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females will be turned-off from most of the industry's popular games.

All things said, there is no reason why women should feel that they do not belong as active participants in the video game community. Men and women are in fact equal, and should be presented with equal opportunities at life (except pregnancy, I don't think men want to go through that). Do you think girls have a huge problem with playing as Master Chief? When playing games online, or even against the computer, it can't tell whether or not the player is a boy or a girl, and it really doesn't care. Who knows, maybe the last person I played in Halo and lost very badly to was in fact a girl, or it could have been a guy. Realistically, it likely was a guy, but there's no reason why it couldn't have been a girl. Many male gamers do feel as if they cross over an invisible barrier when they start gaming, even if they are hanging out with girls. They may think that gaming is just something that girls have no place in, or no idea what to do with, so they may shut themselves out from girlfriends and friends who just happen to be girls while playing video games. Of course, there are solutions to this.

First of all, girls can join in with gaming. Men should let them play if they ask, so some effort may be required in that department. Secondly, guys shouldn't be playing video games around girls if they can see that they just aren't interested in it. It does come off as very rude when a guy and girl are hanging out, or a guy and another guy for that matter, and one of them starts playing video games and becomes so engrossed in it that he seems to forget the presence of a companion.

To me, gaming should never be thought of in terms of "Girls versus Boys." In fact, that's the mentality that many men used with golf, "an escape from the women." But there are female golfers, aren't there? There's no excuse for why men should resort to simply selecting an activity and declaring it "male-only." If men want an escape from women, they should just hang out with other men instead and not make a big deal out of what activities they may be undertaking, even if they are in fact just going to drink beer and play video games all day. But who knows, maybe publishers will come around with their thoughts on making games more female-friendly. Many role-playing games already offer the option to make your character female, so that should help women who believe they would have to play a "male" role in gaming. Girls versus Boys is just wrong; we should be talking about Girls and Boys.

Learn more about this author, David Aaron White.
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