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Women's addiction to gaming


Primmulla

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I wonder if there are any differences in how men and women are addicted to gaming? Most people here are boys and young men, and the image of gamers and gaming addicts presented in media depicts them as male. But there are a lot of women who play computer games, though their gaming habits and consequently, addiction is rather different from the ones that men experience. I guess Laney mentioned it somewhere on the forum, though I cannot find the post in question (silly me) that she was attracted mainly to the characters and plot in her games, and from my experience I can definitely confirm it since it was the storytelling in games (that is, both the plot and characters and other things which made games similar to literature) that attracted me to playing LotRO. I came across a funny presentation about women addicts that says that women cannot stop playing because they have emotional attachment to the characters in games and they feel a kind of "responsibility" towards the characters and believe they cannot abandon them. Here is the presentation: http://playingwithresearch.com/2012/01/10/women-video-game-addiction/ 

From what I learnt here on the forum, for men gaming is mostly about achievement and competition against other gamers. So, it may be concluded that in case of women, gaming fulfils other needs than it does for men, and so, maybe the recover process should be different than the one that Cam proposes? I wonder what other female gaming addicts have to say about it? Thanks for your contributions :)

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Great post!

I'm curious to hear other opinions.

I do believe that there are more than just the four needs that I share in my story (temporary escape, social, constant measurable growth, challenge) and the specific needs will always relate to the individual. The male/female biology could play a role I'm sure, although I haven't researched this myself yet.

I do know women 18+ are a larger % of the overall gaming community than people realize: 

Women age 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33%) than boys age 18 or younger (15%)

Source

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I reckon this would relate to pre-defined gender roles that are prevalent in most societies, such as that women would be more inclined to care for others as historically women were the parents that looked after children the most. This relates to the 'responsibility' of looking after characters and making sure not to 'abandon' them, as a mother would never abandon their child unless there is great need to do so. For males competition for dominance and success over peers is somewhat ingrained into our thought patterns, so the four needs that Cam mentions in his TedX talk would relate better to men.

That's my idea on the topic, I wonder if we could build the recovery process better with this info? Perhaps a section could be added to Respawn that details how to break emotional attachment to characters to lower investment in games emotionally.

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People get addicted to games for the singleplayer, multiplayer, story, environment, community, etc. Both males and females get addicted to games for the same reasons in these categories. Females may gravitate towards the story, characters and atmosphere more than males tho. I know a few girls who play competitive FPS and RTS games in the multiplayer even to go as far as making their own maps and other content for the game as well as some who are obsessed with the characters and atmosphere in the singleplayer. Ive herd some pretty disturbing sexual fantasies some girls have about the characters and even high profile figures in the community outside the game. Personally I wouldn't give females too much credit in addiction for being different in some way. It's all the same maybe just more in other categories but still the same which is an escape from reality and mental obsession that they develop. People can get addicted to anything.

 

One common factor girls seem to have in common is a lot of times they say they were introduced to the games theyre addicted to because they played them with their father when they were young.

Edited by Fuck
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People get addicted to games for the singleplayer, multiplayer, story, environment, community, etc. Both males and females get addicted to games for the same reasons in these categories. Females may gravitate towards the story, characters and atmosphere more than males tho. I know a few girls who play competitive FPS and RTS games in the multiplayer even to go as far as making their own maps and other content for the game as well as some who are obsessed with the characters and atmosphere in the singleplayer. Ive herd some pretty disturbing sexual fantasies some girls have about the characters and even high profile figures in the community outside the game. Personally I wouldn't give females too much credit in addiction for being different in some way. It's all the same maybe just more in other categories but still the same which is an escape from reality and mental obsession that they develop. People can get addicted to anything.

 

One common factor girls seem to have in common is a lot of times they say they were introduced to the games theyre addicted to because they played them with their father when they were young.

Welcome to the forum! :)

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The few examples on GameQuitters for gaming was about Cam's personal experience where he mentioned Counter Strike I think. Everyone's gaming experience is different and unique, and Cam has done a good job removing bias towards one type of gaming over the other. All of us can relate to the moral of the story: We are/were addicted to video games and want to improve our lives.

While a few people here may not be into the same gaming as I was, in the end it barely matters because this forum exists to create a healthy community where we can be surrounded by people who believe in us and this whole process. You don't need to be into the same lifestyles to connect on this forum. One's approach to filling the void left behind from gaming might change, but I think the 60-Hobby-Idea's PDF covers a wide array of hobbies that plenty of us could find interest in. ^_^

 

Edit: In response to the attachment felt to characters, a section about that or a weekly video could be beneficial? Not sure. To remove my attachment I gave away my special items in game, then uninstalled. I didn't count it as breaking my 90day detox since I felt it was something I needed to do to be rid of the game mentally. Kind of like cleaning the clutter in my room. I'm honestly still 100% attached to my characters in certain games. It hurts. I don't know.

Edited by Laney
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  • 9 months later...

Hey everyone,

Saw this topic, and wanted to share. Being a female, I would say that what caused me to waste time on gaming were exactly the same reasons that what men supposedly have. Nothing different about it. Maybe the reason why you don't hear more cases of female addicts is because they probably feel shy or weird as society does not expect them to be gaming in the first place, so it is probably difficult for them to admit it and share it.

 

 

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Those numbers from source in Cam post are nothing what I expected. Interesting.

About female gamers, Alex the grape basically wrote what I wanted to add. I think it all depends on person but in most cases it will be about psychology.

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Hey everyone,

Saw this topic, and wanted to share. Being a female, I would say that what caused me to waste time on gaming were exactly the same reasons that what men supposedly have. Nothing different about it. Maybe the reason why you don't hear more cases of female addicts is because they probably feel shy or weird as society does not expect them to be gaming in the first place, so it is probably difficult for them to admit it and share it.

Thanks for sharing!

My personal hypothesis on why this community has more men is that women generally have more of a social support system, so I hypothesis that if they had a problem with gaming they would be more likely to just lean on their already established support systems, whereas men are generally more isolated so they're more likely to search online for support. This is just a hypothetical, and I don't have any direct evidence to support this.

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  • 1 month later...

You men are like the blind leading the blind! loolololololoooololol

I was a pvper.  I was a solo player.  And I pvpd because I wanted to kick your ass!  I hate digging and crafting!  One of the major problems I had in the game was men couldn't seem to accept the idea of a female pvper!

So put that in your pipes and smoke it! :D

@Cam Adair and I live alone!

Edited by dandielionous
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