I do agree girls are less attracted to games, but recently many of my female friends have been enjoying Wii sports. I had some friends over and the girls just had to get their Miis made so that they could play tennis with me. Sports and videogames are both ussualy related to guys, but it seems that the combination of the two, when presented in a new way, appeals to both guys and girls. I believe that with some imagination game producers can attract female audiences too.

I think that once a girl starts playng games she'll love them as much as any boy would, however it's all to do with stereotypes. A boy's stereotype is to get into scraps', to climb trees', to love action movies and to play football, these are all topics covered by vast numbers of games. And then once they start playing games which suit their stereotypes, they move onto more, and higher quality games. However, with girls, it's harder for them to break into the gaming culture. Girls interests (according to stereotype) are to look after the house, to like animals, to go shopping, to communicate with their friends (more so than boys) and to watch soaps and crappy teen dramas on TV. Only recently have games started to cater for these steretypes. In the next few years we will be seeing many more girl gamers, introduced by games that comply with their stereotypes and then to move on to more, and higher quality games. A good example of this is The Sims. It caters towards the female stereotype of being a house keeper and it is hugely popular with the ladies. And alot of girls who play the Sims usually move on to similar games (SimCity being an example). The problem is, with the Sims being releasedc way before other games that cater to the female stereotype, when a gir says she likes games, people assume she means the Sims (and it creates a stereotype within itself). Quite a few people will disagree with me here, but I studied stereotypes and its effect on many things - including its effect on media consumption in media.

I agree whit you on The Sims tell me a girl that does not have that game it is insane i tell ya. But other games that can appel to girls are RPG's most japanese because the western RPG's have often crappy story. I think we will see a lot of girl games on the Wii like PS2 had singstar and that dancing game but I think Wii will have a lot of more in depth games like some manga's or anime's. But only time will tell time......

Wolfenstein - the problem is that potential girl gamers won't go for the rpg, as it doesn't comply with their stereotype. For the first few months a potential girl gamer will play the Sims, Singstar, Eyetoy, Wii Sports, Wii Play (notice how the 360 has nothing suited to this demographic - 50% of the population. Or if it does, M$ surely aren't advertising it well). Only then will she move into a little bit more depth, and by that I mean your Marios and your Spyros (well, not Spyro in particular as the new one are pretty crap, but games similar to that franchise). I'd say it'll take 6 months minimum for a girl to become a bit more of a gamer, but I don't see girl gamer tking an RPG seriously until about a year of gaming.

The girls I know of that play video games, here in Europe anyway, seem to love playing Singstar and The Sims, although I know my cousin plays Harry Potter. However, it seems MSN is a good enough video game for most girls. But it seems the games girls seem to play, are social ones, ones that involve singing/dancing and movie games. Also with the PS2 so cheap, it makes a fair amount of sense to buy a PS2 even if it's only for a few games, which is pretty much what happens, so overall it seems most female gamers play on a PS2 or a Nintendo handheld.

I'm a girl and I enjoy almost much games Sims, Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy... I don't really like Animal Crossing, I find it boring! But I do agree it is rare for a girl to play shooters or GTA type games... I think it's cause we don't like unnessairy violence and find it stupid.

I know this is weird, but I'm a bit surprised your a female. Don't see them hangin' around the gaming internet. Maybe it's just me.

 Anyway, back on topic. Nintendo has made great strives to make to appel to more poeple. I think a Dating Sim would be a good bet. I asspire to be a game designer and had an idea of making a Para Para game with the Wii. This brings me to two things. First, I think we need to focus a lot on what girls like. I know some girls who like DDR. I think Music game are a good start. Also, games that invoce social interaction in the room. Party games. But, heres the other thing. My main character was a girl who becomes a super hero and must use the magic para para baton to defeat evil. Weird I know. But, what i'm saying is have more female leads. And not ones who have Quadupal Fs and are just pixelated sex. I'm talking average girl. 16-20. C beast at most(character doesn't need to be a fanboy's wet dream) and of course an interesting personality.

I think The Sims is a big game that caters to females. I have a friend who names her characters after real life people, then emails everyone to tell them how they are doing lol Yeah, that´s a bit creepy. Anyway, Sims is definitely the biggest franchise for girls, having Animal Crossing, Singstar,DDR and Nintendogs close. Recently, I´ve realized that Smash is a pretty good game for girls, they try it because of boys at first, but the battle system is really friendly, and there are some characters appeal to them ( Link, Samus, Puff, Kirby, etc). Thats why Smash will be the biggest seller on Wii, universal appeal! A RPG like Earthbound ( based in the real world) could have a good impact too, it isn´t that complicated and it can be very fun.

I think the best way to bring girls and essentially new gamers in general into the gaming market lies in developing games that first are popular to the core gaming market but that are essentially entry level games that anyone can pick up and play. Just as an example has anyone ever tried getting someone that isn't a gamer intially to try out a game like Halo or an RPG? In my experience at least non-gamers will gain a very slight interest in games by seeing you play them or from hearing the publicity around the game but are unlikely to pick the game up themselves if the learning curve is to high intially. I mentioned Halo because I still have memories of showing this game to my father and how the quick action and dual analog sticks quickly removed his interest in the game. RPG another popular genre also can have steep learning curves to many new gamers it really isn't the menu system or gameplay in my experience that does it but rather the requirement that you devout yourself to the story line to get the most out of the game. Both of these elements can be seen in games that a few have mentioned are popular with girls like the Sims. The Sims has a menu system that can be quite complex but a story that you create yourself and really doesn't require devotion to at all it is also does not rush the gamer to make decision as many decision can actually be made with the game paused. So in the end to make games to appeal to girls I'd say personally just make a game that is easy to pick up and play isn't to complex but is popular enough to get to the core gamers first so that it can spread later to non-gaming crowd. If this was done well through games like Brain Age and such it would be fair to say that the market would expand with new gamers coming in that may or may not move onto more complex games but either way would be playing games they hadn't in the past.