Oh, I would have to agree. More and more female gamers are getting into the fold and it would be ridiculous to insinuate that the possession of ovaries precludes enjoyment from more complex titles, and inclusive titles like Mario Kart or Wii Sports (or Pac-Man) are the way to go in terms of expansion as I see it. The problem is, the game industry at large equates female gamers with their vision of the "casual gamer": uneducated zombies whose lower standards allow them to consume vast quantities of sub-standard degradation.
Publishers look at the success of Wii Sports among women and wonder to themselves how they can jump on that wagon, so off to the blackboard they go. "Wii Sports Knock-Off + X = Lady Dollars... how can we makes the womenfolk go crazy..." "Celebrity gossip, sir?" "B-b-bonuses for everyone!" And lo and behold, out comes Celebrity Sports Showdown.
The genuine female gamer is also an anomoly in their eyes. They fail to recognize that women could be hungry for the same complexity and quality that titles such as Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed afford, but are often repelled from such titles due to their exclusion and ignorance of a possible female audience.
And I realize that Imagine: Babyz isn't being targeted at adult women, but it is nonetheless being targeted squarely at a female audience, and I would argue that the fact that they're perpetuating and peddling those tired notions of gender role to that young an audience goes beyond the realm of poor business decision to moral reprehensibility.
It just kills me that nearly 30 years ago the concept of intentionally female-friendly gaming that was neither shallow nor demeaning could have been absolutely nailed, and that in 2009 as people keep spouting off about how gaming is coming of age with all our techonological advancements we can see such marked regression.
I'd also have to agree with your comment concerning the vocality of male gamers, but I would argue that it is those same gamers who have become the developers of what we now consider to be traditional "AAA" fare, and that they're unwilling to compromise their vision of perpetuating that same male-dominated experience. Furthermore, while the heads of these publishers may not agree with that mentality, if they tune into a match of Halo or Call of Duty, who do they hear but these same male gamers? Why waste money targeting another audience when they have such a reliable male fanbase waiting for the next testosterone-fueled Baysplosion?
