Female Gamers in the Evansville Area Not as Rare as Previously Thought

Earlier today during my show (the On Demand Lunch specifically), I got a call from a young women looking to request a song. After telling me what song she wanted to hear, I did what I will normally try to do when someone calls, make idle chit-chat. She gave me her name and when I asked what she was up to today, she told me she was waiting outside of GameStop in the Mall while her husband (or maybe it was boyfriend) was picking out a game. Instantly I thought it was a typical shopping trip for a man and a woman with the exception that it's usually the guy waiting outside in the hallway, keeping watch over the countless bags that have been acquired during the trip like a Secret Service agent guarding the President while the woman searches for more great deals.

As I would quickly find out, this wasn't the only exception about this particular shopping trip. It turns out that the man was in the video game store on orders from his better half to find HER a game! WHOA! Say again?

That's right, he was in the video game store looking for a new game for her! Color my mind blown. Obviously this turned the conversation into a whole different direction. I asked what type of games she was into, assuming she would respond with something family friendly, like pretty much any game for the Nintendo Wii. However, I was surprised yet again to find out that she was huge fan of first person shooter games, namely Call of Duty. If you're unfamiliar with the term "first person shooter", those are games where the only thing you see on screen is the barrel of your gun and the environment your scrambling through trying desperately not to get destroyed. The idea being that you see the action through your own eyes. Check out the video below for an example.

As you can see, these are pretty violent video games. Something I generally think would be unappealing to women. But, as with my shopping trip and preferred game assumptions earlier in the conversation, it turns out I was completely wrong. It also turns out I was also wrong in my assumption that this particular woman was a rarity in the Evansville area. After her phone call aired, I heard from several women who also professed their love for not only video games in general, but violent video games at that. The Call of Duty series was brought up on numerous occasions.

As you can see, I was surprised by this. Mainly due to the fact that my wife is not a "gamer", nor are any of my buddies wives. She has no problem with me or our kids playing, it's just not her thing and that's completely fine. Years ago, before we were married when I had a Playstation 2, she got hooked on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for awhile, but these days, in the rare instances she does play, it's usually Wii Sports Resort, Mario Kart, or Little Big Planet on our Playstation 3.

Unfortunately this topic was brought up toward the end of my show and I know there are many other female gamers out there that wanted to weigh in and say they too are avid video game players and they're proud of it. If you fall into that category, take a few minutes and tell me some of the games you like to play.