5 ms·

Mobile game devs: Middle-aged women are taking over the iPad

35 points by kemper 14y ago

politician 14y ago
This was also true back during the online poker gold rush. I think what's happening here is that the early adopter crowd subsides to a more risk-averse socially-aware crowd. Further, it seems like the two crowds have statistically significant gender and age differences.
CoryG89 14y ago
This is just funny..
- CoryG89 14y ago
  A little more explanation I suppose for whoever down voted me here. I think it is funny because I sell iPad's on a daily basis at my University. I have ALWAYS sold more iPad's to middle aged people and people you wouldn't expect. The average student doesn't NEED an iPad. They may want one, but they are not willing to fork out the cash. Software Engineering majors like myself, definitely. This has always been dominated by unconventional age groups and classes such as 'middle aged women'. This article is funny because it is NOT news.
kennon 14y ago
I don't think this is news to anyone who's familiar with the rising popularity of social games. During the facebook gaming boom, "pink" games far outpaced "blue" ones in popularity and profit. I worked at a zynga competitor around 2008-10 and it was very clear that female audiences were less demanding, less prone to cheating, and more willing to regularly spend money (in the aggregate) than their male counterparts. In other words: lower maintenance, easier profits. We would release the exact same feature in two games-- one pink and one blue-- and the pink game's revenues would spike while the blue's flatlined. Definitely not a scientific approach, but one that repeated itself on multiple occasions. All of this transitioned nicely into mobile social games, where we are today. There is some risky gender stereotyping that can arise in tandem with these kinds of discussions, but from my experience the revenues make it pretty clear which audience to target.
- bitwize 14y ago
  There is some risky gender stereotyping that can arise in tandem with these kinds of discussions Damn straight, and you've already internalized the lingo. "Pink" and "blue" are the new "AAA" and "hardcore": game industry terms that piss me right off. Many of the best games are profoundly gender-neutral. Your Marios, Zeldas, Sonics, and Katamari Damacys being the obvious examples. Then again you mentioned working for a Zynga competitor; I'm not so certain that delivering great games was in their mission statement.
  - ultramundane8 14y ago
    I never thought I'd actually make a HN username. But Mario and Zelda are both games where a man saves a princess by killing everything in his way.
    - derefr 14y ago
      Theoretically. In practice, Mario and Zelda are games where a rather blobby avatar is guided through platforms, labyrinths and puzzles, where some of said puzzles consist of autonomous moving blobs that try to touch you, and which you can defuse by touching them with your active end (the front--mid-sword-swing--for Link, the bottom--mid-jump--for Mario.) Saying that the games are about princesses and mass-murder is a statement on about the same level as saying that chess is a game about military tactics: it might look decorated that way, but it's not what you spend your time thinking about when you're playing, and it's not what draws people to the games.
  - wtracy 14y ago
    Can you explain what's wrong with the terms "AAA" and "hardcore"?
    - bitwize 14y ago
      They're terminological shell games. It's difficult to tell whether "AAA game" means a popular game, a quality game, or merely a game with a very large budget. It depends on who's using the term and, often, there's a hidden implication that a game which has one of these traits must necessarily have the other two. It's similarly difficult to tell whether "hardcore" means "challenging", "played online competitively", or "has adult themes like sex and violence". The best working definition I could find based on actual usage is if a game is an FPS, RTS, or MMORPG[0] it's "hardcore", otherwise not; but why not just say FPS, RTS, or MMORPG and not have this hidden value judgement that games which are not in these genres are "softcore"? [0] Other game categories, like MOBAs and some third-person shooters may now qualify.
andrewthornton 14y ago
You know, I really cringe anytime I see any articles posted here that deal with gender as most of the comments show a certain naiveté, but reading the comments on the linked page is proving to be even worse.
adriand 14y ago
I went on vacation to Cuba last winter with my family plus my mother-in-law (approx 60 years old) and several of her friends (all around her age). Of the six or seven women on the trip, three had iPads, including my mother-in-law, and they were on them constantly. They love their iPads. That said, I asked them what apps they really used the most (angling for a development opportunity just like this article hints you ought to) and the answers were pretty uniform: web browsing, photos, email, and e-books. In most cases they were just using the Apple-provided apps for these purposes.
stcredzero 14y ago
This is the same demographic that dominated a big part of the retail segments Borders covered. I wonder how much of Amazon's business they represent?
gms 14y ago
I claimed this over a year ago and was downmodded: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2243880 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2243880
- sadga 14y ago
  HN doesn't appreciate concise one-liners. You need to wrap your claim in a wordy anecdote with some explanatory flavor, to give readers a sense that you put a lot of thought into your typing.
  - gms 14y ago
    I notice this on Quora too. I don't like it; I don't want to waste readers' time.
  - signalsignal 14y ago
    Why not automate the antedotes? I'm sure there is something on CPAN for that.
ntkachov 14y ago
>Female apps lead male apps by a 4:3 ratio in the top 10, and by a 3:1 ratio in the top 5 Since when is 10 games enough to declare any sort of statistical significance? I'm not saying that their claim is false but their data seems wonky.
- sadga 14y ago
  Um, it gets worse. Apps are classified by how much the writer thinks the app is girly or manly, not actual usage numbers. The writer put all puzzle games in the girly category.
  - ntkachov 14y ago
    Well puzzle games are pretty girly. I mean why do they all have gems? Where is tetris with guns? </sarcasm> Seriously gaming gender roles are the most sexists things I've ever seen.

