Well, NPR is:
The average Farmville user is a 43-year-old woman. More women than men are “avid” users of social games like Farmville. Women are more likely to play these games online with their relatives and real-world friends than men. Two-thirds of these social gamers play at least once a day. One in four spend money playing them.
All Facebook’s Application Statistics show that Farmville will soon have more than 80 million active users on Facebook — 31 million of those will be playing Farmville daily…
This new data challenges some preconceived notions about just who is actually playing games online. The image of the nerdy, male, mid-thirties recluse, playing shooting games over the internet with fellow nerdy, male, mid-thirties recluses on the other side of the world might be forever shattered.
The craziest statistic? Of the 200 million people who log into Facebook each day, 15 percent of them are playing Farmville.
And now we know that one of them might very well be your Mom.
Via.
3 comments
I know this means I should take it more seriously, but I keep reacting with the bristle of one of my facebook friends: what is up with all these people taking care of fake animals and planting fake gardens when we need so much more of the real thing? (Not a criticism that applies to shoot ’em up games!) How do we get games to turn into real world atom-moving action? (Paging Jane?)
I completely agree with Saheli how do we turn something as ludicrous as looking after a garden and pets online into the real world? I wonder if these people even know how to look after a real garden?
Online pets and gardens are cheap, don’t take up space, are easy to take care of, and have no real consequences if you don’t. Call me a cynic, but you’re unlikely to convert very many people on that basis.