Are women getting what they want from video games? Although they are playing games in large numbers, few companies are trying to appeal to women, and most of those that do merely release pink controllers or stereotypically "girlie" games. Silicon Sisters wants to help change that, with the first "female owned and operated video game company," operating out of Vancouver.

We got in touch with Kirsten Forbes, the COO and founding member of the company, to get our questions answered. First, how do you create games for women without pandering to them?

"You make high-quality games that don't accidentally engage women, they purposefully engage women. And I am one of those women, so surely that's got to make it easier," Forbes said while laughing. "I don't see a need to err on the side of the lowest common denominators (read pander) for such a broad audience as all females."

Forbes describes herself as a mainstream gamer with mainstream tastes, pointing out that just as different men want different things, there is no single answer for women gamers. "You identify and slice out the mechanics that your instincts tell you are fun, then you prototype, test and iterate until you have it right."

This cuts both ways though—just as publishers are missing the boat by not making games more female-friendly, creating games that don't appeal to men similarly cuts out approximately half the population. "There's no desire at Silicon Sisters to exclude males. There's just a desire to explicitly include females," Forbes replied. She then ticked off games that are already appealing to women, citing games like Myst and the Sims that have broad appeal. "But intermingled with those games were also the No One Lives Forevers and the CSIs which were definitely paying attention to natural female inclinations—shooting stationary rather than moving objects, finding hidden objects in cluttered spaces, stuff that we're naturally good at. If men dig it too, all the better."

This is a simple idea: women are as interested as high-quality games as men, but by giving things a nudge during the development process to be more welcoming or by developing properties with broader appeal, you'll be sure to attract a wider audience. Invite a woman who doesn't already game, or even one does, into the room when you're playing your next game, and see how quickly she makes her mind about a game based on the aesthetics and themes. Men do the same thing, of course, and it's important to note how quickly we cement our feelings about a game before we even pick up a controller.

In many ways, this is already happening

"The good news is that women probably are getting a lot of what they want lately," Forbes told Ars. "And to make that happen, first the industry had to remove a bunch of barriers to entry that have prevented mainstream women from taking notice of the availability of games—Nintendo helped with the Wiimote by eliminating the need to master a button-full controller, World of Warcraft helped by being such an excellent game on the ubiquitous PC, broadband penetration helped, free-to-play helped, the proliferation of smartphones helped..." In essence, right now it's easier to bring new gamers, including women, into the hobby.

While hardcore gamers may argue endlessly about controllers versus keyboard and mice, those who didn't grow up with games just see a dizzying array of buttons and skills needing to be mastered before jumping in. The vernacular of gaming, the little things we know from playing games since the NES days, is one that many women aren't familiar with. What we've learned through years of practice and now take for granted seems like an impenetrable barrier of entry for others. This is something that needs be to addressed.

For now, these are just ideas. Silicon Sisters is currently working on two properties for the PC and mobile platforms, but these games remain under wraps. The right mechanics wrapped in the right themes on the right platforms at the right price," Forbes concluded. "That's where Silicon Sisters is going."