A Question of Gender

[Magpie]

I was browsing the forum statistics today and I noticed something I'd not seen before: Male to Female Ratio. It seems that guys outnumber girls 2 to 1. I thought that was strange for a second, because loads of female members come to mind... but when I think about it, at school I was the only girl I remember liking Pokemon.

So that got me thinking. Is Pokemon typically more of a boy's game/programme or is it aimed at both?

When the Pokemon card craze swept my school, groups of lads gathered in circles in the school yard, showing off their rare cards and sorting out trades (Before Pokemon got banned anyway). I remember the first time I thought 'Cool, I'll take a look to see what they're trading', I was told to go away because 'Pokemon isn't for girls'. Luckily for me one of the lads was a good friend of mine and he 'got me in the circle'. Without him though I doubt I'd have ever owned a Shiny Charizard card. To me it certainly seemed like it was a guy thing, especially when other girls called it childish and annoying.

However, in the games Contests seem more geared towards girls, in the dress-up sense. I also know a few lads who say that baby Pokemon were only invented because girls would like them. Maybe it just started out seeming like a boyish thing and later 'evolved'. Or maybe views just changed. I'm pretty sure all the female members on 'Charms aren't tomboys, I know I'm not, although I'm not exactly a girly~girl either. I'm one of those girls with mostly male friends (Because I think boys have more fun!).

I was just wondering if anyone else has an opinion on this. Is Pokemon more geared towards/popular with boys, or did it just take most girls longer to jump on the bandwagon? I know a lot of guys that used to like Pokemon, but I don't know a single girl, aside from those on the forum, who liked it or even know fully what it is.

Thoughts?

 

[Stark]

I'm not sure what it is, but I know for a fact that it's not just a boys game. Definitely

Considering that my AoE3 clan has these statistics on the forum stats page, Pokémon isn't a boys thing in my book:

Male to Female Ratio: 18:1

I think the reason that its more popular with boys, though, is because at the younger age the girls were more separate (in my experience), so they didn't mingle with the boys. Who were Pokémoning their way to a school ban

 

[Magpie]

18:1? Geez, I guess I'm weird for loving AoM then XD

I know what you mean about girls sticking to girls and boys to boys at younger ages, but that still suggests that in the beginning something attracted boys to Pokemon, where as girls seemed to either not know about it or simply not care. The 'cool' girls in my school in fact thought Pokemon was extremely uncool. It's a good job job I was friendly with them otherwise I'm sure my school years wouldn't have been pleasant XD

Why did boys take to Pokemon so readily, whereas most girls either rejected it or ignored it? *Wonders*

 

[Tatile]

Why did boys take to Pokemon so readily, whereas most girls either rejected it or ignored it? *Wonders*

I'm going to go ahead and guess the ole tale of 'gender stereotypes', mainly that passtime games (which generally encompasses most games) are 'boy's things' and that girls should be, well, doing other stuff. This doesn't help the idea of games for girls (have you seen that Imagine range for the DS? Makes me want to kill kittens).

In my school, what little I can remember of it that is, it seemed a fairly even split between girls and boys, but then we are talking an incredibly small school (about 200 pupils at a stretch). For some reason though, girls in my class got obsessed with stickers while the boys played footie. Honestly Pokemon strikes me as being a more gender neutral game, because of it's undeniable cuteness in areas and the ability to maximize a team of six critters to wipe the floor with you opponant (appeals to all people therefore, then again using this logic more people would play Warhammer).

My rather messy two pence.

 

[Pheonix]

I don't think it has to do with what it is geared towards, more around what the game is designed around. The problem with this question is that it deals with worldwide cultural and gender stereotypes. Taken with a very simple and generic basis, the entire game is designed around battle. Now considering that, as a stereotype, boys are generally drawn to more active or violent things in life be it war type scenarios or sports type things, whereas, as much as I hate to admit it, girls are drawn to more cute and household type things like fashion or trends. Now these trends seem to be blurring in this day and age where people take a much broader look at what goes on in the world they live and can have interests in soo many more things without being ridiculed seems to make it more mainstream.

Now taking that all into account, I think it was aimed more at boys originally (as almost all videogames were back then), but has adapted to try and give anyone who picks it up something to interest them. There is enough story to intrigue everyone, a fairly robust combat system that takes a bit of strategy at times but simple enough for just about anyone to master (type trumping ftw), contests for those who don't want combat but want to compete in other ways, and a wealth of side activities as simple as 'Gotta Catch 'em All!' to just exploring.

 

[Tatile]

...girls are drawn to more cute and household type things like fashion or trends...

This is part of the reason why the original Sims was so popular. It appealed/s to people in many ways, like myself who enjoyed designing houses and watching little people attempt daily life, but in also in the way I could randomly kill them and make their lives a misery (I remember a couple of years back Googling ways, with my sister of course, to kill off our Sims). The MMO market is moving out in this way as well. Yes, your gear can be 'pimp' for all it's attributes, but if it doesn't match people are going to laugh you right out of the raid (Guild Wars is great at making beautiful and hideous armour combinations), not to mention the interaction you get with other people, albeit without physcial presence.

I'd guess that the picking up of Pokemon is mostly to do with the era in which is was originally released, as Pheonox mentioned. If we were to look into how many kids were playing Pokemon now (given of course that Pokemon has fallen out of the public eye recently) the gender split might be more even due to less, ah, 'prejudice', I guess we can call it, surrounding gaming. Particularlly for the fact that it's on the DS, which is more of an all-rounder console than most others at the moment (and perhaps some of it's predesscors, I can't say I'm know much of gaming history).

