Since video games first arrived, they have always been associated as a guy’s medium. New technology in general, coming out from the computer industry, has mostly been a guy’s thing, as guys have always loved working with their hands, getting them dirty in the process.

Enter the computer age, and the same guys went from working on cars and machines, to building computers. In fact, one of the first computer games, Spacewar, came to be when creator Steve Russell experimented with computer equipment he already had in his lab at M.I.T.

When we fast forward a couple of years, we find that 43% of all gamers are, in fact, women. There are also more female gamers over 18, than there are male gamers under 18. The stigma that only 15 year old boys sitting in their bedroom all day play video games isn’t the case anymore… if it were ever the case to begin with.

In the beginning, arcade games were rooted in male fantasy. There were a lot of racing games, sports games and shooters. Very few games were geared towards women, but some drew a bigger female crowd than others. Centipede, co-created by Dona Bailey and Ed Logg, was one of the few games of that era with a strong female following.

This has been credited to the game’s colours. Centipede had a lot of soft pastels, which was a distinct contrast to the harsh, bright colours of arcade games at the time. Because of this, it is believed women were drawn to this particular cabinet.

While Centipede was the first arcade game designed by a woman, Pac-Man was the first arcade game designed specifically with women in mind. Toru Iwatani, Pac-Man’s designer, noticed that very few arcade gamers were women. Pac-Man is born, and the rest is history.

Looking at Pac-Man, you can tell why women found it so appealing. The characters weren’t scary, with big eyes and bright, friendly colours. You drove Pac-Man around with the joystick, chasing ghosts and eating pellets in the process. Pac-Man was a game you didn’t need any previous gaming experience to play, which appealed to women.

When a game does as well as Pac-Man did, a sequel is bound to be made. A year after Pac-Man’s release, Ms. Pac-Man comes out, which is the first arcade game with a female protagonist.

As home computers were becoming more powerful, more games that would challenge your intellect were being made. These games could be bigger, and certainly longer, than the games in the arcades. The first King’s Quest game was created in 1984 by Roberta Williams, and is considered to be one of the first RPG style adventure games, a genre female gamers seem to enjoy heavily.

“My favourite genre would be anything that needs a storyline and characters. RPGs and the like. It’s difficult to pick out on particular game as my favourite. I think that the Broken Sword series would be my all time favourite, edging over Final Fantasy, which has been sullied by some less than perfect titles,” states Chloe from the TGV forums.

Fellow gamer Dawn agrees: “They’re that perfect balance between straight up action and strategy.” 

Other members of our community, Laura and Corrine, both openly admit to being geeks, and have been gaming since early childhood, having been brought into the gaming scene by their families.

“I started playing games when I was about 4, when my parents bought a SNES, which I played with my mother and sister. My mother was probably more interested in the games than we were at that age,” says Corrine.

Both Laura and Chloe began gaming at the ages of around 4-5, on PC and console, respectively, and all of these are now full grown adults with with jobs, responsibilities, and even families of their own. Yet gaming still continues to be a positive and regular part of their daily lives.

Of course, this is only a fraction of the female gaming spectrum, but it sets a precedent.

While Ms. Pac-Man opened the door for female heroes in video games, Samus Aran and Lara croft kicked it down completely. Though they used different weaponry and came from completely different time periods, they proved to an endless number of gamers that female characters could could kick most male’s character’s asses into the dust!

A growing amount of similar heroines such as Jill Valentine (Resident Evil) Joanna Dark (Perfect Dark), Chun-Li (Street Fighter), April Ryan (of The Longest Journey) and Alyx Vance (Half Life 2) all followed suit as the years went by, giving young, female gamers their own role models to look up to.

“Back when female heroes were a bit more rare, I would play a little more attention to finding out information about games with female leads, but it’s a lot more common now.” Chloe answered when asked about the subject.

“I don’t think the gender of the main character makes much difference to girls who are already gamers… And those that aren’t probably wouldn’t notice the difference much, in my opinion. I do think that it’s probably a bit more welcoming, though, when there are strong female characters in a game.”

Recently, the industry’s need to cater to a wider audience has spawned such “hits” as Imagine: Babies and Imagine: Fashion Designer, rooted in apparent female fantasy.

“On one hand, it’s a great way to appeal to a still largely untouched female market; on the other it’s very stereotypical. Most adult female gamers such as me has little interest in it, and hope developers don’t pigeonhole any gender with specific games,” says Dawn.

Laura adds, “Well, I guess if it sells… I don’t think they’re all that popular really. They do kind of insult me, because just because a person is female, doesn’t mean they want to play with babies.” Corrine mentions it would be the only genre she wouldn’t touch, but she does hope young girls will use it as a “gateway drug” into the world of video games.

Having said that, it’s worth noting that a lot of the most recent female gaming audience comes from the increasing amount of casual games in today’s market. All this goes to show that if you do your best to appeal to a large number of people, you’re going to sell a lot of consoles and games.

Thanks to the continuously growing female audience, a lot of the stigma and stereotypes attached to girl gamers are effectively erased, yet some linger; “Same with males; that we’re fat, ugly chicks with no lives. Either that, or we’re not really gamers, and we don’t play ‘real’ games. That’s a bloody insult,” says Laura.

Chloe, on the other hand, believes the stereotypes are fading; “Being geeky used to mean you were anti-social, lame and not very attractive. This stigma just isn’t attached anymore, because pretty much everybody enjoyed playing in a console nowadays.” She does admit that there will always be girl gamers who fit into the stereotype though.

“Those stereotypes are decreasing significantly and soon I bet being a girl gamer won’t mean anything, good or bad, soon. Just how I’d like it to be,” finishes Dawn.

Just look at Felicia Day for a recent, obvious example.

While some of the stereotypes may have faded, there are male gamers who are not yet acquainted with the fact that women play video games.

“They invariably have two reactions: they either run off, afraid of me, or fall head over heels at the prospect of a girl who knows something about games,” laughs Dawn.

Corrine works at a game store, but encounters nothing but positive reactions there; “One couple I helped a few months ago sticks out in my mind. The woman, who was also a gamer, said, ‘She knows so much about video games! And she’s so cute too! I love this girl!’”

Certain gamers might argue that the advent of casual games is slowly killing the more hardcore side of the games industry. Yet to inclusion of more gamers into the fold cannot be a bad thing.

One of those new gamers could very well be the next Dona Bailey or Roberta Williams, eventually creating the next great classic.

For men and woman alike.