I work part time at a video game store and what I notice so far is that all the customers are guys between 10 and 30 something.
A wide gap of ages but I have yet to see a female of any age come into the store to buy or rent something for themselves, it is always for a Boyfriend, Son or Nephew.
Do girls even like video games? :dubious:
I know some girls who play final fantasy 11, I know a lot of girls who play the Sims. I’ve had girlfriends have played mortal kombat, tekken, or soulcaliber depending on what I was playing at the time.
I’d say the ratio of guys to girls in video games is about the same as the ratio in D and D or a star trek convention. You don’t see very many of them, but evey once in a while one will wander by with spock ears.
My sister, who played Pole Position to death as a girl (I think she actually finished the damn race once) didn’t touch video games for years…until Dance Dance Revolution came out of nowhere in 1999. She’s not only played most of my DDR collection, now she’s seen a number of other PS2 games she likes and will be getting one soon. Still nowhere near as hardcore as me, though…she’s never even heard of a Codebreaker before I mentioned it, and she doesn’t even want a modchip. Like, WTH? 
My arcades didn’t use to have female regulars, but they do now, most of them centered on the “nontraditional” games.
Anyway, I believe that the one really big sticking point is DIFFICULTY. If you made any effort to get good at Defender, Robotron, or Ms. Pac-man, you knew that it was pretty dang hard. With games like DDR, however, you can actually set the bar as high as you want, and if all you want is a little entertainment without much risk, you can have it. It’s this freedom, more than anything else, that’s bringing in all the players who don’t get insanely fanatical about a single game.
Nonetheless, I’d be really surprised if I heard about a woman who was as hardcore about console games as me, let alone the guys who won’t even touch a Codebreaker.
Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance (1 on Game Cube, 2 on Xbox because they didn’t release it for Game Cube, so we were forced into buying a whole new system, those bitches), Outlaw Golf, THPS3, and Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance are probably my favorite Game Cube games, of the ones I own. I like Big Mutha Truckers for Xbox, but it’s still new so we don’t have a whole lot of games yet.
I have a Super Nintendo, too. I just bought Super Mario World, and I have Zelda (beat it once without even dying) and 3 sports games that I’ve never played.
Huge gamer here, and I’m a girl.
I go into video game stores all the time, by myself, or with my husband. The people who work there often look at me like I am an alien, the geeky boys hide behind displays, and mouths drop open if I ask about an expansion coming out 
Apparently, I’m a rarity. One shy fellow walked up to me in EB and told me I smelled nice. I looked at my husband, confused, and he put his hand on my shoulder and said “It’s okay. It’s the first time he’s seen a woman in Real LifeTM.”
I own a Gamecube, Gameboy, and Gameboy Advance, but will play any system - I just prefer Nintendo. I am a big MMORPG player, too, and am currently running EQ2 in the background while I look up some info on it and check the SDMB occasionally. 
I’m also a regular on GameFAQs message boards.
I love old games, too, from Atari, Commodore 64, and I just busted out my BILs SNES so I could play Earthbound again.
I own RPGs, action, sports games, sim games, arcade, shooters, etc, etc.
I used to be big-time into video games, especially RPGs (favorite: Phantasy Star), fighting games, puzzle games, and simulations (I bought Sim City when it first came out). I mostly played computer games, though I did have a Sega Genesis and an original monochromatic Gameboy. I’m not much into gaming anymore, but I’ll dust off something like the Sims or Age of Empires every once in awhile.
My sister has a GameCube that she uses sometimes, though she’s not a fanatic about it. I think that if you spend enough time at the store, you’ll eventually run into a girl who’s buying or renting something for herself.
