A new report by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) claims that 38 percent of all gamers are female, with the average female gamer spending 7.4 hours per week playing games.

According to the survey, the majority prefer to play casual style games and use primarily either the PC or Nintendo DS for their game playing.

Despite the high percentage of female game players in today's market, an International Game Developers Association (IGDA) study suggest that women only make up 12 percent of the games industry workforce.

Players take the role of Edgar, a shy window washer who is tossed into a strange role and must maintain the deception – The Act – through a series of increasingly challenging scenes. Players use a simple knob to control Edgar's reactions and interactions with a comic supporting cast.

More than 1,200 people have played The Act since the field test began. The reaction, from hard-core gamers to people who don't usually play video games, is outstanding.

"It's a cinematic experience you don't get in any other video game. I enjoyed watching the emotions of the characters and I wanted to know how the story ended because I really cared what happened to them."

"It is the most original game I've seen in a long time. It has the eye candy factor of past games like Dragon's Lair but you've eliminated the tedious and repetitive move-memorization game play."

"The slapstick comedy in The Act is tremendous and made us want to play over and over."

comScore Media Metrix, the leader in digital media measurement, today released the second quarter results of Game Metrix, a quarterly syndicated study analyzing gamers' cross-platform behaviors and attitudes. The study combines the passive observation of online behavior, including visitation to online gaming and gaming information sites, with the results of a survey of 800 respondents who provided their attitudes regarding gaming and other usage information.

Contrary to popular belief that gamers are primarily teenage boys, results of the study indicate that video games have much broader appeal. On average, gamers are 41 years of age with an average annual income of $55,000. Further, females account for 52 percent of the gaming audience. The average gamer has been online for nine years and 84 percent have broadband access at home.

"The most popular drivers for purchasing games seem to fall into two basic categories - game experience and word-of-mouth," commented Erin Hunter, executive vice president of comScore’s Media and Entertainment Group. "These findings underscore the importance of marketing to, and listening to, experienced gamers. Familiarity with a particular game can influence both the gamers' direct purchase behavior, as well others' purchase behavior through positive word-of-mouth."

Ubisoft is hoping that it will inform and entertain both groups with its search for a new Frag Doll, the company's sponsored roster of hard-core gamers, who all happen to possess two X chromosomes.

As such, the company announced Tuesday night its eight finalists in an eight-month-long national search for a new Frag Doll.

Among them are Nin9tyNin9, a "Halo 2" and "Quake 3" fan from Phoenix, and PerfectDark, a killer "Ghost Recon 2" player from Brooklyn.

After a weekend of auditions and competitive game play at Ubisoft's San Francisco offices in early April, the company will name its final choice.

Boys and men play, too, but not quite the same way, it seems. "We have what we call our deviant players," says McArthur. "I hate stereotypes, but they're usually male, and they like to create chaos." A favorite trick for deviants: putting Sims families in homes with no doors or windows, where they're bound to die. At the other extreme: "a lot of our women we call 'dollhousers'," says McArthur. "They like to build their dream house." That takes time, but when everything in it is working right, "then they can spend all their time socializing." Which means more woohoo.

So far, only one game has moved into this arena. It's a free download called Facade, which its creators, Andrew Stern and Michael Mateas, call a "prototype research project." Although the file is a huge 800 megabytes and only fast PCs can handle it, Stern says the game has been downloaded 150,000 times since July.

Facade's minimalist graphics are the antithesis of those in most modern electronic games. The personalities are what count. "We're trying to appeal to the non-computer geek," says Stern, "people who are turned off by games because they're not about people's lives." He says at least half the downloads are by women, perhaps more. "The experience is like standing on a stage with two improvisational actors who are trying to make a drama happen," says Stern. They're a man, Trip, and a woman, Grace, whose marriage is coming apart. You hear them arguing through the door, but when you enter, they tell you everything is just fine. Soon, "they're trying to get you to take sides," says Stern. "You can help them, provoke them, flirt. A lot of the humor comes in when a player acts crazy or out of bounds" -- a deviant, no doubt -- and the characters try to keep the drama going."

The games that are likely to appeal to women are not the traditional "hack and slash" ones or time-consuming strategy games that men prefer.

"Women don't have free time even to set up a game. They require a game that is quick to get into and doesn't require a great time commitment," said Mr Adams, founder of the International Game Developers' Association.

The fact that women also tend to be more social means multi-player games will appeal more than single-player ones.

"We are soon going to be seeing massively-multi-player online games that are dominated by female players," he said.

"Existing online role-playing games are succeeding with women in spite of their subject matter, not because of it. When we get more games whose gameplay genuinely appeals to female players, we can expect to see huge growth there," he said.

In the game industry, the term "hardcore" refers to repeat buyers; currently, male gamers buy more games per month by a 0.95-to-0.67 ratio, according to IDC.

But a respectable foundation on which the industry can build the ranks of female customers appears to be in place, as 43% of all gamers now are female, according to the Entertainment Software Association. The average female gamer over the age of 18 logs 7.4 hours a week, a number that's closing the gap on male gamers, who play for an average of 7.6 hours a week.

The results of in-depth interviews with 20 women who play games indicate that favourite titles include role playing games like the Final Fantasy series (Square Enix, 1987), narrative adventures like Legend of Zelda (Nintendo, 1987), easy-to-pick up driving simulations like Colin McRae Rally (Codemasters, 1998), puzzle adventures like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (UbiSoft, 2003), quick-fire arcade puzzlers like Tetris (Atari, 1988) and life simulations like The Sims (EA/Maxis, 2000). Those who reported that they particularly enjoyed action titles like Halo; Combat Evolved (Microsoft, 2002) suggested similar reasons for their satisfaction with the game as those who preferred nonaction titles.The presence of a good plot, rich characterisations, choice in how they pursue goals, freedom of self-expression, novelty in challenges, immersion in atmospheric virtual environments, pickup- and-play capabilities and flexibility. Women also indicate that identifying with a character is important to their enjoyment of to their enjoyment of a game. Arguably, as more women have been vocal about their game playing, there has been an increase in strong female protagonists.

At some conventions for example, you are assumed to be a receptionist, secretary, booth babe or someone's girlfriend just due to your gender. If you are working in a role that is normally handled by males then you have to do the job wonderfully and be much more aware of your actions and how they will be perceived, and still some will assume you got a job because of sleeping with someone. Maybe men get this too? As women take on more of the senior roles I believe this issue will diminish over time as it has with other industries. Bottom line is this: If you're a weak person (no matter your gender) this industry isn't the right place for you.