Let's review some popular games over the past few years. Doom : you're a space marine out to annihilate all forms of (evil) life in your path. Hexen : you're a warrior, cleric, or mage, armed to the teeth and ready to battle the mystic forces of evil. Quake : again, you're a bloodied warrior of the future fighting deadly cyborg drones. Obviously, these aren't the types of games your little sister, girlfriend, or wife would want to play. Some companies have realized the demand for games oriented towards an audience of girls, but at best, it has been a weak and ill-thought attempt.

Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls, has released Barbie Storymaker, one of four Barbie-theme PC games for girls. Unfortunately, the product, while being oriented towards girls, targeted a much younger audience than expected. The result: the grade school to teenage-aged girls it was supposed to appeal to instead caught the eye of a much younger age group. Still, no company has released any top-selling girls' software products.

At this point in time, the software industry as a whole ignores the fact that many computer users are female. Equally ignored is the rising number of computer-literate females, especially in the 5-to-21 year old age group. Everyone knows the cliched phrase, "All work and no play makes John a dull boy," but few people ever stop to replace "John" with "Jane". No one ever consults average female computer users for ideas; most rely on their marketing and sales directors for inspiration. Most software companies are content to believe that Jane is happier firing up MS Office, rather than a something designed especially for her.

In only a short few years, the girl-oriented software industry will become a booming market. Any company wishing to "get on the bandwagon" should start consulting actual female computer users for their input. Without doing this, we'll only see stuff like "Martha Stewart's Interactive Cookbook" or "Slumber Party: Girls Tell All" or some other nonsense that no one would really waste money buying. Such titles would only serve to insult the audience that a company is trying to entice.

Just like in real life, the computer industry, especially the gaming sector, need to be aware of the demands of female users. A message to companies: stop disparaging the customers you are trying to market a product to! Without continued support from female users, especially younger ones that are up-and-coming, the industry will lose millions of potential customers worldwide. A working arrangement between software companies and female users can generate a large, lasting customer base.

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