“Girls Have Got Better Things to Do [Than Play Video Games]“! (WTF?)

I am proud to be a part of what I thought was an elite group: a girl gamer. Yes, I like to play Halo 3, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy and Assassin’s Creed. I’ve played against men of all ages online. And, guess what? I can hold my own. So when James Scalpello, director of THQ Wireless, says that, “When girls play console games, they have to have gone through a whole other list of things they could have done before sitting down with them… Guys get home, have dinner, and play a computer game. It’s much higher up the list of priorities. To put it bluntly, girls have got better things to do” (thanks to Kotaku for the quote!), I was, naturally, shocked.

Think about it. I know I did.

I realized that James Scalpello was wrong (and outdated), and so was I. Statistically, forty percent of all gamers are women. Don’t believe me? Look it up: the Entertainment Software Association cites that not only do we ladies make up a significant chunk of the gaming population, but also that “women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (18 percent).”

So obviously, a good many of us do not have better things to do than play video games. Or we feel that video games are just that important.

As his PR department scrambled to clarify, Scalpello was making those comments in reference to making mobile games directly targeted to women. He feels that the market is a “lost cause.” Sorry, James, I think that you’re wrong here as well. I’d insult you via text message, but I’d rather play a game on my iPhone.

If you need further proof that girls don’t have better things to do than play video games, look at this: Xbox Live has a Ladies Night. Every Monday night, girls get together to play games like Halo 3, Gears of War and Call of Duty 4, just to name a few. And get this: it’s just for girls. Furthermore, all girls gaming groups, such as the PMS Clan and the Frag Dolls, are taking over the gaming world.

So, even if Mr. Scalpello doesn’t realize it, the gaming world needs to evolve and accommodate us. Or we’ll just take it over and change it ourselves.