To be entirely honest, I was going to avoid this subject altogether - because it's become such a cliché for girls to write about "What it's like being a girl in the gaming industry" or to be written about in some snappy article entitled "Girls are Game", etc. But, I've read a few different stances on it from both male and female perspectives - and it's still a topic on which I get asked to speak about regularly, so I figured I'd just put it all out there in one big, stream-of-consciousness - and then we can all just forget about it and move on to other, more exciting and nerdy topics.

Agreed? Good.

First of all - irrespective of gender, I think gamers in general are subject to many broad generalisations. We all know them: Anti-social. Lazy. Living in parents' basement. Some have chosen to embrace this and happily claim it as a satisfactory perception - others are frustrated by it and wage a constant war against the misconception that they fit this criteria, when really they are independent, social people who just happen to like playing a few rounds of COD a couple of nights a week. However this takes on a whole new level within the gaming community of 'casual gamer' vs. 'hardcore gamer' - and what constitutes such titles.

The fact is, no one likes to be classed in a category in which they feel they do not fit. But we all do it every day. Make judgements about people based on small amounts of information. And, where girls in the gaming community are concerned, there is a whole new world of generalisation and assumption which is preventing us from creating an environment in which more girls feel happy to be a part. But are they really any different to the kinds of stereotypes faced by any gamer?

When I first started in this industry, I felt an overwhelming sense of paranoia over how I would be perceived. Early episodes of Good Game saw me trying embarrassingly-hard to be the 'cool funky gamer girl' - when really, I just needed to be myself. I feel much more confident now that I've settled into this reality. But it took a long while to reach that point and I still find myself regularly editing certain aspects of my femininity for fear that it would somehow damage my credibility in the eyes of gamers everywhere. Now... I'm not an overly feminine person. I feel awkward in dresses and I am possibly the most non-domestic girl on Earth. But I still have every-day girlish indulgences that I'm often afraid to voice for fear of the fact that it will automatically mean placement in the 'Nintendogs' and 'Wii-fit' gaming category.

Take for example, this thing I have going on with pink tech accessories. I'm not quite sure when or how it started... I think when I began putting my first decent PC together, I found a pink case online. As most of my gaming friends were guys, I liked the idea of how this obnoxiously defiant and slightly-sickening colour would go against the grain, somewhat. And indeed, rocking up to LANS with a candy-pink tower did indeed prove to be pretty hilarious. I figured "I'm the only girl here, I may as well embrace it". But this became a bit of a 'thing' and eventually spread to a pink mouse, mouse pad, headset, and I have a pink controller for nearly every console I own. Even my 360 is encased in a massive pink decal. I don't even like pink that much! I think I just found some kind of novelty in it - because the majority of gaming accessories were designed to appeal to men, so I liked the idea of a complete contrast amongst all that. But now I'm absolutely petrified of how this might contradict this idea I have of the male gaming community accepting girls as just part of the herd.

This fear is born from the fact that I believe that in order for people to take me seriously, I can't really be interested in things that regular girls like. Because I am, of course, a 'girl gamer'. I love sci-fi movies and fantasy novels and trash-talking in a zombie shooter with my friends. But so help me if I indulge in an episode of Gossip Girl and enjoy it. That said, I've reached a point where I think it's exhausting trying to define how a girl who games should express herself. Yes, I am female. I loved Red Dead Redemption. I also spend inordinate amounts of time looking at pictures of shoes. I'm not sure what compels me to do this, it's just written into my DNA or something. All I can do is hope that people won't hold it against me, and immediately class me as a 'Nintendog' or 'Wii-fit' fan.

I've also freqently encountered girls who take huge amounts of offence to the term, 'girl gamer'. "Do we refer to guys as 'boy gamers'? Why should we be singled out? Can't we all just think of each other equally as gamers and be done with it?" I understand this frustration, but personally I've come to accept the label because, at this point, we are still something of a minority so people do feel the need to differentiate. I don't have an issue with it - although I do look forward to the day when the term becomes obsolete.

On the other hand, there are girls who like to embrace this term a little too much - capitalising of their nerdy, girlishness and taking full advantage. I mean, okay, we ladies have all been guilty of it once or twice. Logging into WoW and accepting a bunch of gold from some random guild member who heard our voice on Vent, and responding with an "Aw, so sweet! thx! ;)". Many women figure, "Well, hey - if these dudes are just going to dole out the cash simply because I'm a chick - why should I say no? Lololll noobs. Hellooo new spaulders! But I'm pretty sure best way to earn the respect of your gaming peers is to show that you're willing to put in the hard work yourself, just as they have. Girls who parade themselves around the gaming community getting guys to do literally all their grinding for them make my blood boil - simply because I don't think it's helping our perception at all.

Another issue we seem to be facing when it comes to female gamers, is that many developers aren't sure how to market games to women. Should they be making games specifically for women? What is it about a game that makes it appeal to women? Girls seem to be less present online because of the environment surrounding particular genres of games, but I also think it's because there is an exclusive air around certain games being targeted at men - and so many women aren't tempted to take part.

Mostly we have this issue because development teams on games are made up of mostly men. I think that as we start to see more female game developers out there, we'll also start to get more of an insight as to how we can make games that will appeal to guys and girls equally. Personally, I'll play pretty much any genre and enjoy it, regardless of whether it's perceived as a 'guy's game' or not. But - if there's one thing that will cause me to reach for one game on a shelf over another, it's if it has a female protagonist. Just as guys love playing as Nathan Drake or Kratos - I like playing as Nariko, with a heavenly sword that's pretty much as big as she is. Gaming, after all, is fantasy. It's escapism. And I want to put myself in that role, and imagine myself in that character's position. So strong, bad-ass ladies are appealing to me as a 'girl gamer', I suppose. But as for gameplay, game mechanics and features - we generally like all the same things that guys do. Creating games that girls will like really shouldn't be too difficult a task. It's more in the way we present games to women, and how the community chooses to embrace them. That's if we do in fact want the gaming community to be more gender-balanced.

Most of all, I just hope that we can all arrive at a point where all kinds of games are associated with girls and gaming, as opposed to just dancing or shovelware party games. I think this will happen naturally with time, as more and more girls are becoming curious about what's on offer.

However, it's also about acceptance. Girls who are already into gaming feel that they have earned their place and don't want to be patronised. And girls who are just now thinking about giving it a go are facing a veritable wall of angry nerd-rage from people who've been stereotyped by others their whole lives and are ready to dish some out in return. It can be a hostile environment, to be sure. But with more girls being vocal in the media about their love for gaming, and more female game devs popping up and doing great work on the development side of things - I think the future looks pretty bright.

...and non-gender-specific.

Hex presents ABC's Good Game and Good Game: Spawn Point which are shown on ABC 2, Tuesdays at 8:30pm and on ABC 3, Saturdays at 7.30pm, respectively.