I’ve been into videogames since… well, since I first saw them. I started out on the Nintendo Game and Watch games, went through all the early Nintendo stuff, dabbled in BASIC programming on the Spectravideo, got right into the Sega consoles and was hooked on dozens of Commodore 64 games before we got the 286 in 1990 and a whole new world opened up. I’ve played and loved every incarnation of Civilization, I’m a Sim City fan from way back. I kick ass on Mortal Kombat though I can never get out the Babalities (they suck anyway). I’m really a sucker for the kiddie games, so I’m a huge Mario fan. My favourite is Mariokart. My husband has never been able to beat me racing in Mariokart. Some of the games I’ve loved over the years: Masters of Orion, Deathtrack, Streetrod, Double Dragon, Duke Nukem (right back into the platform game days!), Earthworm Jim, Worms, Superplex, Commander Keen, Captain Comic (which I can beat every time without losing a single life), Giana Sisters (ripoff of Mario Brothers), Mr Do, Blockout and I’m sure a whole heap more will come back to me as soon as I press Submit
Nowadays, I don’t have so much time for gaming. My most recent game purchases are Settlers IV (yeah, it’s getting older by the minute, but I always loved the original) and The Sims 2 which is a very girly game that I just adore.
My wife hates FPS, but can kick my arse at Tomb Raider: she beat all of them in a third the time it took me. We’re currently contesting Simpsons: Hit and Run bragging rights, although Little Case, who’s almost three, is now complicating the equation by insisting he gets to share the controls with whoever’s playing. Kid’s got NO sense of direction.
I love video games. My favorites are the Burnout Games on the X-Box, and Sims 2 on the PC.
I am however, usually the only female in the video game store not accompanying a boyfreind or child. The same goes for the comic shop.
That’s an excellent point. It’s not so much that girls don’t like playing videogames, it’s that girls typically don’t like shopping for videogames. Videogame stores are basically hobby shops, which are typically male (and nerd) oriented. Same goes for “hardcore” gamers; it’s still seen as a nerdy hobby, and the “hardcore” element of any nerdy hobby is usually predominantly male.
Also, girls and women tend to see videogames as a social activity, while guys (apart from the whole getting the gang together to play some sports or racing game) typically see them as solitary. So that’s why you get the women who say that they’re buying it for someone else or with someone else.
The Sims games, as have already been mentioned, actually have more female players than male ones. It also gets a lot of its sales from non-game-specific stores, like Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy.
Codebreakers are for wimps. Plus they can jack up your console.
My wife plays a lot of cooperative games with me, like Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath. OK, so maybe there aren’t a lot of cooperative games, but we play them dammit. Lately we’ve been into World of Warcraft pretty heavily. If you wanna join the Burning Dog Legion, get on Thunderhorn server with a Horde character and send a tell to Tamba (Darkhold, the leader), Rogrim (Dibbler), Gorm (not yet a Doper but we’re working on it), Ragesong (available light, aka my wife), or Malevond (me). There’s a thread about it but I’m too lazy to link to it.
I’ve been playing games since they were invented. The first game I remember was a hook-to-your-TV Pong game my parents brought home in 1975.
I’ve played 'em all, from the first Space Invaders and PacMan games to the newest coolest PC games. About the only thing I’m not into is console games - I stick to PC games, as I really don’t have time to do both.
I was a hardcore Everquest player for a long time, including a stint running a guild. Currently, I’m switching between Doom 3, Pirates!, and World of Warcraft.
I not only enter game stores, but buy things for myself there.
I loves me video games.
When my Blockbuster gets a GameRush, I REALLY want to work there. Be the only lady, hehe.
Anyway, I like the PS2 and SNES games.
BloodRayne 1&2,
Final Fantasy X,
Fatal Frame II,
Sims,
Primal,
Shadow of Destiny,
Series of Unfortunate Events,
Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past,
well, most Zelda games,
Donkey Kong Country,
etc.
Hell yeah I do. I’m a 34-year-old married woman, been playing video games ever since “Pong” came out. I’ve owned an Atari 2600, Commodore Vic-20, Commodore 64, Sega Genesis, Playstation, and now a Playstation 2, plus I play games on computers, and went to arcades in high school and college.
