I think I went to one of those women''s gaming sites once, and the discussions seemed to revolve around topics like which characters were good role models, and how certain games portrayed women. I left feeling that somebody was perhaps missing the point.

I''ve never dated a girl who even approached being a bonefide gamer. My current girlfriend toys with SSX3 once in a very great while. but it doesn''t really captivate her. She always my games unfavorably with Super Mario Brothers, which she says is the last game she played that was any good.

I dated a girl last year who enjoyed watching Counter-strike and BF1942, but that was strange for me, her just watching and not participating.

Sanjuro, i''m in the same boat as you. As many times as I hear the aforementioned websites and sites like them railing on about the number of female Gamers, I haven''t met A-1. At least, not as a hobby. I''ve seen a few who play FF games, but that''s about it. From talking, I have noticed that there does still seem to be a stigma among women about gaming, that it''s geeky and a guy thing, not a gal thing, at least, outside of The Sims.

Games won''t appeal to most women until 80% of them quit with the incredibly large breasted NPC/femme fatale''s in skimpy clothing who act as fronts for mediocre and non-innovative games. There''s a reason Mario is something women and men can get into equally. Easy to control, no pandering large breasted women to alienate half the planet and most importantly, the game is fun in a way that doesn''t try to appeal to a specific gender.

What woman could really relate to controlling a large, muscled man saving a big titted science major from alien invaders?

But for every Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball, there''s a Civilization. There are a ton of exploitative games, to be sure, but there''s plenty of games with those Mario-like qualities, Certis. Women just aren''t familiar with them or as open to them as men IMO for the reasons I stated in my earlier post.

The more I think about it, too, a big part of the rise in numbers for women gamers may be the astronomical success of The Sims. I''ll ask the women at work tomorrow and do a little informal poll.

Another thought: Do we have any women forum members here? If there are any, they''ve done a fine job of hiding it.
<looks suspiciously at Pyro''s avatar..>

I guess I am one of the lucky few to have a fiancee who likes games and wants me to ""teach"" her how to play on the Xbox. Though I am not sure what all that really entails. She plays on the PS1 and genesis and I have a Micron controller for the Xbox so the ""Duke"" won''t have a chance to intimidate her.

Oh boy..

I confess, I am a woman gamer. Be it PC, XBox, Gamecube or GameboySP (for my 4 hour doc visits..).. I''m there.

Right now, I''m focused on Horizons.. but I do enjoy a good game of Halo or Voodoo Vince now and then. I tried *TRIED* my hand at Ninja Gaiden a few days ago, but my poor delicate fingers couldn''t take a fresh working over of the ""nintendo thumb"" I guess.

We do have one! Welcome aboard, Shelly.

edit: I guess I had never realized the sexist nature of the ""mail boy"" tag. That sh*t has to go.

Maybe we can demand Certis to give Shelly tag of her choice now, not after those arcane thousand posts - her being women on gaming board dominated by male nerds and all

I completely agree about the portrayal of women in most games, and its effect on the female gaming population. Every time I see an advertisement, or, worse, a game box, with a petite, well-endowed, bare-but-for-the-leather gal, I *cringe*. It just reinforces the most stereotypical aspects of our hobby: Boys ONLY - girls need not apply. An advertisement like that means there''s some gaming execs with a very, very low opinion of their customers.

And then there were two.

Impersonating a game character...I''ve been asked a lot of questions regarding my hobby, including why I''m pulled towards it and not collecting dolls, wearing skirts, or playing with french poodles, but I''ve never been asked which character I impersonated the most. That would be none.

My favorite female character would be Sniper Wolf, with Aya, Eve, Rinoa, Tifa, and the girl from Ico tied for second and so forth. Yes I''m sure you''ve noticed those characters mostly come from RPG titles, mostly because RPG titles are some of the only games that actually have any decently respectable women in them. I liked the main girl from Fear Effect for awhile until they turned her and the series into a lesbian fest. Such is life.

Favorite male character...Solid Snake. Powerful yet human. Tied for second, Sephiroth, Rikimaru, Squall and many others. I like the strong, silent, intelligent, and deadly type.

Please forgive the long response. And hi, this is my first post.

Agreed. I was a fan of the Tomb Raider series myself until the third and fourth interations came along. Same thing with Fear Effect. Take a strong female character and then turn her into a play-thing for men and see how many female gamers you attract with that. I guess targeting an un-tapped audience isn''t in the game plan.

You guys are right, ""Mail Boy"" is much too specific and not tailored towards both sexes. I think it''s time we went with something a little more general and well suited to new visitors!

Let''s see, the last game I thouroughly enjoyed was actually BloodRayne. A more stereotypical tits ''n ass character could hardly exist, unless you count Six from Tripping the Rift. Yet I really liked the game...

Which doesn''t mean I don''t feel a little dirty about it. BloodRayne was some guy''s interpretation of female empowerment - a really Hot Chick kicking ass in overtly sexual ways. Kate Walker from Syberia or April Ryan from The Longest Journey are far more appealing to me as characters, being as they consist of more than a tight ass encased in shiny black leather.

Now, I understand that those two games are an entirely different genre than BloodRayne, and I know that it borders on the near impossible that any game with the elements I so loved from BloodRayne (third person action adventure with melee combat) will be made with the type of female character I prefer to play. The Buffy games come the closest, although you''ll notice that Buffy still wears the skintight ""it''s easier to animate"" uniform.

The whole issue is tied up with the feminist conundrum - what does confident sexuality mean, in a society that for decades has decreed that a woman''s sexuality is the most important thing about her? Can a game portray a woman in sexually confident way without pandering? Is this something that needs to be done to attract more female gamers to the tradititionally male bastions of FPS and third person action adventures like Ninja Gaidin? (Dear GOD, Rachel''s breasts were just - insane.)

I don''t know. I''ve done a lot of thinking about it, actually, since I like games and I also like being a woman and somehow the two seem a bit - ill suited. For a number of reasons. Most of which appear in glorious, inflated colour on cover art. I just don''t know.

Hot chicks sell games. I understand that, I do. They just don''t sell games to ME. And when the Hot Chick is the default for marketing strategy, it''s not surprising that I, and many other female gamers and would-be gamers, feel disregarded, unvalued, and inconsequential.

I wonder if the feeling can be related to guys reading romance novels. If a guy had to play Fabio in a video game I think we''d all puke no matter how good the game mechanics are. If all male characters were Fabio clones a lot of us wouldnt be gamers either.