All women gamers, please stand up
Via BBC
The debate about how to get women more involved in gaming is a perennial one and one on which there is pretty wide agreement that not enough is being done.
There is, the argument goes, a failing at the heart of the gaming industry to engage women. But, as women increasingly make up the numbers in gaming statistics, there is also a growing realisation that there is a lot of money to be made from this burgeoning market.
Women now account for around a third of UK gamers, so it is time to stop talking about women in gaming as if they lived in a separate universe?
"I wish it no longer had to be talked about as a separate entity but unfortunately it is the case that games still aren't designed or marketed towards women and that has to be dealt with," said Kirsten Kearney.
Ms Kearney knows what she is talking about. As well as being a games industry journalist she is also a Frag Doll - a small group of women selected by video games firm Ubisoft specifically to promote women gamers.
There is still a perception, she said, that women who play male-dominated games are going to be ignored, shouted down or chatted up by men they will be playing against.
"There is a preconceived notion that you will feel out of place but that isn't borne out by women who are actually playing games," she said.
Pink PlayStation
As well as appearing at events such as this weekend's World Series of Video Games at London's Trocadero, The Frag Dolls run a website aimed at being a friendly first-stop for women wanting to get more involved in games.
Women can play games, chat in the forums or take part in Frag Doll Friday, a increasingly popular event where women are invited to play a certain game together.
Thirty-something women are the first generation of women to have grown up with video games.
"I started off playing Pong 25 years ago, then I had a GamesBoy and played SuperMario. There are plenty of girls who did this but when you ask if they are gamers they say no," said Ms Kearney.
If that generation was somehow lost along the way, there is plenty of evidence that young girls today are keen gamers.
Princess Fashion Boutique, a game designed by Buena Vista Games and aimed at girls aged six to 11, has held the number one position in the Children's PC chart from May 2004 until July 2006.
Sony has cottoned on to this new market and is due to bring out pink PlayStations to appeal specifically to young girls.
"Some adult women gamers are offended by that but I would say it is just one attempt to bring girls into gaming," said Ms Kearney.
"But pink is not enough. There needs to be changes across the board. So, for example, if I go to choose a character to play as and they are all male then I am going to think this isn't aimed at me," she said.
Role-playing
Playing a desperate housewife could entice women gamers
There is evidence to suggest that, despite the obstacles, young girls carry on playing games.
Research done by gaming firm Electronic Arts' found that 40% of teenage girls played video games but, crucially, they seem to lose interest within a year.
For teenage girls, at a complex stage of development, it may simply be that real life takes over.
Games such as The Sims and Second Life are increasingly offering a bridge between the virtual and real worlds which could be enough to hold girls' interest.
The emphasis on community and building things rather than traditional shoot-em-ups is appealing to females, as is the sense of creating a character who can live out real-life fantasies.
"My sister loves Second Life. She bought herself the biggest wedding dress and wears it all the time she is playing," said Ms Kearney.
Women are beginning to carve out their own niche in the gaming industry. Nintendo's Nintendogs and Brain Training games for the Nintendo DS have been hugely popular with women.
Social aspect
Buena Vista Games is trying to find ways of uniting the gaming world and the daily life of women by turning to TV shows for inspiration.
Its Desperate Housewives game is aimed, if not exactly at desperate housewives, then certainly at women of a particular age who were fans of the US TV drama.
It will hit the stores next month, just in time to make it into women's Christmas stockings.
"Players will be able to move into Wisteria Lane and uncover secrets about other housewives as well as solving mysteries about themselves," explained Shan Savage, Buena Vista Games senior marketing manager.
"There has been a lot of stigma attached to gaming. It has been the preserve of geeky types sitting in their bedrooms but now there is more of a social aspect to gaming and women respond to that," she said.
EA's chief executive, David Gartner admitted at a recent gaming conference that his company could increase sales by a billion dollars if it cracked the problem of how to get women more involved in games.
That should be incentive enough for video games makers - and if they build it, then surely women will come.
