by Stacey Pace

Created on: June 11, 2009

Firstly and most importantly the main point is not make a big deal about them being female. This isn't a deciding factor as to what games they will like or in fact if they will like them at all. Whilst gaming is largely seen as a male past time there are still a lot of men that don't play games or even like them.

Don't assume that if it's pink or cute that a girl will definitely be into it. There are girls that are, but it's no guarantee that all girls will be the same. Games like Animal Crossing have a certain cuteness to them but there's more to it than that, it's actually a great game. MySims managed to pull off the cuteness of Animal Crossing but the actual game play wasn't as fluid so it didn't score as highly.

The inclusion of a female character is always a plus, this is why so many girls will play fighting games as there is usually the choice of a couple of female fighters. If you ask most women which character they play in their favourite fighting game a large percentage will choose the lady, Jun from Tekken 2 being amongst the favourites. Games that offer the choice of a female or male character will often bring in a more mixed customer base as they don't appear to be marketed to either sex exclusively.

There are entire genres that don't do anything to endear themselves to potential female customer with the way they advertise their games using semi-clad chicks. This usually isn't relevant to the game itself and serves only to titillate their customers who are unlucky enough to not have a lady of their own. In doing this they are alienating the female gaming community and sending out the message that they are only marketing to lads in their teens.

I've known girls be into all sorts of genres and there isn't just one specific type of game that appeals more. Stereotypically speaking women are supposed to be better at puzzles but this stretches far beyond just obvious games like Tetris, Super Puzzle Fighter, Bust-a-move and Boom Blox. All of the games in the Resident Evil, Zelda and Phoenix Wright series have puzzles as part of the plot that provide a challenge whilst being mentally stimulating too.

So in conclusion, the best way to encourage girls to play video games is to acknowledge that there are already a great many female gamers. To include them in the target audience and not in a patronising 'girls need easy cute games in order to relate to them' kinda way!

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