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Why do female gamers like (life) simulation games so much?

BrokenBoy

戯言使い(Nonsense User)
I notice that the most liked video games among female gamers are The Sims and Animal Crossing. I don't mean to sound sexist, but I've noticed this trend of this demographic liking simulation games, especially life simulation games. I noticed this due to both of my older sisters liking New Horizons.

Does anyone have an explanation on why this might be the case?
 
Honestly I tend to think the stats are a bit off. Female gamers just playing the Sims and whatnot is what you see often online, but... doesnt necessarily represent things properly.

I say this due to experience of having met many female gamers over my years of going to conventions. I'll just say... they didnt follow the stereotype at all.

Besides, this concept applies to male gamers as well. You dont really see it on consoles much, due to how incredibly restrictive the console library in general is, but there are alot of male gamers who dont get into violent games and such.
 
Besides, this concept applies to male gamers as well. You dont really see it on consoles much, due to how incredibly restrictive the console library in general is, but there are alot of male gamers who dont get into violent games and such.
How is the console library restrictive? Literally the only thing console games are not allowed to do is porn.
 
Statistically, females exhibit more maternal qualities from an early age, such as nurturing.

Males tend to exhibit more paternal qualities at the same time, which makes us more competitive. Even when we cooperate, we have one-upmanship.

This can be seen in choices of toys/play, video game types and, even, vocations that we gravitate to.

Many times, toy companies have tried to cross-market gender-typical toys and lost money in the attempt.
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Chris Rock: If Women Ruled The World,...
full
 
How is the console library restrictive? Literally the only thing console games are not allowed to do is porn.

What I mean is, the types of games that actually appear on there. Entire genres are missing due to the Big Guys not seeing them as profitable (or, in some specific cases, because the control method makes them completely impossible). It's pretty much THE reason why I'm a PC gamer, as the stuff I like simply doesnt appear on consoles. Heck, I'm not even going to bother buying the PS5 or the... the... whatever XBox is named now, as I'd never get any use out of them.

But, as to how it relates to this specific subject, it's because there arent that many of the... er... "calm" games? On consoles I mean. Everything is a shooter or a fighting game or an RPG, or things along that line, you know. There are a few things like Animal Crossing (to be fair though, Nintendo as a whole is an anomaly), and I seem to recall seeing Farming Simulator at Walmart (I think), but for the most part, games of the sort I'm thinking of only appear on PC.

Heck, even in my own library, there are a ton of things where, if I were to show them to my friends (what few I have, and they're all "traditional" console gamers, for lack of a better term), they'd be baffled and wonder why anyone would play whatever it was at the time. But those games are often quite popular and well known. Or plenty with more average sales numbers. They arent exactly a tiny niche.

I dunno if I'm explaining all this properly, I'm hungry and distracted. I apologize if I'm just making everything more confusing. I probably should have checked the forum AFTER eating...
 
What I mean is, the types of games that actually appear on there. Entire genres are missing due to the Big Guys not seeing them as profitable (or, in some specific cases, because the control method makes them completely impossible). It's pretty much THE reason why I'm a PC gamer, as the stuff I like simply doesnt appear on consoles. Heck, I'm not even going to bother buying the PS5 or the... the... whatever XBox is named now, as I'd never get any use out of them.

But, as to how it relates to this specific subject, it's because there arent that many of the... er... "calm" games? On consoles I mean. Everything is a shooter or a fighting game or an RPG, or things along that line, you know. There are a few things like Animal Crossing (to be fair though, Nintendo as a whole is an anomaly), and I seem to recall seeing Farming Simulator at Walmart (I think), but for the most part, games of the sort I'm thinking of only appear on PC.

Heck, even in my own library, there are a ton of things where, if I were to show them to my friends (what few I have, and they're all "traditional" console gamers, for lack of a better term), they'd be baffled and wonder why anyone would play whatever it was at the time. But those games are often quite popular and well known. Or plenty with more average sales numbers. They arent exactly a tiny niche.

I dunno if I'm explaining all this properly, I'm hungry and distracted. I apologize if I'm just making everything more confusing. I probably should have checked the forum AFTER eating...
That just seems like another stereotype though.

The reason why PSN or Xbox live doesn't have as much games on there is due to the higher focus on quality control. Steam has a lot of stuff, sure, but a shocking amount is shovelware garbage. Some stuff on top of my head on Playstation that's not in the genres you're mentioning are Catherine Full Body, Night in the Woods, and AI: The Somnium Files. They are more inherently niche, yes, but the first 2 managed to sell decently well.

Edit: I just remembered that Sony even promoted a furry dating sim at a PS5 event.
 