35 points by kemper 14y ago

This was also true back during the online poker gold rush. I think what's happening here is that the early adopter crowd subsides to a more risk-averse socially-aware crowd. Further, it seems like the two crowds have statistically significant gender and age differences.

CoryG89 14y ago

This is just funny..

CoryG89 14y ago
A little more explanation I suppose for whoever down voted me here. I think it is funny because I sell iPad's on a daily basis at my University. I have ALWAYS sold more iPad's to middle aged people and people you wouldn't expect. The average student doesn't NEED an iPad. They may want one, but they are not willing to fork out the cash. Software Engineering majors like myself, definitely. This has always been dominated by unconventional age groups and classes such as 'middle aged women'. This article is funny because it is NOT news.

kennon 14y ago

I don't think this is news to anyone who's familiar with the rising popularity of social games. During the facebook gaming boom, "pink" games far outpaced "blue" ones in popularity and profit. I worked at a zynga competitor around 2008-10 and it was very clear that female audiences were less demanding, less prone to cheating, and more willing to regularly spend money (in the aggregate) than their male counterparts. In other words: lower maintenance, easier profits. We would release the exact same feature in two games-- one pink and one blue-- and the pink game's revenues would spike while the blue's flatlined. Definitely not a scientific approach, but one that repeated itself on multiple occasions. All of this transitioned nicely into mobile social games, where we are today. There is some risky gender stereotyping that can arise in tandem with these kinds of discussions, but from my experience the revenues make it pretty clear which audience to target.

bitwize 14y ago
There is some risky gender stereotyping that can arise in tandem with these kinds of discussions Damn straight, and you've already internalized the lingo. "Pink" and "blue" are the new "AAA" and "hardcore": game industry terms that piss me right off. Many of the best games are profoundly gender-neutral. Your Marios, Zeldas, Sonics, and Katamari Damacys being the obvious examples. Then again you mentioned working for a Zynga competitor; I'm not so certain that delivering great games was in their mission statement.
- ultramundane8 14y ago
  I never thought I'd actually make a HN username. But Mario and Zelda are both games where a man saves a princess by killing everything in his way.
  - derefr 14y ago
    Theoretically. In practice, Mario and Zelda are games where a rather blobby avatar is guided through platforms, labyrinths and puzzles, where some of said puzzles consist of autonomous moving blobs that try to touch you, and which you can defuse by touching them with your active end (the front--mid-sword-swing--for Link, the bottom--mid-jump--for Mario.) Saying that the games are about princesses and mass-murder is a statement on about the same level as saying that chess is a game about military tactics: it might look decorated that way, but it's not what you spend your time thinking about when you're playing, and it's not what draws people to the games.
- wtracy 14y ago
  Can you explain what's wrong with the terms "AAA" and "hardcore"?
  - bitwize 14y ago
    They're terminological shell games. It's difficult to tell whether "AAA game" means a popular game, a quality game, or merely a game with a very large budget. It depends on who's using the term and, often, there's a hidden implication that a game which has one of these traits must necessarily have the other two. It's similarly difficult to tell whether "hardcore" means "challenging", "played online competitively", or "has adult themes like sex and violence". The best working definition I could find based on actual usage is if a game is an FPS, RTS, or MMORPG[0] it's "hardcore", otherwise not; but why not just say FPS, RTS, or MMORPG and not have this hidden value judgement that games which are not in these genres are "softcore"? [0] Other game categories, like MOBAs and some third-person shooters may now qualify.

andrewthornton 14y ago

You know, I really cringe anytime I see any articles posted here that deal with gender as most of the comments show a certain naiveté, but reading the comments on the linked page is proving to be even worse.

adriand 14y ago

I went on vacation to Cuba last winter with my family plus my mother-in-law (approx 60 years old) and several of her friends (all around her age). Of the six or seven women on the trip, three had iPads, including my mother-in-law, and they were on them constantly. They love their iPads. That said, I asked them what apps they really used the most (angling for a development opportunity just like this article hints you ought to) and the answers were pretty uniform: web browsing, photos, email, and e-books. In most cases they were just using the Apple-provided apps for these purposes.

stcredzero 14y ago

This is the same demographic that dominated a big part of the retail segments Borders covered. I wonder how much of Amazon's business they represent?

gms 14y ago

I claimed this over a year ago and was downmodded: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2243880 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2243880

sadga 14y ago
HN doesn't appreciate concise one-liners. You need to wrap your claim in a wordy anecdote with some explanatory flavor, to give readers a sense that you put a lot of thought into your typing.
- gms 14y ago
  I notice this on Quora too. I don't like it; I don't want to waste readers' time.
- signalsignal 14y ago
  Why not automate the antedotes? I'm sure there is something on CPAN for that.

ntkachov 14y ago

>Female apps lead male apps by a 4:3 ratio in the top 10, and by a 3:1 ratio in the top 5 Since when is 10 games enough to declare any sort of statistical significance? I'm not saying that their claim is false but their data seems wonky.

sadga 14y ago
Um, it gets worse. Apps are classified by how much the writer thinks the app is girly or manly, not actual usage numbers. The writer put all puzzle games in the girly category.
- ntkachov 14y ago
  Well puzzle games are pretty girly. I mean why do they all have gems? Where is tetris with guns? </sarcasm> Seriously gaming gender roles are the most sexists things I've ever seen.