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explaining why males tend to be more interested than females in shooting games or other violent games. This helps explain why consoles that tend to feature less violent games such as the Nintendo DS and the PSP are quite popular among females. Nonetheless, many women have been known to play all sorts of genres of games.

Probably biggest difference when comparing boys versus girl s in the gaming community is not with the actual gamers, but rather game designers. Women comprise of only 12 percent of the gaming industry. Unfortunately, there is a very heavy male bias towards game creation. According to a survey conducted by Sony Online Entertainment, the majority of female students studying game design at The Art Institutes believe that male dominance deters other females from pursuing a career in gaming. This statistic is particularly unsettling because contrary to popular thought, women consist of an extremely large chunk of the gaming community.

References:
West, Matt. "Wooing women gamers - and game creators." CNN News, Feb 28, 2008 .

PR Newswire, "Nielsen Entertainment Study Shows Video Gaming is Increasingly a Social Experience;
More Than Half of the Nation's 117 Million Active Gamers Play Online, and 64% are Women". Oct 5, 2006

http://www.gamingworldx.co m/features/thoff-intro.shtml

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