GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 9 - June 2009

“The female gaming sector is still just a small partof the massivemale- oriented gaming sector, but while the male sector is starting to reach its plateau, female gaming is just starting tokickoff.” Gender Marketing | GPWA Times products such as bingo an obvious success and reduced the stigma of meeting people online. Of the on- line friendships formed by wom- en,more than20percent are con- verted from virtual connections into real-life relationships. Potentialgrowth forfemaleaudience Both in casual games and thegamblingmarket there is great potential for growth, but it’s actually women and older gam- erswhoare the fastest- growingaudience,with the average age of the online gamer (male or female)on the riseevery- where. Thesewomenwho are looking for entertain- ment online tend to have money to spend as well as time to spare, they have the right payment meth- ods and are comfortable both buying online as well as familiar with the social community aspect of the Internet. With broadband availability having reached extremely high levels al- ready inmanycountries, womenaregettingon- lineenmasse, but thereare stillnot many forums forwomenof thisage group. In this setting, onlinebingohasbe- come a star product. This is some- thing that can currently be seen in Scandinaviaand theU.K.—mature marketswho saw the initial booma few years ago. And this same type of boom is brewing in the rest of Europe, with the Netherlands and Estoniaalreadyon themove. What do womenwant? Getting this balance right when ca- tering for women can be tricky. In contrast tosomeattempts thathave been seen in themarket, appealing to women does not just mean the quick fix of adding some pink and fluffy elements to a male oriented game. Based on experience in the industry and supported by biology, game developers have commented on the fact that women experi- ence the games differently tomen. Women tend to focus on the broad picture of the game, the general overview, whilemen focus on ade- tailorcertainspot in thegame.This tendency to view things differently 37