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Birth control for men comes down to flipping a switch
Birth control for men still tends to be divided between condoms (which aren't always fun or reliable) and more drastic surgical procedures like vasectomies (which are frequently permanent). Not exactly ideal, is it? However, inventor Clemens Bimek thinks he can make it just a matter of flipping a switch. His Bimek SLV project uses tiny, switchable valve implants to prevent sperm from entering the semen stream. If everything goes well, you'd have surefire contraception without dulling sensations or ruling out children altogether -- you'd just have to switch it off the moment you're ready to try for kids.
Report: Men play more MMOs, FPSes; women rule mobile, RPG
Men and women enjoy video games, but some genres tend to attract one gender over the other, SuperData Research finds in a 2014 US study provided to Joystiq. Women compose 57.8 percent of the mobile market, 53.6 percent of the RPG market and 50.2 percent of the PC market (including social games), the report says. The study finds that men make up 66 percent of MMO players, 66 percent of FPS players and 63 percent of digital console players. The data was collected in several separate studies in 2014, each with a minimum sample size of 1,000 respondents. SuperData defines its terminology and methodology here. This study comes on the heels of SuperData Research's 2014 MMO market report, which placed League of Legends as the No. 1 game in the company's MMO category, which included MOBAs, MMOFPS games, MMORPGs, online racing games, online sports games, online sci-fi games, virtual card games, social sims and virtual worlds. In that study, SuperData found that among US players 18 and older, 22 percent of players were between the ages 26 and 30, and 20 percent were between the ages 21 and 25. The average player salary was $55,000, and the overall gender breakdown was 60 percent male, 40 percent female.
Rainbow Six: Siege to include male hostages, too
Rainbow Six: Siege was the surprise finale of Ubisoft's E3 conference, featuring a team of players descending on a suburban home where a woman was held hostage by a group of heavily armed bad guys. The woman cowered while the house exploded around her, and she was referred to as "The Hostage" throughout the demo, passed back and forth between enemies and rescuers as if she were a flag to capture. The apparent objectification of the woman didn't sit well with many viewers – but the game will also feature men as hostages, Technical Artist Oliver Couture told RPS: "We're also gonna have male hostages. That's part of the plan." Ubisoft decided to use a woman hostage in the E3 demo for a specific reason, Couture said. "I know some people asked about the hostage in the demo. I mean, when we did that design we felt a lot of empathy with the hostage. We wanted people to want to protect her. If the hostage gets killed a team loses the game, so we wanted players to care about the hostage so that's the design we chose." Men aren't worthy of empathy, apparently. Couture described the technical aspects of the hostages in Rainbow Six: Siege as the epitome of next-gen. "We're trying to define next-gen with the hostage," he said. "We call that a 'living hostage.' So she'll react to explosions and things like that. It's pretty cool. She'll cough because of the dirt in the air, she covers herself when there's shooting – those sorts of things. We want the player to be able to move her into different positions, for there to be fluid controls. It's a balance between player comfort and reality." [Image: Ubisoft]
The Road to Mordor: The Age of Men
There's a movie poster tagline that I've seen copied numerous times. It goes along the lines of, "No matter who wins, they lose (or we lose)." This implies that the best-case scenario in the film -- the heroes emerging triumphant -- will still result in a bittersweet moment of defeat, despair, or doom. This is how I've always thought of the Lord of the Rings in regard to the Free Peoples. Even through this enormous struggle against the Enemy, we know that winning still means losing something precious. In this case, it's the ascension of Men during the Fourth Age and the fading of the other races: the Ents, the Hobbits, the Dwarves, and the Elves. This grand fight for Middle-earth ultimately will preserve and strengthen just one of the races, and the most boring one at that. For Tolkien, this is because LotR is a mythological past history of our world, and we just don't see a lot of Elves walking around today except at Starbucks. In a way, I feel as if we're starting to get into the Age of Men a bit prematurely in Lord of the Rings Online. The time for Hobbits, Elves, and Dwarves is past; the time for Men is just beginning.
Halo 4 gets tough on sexist players
343 Industries wants to make it clear: It will brook no further discrimination of any kind in Halo 4. Executive producer Kiki Wolfkill and studio head Bonnie Ross say that sexist discrimination of any kind will be met with a lifetime ban from both the game and the Xbox Live network.Ross says that "most people look at a franchise like Halo, and automatically assume it's run by a guy," but this particular franchise is run by a few ladies, and they're not having any discriminatory nonsense in their latest sequel.We agree with the sentiment, and hope that the harsh penalties make sure that the losers who make sexist and other offensive comments get shown the door for good. The ideal should be to make sure all forms of this offensive discrimination are squashed as far and wide as possible, no matter who's running the show.