My main video game of choice at the moment is City of Heroes. I played EverQuest for about 4 years (starting at launch, and taking a 1.5 year break in between) before that, even playing for a while in the top guild on that server. I also enjoy finding and playing fun Neverwinter Nights games, and the next game release I’m looking forward to is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 for PC.
One of my favorite stores is Best Buy, and I’ll almost inevitably check out the game selection while I’m there.
My daughter is a gamer, and has been for years. She’s usually the only girl in the game stores around here, and there are a couple of places she actually boycotts because the gamegeeks working behind the counter wouldn’t take her seriously. That’s been a big benefit for the local shop where she gets excellent customer service, because she spends hundreds of dollars a year on games, accessories, magazines, hardware, action figures, etc.
walks past wearing Spock ears What?
There are definately girl gamers out there, I’m one and a have a few girlfriends who are also into console games. I love buying new video games as well–I have a GBA, N64 and a PS1, and plan on getting a new handheld as well as one of the next gen consoles sometime in the next couple years. Most of them are more into RPGs than other types of games–I’m big into RPGs myself–while my male friends are more into sports and FPS games. Interest seems to be even in action and fighters. To be honest, I never thought of video games to be a ‘boys’ thing though–growing up most people I knew had a games system of some sort in their houses, and just thought everyone was into it. Even now, I wouldn’t think at all about going into a game shop full of guys alone, and I wouldn’t even notice that I was the only girl in there either unless someone pointed it out, at which point I’d just shrug it off.
Another girly checking in who’ll whup up on you at any Tony Hawk game you care to produce.
I was the first in my family to help Mario save the princess.
I almost defeated Mike Tyson, but my mom beat me to it.
Hubby and I have about three different “Quake” type, shoot-em-up games, including a new Star Wars Jedi fighting game.
I loved piloting games like Star Fox and Star Wars.
Finished Baulders Gate.
Just got Toe Jam and Earl 3 for the Xbox.
Craaaaaaaazy Taxi is awesome, [Wolfman Jack]Class E license, baby![/wmj]
Of course as a girly, I have to have my Sims for playstation.
I haven’t beaten Grand Theft Auto yet, but that’s because Yepmas and I have too much fun filling the wanted meter and trying to survive…it’s kind of like a competition between us. 
And the list goes on…
I used to be, but not so much anymore. I also burned through the frequent flyer cards at the local comic book/RPG store for many years. When the ex and I split, he took the PS1 and I haven’t purchased a newer home system as I know if I did I would quickly decend into the blurry eyed, Tostito noshing, caffeinated freak I used to be.
LilMiss, OTOH, has a GB color, GBA, and just received a GBSP for her birthday. She is addicted to Pokemon, Kim Possible, and various racing games. She has noted that she is only one of three girls in her grade who plays games and that it’s “kinda cool” when the boys will talk to her about what she’s playing. She was dismayed, though, when she bought a few used games Tuesday to find that the previous owners were boys. She’s also the girl who whomps adult males in RC racing and understands a good portion of the Marvel Universe.
I’m just not any good at them. I love Sims, including SimCity and an amusement park sim that I don’t remember the name of. Warcraft, Starcraft, all the incarnations of Age of Empires and now Homeworld2 and Civ III.
Finished the first Silent Hill and Myst but I’m so bad at console games that those are the only two I think I’ve comleted. That doesn’t stop me from playing both GTA Vice City and San Andreas.
When I go into GameStop it usually is to buy something for my son since the Playstation is his. They don’t carry enough PC games to make me happy, though.
I loved them growing up and I am female. I never really thought about it. I stopped playing video games when I grew up because they make time go by too fast and when you have a job, you want your free time to last, not fly by. I would really love to play but once you sit down… at least for me, I can’t justify spending so much time on my ass.
I like to daydream that some day I will live in a retirement home and OH the video games we will have. It will be much better than gin rummy.