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Men Kill Monsters Women SocializeA recent research on gender and online games had ruled the common stereotype attributing "heavy" gamers with Y chromosome, bad complexion, poor fitness and little social life, concluding that women comprise about 40% of the gamers population, who tend to be in good shape – at least better than the average couch potato – and very sociable. At the same time, the study proved some other gender conventions by revealing that while most women play games for social purposes (often together with their significant other), the male gamers' chief objective is the joy of victory.
About 2,400 players of the popular MMORPG EverQuest II took part in the research conducted by Scott Caplan and Dmitri Williams of the University of Delaware. The researchers, assisted by Sony Entertainment that supplied inside information, asked the male and female players about their in-game and out-game behavior, attempting to shatter the imagined image of the average video gamer: masculine, solitary and overweighed.
They succeed partially: despite the impressive 40% presence of female players and the finding that the most dedicated players belong to the fairer sex; EverQuest II is still a male dominated MMORPG. However, by ruling that women are drawn to the social element of the game and in revealing that a large portion of the women who play video games are bisexual, the researches supported older than computer games stereotypes, emphasizing women's communicative side of the brain and implying that bisexual women tend to masculinity.
Yet to comfort the male and female gamers for the degrading image chasing them for decades, the University of Delaware professors found a positive quality to the gaming habit: it is not as worse as watching TV. The act of solving quests and chasing virtual monsters is still an active activity than booing at the American Idol's contestants, therefore, the female gamers are healthier, leaner and smarter consumers than average (or so does their body mass index suggest). Or in Prof. Williams words (to the BBC): "it's not that games are good for you, it's that TV is bad for you".
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