Nielsen: Consoles bridge TV gender gap
When you boil the American people down into a set of television-oriented numbers, women spend more time on average in front of the ol' tube than men, according to Nielson. Specifically, women between the ages of 18 and 34 watch an average of four hours and 11 minutes of TV per day, whereas men in that same age bracket watch an average of three hours and 34 minutes.That's a disparity of 37 minutes, but factoring in the amount of time spent playing console games reduces that gap. Average daily console usage for women -- in this case, time spent with a 360, PS3 or Wii -- clocks in at 22 minutes, with guys pulling down more than twice as much, playing an average of 48 minutes a day. Combine all these figures together, and the gap between daily male screen-time and daily female screen-time drops to just 11 minutes: Four hours, 22 minutes a day for men and four hours, 33 minutes a day for women.There's a lot to glean from this research, like the fact that time spent watching TV still far outweighs time spent gaming in the average American household. More importantly, however, is the fact coach potatism is a gender-neutral phenomenon, and we should all probably go for a walk or something.
The Daily Grind: Are MMO players tired of beefcake?
A few months ago, The Mary Sue published an intriguing article about why men play female characters in MMOs, and the answer might surprise you. While some men surveyed wanted to play lady toons for immersion reasons or eyecandy reasons, many of them had a much simpler motive: They were sick of beefcake. They were willing to play men, but they just couldn't relate to big hulking dudes with huge muscles and tiny heads, and those are often the types of male characters offered in video games. MMOs like Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars and City of Heroes offer "huge" male characters as options, while World of Warcraft is a serial offender. We usually focus on gender issues as they pertain to the portrayal of women in MMOs, so today I want to turn the tables and ask you about the portrayal of men. Are you annoyed when male characters MMOs look like they're hitting the steroids a bit too hard, and do you find such characters relatable or offensive? In other words, are you tired of beefcake in MMOs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Sexist computers: male voices are apparently harder to recognize than female ones
Researchers up at the University of Edinburgh have determined that the male voice is harder for voice recognition software to pick up and understand than its female counterpart. This conclusion was reached after telephone conversation recordings were run through a battery of tests, which revealed that men seem to say "umm" and "err" more often, while also identifying that the greatest difficulties arise with words that sound similar and can arise in the same context, such as "him" and "them." Equally troubling is the first word in a sentence, as it comes without context and therefore doesn't benefit from any predictive assistance. Done in partnership with Stanford, the study was aimed at identifying and overcoming the major hurdles to producing usable and reliable voice recognition -- something Google's universal voice translator phone is also aiming to achieve. Let's hope somebody figures out how to get around all our hemming and hawing, eh?
New study reveals insights into gender in MMOs
A new study has appeared over at the Virtual Worlds Observatory, the home of a team of social scientists interested in researching online games, and it delves into perceptions of gender in online games and the reality behind it. Utilizing EverQuest II, the study uses a sample size of over 7,000 players to measure player interactions along gender lines and learn more about the gamers behind the keyboards. Surprisingly enough, while males exhibited predicted aggressiveness and achievement-oriented gameplay, it was the female gamers that exhibited more "hardcore" behavior. The top 10% of male gamers only played an average of 48 hours a week, while the top 10% of female gamers played an average of 56 hours a week. Yet, during the study, females under-reported their playing habits more than male gamers, as if unconsciously reacting to a stereotype. The study is full of interesting details, and the full report is available for your viewing pleasure online. [Via The Border House]
The Queue: The Scantily Clad Edition
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Hello, everybody! I'm going to jump right into things today because I'm sure at least a dozen people will want to shiv me for my answer to our first question, and I'd like to give everyone time to do that.Andrew R. asked..."Why do the females in WoW always wear such scantily clad gear? I don't see how plate armor that exposes half your upper body will do you any good when someone wants to stab you. Isn't it kind of degrading to real women who play the game?"
This is your brain on PvP
Ars Technica has news of a new study that isn't directly World of Warcraft-related, but that does have some pretty obvious applications in Azeroth. By studying the way we play when we believe we're competing against a human and a computer opponent (PvP vs. PvE, in WoW terms), scientists have determined that different parts of the brain are more active when we think we're playing against a human opponent. They call this extra activity "mind-reading," but it's not that supernatural: when we think we're playing a human, we try to put ourselves in their place, and think what they're thinking.It gets deeper: they even throw gender into the mix, and discovered that male brains seem to be working harder to do this kind of "mind-reading" of the other side. Their conclusion says that that's because women are naturally more empathetic, and thus don't have to work as hard to figure out what another person is thinking. That seems a little general -- it could also mean that the males care more about competition, and thus are working harder to "mind-read," or it could even just be a wrinkle of the way this data was gathered. More research is probably needed on that one -- if women are so great at figuring out their opponents, why aren't we seeing all-female teams winning Arena tournaments?It would be interesting to know, too, whether there's increased activity in other areas, say pattern recognition or cause-effect centers of the brain, when we're playing against opponents that we know are computers. But this does tell us that there are definitely different skillsets at work when playing PvP or PvE, and why some people might very clearly enjoy one over the other.
