Current Events > Adam (Adam Ruins Everything) thinks games are equally popular between genders

(+) Yeah! (+)

mobile games aren't games
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What is with our culture and needing to go out of the way to make sure everyone likes everything equally recently? There is a difference between knocking down cultural barriers, sexist/racist stereotypes, etc and simply acknowledging that certain groups like certain things more than others.

Darkman124 posted...

P4wn4g3 posted...

So my question would then be is that just because girls are supposed to like pink and boys are supposed to like blue? Replace pink/blue with whatever relevant gender trope.

the answer is by the time people start playing the kinds of video games that have gender-specific marketing, they typically have already been bathed in so many years of other types of marketing that it's impossible to say what is nature and what is nurture.

the only thing we can say with confidence is the gender breakdown for games of specific subgenres, because companies keep that kind of data in order to build ad campaigns to sell the next iteration of their games to the people who bought the last iteration

Well, I think we could also examine specific instances of female targeted advertising in games not typically associated as feminine and draw some conclusions. For example Chainsaw Lollipop, while being heavy on the eye candy for men, has the whole preppy pink girl in FPS angle (I'm sure there are better examples) . Obviously the Wii was marketed vigorously for both genders and was seen as a success. Someone asked before why I was throwing in indie games with mobile games, it's because they aren't under publisher constraints that console publishers will shoehorn everyone into (I.e. More boob physics, less exploration) so they tend to take a wider range of genres and get more play from the female audience.
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P4wn4g3 posted...

Someone asked before why I was throwing in indie games with mobile games, it's because they aren't under publisher constraints that console publishers will shoehorn everyone into (I.e. More boob physics, less exploration) so they tend to take a wider range of genres and get more play from the female audience.

That is a FAR cry from saying they have the same audience.
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nemu posted...

What is with our culture and needing to go out of the way to make sure everyone likes everything equally recently? There is a difference between knocking down cultural barriers, sexist/racist stereotypes, etc and simply acknowledging that certain groups like certain things more than others.

I'm not of the mind that any two people anywhere will like something equally. I just think it may be beneficial to everyone if we stopped and asked what we are consuming and why. Was Gears of War the absolute best idea on the table when it was published, or did it sell to more men?
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OctilIery posted...

Smashingpmkns posted...

How are mobile games not video games? Lol

There are a ton of gamers(and really, people in every hobby) that exclude something because of elitism.

I mean a magazine is technically a book, but if you bring it to a book club, are they going to be happy with you?
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Darkman124 posted...

really, the discussion isn't whether mobile games are games, or whether games are equally popular between genders

but rather whether the statement 'games are equally popular between genders' can be extrapolated to any meaningful conclusions about how to market a single, specific game

and the answer to that is definitely no

Even if we assume males and females play games at roughly equal rates, that doesn't tell us very much and I don't think it's a useful note for marketing a game to appeal to either gender. We also know that males and females tend to play different kinds of games and for different reasons.

I mean, for example, very few women play FPS and strategy games. They also don't tend to value competition very highly compared to men. So, it would likely be a waste to try to market hardcore, competitive strategy and shooting games to girls and women. Compared to, say, fantasy RPGs, which have a lot more overlap between the genders.
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Mobile gamers are like the acoustic guitar players for musicians.

If you play it, you're definitely a musician. But you probably aren't very serious about it and it's unlikely you can play any other instruments.
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dave_is_slick posted...

P4wn4g3 posted...

Someone asked before why I was throwing in indie games with mobile games, it's because they aren't under publisher constraints that console publishers will shoehorn everyone into (I.e. More boob physics, less exploration) so they tend to take a wider range of genres and get more play from the female audience.

That is a FAR cry from saying they have the same audience.

True, but both mobile games and Indie games tend to be cross platform to the point that they will be on whatever platform will pay for them.
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Maybe Call of Duty should have marketed to women. Fortnite has way more female players and it's the biggest game ever.

Fortnite has made an effort to appeal to women in a very obvious way: It's one of very few shooter games to feature female characters in its ads -- a controversial move in the industry. Earlier this week, some gamers lashed out at Electronic Arts Inc. for featuring female characters in its World War II-themed Battlefield V, a reminder that video gaming can still be a hostile environment for women.