As a side note, I know of very few people still interested in Pokemon, though I can say that people you wouldn't expect to play video games are actually playing. I'd guess that would be also be down to the availability of technology in everyday life and the slow erosion of the 'nerd' culture surrounding it (I mean, doesn't it just sound terrbily geekish to have the theme tune of your favourite TV show as your ringtone?).

 

[KoL]

I think the fact that you can pick your gender at the beginning of the game shows that Nintendo wanted to accommodate for both guys and girls, plus certain Pokemon designs seem aimed more towards girls than guys, an example being Espeon and Roserade vs Aggron and Feraligatr. Pokemon such as Pachirisu seem focused on girls even more than the other two examples, although I must admit I've been looking for a way to utilize Pachirisu for a while now myself.

I think the reason why the ratio of male:female Pokemon players is so tipped in favour of the guys is purely because there's more male gamers in general, although the ratio for Pokemon doesn't seem anywhere near as extreme as the ratio for games such as, for example, Gears of War, Halo, Unreal Tournament etc. I'd say Pokemon is aimed at both genders equally, but the imbalanced ratio is primarily due to there being more male gamers in general.

 

[Doctor Oak]

Videogames, and even the internet, are both completely dominated by young males. No matter what you look into in the matter - with a few notable (and generally obvious exceptions), you'll find the exact same ratio. It's not just Pokemon.

 

[SaorKiari]

I agree with Dr. Oak.

If you look at all the games a female protagonist was first introduced in Silver/Gold/Crystal.

But i still dont believe its a boys game, there are a fair amount of girls that play pokemon. Look at Counter Strike, when you hear the name you think "Boys game no question about it" but then you have a look at all these girls only clans who are sweeping away the boy competition.

I believe that most girls would actually be better at Pokemon than most boys because girls are just so much more thorough and take there time where us boys just dont.

 

[jertyuiop]

Now that i think about it... I don't know any girls (except for the onse on this forum) who like pokemon. Also coming to think of it, I don't know any girl's who are obsessed with video games!

 

[Shiny Motley]

Just a bit of my tidbits. XD

I notice that almost any videogame-related toys, like Pokemon, is usually in the boy's section of the shelves at Walmart (yes, I notice these things...), but I don't think it's because it's a "boy's game". I tend to think that it's because boys seem to like Pokemon more in general.

Also, from my experience, girls are always trying to fit in at school and try to become "mature" or "adultish" or "liked by the older kids" and stuff. And though it's not technically true, they seem to think Pokemon is childish, and that no one seems to like Pokemon. I remember this one conversation I had with this one girl in my Spanish class; she called me "childish" after I mentioned I liked Pokemon.

 

[Lonefox]

I think they made it more for boys but girls liked it too. I never say a pokemon card in school but at age five I found the first season and fell in love. Now that im older I like everything related to pokemon though im a girl. I got my little sister and little brother into the first season and pokemon cards and now me and my sister draw pokemon while me and my brother play pokemon games. Im not a tom boy or a girly girl...im just weird. I also like digimon and anime so im just one of those girls.

 

[Satoren]

While there are a ton of girls I know who love Pokemon, they've never actually delved into the game, or if they did so, they did not really get into the mechanics like EV training and the like. Aesthetically, Pokemon do attract girls, at least the first stagers and the occasional sleek and suave evolutions, but honestly, I don't know that many girls totally into Pokemon or any video game, save for my cousin, altohugh she's hooked mostly because of me.

Also for the record I think Cleffa is frelling adorable >_____>

 

[Chibi]

Really? I've never seen any boys (besides this forum) who like pokemon. In fact, every person I can think off the top of my head that still likes pokemon is a girl. XD I think it's because the boys where I come from are onto MUCH more violence and gory stuff than pokemon; in fact, I'll bet the first thing that comes to a boy's mind when someone at my school mentions it is "gay".

I do think that pokemon was originally intended for guys, since Red, Blue, and Yellow only male male protangonists (which I find very sexist) but broadened out for girls. I find myself attracted to it because I'm a major animal person, and where a pokemon (animal) is what the game revolves around and battling with them and all kinds of stuff, for me what's not to love? And sort of to back up Shiny's comment on matureness, all of my friends are very hyper and crazy. Save for my best friend, who is nowhere near as hyper as me. But seeing the crazy people where I come from...

Well there's my broken opinion.

 

[Rayn_Shyu]

Meh, I don't think I even have to put in my two bits in anyways at this point but I will for the pure sake of doing it.
Pokemon it seemed when I was a little girl in elementary school, it was mostly guys who had the Pokemon cards. Then I got a pack that had a holographic Nidoking and loved it. But I was stupid back then and traded in for the cuter cards.
Eventually, I got playing with a group of guys (like pretend... the cards and general video games were banned) I was like the only girl and it was mostly about video game stuff. But the best part of all was that I knew the most about Pokemon out of all of them, due to my older brother. I was a better gamer. XD
Nintendo does seem to really branch out with there gaming systems, Brain Age is like an older people thing and the "Imagine" series would be kind of weird to guys. A lot of girls I know have a DS, but not any really cool games...
And the general stereotype about boys and girls with those things seem true, but that doesn't mean that the other gender can't beat the other in their field.​