EVE General Discussion

I have played Eve for about one year, and observed that fewer women play Eve Online than men.

While I acknowledge variables like gender identity, avatar gender, and the choice to join teamspeak channels, I still feel like women are either missing from the game or underrepresented.

Incidentally - and of no consequence to my question, just an observation - a group I have noticed an abundance of are law enforcement officials, prison guards and truckers.

I always enjoy a diversity of perspectives. It would be ideal to have a group of people from all walks of life on the same teamspeak channel, for instance. But I acknowledge that even in real life, this rarely takes place.

I read a 2008 study that says gaming activates the reward center of the male brain more often than in the female brain, but I still don't believe that totally accounts for the discrepancy. I am wondering if any of you are aware of more complex studies on the subject. I also saw a 2013 "study" that suggests more women play games than men, but it was referring to mobile games like Candy Crush Saga, and did not speak directly to my question.

I believe there must be some social reason - maybe even a problem - to better explain the reason. This could be a good opportunity to hear from the women some of the things that potentially drive you away from Eve Online. I would love to have this discussion.

Thanks. Be well.

Tons of women play EvE. They all have large bosoms and skinny waists and tend to wear sunglasses.

I'm not professionally qualified enough to give an objective view on why there is only a small percentage of females in the player base. In the end, my opinion would run the potential of being filled with chauvanistic opinion that totally misses the mark.

So the only facts I can actually bring to this discussion is that I know several female players in the game, but they are well and truly a minority.

Two of them are my two favorite forum posters. I don't think I've ever read a post from either of them that I disagreed with.

The game is much richer in my view for the presence of those players and it would be great if more were attracted to it.

What's the problem, EVE is already full of bitches

My CEO is female. Multiple FCs in my alliance are female.

I play Candy Crush. I make it hardcore by refusing to proceed till I get 3 stars.

I have been stuck on level 138 for months but refuse to give in ...

Here is why you are not aware of more women playing the game:









(paraphrased from actual in-game interactions)

Now you might not be one of the classical "12 yo stuck in a 40 yo body" types who come up with this kind of witty repartee, but from the woman's perspective it only takes one voice on channel to take up air time with offensive language to ruin that channel for them. One rotten apple to spoil the barrel, one might say. Which is not to say that the one rotten apple actually ruins the other apples, but it stinks up the barrel so nobody wants to buy it, thus what the rotten apple spoils is the buyer's perception of the entire barrel.

So the reason you don't realise that there are more women playing the game is because apart from the few who are quite capable of shutting down the potty-mouthed brats, they have learned that identifying as a woman leads to unpleasant interactions with someone in the audience.

The statistics about 4% of players being women come from whether the subscriber ticked the "male" or "female" box in a form. I would not be surprised that many women ticked the "male" box in order to fend off unwanted attention, especially from advertisers to whom contact details are often sold to.

Don't worry, there are lots of women playing EVE. They just find their gaming life is a whole lot less complicated when they don't tell everyone the irrelevant details such as A/S/L.

Every woman I know that plays this game makes it a point to not let it known they are a girl. Things go much smoother that way for them.

We stamped out that bullshit a few years ago.

Why don't more men play the Sims, a game with a predominantly female audience?

Why don't more sci-fi fans play lord of the rings?

Why don't more fantasy fans play Forza Motorsport?


There are, for the record, a lot of women playing EVE online. Just because it has a predominantly male audience doesn't mean women don't get to play if they're interested, it just means it's a game that men are going to tend to be more interested in than women.