Girl Gamer

A girl gamer is any female who regularly engages in playing video games.

Girl gamers are regarded as anomalies by most 'gamers'. Their male counterparts think that those that are good at gaming must be a:

Guy In Real Life

They feel that if a gamer is truly female she must either be useless at playing or male or such a butch gaymer that she might well be classified as male. The common take on motivation for playing is either being a wannabe male or to impress and/or meet boys.

Statistics

According to a study conducted by the Entertainment Software Association in 2009:

48% of game purchasers are female
40% of the game playing population is female
women 18 or older now comprise 34% of all gamers
women playing online in 2009 has risen to 43%, up 4% from 2004.

It would seem that women are beginning to take on the role of 'gamer' but the statistics can be interpreted to not show a change in trend.

The purchase of a game does not mean it is for personal use - it could be a present 'for a boy'!

ID online is a very questionable datum - people lie (shock! horror!) - the 18 year old girl gamer from Los Angeles might be a 43 year old male gamer from Ipswich (or vice versa!)

Reasons why people become someone else online is a subject that can be dealt with the in psychology section of this site - but it is difficult to tell from statistics the age and gender of online participants.

The 'Big Bang Theory' clip below illustrates some of the above views...