That just seems like another stereotype though.

The reason why PSN or Xbox live doesn't have as much games on there is due to the higher focus on quality control. Steam has a lot of stuff, sure, but a shocking amount is shovelware garbage. Some stuff on top of my head on Playstation that's not in the genres you're mentioning are Catherine Full Body, Night in the Woods, and AI: The Somnium Files. They are more inherently niche, yes, but the first 2 managed to sell decently well.

Edit: I just remembered that Sony even promoted a furry dating sim at a PS5 event.

That's not quite the case, actually.

When I'm talking about those things, I'm actually not at all counting any of the shovelware or asset-flips... as far as I'm concerned, those dont even exist on the radar. And I've learned how to sift through Steam in such a way that, for me at least, they literally dont even appear while I'm browsing. Most people that use Steam enough simply wont run into the things. Though yes, they do appear in extreme numbers, though it sure aint just on Steam. I've always wondered what kind of devs actually think anyone will buy those? But I digress.

No, I'm thinking of the bazillions of not-sucky games I'm familiar with or have heard of / seen. Considering the sheer ridiculous amount of free time on my hands, well.... yeah, I've seen alot at this point.

A couple of examples are Factorio, Train Simulator, The Coin Game, Overcrowd, Airport CEO (just bought this, yes it's a dumb title, they could have come up with a better name, but it's darned good), Superflight, a large assortment of city builders, various economy/trading games (no way I could list them all).... and too many more.

Now, those are just what I refer to as "calm" games, as I said. Though I suppose Factorio does have the "defend against bugs" aspect but that sure aint the point of it and quite a few players turn that off.

When it comes to OTHER stuff? Hoboy. NO WAY I could list even a fraction of those. Not even just from my own personal collection. Of the 680 games on my Steam list, probably less than 30 of them ever hit consoles. And that's JUST Steam, and just my own personal collection. The number gets outright insane if you go onto Itch.io. Note also, my library of games does not contain any duds... I research my purchases way, way too well for that. If I buy it... it is good. The only way I'd ever touch something trashy is if I thought it'd be hilarious, but I've never found much reason to do that when I could just watch someone like Jim Sterling do it.

Now, if we also go into entire genres that are missing (or mostly missing) the big one that comes to mind for me is roguelikes (and I dont mean things like Isaac or Gungeon)... those are extremely common on PC (it's a huge genre these days) or even Mac, but very, very, very rare on consoles, and those few that do appear on consoles are.... simplified, to put it mildly (or just really bad). There's also RTS games, which simply dont work on consoles (need a mouse and keyboard due to how they work). Not in the way they're meant to. Some devs HAVE tried in the past, but always to disastrous/hilarious effect... I dont know why anyone even bothers attempting to do that. Not that I like RTS games anyway...

And I'm not even going to talk about things that require an entire keyboard or giant loopy peripherals (alot of vehicle sims center around that... hell my Flight Sim 2020 setup takes up half the bloody desk and I dont even have all of it yet, still more parts to buy). Dunno what it is with PC gamers and giant peripherals but it seems like alot of them have at least a couple. Simulators sure got popular.


Feh, sorry, I'm rambling again. It occurs to me that typing on here is a bit of a stim, and I stim like crazy when everything is hurting, not to mention spacing out and being generally confused more. I hate this time of year, I'm so tired of taking pain pills.... Ugh, need some Advil. Again.
 
A lot of what males and females do differently is culturally produced. We learn how those around us expect us to be, what fits for our gender, and this is constantly reinforced. So you play boy games and they play girl games.
 
Yes, the same reason most girls grow up playing with dolls and girl things. Built in maternal instincts
either from culture of nature.

Guys are more competitive and like the winner feeling. More drawn towards the fighting spirit.

Of course it doesn't apply to all. :p
 
A lot of what males and females do differently is culturally produced. We learn how those around us expect us to be, what fits for our gender, and this is constantly reinforced. So you play boy games and they play girl games.

Yeah, pretty much.

Interestingly, I notice among the geek crowd in particular, these roles seem to just go flying out the window. Not sure why that is but it's extremely frequent with that group.
 
Used to play a lot of FPS games like Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein, Heretic. When I wanted to relax, word games, civilization, some arcade games, even Myst for a long time. On occasion I still do. Not as much anymore as I have some rheumatoid arthritis in the joints in my hands which prevents me from firing and or jumping or running as quickly.

I do miss the puzzle solving and looking for secret doors and such, but D & D, cards and some board games suffice. So I guess I don't fit the sterotype of females who play 'girl' games, most older gamers I know don't anyway. When I started playing there were no games marketed exclusively to women.
 
