Female gamer here! waves hand
Another female gamer here. Developed a hand injury a few years ago due to excess PC use, and my boyfriend got pressed into service as my remote control for the playstation so I could finish my games. (Admittedly he’s been gaming for years, still got a NES, and has a serious console habit too, which does help).
I’ve also currently got the record for Game card points on my card in the local area. Normally play Gamecube, playstation, PS2, and few esoteric ones.
And yes I do play tabletop RPGs and attend Sci-fi conventions…
I never played a video game in my life until I was 18 and Jaime bought a PlayStation and introduced me to the wonderful world of Final Fantasy.
I prefer RPGs, but I haven’t played much of anything recently because I don’t have the time. Also, my husband spent his formative years playing every single freaking console ever invented, so I feel a little intimidated playing games around him. He never says anything mean (unless we’re playing against each other. He’s a very sore winner and loser) but I still feel a little inadequate…
I go to the game stores with my husband, but honestly? They’re too loud with about 10 games cranked up and gong at once plus music, and too full of creepy people. They sorta remind me a little of the porn shop I won’t go to anymore for the same reasons.
raises hand Another girl (video and tabletop) gamer here.
I prefer puzzle and RPG games, although my interest the latter has gone way down now that I have a lot less time and patience to get into random encounters so I can level up. I also have DDR, but that’s mostly for the exercise.
I also play racing and simple fighting games (such as Smash Brothers and Melee), and I’m the designated redshirt whenever my brother plays Perfect Dark.
Me: Stop killing me and take out that stupid RevengeSim already! :mad:
Brother: But killing you is so much more fun! 
I love video games. I grew up playing N64 for hours, or watching my brother play Zelda. We currently have N64, PS2, and GameCube. I love Mario games and sometimes I’ll play GTA when I feel like it. Video games rock and I’ll play until I get motion sickness. Which has happened before. Yes, I started playing again after the queasiness passed.
Your brother has obviously met my brother.
Me: Stop killing me at Soul Caliber! :mad: :mad: :mad:
Brother: Make me. 
My grandmother got my mom and I into games back in the days of NES. To this day, I’m the only one of them to beat all the Mario games. My preference is Nintendo-made games (Mom and Mr. Naz gave me a combined 5 Gamecube games for Giftmas. ), but I like the occasional RPG or really weird game for PS2 like Mister Mosquito and Katamari Damacy.
I also married a big gamer, and I ignore the looks I get from some people when I tell them that I’m into games. Once in awhile I’ll get some guy trying to hit on me because I’m a gamer, but not often.
Love 'em. Just got Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, playing the hell out of World of Warcraft, just got Ratchet and Clank 2, loved FFX, hated FFX2, Loved Morrowind, Katamari Damacy, Onimusha II, The Longest Journey…
Should I go on? 
Brainiac4 and I do the same thing. City of Heros currently. We’ve run into several other husband/wife superhero teams on CoH. We also played Diablo II together.
I’m really not much of a gamer. But game stores are NOT comfortable places for many women (nor are comic book stores). Even Best Buy isn’t really a comfortable place for me. They have the “car dealership” problem. Any salespeople automatically assume you are shopping for a guy. Any guy in there that doesn’t thinks you are fresh meat - oooh, a girl who games or reads comic books - maybe I can get laid! Many of my worst pickup lines have come from such places.
I love video games, but I wouldn’t call myself a “gamer”. My (ex) boyfriend bought me a Super Nintendo (ahhh, nostalgia!) and a bunch of games and it was one of the best presents I think I’ve ever recieved. I’m a Super Nintendo fiend.
I like Super Nintendo because it’s easy and most of the games aren’t 3D. This is going to make me sound really dumb, but I don’t like to play XBOX and the newer gaming systems like that because they’re too complicated! Too much stuff going on! Give me flat old 2D Mario jumping around in his flat world any day.
I did get horribly addicted to Banjo-Kazooie for Nintendo 64 when it first came out. I’d probably still play it, but my brother sold it and all of the games :(.
I’m by no means a “gamer”; I’m one of those son-buying moms. No, wait, I have sons. I buy games for them. Clearer?
But I did like to play Myst and a few others of that type on the PC when Myst first came out, and I’ll happily get down and play with my ten-year old son’s PS2. He kicks my butt, but at least I can still beat the six-year old.
But I really only like the games that I have a chance at success at. I don’t buy him the graphically violent games, but even Jak and Daxter 2 is over my head. We’re in a SpongeBob SquarePants frenzy right now, and that’s about my speed. I’d like the Sims, but I’m afraid I’d turn into a big blob if I got that game. I spend too much time in front of the computer as it is.
So I’m one of those women who never sets foot in a gaming store. I just buy them from Amazon or Target.
Another girl-gamer checking in.
I have also noticed that there are not a lot of girl-gamers around, at least in my area, and the few there are don’t play ‘seriously’ - i.e. they play now and then, mostly when a friend comes over. (I’m probably the anomaly here - I prefer playing by myself or competitively to cooperatively).
I personally would play more, but I don’t really have money. I have a NES (still!), N64, and a dying PlayStation, which I hope to replace soon with a PS2. The N64 and PlayStation have about 4-5 games each, and the NES has 1. So, I tend to prefer long-running games, and am currently working my way through Final Fantasy: Origins.
Sorry for the disorganization - this is my first post.
Welcome the4thmooncat!
I’m exhausted because I stayed up all night playing World of Warcraft. I’ve always loved games and I spend a lot of time playing/thinking about/writing about/talking about games.
I don’t really notice the dearth of females, since most of my friends are males. I guess I’m just used to it (but no worrys about me being masculine- right now I’ve get red sparkle lipstick and hello kitty hairclips on).
