Males designed most video games for males. Console manufacturers and game makers put a lot of thought into how to hang on to customers as they grow older. Teenage boys remain the most important market for most games, especially the first–person shooters, known also as “twitch” games. But teenagers are a shifting market. Yesterday’s child is today’s teenager and tomorrow’s adult. Boys who discover that girls are not so annoying after all become less concerned about laser blasting.

An important reinforcement to the play/performance comes from friends and strangers who watch the player. At the arcades what the observer usually saw were teenage boys playing the games and teenage girls cheering them on and admiring their skills instead of playing themselves. Girls may have played video games all along, but not in arcades, which seemed to be dominated by boys making noise. Most video games were boy–oriented until video game makers discovered that girls were interested in playing video games too. They began making games like the Nancy Drew mysteries for this half of the population that they had neglected. Studies showed that boys liked aggressive games more than girls did, so the game makers took that difference into consideration.

A study of heart rates while playing video games showed that girls’ heart rates increased more than boys’ rates. That was true for both playing and just watching.15

Nintendo introduced Game Girl to match its successful Game Boy players, but it did not catch on. Pac–Man, on the other hand, has been described as cute, with an appeal to women. Recognizing that a market for women and girls was being ignored, its manufacturer, Namco, introduced Ms. Pac–Man, who wore lipstick and a red bow on her yellow head. Namco then discovered that both boys and girls liked it even better than Pac–Man. Patricia Greenfield, author of many books about how children learn, was pleasantly surprised when she tried Pac–Man.

Pac–Man proved to be a “cross–over” game. People who had no interest whatever in shoot–em–ups or spaceships or monsters “crossed over” into video games to play it. They could not seem to get enough of the dot–eating little creature. (Pac–Man’s name comes from the Japanese term “paku paku,” meaning “gobble, gobble.” Game designer Toru Iwatani said its shape came to him after he ate one slice from a pizza, then stared at what remained.)

A 2007 study by the Entertainment Software Association reported that thirty percent of all video game players were adult women compared to twenty–three percent of players who were boys under 18.

As expected, women tend to avoid violent games. They prefer to solve puzzles, test their dexterity (Nintendo’s Wii system is popular), help their comrades put dragons in their place, and heal their fallen friends. The online Second Life is a big favorite. Women and younger girls particularly liked non–lethal games needing sharp eye–hand coordination, sometimes called “muscle memory.” You needed quick reflexes to play Pac–Man, Donkey Kong, Frogger, and Prince of Persia. Women liked these games. Researchers also noted that women preferred to take their leisure time in short segments, rather than to sit for hours at a game.

Another favorite of women, the Sims, are games about ordinary people living ordinary lives. The player controls the characters and must navigate them through human situations. SimCity has been used as a training tool in college management classes. A survey of Japanese adult women who like the games expressed several wishes for new simulations. This is a long way from shooter games. The Sim series, the Civilization series, and the Tycoon series (e.g., Zoo Tycoon) crossed gender lines. These “god games” allowed the player to play a god in a variety of situations, such as a war or managing a city.

Testosterone continued to get the game designers’ attention. In 1996, from Britain came Lara Croft, Tomb Raider. Despite being a female hero, her busty, leggy appearance was designed to appeal to young males. The original script called for the main character to be a man, but the designers feared that the game looked like an Indiana Jones ripoff. Instead, Lara was born. By Tomb Raider III, the player who reached a higher level sent Lara into a new virtual reality in some exotic corner of the world. What seemed just a game provided a geography lesson with a male fantasy.

A study of how players referred to games reported that most people referred to a game as “it,” as in “It hates me.” Next most common was “he,” as in, “He’s trying to get me.” Also common was “you” (“You dumb machine!”) and “they” (“They think they’re so smart; I’ll show them”). No one referred to a game as “she.” One player called the game “Fred.”