Gender and Gaming

I dont have any sisters but my girlfriend plays the occasional game. She doesnt put in as many hours as I do, but she does own a Wii and enjoys some of the same kind of games as I do (she's even up to level 42 in World of Warcraft). On the other hand, my best friends wife despises games which she considers to be a waste of time (though watching hour upon hour of CSI and Desperate House Wives apparently isnt. The bit that really gets me is that if my friend says he is going to read a book for an hour, thats fine, but if he says he will play a game for an hour theres a lot of rolling of eyeballs and exasperated sighing going on. The question is, which of these points of view represents the 'female' attitude to games?

The answer is of course that neither of them do. If someone like or dislikes games, the question of gender is irrelevant as far as I can see, and to try and pigeon hole an entire gender like this is meaningless. Historically, Computer Sciences have been mostly the domain of males (perhaps due to their image of being 'nerdy') and so most games that get made are the types of games that these males would enjoy playing themselves which may not necesarily have a cross gender appeal. Thankfully, these attitudes are changing, more and more females are getting involved in the computer revolution and what the industry produces will be reflected by the women working in the industry.

However, to specifically produce games for a gender is an alien concept to me. I (like most developers I believe) want to produce games which I would find entertaining. Whether or not it will appeal to 'boys' or 'girls' simply isnt part of the equation. Hopefully more female developers will adopt the same approach and make games they love and which may have more appeal to thier gender.

That being said, I tried Miss Bimbo (briefly), and there was absolutly no appeal for me. But, if they swapped clothing for armor and makeup for weapons the game would be identical to any other RPG game out there and I love RPG's. Maybe thats the difference in Gender and Gaming? (or maybe Im just a nerd).