I play. I have XBOX and PC games:
Halo 1 & 2
KOTOR 1 & 2
Fallout 1 & 2
Half-Life 1 & 2 (sensing a trend?)
Doom 1-3
Planescape Torment
the Baldur’s Gate series
Starcraft and Warcraft
Neverwinter Nights series
Everquest
Now I’m playing World of Warcraft except I’m playing on my husband’s account because I can’t find another copy to buy anywhere. I’ll have to start completely over again when I do.
I also have XBOX Live, and while I’d love to play Halo 2 with someone, I don’t know anyone else who has it. I gave up on it since all I ever seem to get matched with are trash talking kiddies. They are only slightly more tolerable if I turn my comm off. 
Not so much a girl gamer as someone who finds a lot of games interesting-looking, but isn’t willing to shell out 200 bucks for a gaming system like PS2 or $50 for games just to see if it’s really my speed.
My niece has a Playstation and an X-Box (she’s hella spoiled), and I like King of Fighters and Crash Team Racing (Playstation), and the Simpson’s Hit and Run (X-Box).
But my nerd points shot up exponentially when a friend introduced me to the Myst series of games. I freakin’ love this stuff! I just got Uru, now that the price has finally come down to something reasonable, and in another couple of years I’ll get Myst IV: Revelations. In the same vein, I’m a big fan of The Longest Journey, and can’t wait for the sequel, Dreamfall, to come out next fall.
Oh, and of course there’s The Sims, but does it even count? It’s a friggin’ electronic dollhouse! Come to think of it, does Myst even count? It’s a game, and a pretty geeky one at that, but it’s more or less unisex. It seems that, with few exceptions, our gaming choices have a lot to do with traditional gender roles. I mean, it’s total sex-typing, but maybe females tend to like games of creation while guys go for games of destruction. Here I go to look for actual stats on game usage…
My little sister and her best friend (also a girl) both got addicted to that too, as well as Banjo-Tooie. I got so sick of hearing the music coming from the living room… but admit to a bit of nostaligia when I recently found the music from Click-clock wood on the net.
Yep!
I was introduced to gaming when I was 5 or so by my cousin and his NES. By then it was a little late to pick up an NES so my brother and I waited for the SNES. I mostly stuck with the big 1st party games–Zelda: LttP, Super Mario World, MarioKart, Star Fox and DKC 1 and 2.
Ooo, I was so excited about the N64. I think our first two games were Cruisin’ USA and Super Mario 64. Again I mostly stuck with the big 1st and 2nd party titles like Star Fox 64, Banjo-Kazooie (and Tooie, although I still haven’t finished that one), Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, MarioKart . . . Good times.
In high school I fell away from the gaming thing for a few years. Fortunately I broke out of that funk last year and bought myself a platinum GameCube. I’ve hashed though SMSunshine, Windwaker, Metroid Prime . . . SSB: Melee is one of my favorites too, along with F-Zero GX. Right now I’m trying to get through Eternal Darkness and Splinter Cell. Yeah, I’m behind but it’s saved me money. I have so far resisted the likes of the PS2 and XBox, although the new PS2 is too cute and I may have to pick one up at some point . . .
Oh, and I do lurk around game stores . . . At every opportunity, really. I’ve picked up lots of used games from GameStop/Software Etc./whatever the lot’s called now. I haven’t noticed a lot of stares or anything but I haven’t watched either.
I’m female and definitely a gamer.
I own currently a Playstation 2, a GameCube, a Playstation, a Gameboy Advance SP, a Nintendo (actually several - I’m a collector), an Atari 2600, and a computer set up for gaming.
I am enjoying an on-again, off-again love affair with Morrowind after several hundred hours of play.
My favorite online multiplayer game is Counter-Strike, though I did go through a severe Diablo II bender and played a MUD consistently for years until very recently.
I’ve noticed most other women see games as just a social activity (at best - like my sisters, who are mean competitors at Mario Kart, but who don’t purchase their own consoles anymore) or, at worst, who feel gaming is a man’s activity and a waste of time. I think this has a lot to do with society which really discourages women to have active interests in much of anything. It drives me absolutely nuts because a lot of women are completely centered on men and relationships and, while there is nothing is wrong with men or relationships, they seem to have lost their personal interests about age 12. I imagine being a rather shy, unpopular, and unattractive girl has a lot to do with me not caring all that much.
I am usually the only woman in the game store who’s not someone’s mom or girlfriend.
You know, the only women in my life I’ve ever considered turning straight for, or at least turning bi, were women who were into computers & video games. I don’t know why, but they. are. hot.
Ok, Michelle Pfeiffer in a cat suit is also hot, but if I found out she also played video games, I’d turn straight.
My best friend is a woman who has eventually gotten “into” computers. But she doesn’t like video games. If she ever did, I’d have to throw myself on her floor & beg her to make hot dirty love to me.
I’m pretty much a girly girl about most things, but I’m even more of a nerd. My wife is happy to play video games with me–we’ve spent hundreds of hours playing Diablo 2 cooperative–but is still reluctant to go into the video game store with me. When she does, we’re immediately the center of attention, which I find amusing and she finds irritating, probably because she’s been dealing with unwanted attention from men for a lot longer than I have. She does not understand the comic book thing at all, and will not go into the comic shop with me.
I’ve been hit on in the comic store a few times, which I still find a little flattering, and more than a little amusing, probably because it’s a relatively new thing for me. I don’t think I can recall ever seeing another woman in there.
I’d actually prefer to be ignored by the salesmen in places like Best Buy. I know what I want, I probably know more about it they do, and I am perfectly capable of finding a salesperson to ring me up when I ready to buy. If I say, “I’m fine”, that doesn’t mean I want someone to reapproach me every minute.