Girls want their video games to be more violent: Belgian study

MELBOURNE - Girls want their video games to go beyond ‘kittens and pink ribbons’ as they now enjoy more violent options.

A Belgian study has found that girls spend more than a full school day every week playing video games.

According to the study, they are frustrated as there were not enough games designed for their tastes and wanted easier-to-use controls.

The study named found that women spend an average of eight hours a week playing video games, while men were on their consoles for 17 hours a week.

Girls reported they enjoyed mildly graphic violent games and were sick of games that were marketed to them like they were interested only in “kittens and pink ribbons”.

As many as 983 gamers between the ages of 11 and 65 were part of the survey.

The study also found that girls were frustrated that there were not enough games designed for their tastes and wanted easier-to-use controls.

“Girls do not mind violent video games, as long as the violence is funny and not too graphic,” News.com.au quoted Lotte Vermeulen, of Ghent University as saying.

“There are a lot of games that women like, but they are just not marketed to them.

“They want video designers to give them more than just games about kittens and pink ribbons,” she added.

Vermeulen said boys were more interested in violent games like ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘Resident Evil’, than ‘Super Mario Bros’.

She added boys liked playing games featuring beautiful, scantily dressed women. (ANI)