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Twenty-Two years ago I would have said such an assumption was relatively accurate. Having worked for a major Silicon Valley name in computer gaming back then I was well aware of how the "Virtual Life" genre was not only aimed at female customers, but that most of the marketing and development of such products was done by women within the corporation.

At times quite a challenge for me to develop the websites for such products, given that personally I was mostly into military simulations. :oops:

But that was 22 years ago. Things have changed. The roles women in the workforce continue to evolve, offering them opportunities not so prevalent in the past. Something one realizes when they go to an air show and watch an A-10 in an incendiary strafing run only to land and see a woman emerge from the cockpit.

Traditionally understood roles between "hunters and gatherers" continue to be blurred. Most likely to ever-changing economic considerations relative to diminishing prosperity in the post baby boom era.
 
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As I recall, there are various all-female for eSports games. Considering most eSports games tend to be some form of shooter/other violent game, I believe your thinking may be off. There is also a female YT streamer I know called Gadget Girl Kylie who plays Monster Hunter games, a game where you literally hunt and kill wild monsters to make their body parts into fancy clothing, armor, and weapons.
 
It depends on the girl. I have known quite a few who like Violent FPS games over Non-violent RPGs (role player games... rocket propelled grenades are QUITE violent). Most cultural girls (NT) will probably stick to "gender appropriate games". Quite a few extra-cultural girls (generally ASD) who are somatic (adrenaline seeking) will be into FPS.

I would imagine there are plenty of girls who pose as boys in more "male centric" games. Gender is a mess, honestly. Tautologically speaking, People are people.
 
When I'm talking about those things, I'm actually not at all counting any of the shovelware or asset-flips... as far as I'm concerned, those dont even exist on the radar. And I've learned how to sift through Steam in such a way that, for me at least, they literally dont even appear while I'm browsing. Most people that use Steam enough simply wont run into the things. Though yes, they do appear in extreme numbers, though it sure aint just on Steam. I've always wondered what kind of devs actually think anyone will buy those? But I digress.

No, I'm thinking of the bazillions of not-sucky games I'm familiar with or have heard of / seen. Considering the sheer ridiculous amount of free time on my hands, well.... yeah, I've seen alot at this point.

A couple of examples are Factorio, Train Simulator, The Coin Game, Overcrowd, Airport CEO (just bought this, yes it's a dumb title, they could have come up with a better name, but it's darned good), Superflight, a large assortment of city builders, various economy/trading games (no way I could list them all).... and too many more.

Now, those are just what I refer to as "calm" games, as I said. Though I suppose Factorio does have the "defend against bugs" aspect but that sure aint the point of it and quite a few players turn that off.

When it comes to OTHER stuff? Hoboy. NO WAY I could list even a fraction of those. Not even just from my own personal collection. Of the 680 games on my Steam list, probably less than 30 of them ever hit consoles. And that's JUST Steam, and just my own personal collection. The number gets outright insane if you go onto Itch.io. Note also, my library of games does not contain any duds... I research my purchases way, way too well for that. If I buy it... it is good. The only way I'd ever touch something trashy is if I thought it'd be hilarious, but I've never found much reason to do that when I could just watch someone like Jim Sterling do it.

Now, if we also go into entire genres that are missing (or mostly missing) the big one that comes to mind for me is roguelikes (and I dont mean things like Isaac or Gungeon)... those are extremely common on PC (it's a huge genre these days) or even Mac, but very, very, very rare on consoles, and those few that do appear on consoles are.... simplified, to put it mildly (or just really bad). There's also RTS games, which simply dont work on consoles (need a mouse and keyboard due to how they work). Not in the way they're meant to. Some devs HAVE tried in the past, but always to disastrous/hilarious effect... I dont know why anyone even bothers attempting to do that. Not that I like RTS games anyway...

And I'm not even going to talk about things that require an entire keyboard or giant loopy peripherals (alot of vehicle sims center around that... hell my Flight Sim 2020 setup takes up half the bloody desk and I dont even have all of it yet, still more parts to buy). Dunno what it is with PC gamers and giant peripherals but it seems like alot of them have at least a couple. Simulators sure got popular.


Feh, sorry, I'm rambling again. It occurs to me that typing on here is a bit of a stim, and I stim like crazy when everything is hurting, not to mention spacing out and being generally confused more. I hate this time of year, I'm so tired of taking pain pills.... Ugh, need some Advil. Again.
I've only been seeing games that only range from mixed to overwhelmingly positive reviews due to me conditioning my account's recommendations algorith.
 
I've only been seeing games that only range from mixed to overwhelmingly positive reviews due to me conditioning my account's recommendations algorith.

