Esports: Why are there so few professional women gamers?
(www.bbc.co.uk)
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Your assessment is actually correct.
Quantic Foundry found that the games women play least are competitive games: https://quanticfoundry.com/2017/01/19/female-gamers-by-genre/
They prefer social games.
Actually both, but the former more than the later (that's where a lot of Facebook's gaming spend came from... female housewives in the middle-age range).
I agree.
In competive gaming, its based on pure skill. Competitive FPS, strategy games or fighting games all depend on merit.
I notice girls tend to play among us or serial killer type games like f13. They like to play games where they can use their mouths. Mouths as in to talk. To manipulate and talk their way out of things.
Competitive gaming.. you cant talk your way out of being headshotted or talk your way out of having reavers dropped onto your scv's.
I'd really like to reiterate that the competitors themselves are going to be men from the most competitive end of the scale. These are the kind of guys that will look for any advantage- mechanical, mental, strategic, statistical.
In these spaces you are regarded as purely competition, so girl advantage is less than useless against these guys. You will even have your girl-advantage used against you if that's an option or path to victory.
I think there's often a fundamental misunderstanding of competition at high levels of play and the surrounding culture: all the beef, insults, bad behaviour etc are often a form of mind games where the goal is to gain mental advantages rather then insult or retaliate against a perceived slight. There will be rivalries, but when the prize money is on the line, it's not about getting personal.
The highest tiers of players all know each other and their typical behavioural patterns/strategies, so the mental component is a necessary tool for changing the expected outcome of a match in their favour.