I have finally gotten around to reading Nicolas Yee's report on players of EverQuest, "The Norrathian Scrolls". He has some interesting statistics (have gotten responses from 4000 individuals which is pretty impressive). Based on the responses, in my random interest summary, he tentatively concludes that:
- Approx. 16% of the EverQuest players are female. 70% of these play with a romantic partner.
- 80% of all players think that female characters are treated better.
- The average level of the characters is 33 (max level is currently 60, as far as I know) and the most popular race is the Wood Elf and the most popular class is Druid.
- The most popular reason for playing is to "explore a fantasy world", next comes the satisfaction of seeing "goals achieved" and third the possibility of social interaction.
-On a more general level and also based on the qualitative answers, he has been given, Yee can conclude that male players are achievers and female character socialisers.

Sigh. Not much new under the sun, I guess.

I for one definitely dont fit the description and characteristics of the most common female player (I'm a Paladin and currently I'd rather kill than socialise, honestly. And I have only been given stuff by a male player once). But then again, I'm a researcher and he hasnt really researched on those ;)...
# posted by Lisbeth at: 19:23