Honestly, I don't think the industry is really tapping into what sort of games they can produce for women. I think they have easily found the right games for the male demographic as games have naturally developed over the years. I also think this has something to do with men dominating the software development industry. That is an assumption on my part, but I think it is a safe one.

I think companies could stand to do a study on the interests of women and apply the reasoning behind certain interests (psychological approach) to develop a game rather than take a typical woman's interest and just directly translate it to a game. (i.e. making a game where one "goes shopping" would be a stereotype & direct translation to a game)

With all due respect to those that believe that men and women think the same, I think that notion is rather silly. I definitely believe there are similarities that drive both genders (take for instance..companionship), however each of the two genders can take a completely different path and arrive at the same result for any given topic. So perhaps it comes down to what angle one takes when saying each gender is "the same."

This topic is quite relevant to me right now because I have all sorts of books, etc that are part of a set of premarital counseling sessions I am taking part in with my fiancee. Many - *many* - of the items in the book are so true (acknowledged by the both of us). While many are things we already know, reading about them helps bring how we handle each topic to the forefront. We find ourselves looking out for each other in certain areas and trying to acknowledge each other's needs. We also see things in there that do not apply to us at all but happen to fit some other married couple we know just perfectly.

Look at "equality" in a gender sense as this - Apples and oranges are both fruits, but they are still quite different. "Apples to oranges" is a simple idiom used to illustrate two things you can't really compare, and yet the very use of the idiom & reasoning behind it has even been brought into question. It is really ridiculous.

I can't speak for psychologist reasoning behind equality of the genders, however I think that the feminist take on equality of gender is an example of overemphasis of a particular group's feelings (in this case, on the subject of gender equality.) This same overemphasis or overcompensation is often used by organizations (intentionally or not) in attempt to slingshot someone from one extreme to the middle-ground by way of stating the opposing extreme's viewpoint. (i.e. "Do we emphasize that women can do the same jobs men can, or do we just say that both genders are completely equal in all ways?") I think the public finds that PETA will, on occasion, deploy tactics in similar fashion.

Returning to videogames, I think game sales by gender is a perfectly valid and obvious example of how men and women are different. If they are so much the same, then why don't the game sales split evenly across the two genders for all genres of games?

Do companies ignore discovering (and exploiting) what things would drive women to buy videogames because they don't think there is enough money in the cause? I think many developers focus almost exclusively on marketing their games toward males due to the sheer unevenness of the male:female ratio.

I challenge Her Interactive to continue to be innovative. I am sure there are many more types of games for females that just haven't been discovered yet.