There are a lot of women out there who are as into playing video games, be they game consoles, or computer, than most people recognise. One time gaming was thought to be the sole hobby of single, geeky teenage boys who had nothing better to do with their time. Now it is known that the majority of gamers are actually 25 – 40, and while the female portion of these stats don’t number as high as the men, they are climbing. So listen up, you game developers. As a female gamer myself, and having talked to other female gamers, I’m going to give you some sound advice to get those numbers up to equal our male counterparts.

1. Get more women in the game. Nothing turns me off a game faster than loading it up, turning it on, going to make a character, and discovering that women characters are not an option! If you’re making a historical game, such as a WW2 shooter, I understand. Sadly, there were few women involved in that time period, other than nurses and a few secretaries. But if you’re making anything in the fantasy genre, sandbox genre, futuristic genre, or just otherworldly, allow women characters. Everyone wants to make a character based on themselves. I can’t do that with a muscle-bound jock.
2. When you do add more women, give them the same options as the male characters. Don’t delegate them to Clerics, Mages, or Amazons. Let them be warriors other than those one-breasted heavy hitters. For example; Diablo 2. I wanted to be a female warrior, but could only choose Amazon, and they only use spears. I don’t want to use a spear. I want to use a sword. Baldur’s Gate, Baldur’s Gate 2, and the like do extremely well in this example. Sometimes I want to cast spells, but sometimes I want to swing a sword and bash in heads.
3. Love interests. In so many of these games, the male character always meets a love interest. In most games where you can be a woman, that’s not an option, or if it is, the choice is a bad one. Here, Baldur’s Gate 2 fell down hard. The main love interest, if you wanted one, was a whiny, conceited, nose-in-the-air holy fighter wannabe, and the only way in which you can have a happy ending is he turns away from his dreams to join you. He never really loses his annoying ways. There was another character, a Druid I think, that may have been a possible love interest, but seeing as he originally left his wife and child behind to become a Druid in the first place, he’s not exactly a great choice. So give women characters a few more choices to choose from. It might take the game longer to develop, but I think you’ll find the game becomes more popular.
4. Number 3 is not to say that women only want butterflies and roses. I happen to love a good knock-em-down-drag-em-out fight, where at the end you’re bloodied but victorious.
5. It’s sad to say, but yes, we women love pretty-looking-things. Give our characters some nice clothing to run around in. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean barely-there clothing – that’s more for the men who play. But bright colors, pretty things. It can’t hurt. Just don’t go overboard.
6. Speaking of nice looking things….why not some boy toys? Often, women in these games are in barely-there clothing, big boobs, tight butt, legs up to the arm pits, and nearly naked. Well, we women love to ogle the opposite sex too. Why not put in some tasty guys with long hair, vivid eyes, muscles, and nearly naked? Keep us happy too!
7. Most women love horses. Not all, but most. Stick a few of them in there. But don’t just put them there to look nice. Make them useful. Oblivion ’s first horses were pretty much useless until they were tweaked.
8. Humor. Women love humor. We like stories that are deep. But no fart-jokes. Women don’t find them funny. If you’re not sure what a woman finds funny? Ask one!
9. Put in detail in NPC’s lives. While most (not all) guys like games where you just Run-N-Gun, most women like games where they have to actually talk to people, figure things out. Myst was a great example of this. There were puzzles and little tricks you had to learn. Just about every woman player I know loved Myst.
10. Put in the game more than one way to solve things. There is nothing I like better than going online to a games forum and finding out I solved Riddle A, or beat Boss #12 in a completely different way than the others. This makes it much more interesting.

These cues, added to a game, is likely to make it more interesting to any player, but if you follow them, you’re more likely to get the female quota of your game up.