Topic: Why is gaming mostly a guy thing?

I don't see why most girls would rather pick up a book than a videogame controller. With cool female game characters like Samus Aran as the star what's not to like? At least it's not as sexist as Mario. Some poor damsel in distress always having to wait in a castle for some guy to rescue her. I can see why girls wouldn't appreciate being portrayed as helpless. Samus doesn't need any man to save her.

If I could find me a gamer girl I'd think I died and went to heaven. If only I were that lucky.

In Metroid you control a chunky robot in a mechanical world, firing weapons and killing insect lifeforms. No one would ever come to the idea that the protagonist is a woman. If Nintendo wouldn't say so. I think there are many games that don't appeal to women because they're about war and destruction. Perhaps women are more peace-loving than men?

I'm lucky with my sister. Not only does she love games (most recently she played Pikmin, The Dog Island, Art of Balance and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles), she also loves horror movies and is open for a lot of other genres.

I really don't think most girls care much about how the game characteres are portraited as either helpless or strong woman or whatever. They want good simple gameplay. My wife also plays alot on the Wii, but she prefers games that are simple to understand, where you can figure out what to do easily and don't have to going around figuring complex things out just to get going. It still has to be challenging though.

"Easy to understand, hard to master"

Lady gamers aren't as rare as some might think. Also, being with a lady who plays games, isn't as cool as you might think.

oh yeah it is sirr

in the new metroid everyone will know its a women now

My sister is usually just a fan of casual games like DJ Hero. She did play through the Kingdom Hearts series, but other than that she's just a poor gamer.

Too many people confuse the idea of female gamers with the idea of Hot Female Gamers. There are plenty of female gamers just a slim number of them are hot though.....

@Acidfoxdyi831: Yes, everyone will know that. But if one takes the Medal of Honor Series, for example, and replaces the soldier by a young athletic woman wielding the same weapons. Will it be more interesting for girls? No. It will be more interesting for boys. That is also the reason why Tomb Raider is mostly played by boys imho.

Up to a point it is, yes, but then a new Zelda or Mario hits. You're either forced to share it with her, which for a proper Nintendoid, isn't fun. Or, you are forced to play apart in shifts, unable to speak of it or share the experience for fear of spoiling one another. Not a problem when living apart, but when in the same house it can cause issues. Trust me.

I wouldn't call my wife a "gamer", nor would I call myself one for that matter, but she does play games ranging from Wii Fit to Guild Wars to Dragon Age. In fact, she's the reason we purchased Dragon Age.

Maybe the females out there might say the same about we male gamers. I'm pretty hot, but I may be in the minority.

I don't think girl gamers are very rare. I'm a girl and I'm a video game fanatic who enjoys all genres. I also have a lot of friends who play.

I do agree that its a bit one sided though there are way more guy gamers, I think it might be because some girls find it to be a waste time, sure it might be fun but what have you accomplished? The house is still a mess, you didn't hang out with friends, all you done is add data to a piece of silicon. I totally disagree with that logic but it's true some people feel that way.

I think it's because Tingle scares all the girls away.

I think because a number of girls misinterpret the meaning of gaming. they think it's all punching, kicking etc. etc.

Yep, that is definitely the case. I have the husband who loves the outdoors, and criticizes my gaming habits, but just wait. As soon as we bring SMG2 home... fight to the death.

all right, i had to say something about this, because it's sad to read, really -- are you telling me you'd rather pick up a videogame controller than a book? there's so many awesome books out there, with no annoying cut-scenes or lame random enemies to endure in order to get the full story all the way to the end. lots of people, male and female both, would rather pick up a book than a game sometimes, thank you.

to be honest, i love the Mario series, but i can't stand to sit still long enough to play Metroid. it just bores me, and also, as a female who plays games, i don't want to be catered to, i want to be left alone. keep doing what you're doing, developers, because it's had me hooked so far. does that make any sense?

in short, i don't see why gender's such a big deal to guys. if a game is interesting, i don't care whether the protagonist is male or female, i'll still play the hell out of it. i also don't understand the focus on the 'elusive girl gamer' (again, from males) like chicks who play games are either a giant rarity or a big freakin' deal. we're here, we've always been here, and we're not going anywhere. it's not our fault you just haven't noticed us before, or that we're too busy playing our games to bother arguing against fanboys on the internets, lol.

I've seen plenty of female gamers while playing the L4D series more than any other game ever, and that's an FPS with gore, zombies, swearing and what not, I call it prejudice... I guess it all comes down to either if you are a mysoginist or not. I have pure hate towards girls who act stupid and expect guys to help them or give them a break just because they're girls and have an avatar where they look hot or pretty.

Something funny happened not long ago, I was playing L4D an this girl, who's really pretty and funny, was having a hard time with zombie hordes, and anyone who's played this game knows how hard can it get if they're mostly coming at you, so she says to one of the other two players: "dude don't help me, help the other guy (me) he's at +1 health" but this idiot kept trying to give her his med kit, if she was attacked by a tank (one of the most difficult enemies to attack alone) he would rush to her help disregarding if the other two guys needed more help. See, I never rage quit, I think it's stupid and immature so I decided to stick with the idiot and keep playing, right at the campaign finale the girl gets pulled back by a smoker (if you haven't played the game, if you're on the finale when all the enemies are coming right at you and get pulled by a smoker, an enemy with a long tongue, you're basically screwed) right when we were going to be rescued, he jumps out of the boat tries to help her but obviously gets killed, he was mad at her, I mean, REALLY #@$%@! mad at her, he insulted her, called all girls lame gamers, it was a tirade against any female in the world, so she just told him: dude you were hitting on me on a video game, don't be silly. He didn't day say anything else and left.

I guess this sums up most of the male gamers, they see a girl playing a video game and it's like they saw a rare specimen,and I mean, come on... real girls are out there, go out, talk to them, if a girl you like also loves playing video games well, that's another thing you both can do together, but don't believe a girl gamer is the alpha female of all females...

And guys, grab a book, is as much fun as it is killing zombies and collecting coins.

Here Here!