Know Your LotRO Lore: The Race of Man
Welcome to Know Your LotRO Lore, a new weekly column here at Massively showcasing the lore of J.R.R. Tolkien's world as it intersects with Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online.If you've been following along with Know Your LotRO Lore for the last few weeks, you're probably caught up with a basic understanding of how Middle-earth was created, and the origins of most of the Free Peoples. Now it's time to get educated on the race of Man in Middle-earth. Of course this term is not gender-specific, as it can refer to both male and female humankind.While not immortal like the Elves, the race of Man became vigorous throughout its time in Middle-earth, eventually leading to the great rise of Man in the Fourth Age. Follow along on our journey through the complete tale of the rise of Man, and why we are the ones who survived until present day. Origins of Man >> %Gallery-39552%
Men are from the Horde, women are from the Alliance
Sanya Thomas continues a look into the demographics behind all of you World of Warcraft players -- last time around, we examined gender and how players measured up in the Bartle test (and crashed their servers -- sorry about that), and this time, it's all about the Horde and the Alliance, and why and when players choose a faction. No surprises until the very end -- the majority of players in game (though I swear it's become less of a majority since the game's launch a few years ago) choose Alliance, whether it's because of a "human bias," or just because they've usually been the heroes, and gamers tend to play with their friends.But things get more interesting when you start putting classes and gender into the mix. Women are pushing the average on Alliance side (men even out around 58/42, but women prefer to "grab their sword and fight the Horde" at 65/35). And when you compare the classes to faction choice, as above, then the stats really start showing signs of life:clearly, women prefer Alliance Druids (and when you look at the Druid forms, there's no question why). You can see the Alliance/Horde separation in the Hunters (that's all those Night Elves), and you can see the gender separation again in the Priests. And the Warriors probably have the weirdest stats: Men play more Warriors overall, but the gender gap is even wider on the Horde side. While there are some women playing Horde Warriors out there (I know an Orc played by a female that will tank anything you can throw at her), Horde Warriors are much more likely to be men.Very interesting. Keep in mind, as last time, that these gender numbers aren't character genders -- they're self-identified on the gamerDNA site, so we can be reasonably certain that we're looking at an (at least slightly) realistic stack of data here. There's probably lots more data to be explored, too -- it would be interesting to see what Blizzard knows about their players that we don't. What class, for example, logs in the most on any given week?[via Massively]
He Said/She Said: It's a man's WoW
Welcome to another edition of He Said/She Said where Amanda Dean and David Bowers take on some of the deepest gender issues in the World of Warcraft universe. This time we discuss the expectations of men and women in guilds and how WoW reflects the larger society. Amanda: I don't know how many times I've heard of women flirting their way into raids or excellent gear. Perhaps this happens in some cases, but these are the bad apples. I find myself growing kind of tired of the stereotype that girls can't play WoW. The truth is that many women play WoW, and many of us are very good at it. Because of the stereotypes, A lady has to work considerably harder in a guild to earn respect. It's like being guilty of being a twit until proven otherwise.
Meet guys at the Apple Store
I believe that a good percentage of our staff here at TUAW is married, female, or both, so being the bachelor that I am, I'll be the one to post the news that Apple Stores are a great place to meet single men, sent to us by reader Naveed (and I do believe this might be the first and hopefully the last time that TUAW has ever linked to Cosmo). Yes, Cosmopolitan ranks the Apple Store as the number one place for women to meet guys (although it is on the same long list as political rallies and steakhouses, so maybe Cosmo has no idea what it's talking about).But hey, the single male bloggers of TUAW can't help but agree that yes, if you're going hunting for us, there's no better place to go than your local Apple retailer. Not only are us male Mac-heads intelligent, green, and playful, but when you single ladies want to know how to share your iTunes media, or hook up your new Time Capsule, we'll be right there with the answer.
