Trigger Happy
than three times as many women as men nominated the PokÉmon (“Pocket Monster”) series (12.7 percent versus 3.9 percent). These games, unleashed upon the British and American market in the 1999 Christmas season, are cartoonish virtual bestiaries, in which lovable monsters may be reared, played with and battled against each other. Generically, they are more like God games (in the sense that they are “process toys”) than action games. On the other hand, ten times as many men as women enjoyed the horse-racing simulation Derby Stallion games (8.6 percent versus
0.8percent), which are straight-ahead recreations of (televised) horse racing, complete with virtual betting. Women also preferred Crash Bandicoot, the Super Mario games, Tetris, Parappa the Rapper, IQ (a puzzle game) and Donkey Kong. Men, on the other hand, preferred RPGs such as Dragon Quest, driving game Gran Turismo and beat-’em-up Tekken (the last two being nominated by no women at all). One must be wary about easy inferences from such results: you could argue that women prefer nurturing-style games rather than violent ones, but there is a highly vocal
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