I actually think it’s the casual game environment or as you called it, micro-transaction games as attracted the female audience because we’re often too busy to play. We’ve got the house to clean, the kids to take care, and a job to be at from 9-5. Thus games like Bejeweled Blitz (known to be very popular amongst women) are the ideal games for us. It’s a short break from the world. Sorority Life I find to be an interesting pull away from the world because it’s not one that is attractive to me but yet there are many women who enjoy it. For example the house wife in her 40′s who’s life hasn’t gone quite the way she wanted it to go.

Many women don’t seemed to be as inclined as men to spend hours sitting in front of a screen grinding up levels – but they will play Fairyland on FB all day and night both collecting items and building a broad social network sharing their finds and items with others.

Many women don’t play aggressive PvP games – but when the PvP is balanced so any person starting is matched to similar starting people or boosts are evenly distributed amongst new and old players, then you see women playing a variety of PvP games consistently.

I think the gap may be how the game is structured and marketed for balance. A comedian I watched emphasized the absurdity of marketing a new razor – with FIVE blades – and many games are marketed in similarly disingenuous ways. I don’t think women respond favorably to half naked warrior types running around the screen nor to piles of big weapons and blowing up stuff without purpose – so why would they buy the game to hope to discover good content and playability?

In fact marketing to men is largely about how imbalanced a game can be. You never see the weak newbies struggling to survive attacking parrots. Instead the marketing shows god like monster players slaughtering everything in their path. Maybe that’s not quite the right message to motivate women gamers. Also you see things like team play and messaging in the context of military style operations – or non-military disciplined teams being obliterated by military disciplined teams. You don’t see marketing aimed at social teams that play well together toward objectives.

Women definitely do play games. Women definitely enjoy playing games. But when you don’t market games to women, and the cost of entry for a game may be high (console games are ridiculously overpriced), then women are sensible enough to wait for something better priced and more enjoyable to come along. Microtransaction games in particular seem to have captured a broader female gaming population because the ability to try the game without the high entry cost allows women to discover the playability and enjoyment even if the marketing isn’t appropriately aligned with their interests.

Just some thoughts.