I've always thought and still think the main reason girls don't play difficult games is that it's too hard to learn when you're older and for whatever reason they didn't play gmaes when they were kids. Only at the very very pro level do any biological differences maybe start to show up
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Imagine taking this nu-male seriously.
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Unlike most games, Fortnite players don't get to choose their avatars when they start, which means some male players are assigned a female character and vice versa.

I didn't even know that. Apparently half of the mobile fortnite players are female which makes sense, they know how to use a phone but a desktop PC is foreign to them (lol)

like I'll play games with a male character all day, whatever, I'm used to it, but when you finally get to play as a hot girl character it just feels so fucking good. of course you're going to pick the game that lets you finally do that.
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rikasa posted...

Maybe Call of Duty should have marketed to women.

It's funny because until Fortnite CoD was the definitive FPS for women.
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LightHawKnight posted...

OctilIery posted...

Smashingpmkns posted...

How are mobile games not video games? Lol

There are a ton of gamers(and really, people in every hobby) that exclude something because of elitism.

I mean a magazine is technically a book, but if you bring it to a book club, are they going to be happy with you?

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Most females prefer mobile games and in terms of "traditional" games RPG's and MMO's.

The audience may have equal or close to equal interest but there is a difference in genre preference when it comes to males and Females.
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rikasa posted...

Maybe Call of Duty should have marketed to women. Fortnite has way more female players and it's the biggest game ever.

Fortnite has made an effort to appeal to women in a very obvious way: It's one of very few shooter games to feature female characters in its ads -- a controversial move in the industry. Earlier this week, some gamers lashed out at Electronic Arts Inc. for featuring female characters in its World War II-themed Battlefield V, a reminder that video gaming can still be a hostile environment for women.

I've always thought and still think the main reason girls don't play difficult games is that it's too hard to learn when you're older and for whatever reason they didn't play gmaes when they were kids. Only at the very very pro level do any biological differences maybe start to show up

Fornite was a failure as a 60$ 3rd person zombie hoard game. Its success is due to stealing a popular game and going Free to Play.

While Black Ops 4 also stole from PUBG it's still a 60$+, microtransaction, and DLC game.
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I could have swore there were articles that also showed that an equal amount (if not more) women played MMOs then men. If nothing else, I can personally say I've never been in a guild/clan that was predominantly male.

Which was kind of funny, that for all the jokes people make about men playing female characters, it's likely that there's just as many women playing male characters, or that a female character *is* being played by an actual woman (but they purposefully lie about their real life gender to avoid... obvious issues).

Another interesting factor is how "fanservice" doesn't seem to be limited to just scanty female characters as much anymore, plenty of male characters get to run around half-naked too or find themselves subjected to butt/pec shots during cutscenes. I suppose one *could* argue that it's meant to cater to homosexual male gamers, but that's probably only half-true at best.

As far as gaming goes overall (mobile included), the numbers probably aren't "equal" but there's definitely more female gamers than most people think.
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Is there really a huge discrepancy of male/female gamers in pro gamer circles? Accounting for the gender marketing alone I would expect there to be next to no women in the entire upper ranks of esports, but somehow games such as Starcraft 2 have a few girls that I can name playing professionally. I'm not sure whether the pro gamer numbers would stay the same as casual gamers just because even among men pro gaming isn't really most people's first choice.
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lmao @ having the same match type = "stealing"
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The Catgirl Fondler posted...

I could have swore there were articles that also showed that an equal amount (if not more) women played MMOs then men. If nothing else, I can personally say I've never been in a guild/clan that was predominantly male.

Which was kind of funny, that for all the jokes people make about men playing female characters, it's likely that there's just as many women playing male characters, or that a female character *is* being played by an actual woman (but they purposefully lie about their real life gender to avoid... obvious issues).

Another interesting factor is how "fanservice" doesn't seem to be limited to just scanty female characters as much anymore, plenty of male characters get to run around half-naked too or find themselves subjected to butt/pec shots during cutscenes. I suppose one *could* argue that it's meant to cater to homosexual male gamers, but that's probably only half-true at best.

As far as gaming goes overall (mobile included), the numbers probably aren't "equal" but there's definitely more female gamers than most people think.

