The game industry just doesn’t have young girls in mind when making games. The only ones I see specifically targeted for girls are the cheap $9 dollar games you find in the retail bins. Generally they are very bad quality games.

Another thing I have noticed. Think about the main characters you see in video games. You see men, women and boys. I do not think I recall a single ‘good’ game where a female child was the main character.

2. I like(d) most all puzzle games, and action games can be fun if they’re not too stressful. I have all the Lego games- you don’t die, you fall apart and get put back together! I’ve always loved vintage Zelda.

Most of my games now are social: RockBand, DDR, MarioCart… you know.

I like to build and decorate houses for the Sims, but after that I’m not interested in telling people to use the potty.

3. I have trouble with first person shooters because I’m always getting shot in the back. I’ve had this problem since the days of DOOM. I’d run into a wall, turn around and run into the same wall. I might like Lara Croft if I could control her.

4. I hate the format for most RPGs. Wandering around and then surprise- You’re in ‘fight mode’ now! Seems tedious.

5. As soon as there’s a time limit, or I’m underwater and need to breathe, I panic and fail. My guy friends have to do the timed parts on Spyro and Mario for me all the time. I concede it is possible that I’m just not interested in overcoming the learning curve for a thirty second snippet of video game.

6. Who knew I had so much to say about video games?

reCAPTCHA: ments Canned

Wouldn’t most people agree that Laurel is promoting sexism by saying there should be “girl games” and “boy games”? In all my years of playing video games I’ve never once heard or girls complaining there weren’t enough games out there for them. In fact, I’ve played games marketed to girls, such as the Barbie games on the NES. They were horrible!

The reason might not necessarily be that girls shun games that have higher learning curves but they might also want to harness their creativity and imagination in some other way, just like how there is a marked difference between how an adult male and female perceive videogames (in general).

In other words, all the violence and drama of high octane action and role playing games might not necessarily be suited for people with higher EQ levels.

As an adult, I enjoy room escape games and the Sims tops my list. I shamefully admit to playing silly Barbie fashion and makeover games as well. Platform games just aren’t my cup of tea.

I think I always wanted a game that had broad objectives – nothing like “storm the castle” or “jump over this crevice”, nothing like that. More…dare I say? Girly stuff, like take care of that baby or something. Definitely not those time management games though. Hate those.

I think girls do prefer games that are shorter because they like to master a game easily and play a variety of games. I remember liking Sonic 1 but also liked Streets of Rage 3. As an adult I play a variety of games including Mario Kart and Harvest Moon (like the sims but you have a farm) but will also shoot bad guys in Time Crisis. It just depends on the personality. I also think girls are willing to play games that might be more geared to guys if they have a brother who plays video games.