I’m going to be a soldier!According to foreign websitesQuantic FoundryThe survey data shows that in a survey on the gender preferences of male and female players, it is shown that about one-third of men like to play female characters in the game, which means that the female characters encountered by players have a high probability of being male in reality. of.
Quantic Foundry recently released a survey report on “Players’ Preferred Game Gender Role”. They collected data on 2,956 players, 69% of which were male, 27% were female, and 4% were non-binary genders. The median age was 24 years old. Although in general, players generally prefer to choose roles of the same gender, 29% of the men surveyed prefer to play female roles, while only 9% of women prefer to play male roles. It means that even in a game type dominated by male players, players still have a moderate interest in having playable female characters.
Therefore, although most female players tend to choose female characters, the gender distribution in typical core PC/console games (the average gender ratio is roughly 74% male / 23% female / 3% non-binary gender), About 60% of the female characters encountered by players are male players.
Calculated based on the data in the case of 1000 players, there are a total of 483 male characters and 504 female characters. Of the 483 male characters, 34 (7%) are played by female players, and 12 (2%) are played by non-binary gender players;Of the 504 female characters, 297 (59%) are played by male players, And 19 (4%) are played by non-binary gender players.
- There will be 740 male players-355 like male characters, 215 like female characters, and the remaining 163 are evenly distributed without preference (82 like male characters and 82 like female characters).
- There will be 230 female players-175 like female characters, 21 like male characters, and the remaining 25 have no preference and are evenly distributed (13 like male characters and 13 like female characters).
- There are 30 non-binary gender players-3 like male characters, 10 like female characters, and the remaining 17 are evenly distributed (9 like male characters and 9 like female characters).
In addition, there are two interesting age differences in playing roles of different genders. The female actor encountered in the game may not only be a male, but maybe even older than you! Surveys show that men who like to play female roles tend to be older, while for women, there is no age difference between people who like to play male and female roles.
For this reason, researchers have also put forward many reasons (sociology, psychology, based on game content), etc., inferring why men prefer to play female roles, and put forward:
- The society is more strict with men who violate gender norms than women. Therefore, men are more likely to explore gender identity in a safer and anonymous virtual environment.
- Males playing female roles (usually designed for male gaze) is another way for males to objectify and control female bodies.
- Female avatars are treated better than male avatars in online games and are more likely to be gifted items and invited to join groups.
- Female avatars are considered psychologically weak and technically inferior, which can give players a psychological advantage against opponents.