? The old joke of G.I.R.L. is for MMOs.
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Damn_Underscore posted...

lmao @ having the same match type = "stealing"

Bruh the game is literally "you can copy my homework but don't make it look obvious"

If we had to stay w/ the exact game that invented genres we'd all be stuck playing REALLY fucking shitty games
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BettyWhite posted...

Mobile gamers are like the acoustic guitar players for musicians.

If you play it, you're definitely a musician. But you probably aren't very serious about it and it's unlikely you can play any other instruments.

Hmm.... Good point.
Hi.
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goodJT posted...

BettyWhite posted...

Mobile gamers are like the acoustic guitar players for musicians.

If you play it, you're definitely a musician. But you probably aren't very serious about it and it's unlikely you can play any other instruments.

Hmm.... Good point.
Hi.

tbf I like that analogy.
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P4wn4g3 posted...

Is there really a huge discrepancy of male/female gamers in pro gamer circles? Accounting for the gender marketing alone I would expect there to be next to no women in the entire upper ranks of esports, but somehow games such as Starcraft 2 have a few girls that I can name playing professionally. I'm not sure whether the pro gamer numbers would stay the same as casual gamers just because even among men pro gaming isn't really most people's first choice.

I've watched a crap ton of e-sports stuff and there are very rarely any females. The scene is clearly dominated by males.

On a side note, a many of the top female pros in some games are MtF trans, such as glty and Ricky Ortiz, both of which are fighting game players.
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Twin3Turbo posted...

On a side note, a many of the top female pros in some games are MtF trans, such as glty and Ricky Ortiz, both of which are fighting game players.

Yeah I've wondered about that too. I guess that's a separate discussion.
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Damn_Underscore posted...

lmao @ having the same match type = "stealing"

They didn't randomly select battle royal without knowing PUBG was extremely popular at the time.

Just like CoD didn't just decide to put in battle royal without knowing the success of Fortnite.

Edit: Not saying PUBG owns the concept of battle royal. Replace stealing with whatever you prefer like the bullshit "inspired".
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Oh the next season has started? Let me just go buy this on google.
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hollow_shrine posted...

Oh the next season has started? Let me just go buy this on google.

This was from 2015. I was going to look into the seasons because Netflix seems to have this shitty strategy of buying the first season of everything from 5 years ago and never adding to that.
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P4wn4g3 posted...

hollow_shrine posted...

Oh the next season has started? Let me just go buy this on google.

This was from 2015. I was going to look into the seasons because Netflix seems to have this shitty strategy of buying the first season of everything from 5 years ago and never adding to that.

Its not even the first season. Its mostly the second season.
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Adams a fucking idiot. Hes ugly as well. Adam ruins sex drives. I assumed he doesnt like sex at all. He probably gets off to videos of himself gettin off to his own reflection.
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VandorLee posted...

Adams a fucking idiot. Hes ugly as well. Adam ruins sex drives. I assumed he doesnt like sex at all. He probably gets off to videos of himself gettin off to his own reflection.

He is the SoyBoy Template that's for sure.
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I suppose that's the best we can look forward to from that corner.

Before joining, and later leaving, BuzzFeed he apparently used to write snarky commentary on popular media, including a pretty memorable Spider Man 3 review. That'll give you an impression of how long he's been around. If you're not a fan of his look now, know that it's improved err these past years.
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Just anecdotally I can say working in a retail videogame store I see probably a 65/35 split for men/women in my store buying product.
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The whole mobile game being real or not real games discussion was always fascinating to me.

I don't care how you define things, but the fact of the matter is playing a mobile game is usually a significantly different experience than playing a console game. You play a console game on your couch, meaning it will take over the living room, usually for long periods of time, usually in the evening hours, when everyone is home. You usually play mobile games casually throughout the day, without large time commitments. That difference is important when it comes to saying you "play games". A girlfriend, for instance, can say she's a gamer because she plays phone games, but then when she learns you want to play Red Dead Redemption for three hours when you come home from work, she's shocked and appalled.

There's two levels of argument here. A pedantic level, and a pragmatic level. Sure, mobile games are games. But the entire lifestyle of being into them versus huge console games are completely different and not comparable, and they should really be split up whenever they do those surveys.
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hollow_shrine posted...

