an algorithmically increasing number of players …
He lost me right there. You don’t suppose he meant exponential?
How are we not calling out this horrid paragraph (O_O) which is so horrible in so many ways.
Perhaps most importantly, Minecraft allows for variations on two basic modes of play: “survival,” where one must find the material means to live for a night while killing monsters (clearly for boys), and “creative,” where one can endlessly build or dig an imaginary world of limitless architectural scope from three-dimensional pixels, with no threat whatsoever. (For girls. And girl-boys, like me.)
The language he uses is a bit dated but I can confirm that his description of creative vs survival is fairly accurate. Not that the two modes were created with a particular gender of player in mind, but that the modes do appeal to different genders. Using my childrens’ schools as evidence, I know that a) just about every child in both schools (elementary and middle) seems to play Minecraft on the regular and b) the boys all play survival and instal p-v-p mods and spend a lot of time in wagered battles, and c) the girls all play creative and build communities - my daughter and her friends have, for instance, built themselves a little town, where they each have their own house, and they all have workplaces to go to, and there are common areas where they can all meet. They installed a marriage mod last week and two of the girls got married. and then divorced, and then married again, complete with bridal skins and flowers. I ask my daughter why she doesn’t play p-v-p, she says it’s too violent and she doesn’t like her stuff being destroyed all the time. I ask my son why he doesn’t play creative, he says it’s boring. This may only make sense to the 10-to-13 year-old age group, where hormones are only just beginning to have their influence.
This stinks of forced gender concepts. Kids often follow unspoken social rules more strictly. Many school environments are doubly bad for this. Some good studies on that topic. Also perceived bias. I would love to see a good study on this. Regardless his language is lazy and useless without adding much to the article.
The most common feedback I hear from teacher friends and studies is how gender neutral the game is it’s appeal.
It’s true - the game appeals to all genders. How those genders confront the game is another matter.
My datapoint contraditcs yours, so we’re back to zero documented correlation between gender and mode of play on this thread. 
But seriously, I wonder if he does have any data to back up his claim.
The last line makes it pretty clear that he’s being ironic, to me.
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