Posted on July 24, 2008 - Filed Under Casual Gaming |
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About a month ago King.com was looking for women gamers to sit on their panel at Casual Connect. Fast foward through time and Casual Connect is going on and the panel had a good turn out. The panel consisted of five women in the age range of 34 - 71.
Of course, this panel was well attended, it gave developers a chance to hear first hand from the largest casual gaming segment. . The gamers discussed the reason they play games, to relax or competitively, if they play for money and what they look for in future games. King.com gave women gamers a chance to voice their opinions and got valuable information in return, given they run a casual game portal.
A couple surprising facts, at least for me, were the fact that most of the women panelists play casual games to compete against each other. They also played for 5 - 10 hours a day, which seems like a lot of time to play video games. Playing casual games is one of the first things the panelists did when they got up in the morning.
Interesting information coming from the panelist. It is great that King.com provided an outlet for the biggest casual gaming segment to voice their opinions on their favorite games.
Press Release Follows:
CASUAL CONNECT, Seattle, July 23, 2008 – Today King (www.king.com), the world’s leading online social gaming company, revealed the outcome of an industry-first, live focus group held at this year’s Casual Connect games conference in Seattle, WA. King invited five women gamers from 34 to 71 years old to address leaders from the $2.5 billion+ casual games industry and provide insight to the 150 million women who play online casual games each day*.
“While people in the casual games industry have known that women make up the majority of casual gamers, we rarely get to hear directly from these women,” said Riccardo Zacconi, CEO, King. “With over 60% of our 10 million monthly visitors being women, King is very attuned to this audience and wanted to ensure their voices were heard.”
The panel titled ‘The Games Women Play,’ attracted industry influencers, developers, gamers, media and players. Attendees heard directly from the players about what types of games they enjoy, whether they play to relax or compete, whether they play for money and what they look for in the future. Points of interest include:
While statistics state women typically spend 7.4 hours per week playing games, the panelists cited they play between 5 and 10 hours per day
Playing casual games is often the first thing women do when they wake up. They check their ranking and play for between 2-3 hours every morning
Trivia games are played with the family while action games are played alone
Women are increasingly playing to compete against each other and not simply to relax. All panelists cited “competition” as their driving motivation
While community was an important aspect of their online playing experience, none of the panelists had a Facebook profile and two had a MySpace profile
One of the participating panelists and a King player, Coral “Joy” Parks, 47, expressed her excitement for the experience by saying: “It’s great that King is taking the opportunity to help the games industry understand our demographic. My typical day involves me rolling out of bed, going straight to the laptop and playing a game even before I’ve made my coffee.”
(*)According to the Casual Games Association, 2007
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