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Do Males and Females Play the Same Types of Games?

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Abstract

There are many different types, also called genres, of computer and video games, including racing, fighting, sports, adventure, and puzzle games. Do some genres of games appeal more to males and other genres more to females? Survey your classmates and find out in this science fair project!

Summary

Areas of Science
Difficulty
 
Time Required
Average (6-10 days)
Prerequisites
None
Material Availability
Readily available
Cost
Very Low (under $20)
Safety
No issues
Credits

Sandra Slutz, PhD, Science Buddies

Objective

Determine if males and females are equally likely to play video and computer games and if they play the same types of games.

Introduction

What kinds of video games do you like to play? Adventure games where you control a character who has to save the world? Racing games where you drive fast cars? Or what about puzzle games, like Tetris, where your fingers fly over the controls as you try to beat the computer? There are many different genres (types) of video games. The table below lists some of the most common genres. Even if you are a big fan of video games, you probably don't like every genre! Which do you think are the most popular genres? Do you think there are some genres that males prefer and others that females prefer, or do males and females play the same types of video games?

Video Game Genre Examples of Games in the Genre
Shooting Halo, Call of Duty
Fighting Street Fighter, Soul Caliber
Racing Mario Kart, Gran Tourismo
Platform Super Mario, Jak and Daxter
Simulation The Sims, Sim City
Adventure Zelda, Metroid
Role-Playing (RPG) Pokemon, Final Fantasy
Strategy Fire Emblem, Advanced Wars
Sports Madden Football, FIFA Soccer
Puzzle Tetris, Bejeweled
Music/Dance Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero

To discover the answers to these questions, you'll design a survey to give to your friends and classmates about if they play video or computer games and if so, what kinds of video and computer games they play. A survey is a way of gathering information about specific questions. In this science fair project, the questions you'll be answering are: "Are males and females equally likely to play video games?" and "Among kids who do play video games, are there gender (males versus female) differences in what genres of games they play?". These may seem like silly questions, but they're the kind of data that video game companies like to know in order to decide what kinds of games they are going to create and how many sales they could potentially make. So, pretend you are a video game marketing strategist and survey your potential buyers!

Terms and Concepts

Questions

Bibliography

This website will give you more information about the different types of video and computer games and how they can be placed in genres.

This site describes four steps for writing a good survey:

For help creating graphs, try this website:

  • National Center for Education Statistics, (n.d.). Create a Graph. Retrieved June 25, 2020.

Materials and Equipment

Experimental Procedure

In this science fair project, you will survey males and females of the same age about the genres of video games they play to see if there are differences in the types of games females and males enjoy.

Designing the Survey

  1. To start this science fair project, you will need to design a survey. For an overview about how to design surveys, read the Designing a Survey help page.
    1. For this science fair project you'll have structured (also called fixed-response) questions. This means that your volunteers must choose from the answers available on the survey paper and can't add more information. This type of survey is easier to analyze.
  2. There are several pieces of information you want to get from each volunteer. Design a question for each of these pieces of information. Here is the information you are trying to collect:
    1. Age
    2. Gender
    3. Whether or not the volunteers play video games
    4. If they do play video games, what genres do they play
  3. Below is an example of a survey:

    Please write your age here ________________
     
    Please answer each question by circling your answer.
    Are you a male or a female? Male   Female
    Do you play video or computer games? Yes    No
    If you do play video or computer games, please circle ALL the types of games you play, below:
    Shooting Fighting
    Racing Platform
    Adventure Simulation
    Role-Playing (RPG) Strategy
    Sports Puzzle
    Music/Dance Other


  4. You might want to add examples of each video game genre to your survey (like in the table in the Introduction) so the volunteers know what kinds of games are part of each genre.
  5. Once you've designed your survey, have an adult proofread it for you.
  6. Make enough copies of your survey to give each volunteer one (at least 30 copies).
    1. You can either photocopy a handwritten survey or print multiple copies of a survey that you made on the computer.

Collecting and Analyzing the Data

  1. Give each volunteer a pencil and a survey. Have them fill out the survey and return it to you when they are done. Note: Remember to make sure all your volunteers are around the same age (no more than 2 years apart). This way you'll be testing only gender, and not other variables, like age.
  2. When you have all your surveys filled out (at least 30, but more is better), you are ready to start analyzing the responses.
  3. Make a data table in your lab notebook to tabulate (count up) how many females and males gave each response. Below is an example of a data table:

      Males Females
    Number of survey responses:  
    Number of volunteers who play games:  
    Number of volunteers who chose each of the following genres:
    Shooting  
    Fighting   
    Racing   
    Platform   
    Adventure  
    Simulation  
    Role-playing (RPG)  
    Strategy  
    Sports   
    Puzzle   
    Music/Dance  


  4. Calculate what percentage of the males and what percentage of the females you surveyed play video or computer games.
    1. To get the percentage of males, divide the number of males who responded "yes" they play games by the total number of males surveyed and multiply the answer by 100 to make it a percentage. See Equation 1, below, for details. Equation 1:
      % males who play video games = (# of males who play video games)
      (total # of males surveyed)
      × 100
    2. Do the same calculation for the females.
    3. Make a pie chart or bar graph showing your results. You can make the graph by hand or use a website like Create a Graph to make the graph on the computer and print it.
    4. Are males and females equally likely to play video games?
  5. Calculate what percentage of male and female video game players play each genre.
    1. For this calculation, only use the volunteers who have responded that they do play video games.
    2. For example, to get the percentage of females who play racing games, divide the total number of females who circled "Racing" as one of the genres they play, by the total number of females who said they play video games. Multiply the answer by 100 to make it a percentage. See Equation 2, below, for details.

      Equation 2:
      % females who play racing games = (# of females who circled racing games)
      (# of females who play video games)
      × 100
    3. In the end you should have two percentages for each genre, one for males and one for females. Graph the percentages on a bar graph, with one color for males and another color for females.
    4. Are there some game genres that are mostly played by just females or just males? Which genres are played by both genders?
icon scientific method

Ask an Expert

Do you have specific questions about your science project? Our team of volunteer scientists can help. Our Experts won't do the work for you, but they will make suggestions, offer guidance, and help you troubleshoot.

Variations

  • Do people of the same gender (for example just females) but of different ages play the same genres of video games? Design a survey to find out. You'll want to make groups of ages; for example, females under the age of 12, females ages 13-18, females ages 19-25, and females age 26 and over.
  • How does age affect the number of hours per week people spend playing video games? Design a survey to find out. Try analyzing your data as a whole, and as just females or just males.

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Cite This Page

General citation information is provided here. Be sure to check the formatting, including capitalization, for the method you are using and update your citation, as needed.

MLA Style

Science Buddies Staff. "Do Males and Females Play the Same Types of Games?" Science Buddies, 20 Nov. 2020, https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Games_p019/video-computer-games/do-males-and-females-play-the-same-types-of-games. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

APA Style

Science Buddies Staff. (2020, November 20). Do Males and Females Play the Same Types of Games? Retrieved from https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Games_p019/video-computer-games/do-males-and-females-play-the-same-types-of-games


Last edit date: 2020-11-20
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