The gaming world has always traditionally been seen as a male world . . . although no one is really sure exactly why. If you think about it, some of the very first popular games that were created and released were quite gender neutral: Pac man may have been a man, but you could barely tell from the way that he looked, and Mario was not really a masculine orientated game either. But perhaps that is exactly the problem – although the games didn’t seem very male orientated, they only included male characters that the gamer could play as. The vast majority of the female roles were characters within the game, and they were there to be rescued.
Of course, there are those that would argue that many games have female characters, and the most famous of all of these is Lara Croft. Every single person who plays that game plays as Lara, and so that is why many people believe that women are actually quite well represented within the gaming world. On the other hand, you only have to take one quick look at Lara Croft to see that she was designed by a woman, and that reveals one of the other problems with the gaming world – that for a time, almost everyone that was making games was male.
In the modern day, however, gaming has become more inclusive of all genders and of all backgrounds. This means that whoever you are, whatever you enjoy should be represented within the gaming world. So whether you are a San Diego dentist (male or female) or a Seattle stay at home parent (male or female), there are games out there for you. Gaming for girls is starting to really become a part of normal life – and long may that last!