1. Who Plays Video Games?

2. “Most video games are like bad boyfriends--they're too involved with their own male sexuality to even try to crack the female sexual code.” — Sheri Graner Ray, author of Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market

3. Subjects- The population being inferred about was the student body of Princeton High School. A sample survey was used to approximate the population. Method- A chi-square test of homogeneity of population was used to compare boys and girls in different categories, or a two-proportion z-test for areas with only two choices.

4.  Null Hypothesis: there is no difference between the proportions in the boys and girls.  Alternative Hypothesis: there is a difference between the proportions in the boys and girls.

5.  Survey Methodology- The schools holds a list of homerooms with location and teacher on it; every homeroom on this list was given a number from 1 to 65, and a simple random sample was taken. The students in each homeroom chosen were given a survey to complete by the end of the period.

6. 1. Sex: MF 2. Do you like to play video and/or computer games? Very MuchSomewhatNot ReallyNot at All 3. What type of games do you play (pick up to three)? Action Adventure Simulation Sports Strategy 4. Why do you play the games you mentioned above? GraphicsRelaxationChallengeBoredomOther (specify) 5. Where do you usually play games? System (Xbox etc.)Computer 6. How often do you play on average? DailyWeekly Monthly 7. How many hours do you spend playing video games in one week on average? 00-22-44-66+ 8. Do you find time to play even when you are busy? YesNo 9. What don’t you like about video games? Time Consuming Frustrating Costly Boring 10. What kind of impact do video games have on your life? Very LargeLarge Medium Small Sample Survey

7. Time Spent (Hours)00-22-44-66+ 82014124 Enjoy?Very MuchSomewhatNot ReallyNot at all 122444 Genre?ActionAdventureSimulationSports Strate g y 15882310 Why Play?GraphicsRelaxationChallengeFunBoredOther 10 66166 Location?SystemComputer 3026 Time?DailyWeeklyMonthly 4308 Play when busy?YesNo 832 Dislikes?TimeFrustratingCostsBoring Pointl e s s 122410 Impact?Very LargeLargeMediumSmallNone 4482214 Sample Data Chart

8. Data I. Male-Female Comparisons (A) Time Spent Playing i. Hours: Chi-Square result = 25.592, Degrees of Freedom = 4, P-Value = 0.000001 ii. Frequency (daily/weekly/monthly): Chi-Square result = 30.714, Degrees of Freedom = 2, P-Value = 0.000001 (B) Enjoyment Chi-Square result = 17.182, Degrees of Freedom = 3, P-Value = 0.001 (C) Likes and Dislikes i. Likes: Chi-Square result = 11.684, Degrees of Freedom = 5, P-Value = 0.039 ii. Dislikes: Chi-Square result = 11.208, Degrees of Freedom = 4, P-Value = 0.024 (D) Genres Played Chi-Square results = 9.552, DF = 4, P-Value = 0.049 (E) Method (System or Computer) Z Value = 0.38 P-Value = 0.700 95% CI for difference: (-0.146132, 0.217560) (F) Impact Chi-Sq = 15.478, DF = 4, P-Value = 0.004

9. Specific Areas of Comparison Genre: Adventure 95% CI for difference: (0.0396790, 0.323026) Z = 2.51 P-Value = 0.012 Reasons for Playing: Boredom 95% CI for difference: (-0.321788, 0.0188583) Z = -1.74 P-Value = 0.048 Reasons for Not Playing: Frustration 95% CI for difference: (-0.366199, -0.0885112) Z = -3.21 P-Value = 0.001

10. Conclusions I. First when targeting video games for girls the most important thing is to make sure that they are less hard than those targeted at boys; this may mean less enemies, easier to control characters. etc. This conclusion is shown by the fact that most girls disliked video games because they were frustrating, and the simplest way to make games less frustrating is to make them easier to play. Next, companies should make adventure games that target female characters, because they played these games the most, and they played them more than the boys did.

11. Conclusions II Girls and boys also played games for different reasons, one of them being boredom. However, this information would probably not help video game companies because games are designed to be engaging, and therefore alleviate boredom. Companies would also be aided by the knowledge that both boys and girls play at their computers and video game systems in about the same proportions, so they could spend the same amount of money advertising to female computer and system gamers that they do with males.

12. Cautions First, there was some non-response because not all students were present in their homerooms at the time of the survey. It is a sample survey conducted from the students of Princeton High School, and therefore represents only that population. It cannot be used for anything outside of Princeton High School, such as the United States.