Yeah, same here, with mixed being quite rare to see. Despite that I browse quite frequently to make sure I dont miss anything neat.

I almost never see ones that rate negative. When I do see one I always wonder what the story behind it is, how it got there.

Of course, the system isnt perfect... particularly when some snotball decides that it's time for a review bombing. Ugh. I always look into the mixed ones carefully for that reason. There's been a few games in recent times where a bunch of derps reviewed negatively not because they didnt like the game, but because of their tribalistic attachment to freaking Steam. "OMG this game went to X store exclusively for awhile first before Steam, DONT SUPPORT SUCH AN AWFUL PRACTICE OMG OMG!!!" that sort of thing, even if the game in question is excellent.
 
I research my purchases way, way too well for that. If I buy it... it is good. The only way I'd ever touch something trashy is if I thought it'd be hilarious,
Haha same...
Now, if we also go into entire genres that are missing (or mostly missing) the big one that comes to mind for me is roguelikes (and I dont mean things like Isaac or Gungeon)... those are extremely common on PC (it's a huge genre these days) or even Mac, but very, very, very rare on consoles, and those few that do appear on consoles are.... simplified, to put it mildly (or just really bad). There's also RTS games, which simply dont work on consoles (need a mouse and keyboard due to how they work). Not in the way they're meant to. Some devs HAVE tried in the past, but always to disastrous/hilarious effect... I dont know why anyone even bothers attempting to do that. Not that I like RTS games anyway...
50 Best Rogue-like games for Playstation 4 | 50 Games Like

You seem to be correct about RTS games.
 
Haha same...

50 Best Rogue-like games for Playstation 4 | 50 Games Like

You seem to be correct about RTS games.

Those arent what I meant when I said "roguelike". I'm well aware of things like Isaac or Dead Cells being on there. I actually have like 4 freaking copies of Isaac. I'm totally not addicted to it. Totally not.

Anyway.

I meant "traditional roguelike". Things like Nethack, DCSS, ToME, Cogmind, or maybe things like Approaching Infinity, Hyperrogue, Cinco Paus. They are all turn-based, and typically very extreme in terms of complexity. Usually (but not always) the sorts of games where you need a guide/wiki just to even get started.

And yes, I know the differentiation between the terms is bloody stupid. Makes it very confusing, so when someone says "roguelike" it's hard to tell what they mean. That.... that's a whole other topic. But I personally usually say "action roguelike" for something like Isaac or Gungeon, and "traditional roguelike" or maybe "turn-based roguelike" for things like Nethack and that ilk.

There are occaisional roguelikes that fit that mold on consoles, but.... even then, it's very heavily restricted, as they *must* be dramatically simplified in order to work (because most roguelikes seriously need an entire keyboard). A lot of the turn-based roguelikes that do hit consoles seem to be specifically put out by Chunsoft (who I've always been quite fond of, their games introduced me to the genre). And most that hit consoles also seem to play like Shiren the Wanderer. Sometimes right down to the same mechanics. I'm not too clear on why that is.

Not to mention also that the genre just... doesnt play well on a controller. Very, VERY slow. There's a reason why keyboards are the prime control method for these. This fact is actually one of the things that triggered me to dump the consoles and make the switch, as I wanted what was becoming my favorite genre to be less dirt-slow and irritating.

Though, to be honest, even when it comes to "action roguelikes" (which is what things like Isaac and Dead Cells are) the majority of them STILL dont come to consoles (yes, there are THAT many). Reason: Alot of devs just dont have the resources or connections needed to make it happen, or their way of doing things just doesnt mesh with the restrictions placed (as there are various rules as to HOW things have to be done in order to release or even update on consoles). I've actual experience with that one. With the game I worked on, there's no way in hell we could have brought it to consoles... no way. Even though it reviewed quite well. Heck I wouldnt have agreed to the contract if a console port had been in the plans, as my development style would have broken the whole thing.

But yeah, when I said it was a "big" genre, well.... I cant overstate it. Even what IS on consoles is a measly selection compared to what I'm used to. Not to mention, well, that list.... some of the things on there are a stretch even for me to consider them a roguelike of any type.

Of course, when it comes to the action-type, Isaac still remains at the top of the heap. Though as far as I'm concerned Isaac is above most things in most genres.

EDIT: It also occurs to me that *all* of the things on that list are ports, and with ports comes the potential for problems. I've actually played more than a couple of those on console.... PS4 and Switch, have some on there for when I travel.... and they almost universally have "problems" such as slowdown or weird glitches that dont exist on the PC versions. Even freaking Isaac. I wasnt too pleased about the Switch port of THAT one.
 
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