As a girl who is an avid gamer I find it endlessly frustrating that there seems to be an assumption that girls either don't play video games or only play the games which are specifically marketed to females. I not only play "boys" video games but I am often better than my male friends at them.

NANI!?! Girls can do that now?
just joking. but chea, i've been gettin my mom into play games and she does a'ight for herself.
her greatest achievement so far would halo 3 on legendary
I had just got tired of her calling everything "'intendo" and asking, "That aint that Grand Theft sex game is it?"
that ish got annoying fast
but I don't let her play anything online, not yet anyway

I've always been playing games since the days of the nintendo with mario and duckhunt. Currently on Okami. ^-^

I actually appreciate females in the online games =S. even though i don't tell them to send me nakid pictures or something like that... but to know that at least i'm not some scary otaku =S and that girls do that too .

well i guess some scary guys online would get desperate... especially ones on blizzard. =S since for me, i'd just assume it's a guy playing because all the ign are rather... akward =S.

I only know a few girls who play games "competitively," and they're seriously amazing. And then there are the others who are just into it quite casually, mostly DS puzzle games, and music-oriented games (Rock Band, Guitar Hero, etc). It's not that there aren't a lot of them, it's just that we're all socially constructed in a way that video games are for guys, even though they're obviously not...heh.

I'm a female gamer. XD Always have been! And I seem to know a lot more girls that like playing video games than guys. O__o And definitely more girl anime fans...how strange. But ugh, yeah, it's sort of dangerous online if there are guys being jerks like that. :/ Pervs. Girl gamers will prevail!!

I'm glad that more girls/women are getting into video games. Whether its computer games, online games, console games, CARD GAMES even!

I went to a concert at the start of ... winter? Or maybe, end of fall... Anyway, it was called Video Games Live. I was so impressed at the amount of women there! And such contrasts too- some of them seemed rather masculine, some feminine and cute, some on the young side, others on the older side!

Unfortunately, I think girls will always have it a bit rougher when it comes to games- especially games that have always been more male-driven (like first-person-shooters). It's nice to see that the girl gamers here don't take it but sling it right back (me included)!

Especially over the past couple system releases, I'm finding that video games are becoming more androgynous- even pushing more towards the "feminine" side. Cooking Mama aside, more and more games are becoming androgynous (and ageless, hurrah Wii Fit). I hope it continues to go into a more collective direction, rather than splitting it into a "for her" or "for him" fight. I encourage guys to try more "feminine" games (and vice versa for girls)!!

Random thing that irks me about MMORPGs... men using female characters to get free stuff/services. I made a male character on WoW and my boyfriend at the time made a female character (because mine was male) and he got offered gold, items, or runs through instances because his character was a girl! Some guys do this purposefully, but my bf found it funny. I was just all "what the heck?" most of the time.

I'm going to stop before I write an entire book here.

I love playing first person shooters games..they really really get me into it.
i dont go all crazy like some people do but it just keeps me really interested into the game.

There actually is alot of girls that play video games...
I just don't know any hot ones.. LOL

It's generally because there really just aren't many girls that play videogames. As a result, when people find out that one does, it becomes... like... a common interest and they think, I dunno, think they have a shot or something. The fact that they aren't actually seeing the person really helps with that whole courage thing too. The girl can't actually (without considerable work...) go over and slap the guy for being a dick, so the anonymity of the internet definitely helps.

I think female gamers are pretty cool, and its unique cause you don't really see them around here. I like them a lot more actually cause in games with teamwork, you can get better alternative thinking than guys at times. So it is pretty cool that girls game.

It's nice to see that a lot of you aren't shelling this thread with sexist comments, don't get to see that very often on the internet :D And I've found (I'm a girl in case that isn't apparent) that going online with games like Halo or COD is pretty daunting just because if the other players know that you are a girl, they're more prone to yelling at you if you mess up or hitting you up for photos, etc. You all have already heard about that side. But I've found that when playing in real life with other male gamers, the pressure to do better than them is astounding. Not that you win, just do better or get close to their score. It's like if you don't, you open yourself to months of snide comments about how they TOTALLY OWNED at that one game. But if it were a bunch of guys together I have a feeling that they wouldn't say anything after a few days.

If I'm wrong on this, just say so. Girls can be just as sexist against boys as boys are to girls. On another note, there are a lot of girls online, they probably just stay anonymous. This changes from game to game of course, but overall, they're everywhere and exist on all skill levels xD

Also, I think it's interesting that girls are more interested in the calmer games, or RPG's instead of FPS's. I've never felt that way. For me (at least) I love playing all kinds of games if I'm allowed to learn how and don't feel like if I mess up once everyone will be laughing at me. That's probably the reason why I played by myself a lot until just last year.

It shouldn't matter what gender we are, because games aren't created just for guys, and it's not like girls only like such games without violence where you can build houses and plant flowers, I am a girl and like to play different kinds of games (maybe there is a difference at a young age because I liked to play a lot with barbie dolls and pretending to be a princess) but after you grow up a bit more, you start to dislike disney characters and want another cool character. I have liked final fantasy for a big while now, at least for 6 years, and I have a whole bunch of things like keychains, pillow, cards, wallpapers etc etc, I am also studying computer game development in University and I am not the only girl, I have met other girls as well (not that many, but still, I am not alone ^^).

Online games are like that when it comes to make friends, I used to play Diablo 2, and guys became fascinated just from the thought of actually meeting a girl playing an online game, after all, it is a bit boring if it only is guys that are playing :P many of my friends outside the game world aren't used to see girls playing video games, and when I tell them what I am studying, they always ask me "really??, how come you chose such a carrier??" and it's not like you can predict my carrier from my looks, because I don't look like a nerd girl with no style and life :P I am always fixing myself, hair, makeup, jewellery etc.

Ah, thanks Tifa. I hope to do what you're doing one day and it's good to know I won't be the only girl around, or that it's impossible.

Yes, my sister started playing my game consoles recently...i am quite surprised by her sudden change of interest.However i now have new worries of my game CDs condition...