A new survey reveals what most of us probably already know, but conversations with moms reveal a more complicated story about not wanting to talk about their hobby.
This actually reminds me of a talk I attended recently from a researcher at the AARP; most of the focus was on 50+ gamers and how that market is growing, but the speaker also mentioned that in that demographic, women were more consistent game players than men.
The panel following the talk discussed possible reasons why that older audience is such a huge market, yet isn't the focus of most game studios. One theory that really resonated (that I think could also apply here, to some extent) was that older devs are frequently pushed out of the industry by ageism and work/life balance, leaving the majority of devs as 20-30 year olds and reinforcing the (apparently incorrect) belief that 20-something dudes are the primary consumers of games.
I do consider myself a gamer mom, it's been my main hobby since the age of 5 and I grew up playing with my brother. I'm throwing my 8 year old a Zelda themed birthday party since we started playing Tears of the Kingdom as a family. I only have one friend I would also consider a gamer mom as well and we were friends before we became mothers. I would agree that it's not seen as an "acceptable" hobby and I've realized that I've subconsciously hidden that side of myself to fit the "mom" stereotype, not ever thinking anyone else would be feeling the same! Also the early years are really difficult to fit traditional gaming in, the friend I mentioned has a 1 year old son and currently can't dream of dedicating that time and headspace to a current AAA game. Mobile games are much more accessible for the 0-5 year range imo
While my wife is not a mother, she doesn't define herself as a "gamer." But she plays Wordle, Connections, most of the find-an-object games on Netflix, played Stardew Valley with me, Animal Crossing New Horizons with her friends, and enjoys experiencing games next to me on the couch, especially when she can choose story & dialogue choices.
My wife's common refrain is: "When we have our kid, I'll probably be playing more because it'll be something I can half pay attention to and do other things." The Switch reminded her of playing on her DS when she was younger, sharing games with friends and her older sister. My wife has always been playing video games, but again... Never considered herself a "gamer".
My friends who are mothers all play games on their phones when they have downtime, but they do not consider themselves "gamers". When I ask them, the overall answer is "Being a gamer is culturally more of a guy thing."
Your request for feedback led to a conversation with my wife that matched a lot of your article's quotes. She doesn't consider herself a "gaming mom", to which I responded that we play Mario Kart with the kids at least weekly, and she asked me to get her Animal Crossing for her birthday this year! Eventually we remembered she plays Candy Crush daily during downtime, kid bedtime routine, etc., but like others when thinking of "gaming" she was thinking about games like Mario, Zelda, Call of Duty, and FIFA rather than simple mobile games. Also although we didn't discuss it directly, I'm sure some of her hesitation to use the "gaming mom" label was in contrast with me, who plays a few hours of games by myself most weeks, whereas before Animal Crossing I don't think she's ever played a non-Candy Crush game on her own before.
As the conversation progressed, she recalled in middle school and high school how she used to hang out with groups where the boys would play Magic the Gathering and Risk while the girls watched but never played, and how odd that was in hindsight. It never occurred to her to ask to play, and the boys never offered, even though she's confident no one would've objected. She concluded it was just unconscious gender norms that the boys would play board and card games and the girls wouldn't, even though they were all equally nerdy. They were all reading fantasy series like Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, A Song of Ice and Fire together, so why *wouldn't* they play fantasy themed games together too? But they didn't!
This actually reminds me of a talk I attended recently from a researcher at the AARP; most of the focus was on 50+ gamers and how that market is growing, but the speaker also mentioned that in that demographic, women were more consistent game players than men.
https://www.aarp.org/research/topics/technology/info-2023/2023-gamers-50-plus.html
The panel following the talk discussed possible reasons why that older audience is such a huge market, yet isn't the focus of most game studios. One theory that really resonated (that I think could also apply here, to some extent) was that older devs are frequently pushed out of the industry by ageism and work/life balance, leaving the majority of devs as 20-30 year olds and reinforcing the (apparently incorrect) belief that 20-something dudes are the primary consumers of games.
I do consider myself a gamer mom, it's been my main hobby since the age of 5 and I grew up playing with my brother. I'm throwing my 8 year old a Zelda themed birthday party since we started playing Tears of the Kingdom as a family. I only have one friend I would also consider a gamer mom as well and we were friends before we became mothers. I would agree that it's not seen as an "acceptable" hobby and I've realized that I've subconsciously hidden that side of myself to fit the "mom" stereotype, not ever thinking anyone else would be feeling the same! Also the early years are really difficult to fit traditional gaming in, the friend I mentioned has a 1 year old son and currently can't dream of dedicating that time and headspace to a current AAA game. Mobile games are much more accessible for the 0-5 year range imo
While my wife is not a mother, she doesn't define herself as a "gamer." But she plays Wordle, Connections, most of the find-an-object games on Netflix, played Stardew Valley with me, Animal Crossing New Horizons with her friends, and enjoys experiencing games next to me on the couch, especially when she can choose story & dialogue choices.
My wife's common refrain is: "When we have our kid, I'll probably be playing more because it'll be something I can half pay attention to and do other things." The Switch reminded her of playing on her DS when she was younger, sharing games with friends and her older sister. My wife has always been playing video games, but again... Never considered herself a "gamer".
My friends who are mothers all play games on their phones when they have downtime, but they do not consider themselves "gamers". When I ask them, the overall answer is "Being a gamer is culturally more of a guy thing."
Your request for feedback led to a conversation with my wife that matched a lot of your article's quotes. She doesn't consider herself a "gaming mom", to which I responded that we play Mario Kart with the kids at least weekly, and she asked me to get her Animal Crossing for her birthday this year! Eventually we remembered she plays Candy Crush daily during downtime, kid bedtime routine, etc., but like others when thinking of "gaming" she was thinking about games like Mario, Zelda, Call of Duty, and FIFA rather than simple mobile games. Also although we didn't discuss it directly, I'm sure some of her hesitation to use the "gaming mom" label was in contrast with me, who plays a few hours of games by myself most weeks, whereas before Animal Crossing I don't think she's ever played a non-Candy Crush game on her own before.
As the conversation progressed, she recalled in middle school and high school how she used to hang out with groups where the boys would play Magic the Gathering and Risk while the girls watched but never played, and how odd that was in hindsight. It never occurred to her to ask to play, and the boys never offered, even though she's confident no one would've objected. She concluded it was just unconscious gender norms that the boys would play board and card games and the girls wouldn't, even though they were all equally nerdy. They were all reading fantasy series like Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, A Song of Ice and Fire together, so why *wouldn't* they play fantasy themed games together too? But they didn't!
Ok pas de soucis pour moi