Gender in Games

After looking at the 2009 National Gamers Survey, it surprised me to see that, on average, females off all ranges played games almost, if not equal to the amount of males, though males do play games a lot more hours a week on average than females, with males between the 13 - 19 age range playing almost 3 times the hours a week. Also, while females played more games on games portals like Kongregate more than males, females on the PC and MMO's were significantly less than males.

I think the biggest reason for a decreased female percentage in more "hardcore" gaming is that most triple A games are more suited for the male gender. To quote from Brandii Grace in an interview with Ernest Adams, "I wouldn't say there's something "wrong" with the triple-A games on the market today. Rather, I'd say they are like a man's best, custom-tailored suit -- a perfect fit for the intended audience and a poor fit for most women".

Looking at the majority of triple A games over the years, admittedly, they do follow a general theme of killing. Whether it's diving behind walls and popping your enemy with a gun, or jumping off a roof and assassinating your target with a blade, the theme of killing is highly used in the most popular video games.
Though, if what Brandii Grace says is true, games would appeal more to women if the emotional content inside them was higher. While i can't say that some high end games wouln't benefit from more bonding with the characters you play as, i can't see a game like Call of Duty becoming better by introducing more emotions into the gameplay.

Personally, i see nothing wrong with attempting to create more games suited towards the female gender, or games that appeal to both. I wouldn't even mind more emotional games, i'm not heartless after all! However i don't think this should come at the cost of losing current gamers because of it, as regardless to any argument, males do play more games than females.