The next time you get fragged playing Crysis or sniped in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, you might want to check the culprit dishing out the kills. You can no longer assume it’s the stereotypical 24-year-old male you’re used to dominating. With usernames like Teknogurl212 and AthenaXOXO, the girls next door have closed their bedroom blinds and are treading on a predominantly male landscape: PC gaming.
Reports show that 38 percent of PC and console gamers are female. While women often bare the “casual gamer” label, there’s an uprising of hardcore female gamers that would love to take that label, strategically place some C4 on it and detonate the lame tag. Women are immersing themselves into MMOs, action games and first-person shooters, and PC, console and game designers are changing their marketing strategies to include this trend.
Recently, Alienware teamed with the PMS Clan - the planet’s largest multi-player, online female gaming group - to help sponsor its gaming efforts. PMS Clan members join other female gamers at professional gaming tournaments to show the boys that playing like a girl doesn’t mean you have to play nice.
Members of the PMS Clan … a.k.a. Pandora’s Mighty Soldiers
Women love a good challenge. Some find solace in Tetris, Bejeweled and Spades, while others prefer the strategy of BioShock and social interaction in World of Warcraft. Either way, women have male gamers everywhere looking over their shoulders. Sisters are becoming formidable online opponents against brothers. Husbands and wives are solving their differences in the gaming arena.
Whatever the gender and whatever the game’s outcome, the movement can only unite gaming enthusiasts.
