Gender Perspective
A number of studies have been conducted specifically analyzing the differences between male and female preference in video game styles. Studies have vacillated between findings that the gender effect on violence preference in games is significant and insignificant, however no firm conclusions have been achieved to date. The number of studies in this field has blossomed contemporaneously with greater gender studies, and a degree of tension exists in the field between the traditional stereotype of violence as a male-dominant characteristic and the realities of the marketing data for violent games.
In 2008, an example of such studies was funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice to the Center for Mental Health and Media. These studies were released in the book, Grand Theft Childhood, wherein it was found that among girls, nine of the "top ten were nonviolent games such as Mario titles, Dance Dance Revolution or simulation games" compared to a majority of violent games in the top ten favorites of boys. Ultimately, the conclusion reached in Grand Theft Childhood was that "focusing on such easy but minor targets as violent video games causes parents, social activists and public-policy makers to ignore the much more powerful and significant causes of youth violence that have already been well established, including a range of social, behavioral, economic, biological and mental-health factors." This conclusion supports Surgeon General Satcher's 2001 study (supra).
Despite this conclusion, general awareness of the issue together with traditional stereotyping has led a number of game developers and designers to create non-violent video games specifically for female audiences. Advertisement placement and other marketing techniques have in the past targeted women as more receptive to non-violent video game genres such as life simulation games, strategy games, or puzzle video games. Although these genres often contain certain degrees of violence, they lack the emphasis on graphic violence characterized for instance by the first-person shooter genre.
Read more about this topic: Nonviolent Video Game
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