Gender, Gaming Motives, and Genre: Comparing Singaporean, German, and American Players

Rabindra Ratan,Johannes Breuer,Thorsten Quandt,Patrick Williams,Frederik De Grove,Vivian Chen

doi:10.1109/tg.2021.3116077

Abstract

This study examines gender and country differences with respect to a range of gaming motivations (e.g., social, performance, habit) and game genre choices (e.g., action, sports, casual). Surveys were conducted with 634 university students from Singapore, Germany, and the United States. Overall, the findings suggest that many game motivations and genre choices differed by player gender, country, and the interaction between gender and country in some cases. Further, game motivations and genre choices were related to each other, though sometimes in a negative direction. Finally, differences in gaming motivations, genre choices, and gender, but not the country of residence, were all found to relate to differences in future intention to play. Although these topics have been studied in isolation in previous research, the present study contributes unique insights about the intersections of gender, cultural background, gaming motivations, and genre choices.

Highlights

An obvious goal for game publishers is to appeal to as many players as possible, regardless of gender or cultural background
Prior to addressing the research questions, we calculated the correlations within gaming motivations (Table 2) and genre choices (Table 3)
Because results of both tests suggest that the correlations were in the small-to-medium range and given previous evidence for the discriminant validity of the motivation constructs [28], [42], violations of assumptions about collinearity were unlikely in the subsequent series of Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) tests

Summary

Introduction

An obvious goal for game publishers is to appeal to as many players as possible, regardless of gender or cultural background. Data from the US suggest that nearly half of video game players are women [1], but research finds that certain play motivations and game genres are sharply divided by gender [2]–[6], though not always following traditional gender stereotypes [7] Some argue that such divisions are based on inherent biological characteristics associated with sex, such as spatial rotation ability [8], [9], despite evidence that differences in gaming ability appear to diminish if women and men are given the same amount of time to play [10]–[13]. The present study seeks to unify the literature and develop a more complex theoretical understanding of the intersection between these facets of gaming while offering practical implications to inform game-design targeted toward specific groups or markets

Methods

Results

Conclusion