well this is the underlying question then. Why are men so violent and competitive and why aren't women into that stuff?

I'm sure all of us have spent many an hour pwning or getting pwned on GoldenEye or something. The mention of killing people is enough to disinterest most girls.

I don't think it's so much that women aren't into competition...womens sports can be pretty crazy.

Violence and action...testosterone? There is a scientific reason why males are more aggressive and females are more emotional, physically speaking at least.

But I think one of the biggest problems with videogames for women is that they aren't seen as something women do. Just like sewing and cooking might not be something men are seen as doing. Women play games and men cook, but the stereotypes will discourage girls from trying games for a while.

Also, I predict ferret1603 will be in to bash us and call us sexist soon.

It seems to be the competitive aspect that turns girls off the most. They don't like games which force one person to be a loser.

Co-operative gameplay and gameplay which builds rather than destroys is the key. WoW, The Sims, and Harvest Moon have huge female appeal.

Girls generally like to interact directly, talking with direct linkage to another person or persons, either through a face to face conversation, phone, sms or chat programs/channels.
Here in Norway, over 85% of MSN users are female, they make over 70% of all calls both private and on the job, even in cases where they could've just sent an e-mail and they text twice as frequently as men with their cellphones.
Many females are put off by the indirect and to them meaningless interface that games often present, especially so if you view the game through a FPS view or 3rd person.
I don't know why exactly, but that's all I've heard on the subject.

all of the above are good comments, but i just want to add that boys turn them off to games. when a girl is in a room with 8 guys playing halo and they are playing like typical guys playing halo they say, " i want nothing to do with that."

Girls don't like video games?

My mom plays Resident Evil.

If you look at the play styles of children you will notice remarkable differences in the way that boys and girls play, and the roles they choose to act out; many of the architypes of the roles these children act out, and the activities they choose to participate in, are observed across cultures. One could argue that there are certain activities and roles that are built into us ...

Videogames primarily focus on the activities that boys prefer, and the role playing architypes heavily favour the roles boys choose to act out; as a result of this, as girls age they become far less interested in videogames because there is little content that interests them.

Of course they do, thanks alot Wii! /sarcasm.

Around 70 percent of Americans play video games, they can't all be boys.

Developers haven't perfected a shoe shopping simulator yet.