Video Games and the Sexes: A Look at the Sexes and How They Utilize Video Games

Using the student population at Boise State University, surveys were conducted to gatherinformation on the positive aspects of video games among male and female students. Using surveys, students could fill out online through the use of Qualtrics, as well as having participants filling out paper surveys; we had a total of 82 complete responses (56 men and 26 women). Participants were asked about their age (average: 25.59 men and 23.27 years women), how long the respondents had been playing video games (both males and females have over 10 years), and how many hours each participant played video games during a day (average: men 1.68 hours per day and women played for 1.26 hours.) Special attention was paid to game selection and the gratifications and rewards associated with playing video games. The results indicate that the top two gratifications/rewards that men and women gain from playing video games is for the arousal (men 4.23 and women 3.77) and social interaction (men 3.75 and women 3.96). The result for game selection shows that the top three games genres selected by men are shooter, action/adventure and sports games. The top three game genres for women were puzzle, racing/speed games and arcade games. Additionally, the games were coded for aggressiveness, as well as ranked the categories based on the types of games that existed within the category and their potential for aggressiveness. The aggressiveness of the top three games, based off of our code (#1- most aggressive through 10-least aggressive), for males was shooter (#1), action/adventure (#3) and sports games (#6). For the women puzzle (#10), racing/speed games (#7) and arcade games (#8). After analyzing the content of our results, our basic assumptions about men and women in reference to game selection and the correlation of violence/ aggression in the games compared to the sex of the player was supported by our research