Here we go again ...

Stop the presses, women are gamers ... ooooh!

'The debate about how to get women more involved in gaming is a perennial one and one on which there is pretty wide agreement that not enough is being done.'

I feel the correct response isn't to release a pink playstation! And I guess 'fluffy' games may help to introduce young girls to the joys of gaming but it would hardly work on the twenty and thirty somethings.

'Women now account for around a third of UK gamers, so it is time to stop talking about women in gaming as if they lived in a separate universe?'

It's simply not as complicated as some are making it out to be. In fact, I feel it can be summed up in three points:

1. There is a huge variety of games available. In the same way that all men don't all enjoy playing driving games, not all women will enjoy playing shopping games. Stop pigeon holing women - some like playing the Sims, others like real time strategy games and, believe it or not, some just want to shoot things in first person shooters or MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game).

2. Make sure the games have the option for the player to choose a male or a female character (preferrably with realistic body shapes).

3. Get rid of simpering Damsels in Distress who have to rely on the hero and if you do have a strong character don't dress her in gravity defying micro-bikini-armour.

Sorted.

'There is still a perception that women who play male-dominated games are going to be ignored, shouted down or chatted up by men they will be playing against. "There is a preconceived notion that you will feel out of place but that isn't borne out by women who are actually playing games," she said (Ms Kearney, games industry journalist and a Frag Doll)'

I agree with that last comment. I play an MMORPG (called Star Wars Galaxies) with a female avatar (a character whose body shape, skin tone, hair and clothing are all designed by me).

One of the first questions I get asked is whether I am a girl or a guy. When they find out I'm female in real life, the usual response is something along the lines of "cool" and then we go on to talk about other things.

Probaby the only difference is the guys might tone their language down ... until they learn that I also have an extensive vocabulary of profanities when I'm in the middle of a fight!

The gaming community isn't just nerdy guys or pimply faced youths. However, if I'm likely to get any sort of negative response it will be from the latter. When that happens then me or my guild mates just kick his butt. ;o)