I wrote this in a forum earlier today. What are your thoughts? REMEMBER TO KEEP READING TODAY'S OTHER WONDERFUL POSTS!

As an avid female gamer, I'd like to say that I don't play any of the social games that women are supposed to love. Why is it that we are trying to categorize women into a giant clump by saying that women like "interaction/social games" when men are allowed to like all the games that are currently out there? I always like to compare it to the movies. Women don't only like "chick flicks", so why should women only like a certain kind of game? Why don't we look at marketing for a minute. There ought to be more marketing geared toward women and at young girls. I'm not even talking about marketing only "girly" games at women, but all kinds of games INCLUDING sports games and shooters. Do we not have women athletes? How many men's magazines have you read that have game advertisements? MANY! How many magazines for women have you seen game ads? I think I've only seen one and that was the Sims. Thinking about TV, Spike TV (a channel with a male audience in mind) has a ton of game commercials and they even get a game awards show! Luckily MTV has a lot of game commercials, so hopefully that will reach some of the female audience. I taught a class as a grad. student entitled The History of Gaming. We had every student write a blog each week about a game that they had played. A common thread from the females in the class was that they felt resentment towards games such as Barbie, etc. They often said that they like the same games that the boys are allowed to like, and more than anything hate when it is assumed they can't play well just because they're a girl. I personally feel the same way they do. I like to shoot a bunch of pixels on a screen, and I like to focus on solving problems. I like a story in my games, and I want clear goals. I am making the previous statements as a contradiction to many of the articles I have read denouncing womens' interests in such factors. I have also done a study asking women in the gaming industry their personal opinions about games. As it was for a university, I can not publish it or make direct reference to it, but again a major factor they saw was the lack of marketing. Although my opinion seems to completely oppose what is talked about in previous posts, I do want to say that I am for development of really good RPGs and Sim games, but for the sake of making GREAT games, and not because it is one of the few kinds of game believed to tap the female market. I have just one more request on behalf my fellow female gamers, can we draw the boobs just a little bit smaller and a little less bouncy? :) Those are my .02!