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boys, this usually involves something that requires them to hone their level of skill in order to win over opposing odds as a form of self-satisfaction. Girls, for the most part, tend to look at video games entirely as a means of entertainment. Often times, girls view the amount of skill required to play a game as an obstacle, and if that obstacle is too great, the game is simply not worth spending time on.

Imagine going to a movie theater. Ten minutes into the movie, the show stops, and you are given anawkward-looking hand held plastic thing with buttons on it. The show will not proceed until you successfully complete a seemingly random but precise button sequence. This happens continuously throughout your movie. Whenever you complete the button sequence correctly, it is in fact a satisfying perk, but a small perk compared toactually watching the movie.

Out of the ninety three video game testers present at the THQ facility I worked at, eleven of those testers were female-myself included. I would argue that video game developers do not consciously market games to boys as opposed to girls. Rather, it is a widely understood notion thatmost video games are more naturally appealing to boys due to thair more competetive nature, so the smart thing for the developer to do would be to try to sell games to the more reliable market. Scantily clad female video game characters are much more common than scantily clad male video game characters - simply for the same reason why we'll never see a man on a television commercial advertising hair dye. The product does sell to both genders, but one gender is a significantly more reliable market.

Learn more about this author, Amanda Miller.
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