作者：Oscar Diele

“女性接触游戏频率大大超过以往，在所有游戏用户中占比超过50%”这种论调在今天的游戏行业中颇为盛行。尽管开发商已经就此着手采取行动，他们仍需掌握更多关于女性与游戏关系的情况，例如不同年龄段用户如何看待游戏，这些信息又将产生哪些涟漪效应？

senior-women-gaming(from venturebeat)

祖母与游戏

当今天的祖母还是孩子的时候，掌机游戏尚未上架，更别说进入中产阶级的家庭了。而隔代的祖母之前的娱乐方式就是纸牌，她们推荐给孙女玩的则是1959年发售的芭比娃娃。

今天已经是一个拥有多种不同娱乐方式的新时代，这也在许多方面对祖母们产生了影响。首先，孙辈们已经越发难以从自己所玩的设备中转移注意力。这促使许多高龄祖母也开始自学这些设备的使用方法，以免同孙辈产生巨大代沟。随着越来越多祖母学习玩游戏（多数是使用掌机和桌面电脑玩游戏），她们也从中收获许多好处。有调查结果显示，玩游戏有助于老年人克服抑郁心理，提高平衡性，促进心理健康。为此，有些老年人中心及养老机构也开始引进任天堂Wii设备，并展开在线游戏竞赛，而非仅用传统的Bingo游戏娱乐老年人。

对祖母们来说，玩游戏还有助于缩小她们与科技的鸿沟。《单人纸牌》等拥有简单导航系统的游戏，可以成为老年人接触在线世界的首个入口，让她们学会如何使用鼠标，触控板或触摸屏。而更高级一点的老年妇女则会通过Facebook体验休闲游戏，享受《Words With Friends》等益智游戏的挑战性及社交元素所带来的乐趣。这些科技体验也会延伸到其他设备，并让老年妇女更为理解购买电子阅读器、平板电脑等其他设备的好处。

妈妈与游戏

比起上一代，妈妈们从玩游戏中收获的益处更多。与祖母一样，妈妈们也将玩游戏作为与孩子沟通互动的重要策略，尤其是那些8-12岁的孩子。她们同女儿一起上网玩烹饪或装扮类游戏，同儿子玩掌机或在线冒险游戏，以此腾出时间陪伴孩子（游戏邦注：同时也监视孩子的在线活动）。忙碌的妈妈如果需要独自歇一会儿时，她们还会使用游戏来取悦孩子。

除了与孩子互动，她们也通过玩游戏来自娱自乐。对于这些时间有限的群体来说，玩游戏已经成了暂时摆脱日常琐事的一个出口。她们通常喜欢玩那些只需片刻功夫，并且有明确开头和结尾的游戏。猜字谜、文字游戏或策略游戏最适合这类群体。但比起自己的妈妈或女儿，她们玩在线游戏时的社交体验更少，因为她们通常将玩游戏视为“个人”娱乐时间。

尽管玩游戏具有缓解压力、益智等多种益处，许多妈妈仍然不喜欢公开讨论自己的游戏习惯，因为她们为这种体验感到“内疚”。所以，游戏公司需加强玩游戏的好处这方面的宣传，鼓励这一群体多多分享自己的游戏体验。

女孩与游戏

女生只是因为有趣而玩游戏，这个结论对少女群体来说再合适不过了，游戏开发商也开始注意到这一情况。这一群体与男生不同，她们偏爱与角色相关的社交游戏。对她们来说，玩游戏是为了与志同道合者沟通，模拟未来的生活，尝试不同的打扮风格，而非参与贴身肉博战。如果这类游戏中也植入了竞争元素（例如高分排行榜），那也基本上更适用于社交游戏，并且不可采用扣分形式（即分数只能上升不可下降）。

女孩可以通过游戏接触到一种可运用于自己将来生活的新世界。例如，许多女孩使用时尚游戏去尝试自己的装扮风格，这就有助于她们同妈妈购物时挑选开学时的行头。她们也喜欢玩厨师、企业家和兽医等角色扮演游戏，这可以让她们更了解和发掘自己的天赋及兴趣。

向女性推销游戏

随着越来越多女性及女孩进入在线游戏，开发者及营销人员不但需要掌握女性的特定心理，还需要了解这一群体不同年龄层的游戏习惯。女性及女孩的游戏习惯可以产生许多积极的涟漪效应，游戏行业越擅长鉴别和推广这些益处，就越可能培养出更大规模的用户群体。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

From generation to generation: The ripple effects of women and gaming

Oscar Diele

We’ve all heard it many times now: Women are gaming more than ever before, making up more than 50 percent of the gaming audience. And while developers have started catching on, developers still have a lot to learn about the intersection of women and gaming; namely, how do different demographics view gaming, and what are the ripple effects that stem from these perspectives?

