Gender differences in Video game play: Practices of Teenaged Players from Pakistan

Abstract

Video Gaming has occupied major leisure activity of children and adults across the globe but there is also this debate that it is more popular among males than females. Keeping in the scope of this debate this research study has conducted a quantitative survey to explore gender differences among teenage video game players in Pakistan. The survey research method is used for this study and data was collected from 576 teenage boys and girls from schools of Islamabad, Pakistan. Data was collected from two higher secondary government and two Private schools in Islamabad which were selected on the basis of the largest number of enrolled students. A purposive sampling technique is used as only teenagers who play video games were selected. The respondents have filled close-ended questions on a questionnaire about their video game usage practices and preferred game genres. The study found that teenage girls and boys significantly differ in terms of frequency of gameplay and time spent on video gaming. It was found that boys mostly play in multiplayer mode and prefer to play action, role-playing game, and sports game genres. On the other hand girls’ prefer single-player mode and adventure, action, and horror game genres.