clad animated characters In addition since MMORPG is a computer-based realm, and girls just are not as encouraged in science/technology as much as boys…it would seem to follow that less females would initially get enticed into playing computer games. NOTE: I know many very technically-literate women, however from working in an IT world I know it’s still more male-dominated (as well as more encouraged and accepted for men).

It would be good to see what other activities women do besides gaming, and note them according to different points in their lives. Actually, if I had been more exposed to online games and better computers earlier… I probably would have played, especially games that are more strategy/quest based.

While available time may be part of the equation, it also has to do with how folk CHOOSE to spend their time. My husband and I work full-time jobs and have no kids, but choose to spend a lot of our free time online gaming. Our work is much more intensive than when we were in our 20s, thus going out seems less interesting or possible. We have been together for over 5 years, so instead of going out to a lot of movies or sitting around watching some dumb television show, more time is spent playing games together. Also many of our friends now have babies, so there are less group social activities (i.e., parties or dinners, etc.).

Anyhow I find this topic very interesting, and I know there’s numerous factors that play into these stats.

btw: For myself, I did much more “dating” in my early 30s than in my 20s. I think assuming women in their 20s are just out busy dating is really misleading. Anyhow if one assumed heterosexual dating, that would mean these women are out with some man, therefore he isn’t busy gaming either