Study shows men's brains hard-wired for games
When it comes to gaming, the popular perception is that it's a man's domain. (Of course, you'd be hard pressed to make that point around Massively HQ, as many of our most prolific writers and senior bloggers are of the fairer sex.) Traditionally, this has been pinned on sociological factors that discourage women from developing as close a relation with computers as men. While there is still probably a kernel of truth to that, a new study out of the Stanford University School of Medicine points to biological factors hard-wired into the brain as the cause. Reportedly, MRI scans taken of both men and women while playing a simple game showed a marked difference in the areas of the brain responsible for feelings of reward and addiction. Men simply got more of a buzz out of games than women, by and large.What amused me was the description of the game they used in testing, which they described as having no real prescribed goal -- the test subjects simply clicked a series of images depicting balls as they slowly approached a wall. The more quickly they clicked the images, the more ground they gained. Without any instruction, the men in the study "appeared more motivated to acquire terrain." No real prescribed goal? Players motivating themselves to acquire terrain? Feelings of reward and addiction? If I didn't know any better, I'd swear they were using an MMO for that study! At the same time, short of casual Popcap-style games, MMOs probably enjoy one of the highest female to male ratios in the industry, so I'd stop short of saying that sociology has nothing to do with it. Still, very interesting stuff.
Choosing your race in Middle-earth: Man and Elf
In many ways, picking a race for yourself in an MMO is very much a personal choice. However it can help to have some tips and an overall viewpoint on the subject. This guide is here for old players or new players that are unsure of the the finer details of each race in Lord of the Rings Online. The goal isn't to answer the question of which race is best, but rather to give a few tips and some advice on the strong points of the races in Middle-earth. In this first part of our guide to help you choose your race in LotRO, we'll explore the races of both Man and Elf.Obviously if a player has their heart set on being any single race, this guide isn't going to change their mind. Even if you've already made up your mind on a race (or already chosen it), this guide could contain a couple helpful chunks of information.
Science says: Men's brains get more 'reward' from gaming
Developers and executives that are struggling to develop games that appeal to women now have a new excuse to fall back on if and when they fail. According to a study by Stanford University's Alan Reiss, men are hard wired to feel more "rewarded" playing games than women.The study, which looked at 11 men and 11 women, asked participants to play a simple territorial point-and-click game while hooked up to an fMRI machine. The men in the study showed much great activity in the brain's "mesocorticolimbic center," which is associated with reward and addiction.Interestingly, the amount of activity for men went up as they did better at the game, while the amount of activity for women stayed roughly constant, regardless of achievement. "The females 'got' the game... they appeared motivated to succeed at the game," Reiss said. "The males were just a lot more motivated to succeed." Yeah, yeah ... tell it to the Frag Dolls.
All the World's a Stage: If looks could kill
All the World's a Stage is a column for inquisitive minds, playing with roles every Sunday evening. The media usually portrays WoW as a "boy's game." That's not to say girls don't play too, of course -- just that the game is basically about qualities such as aggressiveness and violence, and our culture expects males to be interested in that sort of thing. Whether such a designation is true or not, the "masculine equals violent" stereotype is very pervasive, and it is natural for many male players to begin the game with a powerful and intimidating character in mind. The player may imagine that his avatar is warm and kind-hearted inside, but outwardly, his character looks as though he could rip out your throat with a flick of his pinky finger.But there are many men out there who don't like such exaggerated manliness in their characters, just as there are many women who don't want their character to look like a dainty barbie doll. Being a person isn't just about just one gender attribute, after all. Indeed, female characters in WoW can achieve a full range of human attributes in their appearance; they can look friendly and intelligent, yet lightning quick and deadly at the same time. However, the appearance of male characters is often so filled to the brim with "strength and honor" that there's not much room left for any other human quality.
Breakfast Topic: Attractive men
Here's a question for all the female WoW gamers out there: are any male models in the game that you consider to be attractive? We often talk about how very appealing some (though not all) of the female models are to men, but when it comes to male models, the Blizzard art team doesn't seem to be going after the "appeals to the ladies" look at all. Apparently afraid that the males will look too much like "pretty boys," they tend to strive for that gruff "I'm gonna kill ya, sucka!" attitude many male gamers seem to love -- the more monstrous and intimidating, the better. Indeed, although the most "attractive" of all the males in Azeroth are probably supposed to be the blood elves, I have never once heard a woman say, "that elf is handsome!"And yet in my travels through Azeroth, I have observed such remarks as "I think Tauren butts look cute," and "You! Human male! You have a cute nose!" ... though that latter one was probably said in jest. Human male noses look like they've been hit with a shovel. Many times.So... are there any male characters in the game which actually appeal to the ladies somewhat? If not the whole model, perhaps some parts of it? The tree-trunk sized wrists, perhaps? Or the barn-sized shoulders? How about the permanent frowns and rugged scowls men wear all the time? Anything at all?
