35 percent of American parents are video gamers, says survey

by Jay Allen (Subscribe to Jay Allen's posts) Feb 3rd 2006 9:13PM

Categories: Toys & Games, That's Entertainment

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Thanks to our peeps at Joystiq for this news about the video game habits of American parents. It seems the digital distractions aren't just for kids anymore: 35 percent of parents partake of the hobby, according to a study commissioned by the Entertainment Software Association. (And given that these folks live or die by how well they market their product, I'm inclined to believe they did everything in their power to get the numbers right.) The numbers not only cut evenly across political boundaries, but across gender as well: 47 percent of gamer parents are moms. [Story edited to remove stupid and sexist comment I made earlier.]

One heartening figure from the survey: 85 percent of parents, whether gamers or not, said it is their responsibility to monitor the games their kids play, and not the government's. Only 37 percent of parents polled believe the government should regulate the games that kids can buy.

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Comments (5)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jenn 2-03-2006 @ 9:34PM

There are a lot of moms who play online games such as World of Warcraft and Everquest. I'd bet that, due to the fact that games of that type (role-playing games) require a bit of time investment, there are more moms who do things like Yahoo! games and Gamehouse.com, where you can play online trivia and card games -- things you can leave quickly if necessary.

Teresa 2-03-2006 @ 10:52PM

I'm a mom who would elbow any man out of my way to feed my addiction to World of Warcraft or pretty much any other video game (online RPG or offline game, doesn't matter) that becomes my latest addiction. And no, I don't visit Nick Jr or Cartoon Network or even Yahoo games.

I take offense that you think moms mainly play games at kid-related websites. We don't all revolve our lives completely around the interests of our children. Some of us have our very own personalities, hobbies and interests!

Yes, women play video games! Not just women, but moms ! I have to cut this comment short, I'm logging onto WoW as I write, thankyouverymuch. By the way, I play MMORPGs on my pink power gamer laptop that most men would envy.

Jennifer 2-03-2006 @ 10:56PM

Just having come off a two hour binge of GuildWars, I can attest to the moms-playing-online-games thing. Before GW it was City of Heroes, but the monthly subscription fee was too much (GW is free monthly). I love my kids, but sometimes I need a mindless kill things break!

Anna V. 2-04-2006 @ 11:01AM

Not only am I addicted to the Sims 2, but I have been playing video games my entire life. Hell, I keep my gameboy in my diaper bag for boredom emergencies (when I only have my twins). My daughter likes to sit and 'play' with me when I'm on the PS2, and I routinely beat me husband at any game he'll play me... but only if he'd let me play Battlefront 2 (I bought it!). There are so many moms who are gamers, and so many 'older' people. My mom plays too.

Jay Allen 2-04-2006 @ 1:17PM

I've edited the story. Sorry, folks - I don't know what I was thinking the other day. Thanks for setting me straight.

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