Lotte Vermeulen determined that although women like to play games, there are very few games that are tailored toward them.

“Women want a game to be logical and easy to use,” says Vermeulen, student of communication at Ghent University in Belgium. “Women tend to give up when the game is not that easy to handle.”

Her survey of 983 gamers revealed some interesting conclusions on the habits of women who play games. According to Vermeulen, “[Women] mostly opt for shorter and simpler games, such as casual and social games.” Her basis for this is that women don’t like to spend time learning complicated controls so they prefer games that have an easier learning curve.

I guess Heavy Rain’s out…?

Women like to play games where the violence makes sense (gratuitous violence is out). They’re not put off by violence, mind you, but “realistic battle scenes are less appreciated.” Leigh Alexander wrote an interesting piece on her view of realistic war games (like Modern Warfare) that is definitely worth a read. It talks about her discomfort with the modern warfare genre. It hits too close to home. Although I’m generally a fan of the gratuitous violence in Left 4 Dead, I gravitate towards games that are more fantastical than realistic (things like Dragon Age, Left 4 Dead, etc.).

Women like to look at strong, sexy women but are put off if the character is portrayed as a sex object.

“It is striking that women who game less are more annoyed by this,” Vermeulen says.

It’s years of conditioning, my dear Watson. If a woman has been gaming for a long, long time (like most of the Angels around here), we’ve had years and years to get used to the fact that not all female characters are going to have personalities that are as well formed as their breasts. If the game-play and story are stimulating enough, we’ll get by. We’ll muscle through our distaste and enjoy the game for what it is: fluff and boobs.

Finally, women like to play games where they are in control of their own destinies. “Women like to hang around in beautiful and rich environments and they prefer game worlds in sharp and bright colours to darker settings,” says Vermeulen. “Exploring also includes performing other activities (side-quests) in addition to the main game objective.” Hello, World Role Playing Games! Sandbox environments ahoy!

I’d be interested to see a more drilled-down version of her results where she talks to more women that have been gaming for twenty-odd years. How will their habits differ from women who have only been gaming for a few years or a few months? Those are the results I’d be interested in.

For the most part, Vermeulen’s study of 983 gamers was both interesting and strangely accurate.

If a control structure is unintuitive, eventually no one will want to play the game (male or female). Men may be more willing to power through a poorly constructed control structure but I’m not sure if that’s more of a “I won’t let this game defeat me” than a genuine will to play the game. Chicks have better things to do than sit around and fight with controls that don’t work (oh hai Lair). Like, bake cookies, solve complex puzzles, and frag your bff on Xbox Live.