I think you're close to what's going on, Ejoty, but just to clear up the stereotyping, let me point out a few things:(posted 8978 days ago)1) There are a lot of female videogamers, but usually the type of games they play is different.I don't think many women spent a lot of time with vertical or horizontal scrollers (maybe because they're predominantly war-like shooters?) but I have known a lot of women who played Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Tetris, Warcraft II, and as QRS said, Puzzle Bobble. Seems to me that most female vid-gamers just like a different type of game, that's all.
2. I don't think women WANT to be as competitive as men in the videogame field--you don't see many of them hanging around in arcades, unless accompanied by a male friend. This may be because of the atmosphere, or just because of different interests--the only games I've seen girls plaing in the arcades lately are Crazy Taxi, multiplayer driving games, and that dancing one (can't remember the name). It's intersting to note that there just aren't that many innovative games being released, so where would the motivation be for a woman with a moderate interest in gaming to go to an arcade when a die hard like me rarely goes anymore?
Same thing online. Most of the scoreboards on the Internet are for games like Quake, Half-Life, Tribes, etc.--all shooters. MARP has other types of games, so we attract a few female members--and look at the games that they play for the most part--Bubble Bobble, Diamond Run, Moon Patrol, APB, Mouse Trap (although Sorceress does have a few Smash TV .inps, it's more than likely because she was leeching firsts on games with no .inps). Go to somewhere with a really strong social element, say, Bezerk's Acrophobia or other online video gaming where you can actually meet and interact with people, and the population is often predominantly female.
Just some stuff to think about before we get into more 'girls don't play videogames.' They just play different kinds.
QCN