We asked gamers to tell us how much they agreed or disagreed with polarizing statements about games and gamers. These statements touched on a broad range of issues, such as microtransactions, gender inclusiveness, and whether games are becoming too dumbed down. We received responses from 1,127 gamers.

We’ll slice through this data in several ways, but first, here’s a dynamic graphing widget that allows you to see the distributions of each question (whether in aggregate or by gender).

Consensus – Controversy

By calculating the standard deviation of each statement, we can get a sense of how much overall variation there was in the response among gamers.

High = Great deal of variance among gamers; more controversial.
Low = Very little variance among gamers; high consensus.

Statement SD
I would never pay real money in a free-to-play game 1.30
Facebook games are not real games 1.29
The quality of video games has been declining over the past decade 1.20
Video games need to be more inclusive in terms of gender and ethnicity 1.20
Videos games nowadays are too dumbed down and casual 1.20
It’s ok for kids to play mature rated games 0.99
Games on the Wii are not real games 0.97
Men are inherently better than women at fast-paced action and strategy games 0.94
Violent video games are partly responsible for gun violence 0.89
Relationships that started in an online game can be just as genuine as those that started face-to-face 0.86
Video games are just mindless diversions 0.81
Video games are an art form 0.78
People can learn valuable skills and life lessons from playing video games 0.77
Women are biologically-wired to enjoy only certain kinds of video games 0.75
Video games should cater exclusively to a male gamer demographic 0.49

Agree – Disagree

By calculating the mean of each statement, we can get a sense of which statements gamers were most likely to agree or disagree with. Standard deviations listed again for ease of reference.

High = Most gamers agreed with this statement.
Low = Most gamers disagreed with this statement.

Statement Mean SD
Video games are an art form 4.32 0.78
Relationships that started in an online game can be just as genuine as those that started face-to-face 4.26 0.86
People can learn valuable skills and life lessons from playing video games 4.23 0.77
Video games need to be more inclusive in terms of gender and ethnicity 3.85 1.20
Facebook games are not real games 2.77 1.29
Videos games nowadays are too dumbed down and casual 2.66 1.20
I would never pay real money in a free-to-play game 2.56 1.30
The quality of video games has been declining over the past decade 2.44 1.20
It’s ok for kids to play mature rated games 2.41 0.99
Games on the Wii are not real games 1.8 0.97
Video games are just mindless diversions 1.63 0.81
Violent video games are partly responsible for gun violence 1.61 0.89
Men are inherently better than women at fast-paced action and strategy games 1.59 0.94
Women are biologically-wired to enjoy only certain kinds of video games 1.38 0.75
Video games should cater exclusively to a male gamer demographic 1.17 0.49

Gender Difference

By calculating the t-score which compares responses from men with those from women, we can quantify the difference in response between men and women. Due to the sample size, most of these differences are statistically significant, but substantively trivial. Only the highest and lowest statements are substantively meaningful.

High = Women more likely to agree; men more likely to disagree
Low = Men more likely to agree; women more likely to disagree.

Statement t
Video games need to be more inclusive in terms of gender and ethnicity 8.54
Relationships that started in an online game can be just as genuine as those that started face-to-face 4.58
Video games are an art form 4.19
People can learn valuable skills and life lessons from playing video games 3.68
Violent video games are partly responsible for gun violence 3.61
I would never pay real money in a free-to-play game 2.64
Video games are just mindless diversions 0.02
Games on the Wii are not real games -1.07
It’s ok for kids to play mature rated games -1.77
The quality of video games has been declining over the past decade -4.44
Facebook games are not real games -4.98
Video games should cater exclusively to a male gamer demographic -5.82
Men are inherently better than women at fast-paced action and strategy games -6.21
Women are biologically-wired to enjoy only certain kinds of video games -6.35
Videos games nowadays are too dumbed down and casual -8.49

Age Correlation

By calculating the correlation of each statement with age, we can identify how agreement with the statements varied by age.

High = Older gamers more likely to agree; younger gamers more likely to disagree.
Low = Younger gamers more likely to agree; older gamers more likely to disagree.

Statement r
Games on the Wii are not real games 0.26
Video games are just mindless diversions 0.15
Violent video games are partly responsible for gun violence 0.09
Videos games nowadays are too dumbed down and casual 0.05
The quality of video games has been declining over the past decade 0.05
Facebook games are not real games 0.04
I would never pay real money in a free-to-play game 0.02
Men are inherently better than women at fast-paced action and strategy games 0.02
Women are biologically-wired to enjoy only certain kinds of video games 0.00
Video games need to be more inclusive in terms of gender and ethnicity -0.02
Video games should cater exclusively to a male gamer demographic -0.03
Relationships that started in an online game can be just as genuine as those that started face-to-face -0.05
People can learn valuable skills and life lessons from playing video games -0.11
Video games are an art form -0.12
It’s ok for kids to play mature rated games -0.14

What Did You Think?

Did the responses to any of these statements surprise you? Are there additional gaming statements you’d like to see included in future surveys?