A recent study in which men and women have had their brains scanned as they play games have shown that men like games more than women because of their inherent need to conquer things. The study was conducted by Professor Allen Reiss of the Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research at Stamford. It showed that gaming sessions stimulate the areas of the male brain linked with rewarding feelings and addiction. I think this was proven once before, but reiteration is always nice. It seems that women can understand videogames just fine, but they aren’t driven to play them like men are. It certainly explains achievement whoring, doesn’t it?

All that is fine, but what really irritates me is the idea that games have to be about conquering. Yes, men are more attracted to games about conquering (admittedly the majority of games are about this), but that says more about what kind of games come out on a regular basis than men and women’s ability to be attracted to a game. If the industry took a look at itself and designed quality games around other things than killing the next boss then I think this study would come out much differently.