The latest results from the giant EQ2 data research project came out a few days ago, and this time they center on gender. I’ll just point straight to the summary from Terra Nova:
- Men are more driven to achieve within the game space, and women are more driven to socialize, although these differences are not as large as one might expect.
- Female players fall into two distinct categories: stereotypically feminine players, typically brought into the game by a partner, and very hard-core players.
- The hard-core women are more intense than their male counterparts: “The top 10% of male players played an average of 48.86 hours per week, while the top 10% of female players played an average of 56.64 hours per week.”
- Female players are healthier offline than the males. This is especially true among older players.
- When males and females play together within a romantic relationship, the males are less happy and the females more happy. When not playing in a romantic relationship, these outcomes are reversed: the females are less happy and the males more happy.
- There are a surprisingly large number of bisexual females playing, but not males. While male bisexual players stuck to the national average, females were about five times higher than the national baseline rate.
- Females under-report their playing time more than males.
The full paper can be gotten here (scroll down a bit) but you have to register or purchase it.
