Perhaps the most disturbing quasi conversation I had was while playing my female Gnome Rogue. One fellow sent me a PST telling me I looked like I was 10 years old, then promptly asked me if I wanted to Cyber. Perhaps we can also stereotype WoW players by their female toons (on Alliance side, at least)

Female NE - male player, any age from puberty onwards.
Female Human - mature female player
Female Dwarf - mature female player
Female Gnome - teenage or younger female player (not fitting the stereotype here

I’m also curious regarding the spending of vulgar vs refined.

It’s not even that I’m driven for family gaming. I DO believe that online games would do well to think of the multiple-gamer family more, but what probably got me so fixated on that comment was that so many game developers DO tend to think that way:

Let’s mix gratuitous violence, barely covered breasts, and an artstyle / effects of ginormous proportions and we’ll have a blockbuster.

Now, I enjoyed the mindless testosterone-and-dynamite flicks like Predator, Starship Troopers, and Eight Legged Freaks. They ARE fun. I’m just tired of seeing every hopeful title end up turning into one.

You will see the same pattern in gaming, I am sure. Mario did not become a superstar on the weight of Princess Toadstool’s breasts. Whether this applies to online games is more questionable. In the United States, it is illegal for the under-13 crowd to play your game. That probably stops few, as I still see lots of kids in-game, but many parents would not let their kids have unrestricted internet play anyway. There is no loss in potential audience for making your game PG-13.

There are two obvious counter-points.

First, you can be vulgar, prurient, and/or dumb without actually flashing breasts. The swords and explosions are just the most visible manifestations. The top movies include a fair amount of vulgar and dumb.

Second, you seem to be confusing the superstars with the majority. The best movies are good; Sturgeon’s Revelation still applies. A lot of the 90% that is crud will be vulgar, prurient, and dumb. I expect the best shows on TV to be good. I expect most of it to be The Simple Life, fifteen Survivor clones, soap operas, pro wrestling, daytime talk shows, and so on.

A stronger argument would be about what percentage of the total spending goes towards the refined versus the vulgar. That is something I do not know.

I do note the top 10 films include Shrek 2, Phantom Menace, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Spider-Man, Revenge of the Sith, and Spider-Man 2. That sounds like a good mix of vulgar, dumb, explosions, and even Samuel Jackson’s glowing purple sword. You can debate whether Titanic fits any of that list.