Grannies and gaming

What a difference a couple of generations makes. When many of today’s grandmothers were kids, console games hadn’t hit stores yet, let alone the homes of virtually every middle class family. And the grandmothers of a couple of generations ago were entertaining themselves with card games and civic clubs and introducing their granddaughters to Barbie dolls, which first hit shelves in 1959.

Today, it’s an entirely new world with markedly different forms of entertainment, and this has affected grandmas in many ways. For starters, it’s a lot harder to steer grandkids’ attention away from the gadgets they’re playing with. This has pushed many senior women to learn how to use these devices themselves, so they don’t feel so disconnected from their little loved ones. And as more grandmothers have learned to play games, and the majority do so via consoles or desktop computers, they have discovered many benefits. Research indicates that gaming for seniors counters depression, improves balance, provides exercise, and improves mental health. Knowing this, some senior centers and nursing homes now house Nintendo Wii’s and have online gaming competitions rather than the traditional Bingo night.

For grandmothers, gaming has also helped to bridge the technology gap in their lives. Games with simple navigation, like solitaire, can be a senior’s first foray into the “online” world and show them to learn how to use a mouse, a touchpad or a touchscreen. Slightly more advanced senior women have delved into the world of casual games via Facebook and enjoy playing puzzle games like Words With Friends for the challenge and mental stimulation and its social elements. These experiences with technology spill over to other devices and help older women feel better about purchasing e-readers, tablets, and other devices.

Mommas and gaming

Even more than their older counterparts, moms are reaping the benefits from gaming. Like grandmothers, moms use gaming as an important tactic to bond with their kids, especially children between the ages of 8-12. They play online cooking or dress-up games with their daughters and play console or online adventure games with their boys as a way of spending quality time with them (and to monitor what they’re doing online). The on-the-go mom also uses gaming as a way to entertain their young child when they need a moment of distraction.

In addition to connecting with their kids, moms are playing games for then own entertainment as well. For this strapped-for-time audience, gaming has become a way to break away from the daily hassles of life. Moms largely enjoys games that require a only short burst of time and with a defined beginning and end. Online puzzle games such as crosswords and word scrambles or strategy games resonate best with this audience. Moms are not as social as their mothers or daughters when it comes to online games, though, because they largely view the entertainment as “me time.”

Even though there are many benefits to gaming, including stress relief and mental stimulation, many moms don’t like to discuss their gaming habits because they feel embarrassed by this “guilty pleasure.” As such, gaming companies need to stress marketing messages that convey how gaming is good for this audience, in the hopes that they will grow more comfortable with sharing more about their gaming habits.

Girls and gaming

The line “girls just wanna have fun” rings especially true when it comes to tween gaming, and developers have caught on to this notion. Unlike their male counterparts, girls opt for intensely social games that feature characters. For girls, gaming is about connecting with like-minded spirits, acting out future lives, and experimenting with different styles and looks, rather than head-to-head competition. If competitive elements are involved with the game, such as posting high scores, it should be done within the framework of these social games and negative points shouldn’t be awarded (scores that can only go up).

As a result of gaming, girls can experience new worlds that they can then apply to their own lives. For example, many girls are using fashion games to experiment with their own sense of style, and this helps them pick out their new back-to-school outfits when shopping with mom. Girls are also role playing as chefs, entrepreneurs and veterinarians, which help them better understand and identify their own talents and interests.

Smart money: Marketing to women

The net of all of this for the gaming industry is that as more women and girls venture into online gaming and spend more time doing so, developers and marketers need to understand that a certain psychology exists not just for women as a whole but that different age groups approach gaming in different ways. Many positive ripple effects stem from women and girls gaming, and the more the gaming industry can identify and promote these benefits, the more likely they are to grow these very coveted audiences.（source:venturebeat）