Women are still in the minority of Americans, who played computer and video games in 2000 - at 43 per cent, according to the Interactive Digital Software Association, a Washington trade group. But women are buying just as much game software as men, the association says. As a result, more game companies and websites are reaching out to girls and women.

HerInteractive Inc, in Bellevue, Washington, is marketing three games based on the Nancy Drew mystery novels and plans later this year to work with students at a private girls' school in Seattle to design and test computer games. Legacy Interactive Inc of Los Angeles has sold more than 5,00,000 copies of its games, based on hospital emergency room scenarios, to a predominantly female audience. In addition to online card games and games like The Sims - a computer simulation of family life - girls and women are drawn to Pokemon, role-playing games such as EverQuest and Ultima Online, and music theme video games such as Dance Dance Revolution. Website GameGirls.com averages about 45,000 unique visitors a month.

All that is music to the ears of women such as Phaedra Boinodiris. The 28 year old Ms Boinodiris runs a game website, WomenGamers.com Corp, which is based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and boasts 5,000 registered members.

WomenGamers doesn't offer any games that users can actually play on its site, but has software reviews, articles and interviews with designers and executives in the game industry. More important, WomenGamers serves as an online spot where women - and some men - can talk freely about their favourite games and other topics.

"Women gamers CANNOT be ignored!" writes Carol, a 34 year old mother of three, who says her favourite game is Diablo, where players battle otherworldly creatures. She adds that women in her age group are a growing audience: "To ignore this fact is pure stupidity and will prove to be a serious downfall for game creators!"

WomenGamers also offers the use of two packages of proprietary software: JobQuest, which lists job openings posted by technology companies, including Apple Computer Inc; and GameQuest, which lets users type in criteria for a game and receive recommendations.

WomenGamers receives a commission for each sale of a Gamequest recommended game via Amazon.com Inc or other online retailers. Its other revenue comes from advertising and usage fees for JobQuest and GameQuest. Ms Boinodiris, who says she hasn't spent any money on marketing, says the site is breaking even, with monthly revenue of $5,000.

Another online source for female game players and companies that seek women's opinions on new games is GameGirlz.com, a website run by Vangie Beal in Nova Scotia, Canada. Ms Beal says her website, introduced in 1997, averages about 45,000 unique visitors a month.

Schelley Olhava, a senior analyst at International Data Corp, Mountain View, California, points out that girls will buy games that interest them. For instance, she says teenage girls account for 11 per cent of the players on Sega Corp's Dreamcast video-game machine, compared with an average 5.4 per cent of the players on Sega's Genesis, Sony Corp's PlayStation and Nintendo Co's Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64. Ms Olhava says the main reason behind the Dreamcast's popularity with teenage girls is that Sega has invested time and money in making novel games such as Samba de Amigo, a game that requires players to shake maracas.

As companies prepare to release games based on well-known characters that appeal to both genders - for example, Electronic Arts Inc's forthcoming Harry Potter games based on the wildly popular novels by JK Rowling - more girls and women could turn into big game players, Ms Olhava says.

At WomenGamers, Ms Boinodiris says the game industry has taken so long to realise the potential of selling games to girls and women because it already is making a lot of money selling games to young men.

Industry watchers agree, and some say that game companies continue to focus on the male customer because the industry is dominated by men who don't want to risk development dollars on the unproven female market. After all, it can cost between $2 million and $6 million to develop one game for PlayStation 2.

Previous efforts to get girls online and close the gender gap in technology have had mixed results. A noteworthy case in point is Purple Moon LLC, a make of games for girls. In 1997, Purple Moon launched a game starring a character called Rockett Movado and sold 2,50,000 copies, a definite hit.

But Rockett lost out in the popularity contest to Mattel Inc's Barbie, whose games now make up 75 per cent of the $160 million girls' games market. And Purple Moon, having failed to raise more money, sold itself in 1999 to Mattel, where it now operates as a subsidiary.

Today, the women's game websites must contend with a dual problem: the slowdown in the advertising market and the broader US economy, coupled with investors' wariness of Internet companies.

The Asian Wall Street Journal