Before joining, and later leaving, BuzzFeed

Well that's a bit damning. Ironic he'd work for BuzzFeed considering he goes for the know-it-all shtick.

Wait where did you get that info? I looked at his Wikipedia entry and it doesn't mention it.
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Mobile games are literally video games though. Saying someone who only plays sports games isnt playing real video games is just as stupid of an argument. Hell, mobile games are being released on consoles and console games are being released on phones.
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Smashingpmkns posted...

Mobile games are literally video games though. Saying someone who only plays sports games isnt playing real video games is just as stupid of an argument. Hell, mobile games are being released on consoles and console games are being released on phones.

spanky1 posted...

The whole mobile game being real or not real games discussion was always fascinating to me.

I don't care how you define things, but the fact of the matter is playing a mobile game is usually a significantly different experience than playing a console game. You play a console game on your couch, meaning it will take over the living room, usually for long periods of time, usually in the evening hours, when everyone is home. You usually play mobile games casually throughout the day, without large time commitments. That difference is important when it comes to saying you "play games". A girlfriend, for instance, can say she's a gamer because she plays phone games, but then when she learns you want to play Red Dead Redemption for three hours when you come home from work, she's shocked and appalled.

There's two levels of argument here. A pedantic level, and a pragmatic level. Sure, mobile games are games. But the entire lifestyle of being into them versus huge console games are completely different and not comparable, and they should really be split up whenever they do those surveys.

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mobile games aside, women are inherently not as interested in games broadly speaking. fact. not even a bad thing either. games shouldn't hold interest to men after puberty but we all know how that goes.
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dave_is_slick posted...

Smashingpmkns posted...

Mobile games are literally video games though. Saying someone who only plays sports games isnt playing real video games is just as stupid of an argument. Hell, mobile games are being released on consoles and console games are being released on phones.

spanky1 posted...

The whole mobile game being real or not real games discussion was always fascinating to me.

I don't care how you define things, but the fact of the matter is playing a mobile game is usually a significantly different experience than playing a console game. You play a console game on your couch, meaning it will take over the living room, usually for long periods of time, usually in the evening hours, when everyone is home. You usually play mobile games casually throughout the day, without large time commitments. That difference is important when it comes to saying you "play games". A girlfriend, for instance, can say she's a gamer because she plays phone games, but then when she learns you want to play Red Dead Redemption for three hours when you come home from work, she's shocked and appalled.

There's two levels of argument here. A pedantic level, and a pragmatic level. Sure, mobile games are games. But the entire lifestyle of being into them versus huge console games are completely different and not comparable, and they should really be split up whenever they do those surveys.

With that argument you're also saying handheld gaming isn't real gaming either because you're not on a couch playing games all day. You're putting importance on such insignificant distinctions.
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99.0% of Mobiles don't count, not until I'm dead.
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Smashingpmkns posted...

dave_is_slick posted...

Smashingpmkns posted...

Mobile games are literally video games though. Saying someone who only plays sports games isnt playing real video games is just as stupid of an argument. Hell, mobile games are being released on consoles and console games are being released on phones.

spanky1 posted...

The whole mobile game being real or not real games discussion was always fascinating to me.

I don't care how you define things, but the fact of the matter is playing a mobile game is usually a significantly different experience than playing a console game. You play a console game on your couch, meaning it will take over the living room, usually for long periods of time, usually in the evening hours, when everyone is home. You usually play mobile games casually throughout the day, without large time commitments. That difference is important when it comes to saying you "play games". A girlfriend, for instance, can say she's a gamer because she plays phone games, but then when she learns you want to play Red Dead Redemption for three hours when you come home from work, she's shocked and appalled.

There's two levels of argument here. A pedantic level, and a pragmatic level. Sure, mobile games are games. But the entire lifestyle of being into them versus huge console games are completely different and not comparable, and they should really be split up whenever they do those surveys.

With that argument you're also saying handheld gaming isn't real gaming either because you're not on a couch playing games all day. You're putting importance on such insignificant distinctions.

it'd be like someone saying that console gamers aren't real gamers because they don't invest the time and effort into going to the arcade, where real games that punish you for being bad are found

I'm pretty sure people did make this argument before arcades died
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@myzz7 posted...

mobile games aside, women are inherently not as interested in games broadly speaking. fact. not even a bad thing either. games shouldn't hold interest to men after puberty but we all know how that goes.

