With the launch of Nintendo’s seemingly more ‘girl friendly’ DS and Wii, and gaming award ceremony’s adding categories like Girls’ Choice Award, women picking up a joystick is apparently becoming more mainstream. But what is this obsession with women being a different gaming species?

Despite the acceptance that more women are playing games there’s still a great divide – one where male gamers fit into many categories and women get just one: girl gamer. The girl gamer is often seen as a casual gamer, dipping in and out of sunny, happy titles where any skill needed is thin on the ground; gameplay kept to a minimum.

As a ‘girl,’ a gamer and member of the GamesRadar team I’m here to dispel these myths. I may not be one of the Pro Evolution Soccer regulars in our office every lunchtime but I know what I like when it comes to games. Read on to see just why girl gamers don’t exist.

We don’t just go for cutesy, candy-coated games
Common opinion would have you believe that women will happily join their boyfriends in a game so long as the colors are bright, the premise is simple and repetitive, and the characters are cute. 

Fluffy games are not the definitive answer for women. If a game does have a somewhat candy-colored surface sheen, it won’t be rejected on principle, but it certainly won’t be picked up in earnest because it looks pretty either.