Battle Of The Sexes: Study Finds Men Like Games More Than Women Do

Written by Kevin Alexander

Wednesday, 20 February 2008 05:34

Remember that article over the weekend about the ex Blizzard employee who got dumped by his wife because of his WoW addiction? Turns out she just didn't understand him and his so-called "problem".

An article published yesterday in the New York Times points to the findings of a group of researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine where they determined that men respond differently than women to many aspects of playing video games. The group took 22 men and women, 11 of each, and hooked them up to a MRI machine while they played a simple game with no real goal. The brain activity recorded found that men have a higher response to reward and addiction that video games typically provide.

There's a bunch of big words in the actual article that I'm not going to try and repeat here, but I know we have some ladies in our audience (and on our staff!) so I want to know: how does your own game playing habits compare to any men that might be in your lives?

Thanks to my wife for sending me the article!

[EDIT: Realized that the original title of the article was a bit misleading. Sorry 'bout that!]

Comments (5) Add Comment

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written by Brisk317, February 20, 2008

In "general", men are more competitive than women, whether its video games, pick-up basketball, beer pong...etc

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written by Xerxes3rd, February 20, 2008

This isn't really surprising, though it's a generalization too; I'm sure you could find some men whose brains have a lower response to reward and some women whose brains have a higher response to award.

Also, that girl in the picture is apparently really into her Dreamcast.

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written by Hawty McBloggy, February 20, 2008

I think any time you stereotype large groups of people, you will find plenty who fit the mold and plenty who break it.

I am definitely more competitive than my husband, and significantly more so than that. In fact we have gotten into (very) minor disagreements before when playing coop when he has been ready to stop but I want to push ahead for an achievement or checkpoint. Our playing styles are completely different so we really try to pick and choose the games carefully that we play together in order to have a positive playing experience.

I have always chosen to see things such as this as not being gender related but instead being individual related. I understand there are very basic differences in gender but really, who likes stereotypes? We are all individuals and should be treated as unique beings.

Now I feel the need to kill something. (in a video game, please don't arrest me.)

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written by Antony H, February 21, 2008

"Also, that girl in the picture is apparently really into her Dreamcast."

Yeah she is, my money would be on Crazy Taxi being inside that Dreamcast.

Also, the article says that it was 'young' men and women. It doesn't say how young though. Things could be changing right now as in the past it was less socially acceptable for girls to play videogames.
For better results they'd need a much larger sample group.