Why do you feel that way? Modern video games are a similar experience to watching a tv show or movie. What makes that okay for adults and not video games?
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Fortnite and PUBG are on mobiles these days so...
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Smashingpmkns posted...

dave_is_slick posted...

Smashingpmkns posted...

Mobile games are literally video games though. Saying someone who only plays sports games isnt playing real video games is just as stupid of an argument. Hell, mobile games are being released on consoles and console games are being released on phones.

spanky1 posted...

The whole mobile game being real or not real games discussion was always fascinating to me.

I don't care how you define things, but the fact of the matter is playing a mobile game is usually a significantly different experience than playing a console game. You play a console game on your couch, meaning it will take over the living room, usually for long periods of time, usually in the evening hours, when everyone is home. You usually play mobile games casually throughout the day, without large time commitments. That difference is important when it comes to saying you "play games". A girlfriend, for instance, can say she's a gamer because she plays phone games, but then when she learns you want to play Red Dead Redemption for three hours when you come home from work, she's shocked and appalled.

There's two levels of argument here. A pedantic level, and a pragmatic level. Sure, mobile games are games. But the entire lifestyle of being into them versus huge console games are completely different and not comparable, and they should really be split up whenever they do those surveys.

With that argument you're also saying handheld gaming isn't real gaming either because you're not on a couch playing games all day. You're putting importance on such insignificant distinctions.

I don't know if he's saying that, but I am.
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Balrog0 posted...

Smashingpmkns posted...

dave_is_slick posted...

Smashingpmkns posted...

Mobile games are literally video games though. Saying someone who only plays sports games isnt playing real video games is just as stupid of an argument. Hell, mobile games are being released on consoles and console games are being released on phones.

spanky1 posted...

The whole mobile game being real or not real games discussion was always fascinating to me.

I don't care how you define things, but the fact of the matter is playing a mobile game is usually a significantly different experience than playing a console game. You play a console game on your couch, meaning it will take over the living room, usually for long periods of time, usually in the evening hours, when everyone is home. You usually play mobile games casually throughout the day, without large time commitments. That difference is important when it comes to saying you "play games". A girlfriend, for instance, can say she's a gamer because she plays phone games, but then when she learns you want to play Red Dead Redemption for three hours when you come home from work, she's shocked and appalled.

There's two levels of argument here. A pedantic level, and a pragmatic level. Sure, mobile games are games. But the entire lifestyle of being into them versus huge console games are completely different and not comparable, and they should really be split up whenever they do those surveys.

With that argument you're also saying handheld gaming isn't real gaming either because you're not on a couch playing games all day. You're putting importance on such insignificant distinctions.

it'd be like someone saying that console gamers aren't real gamers because they don't invest the time and effort into going to the arcade, where real games that punish you for being bad are found

I'm pretty sure people did make this argument before arcades died

Exactly and people did make that argument. Hell theres arcades that purposefully only carry machines pre-Mortal Kombat because MK was seen as the death to arcades for some of the hardcore geeks.
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dave_is_slick posted...

I don't know if he's saying that, but I am.

well you are wrong then tbh

pokemon is the biggest gaming sensation of our generation and it only existed meaningfully on portables until sometime in the near future
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Balrog0 posted...

dave_is_slick posted...

I don't know if he's saying that, but I am.

well you are wrong then tbh

pokemon is the biggest gaming sensation of our generation and it only existed meaningfully on portables until sometime in the near future

They're huge but I've always seen handhelds as a supplement to consoles, never to be the main thing. It's why I was worried about the Switch at first but luckily it's more a portable console instead.
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dave_is_slick posted...

They're huge but I've always seen handhelds as a supplement to consoles, never to be the main thing. It's why I was worried about the Switch at first but luckily it's more a portable console instead.

This most certainly isn't the case in Japan. Are games not popular over there now?
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Darmik posted...

dave_is_slick posted...

They're huge but I've always seen handhelds as a supplement to consoles, never to be the main thing. It's why I was worried about the Switch at first but luckily it's more a portable console instead.

This most certainly isn't the case in Japan. Are games not popular over there now?

Good for Japan? How is that relevant to how I feel?
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