Studies show women are the fastest growing gamer demographic. Companies hoping to cash in on this trend continuously pump out all manner of casual titles. In the wild, the proverbial white whale remains elusive. This doesn’t prevent budding teenagers from being targeted like their male counterparts. “Must play” titles have all the characteristics of feeding testosterone driven brains with war scenarios, aggression, and adrenaline inducing virtual violence; often leading to parental concern over the “gamer addict” and mislabeled real world violence supposedly brought on by games. Rated M titles are said to warp the adolescent mind providing a false sense of reality, though I could argue so do social networking titles (WoW, GTA, The Sims).

What then of girl gamers? Wired blogger Tracey John lists “life lessons” learned by tween girls in several DS titles, but the thought provoking question comes by way of Tom Chick(Fidgit): What do videogames teach girls? I’ve included a few of Tracey John’s examples below, but am interested whether you feel these are just trumped up charges similar to how legislators demonize (for the purpose of the post) “guys games”.

Are these titles unintentionally causing emotional/psychological stress in females? And before boys think they are immune, studies do indicate behavioral changes do occur with violent games. I’d also really like to hear from our female fanbase. I can only go so far in my understanding of the ladies.

[Wired via Fidgit]

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Last month we had a good discussion revolving around the politics of Six Days in Fallujah. I had mentioned I believe there is a reasonably amount of hypocrisy when it comes to war placed in the context of games. If there were a game where you battle Somali pirates on the high seas would there be public outcry? Today Kuma Games released Somali Showdown as a free download with apparently no public backlash.

“During a simulated hijacking, crew members will attempt to fend off the pirates and regain control of the ship’s operations room. Players joining the game as pirates will try to take over the operations room and sail the ship into Somali waters. –Gamasutra

[KumaGame via Gamasutra]