Girl gamer

A girl gamer describes a female who regularly engages in the playing of video games, role-playing games, or other games (colloquially referred to as "gaming"). This can be from the most casual interest to the most serious professional gaming.

Women in gaming
The role of "women" in the games industry- as professionals and as consumers- has received extensive academic and business attention in the past few years. Women represent approximately half the population but buy a small share of all video games, presumably because they spent all the rest of their money on make-up and romance novels. Finding the reasons for, and changing the content and how games are advertised to attract and change the percent of women buying games drives a lot of professionals to research and find solutions to improve the gaming industry. Many available articles argue for the improvement of the gaming industry to appeal to a more general audience and for females in particular.

The great majority of the people, who work on game development teams are males, particularly in the technical fields such as programming. Various reasons for this have been debated, but some companies have made a concerted effort to recruit more women to create more balanced teams. The motivation behind these efforts is sometimes ethical, sometimes culture-based, and sometimes based on the desire to create games that will appeal more toward women.

Studies have shown that women tend to play games with less emphasis on violence and more focus on cooperation. However, a study done in 2002 by Jupiter/ IPSOS, found that teen females spend 30% of their gaming time playing action/adventure genres and Farmville. The same question asked to adult players finds that women spend 26% of their gaming time playing the same genre of games.

Girl gamers as a demographic
According to a survey done in 2004 by the Entertainment Software Association, 25 percent of console players and 39 percent of PC game players are women. Also, 40 percent of online game players are women, these numbers however include casual games. According to another study conducted by the Entertainment Software Association in 2009, 40% of the game playing population is female, and women 18 or older now comprise 34% of all gamers. Also, the percentage of women now playing online has risen to 43%, up 4% from 2004. The same study shows that 48% of game purchasers are female (Entertainment Software Association). Despite this large and growing number, many gaming companies and also many gamers fail to accept and acknowledge females as gamers and as consumers or employees in the gaming industry. In recognition of the importance of this issue, the International Game Developers Association (an association of companies and individuals in the games industry) has formed a special interest group on Women in Game Development. This is an active field of discussion and a topic in many conferences in the video gaming industry.

Controversy
The idea of a "girl gamer" is often linked to stigma of women who are more concerned with receiving men's attention than winning the game they are playing. The very term "Girl Gamer" exemplifies this, as at its core it sets a division between the genders. Websites such as Gorgeousgamers.com make no effort to hide that their main objective is attention.