Games and girlfriends generally don’t mix. If you happen to be a girlfriend that loves games then we love you… really, we totally love you. But unfortunately you’re not part of the majority. Despite the increased prominence of the female gamer in recent years as the industry’s evolved from the depths of geekdom to be culturally chic, it’s still very much a sausage-fest out there and not particularly conducive to the horizontal mamba. Something about thunderous explosions, ear-piercing bullet-fire and oafish men screaming ‘get behind cover’ just doesn’t seem to get the ladies in the mood. Being an alien-slaughtering muscle bound-interstellar hero just doesn’t cut the mustard next to chopping wood in the backyard, sans shirt. Go figure…

According to the IEAA, the average age of the Australian gamer is 28, which means the average Aussie gamer was an innocent kid during the industry’s 2D era. Back then gaming was more of a boy-girl-boy-girl phenomenon. With their simple gameplay, colourful cartoon graphics and cheery, wholesome narratives old-school console games were alluring to the little Eves as well as the little Adams – we were just children seeking entertainment after all. Then things changed and got kind of technical. With the move into 3D, gaming become akin to a sport, rewarding more complex coordination and the honing of skills, a mindset that has proven more alluring to the male sex. And it came at a time when us twenty somethings were still fascinated little Adams, but the Eves were already on the road to adulthood.

For many females, this transition represented the end of their part in gaming. The simplistic style and gameplay of the 2D era had given way to a new perspective on the experience that became ever more male focused through the nineties, riding on the coattails of the prolonged immaturity of us males.