To my knowledge, women are not born without thumbs, basic hand-eye coordination, or eyes in large numbers. True, some may not have these things due to accident of genetics or chemicals or threshing machines, but as a general rule, women have the same tools to play video games as men do.
And, yet.
Granted, many gamers I know are men, although I suspect this is a function of when I'm hanging out with guys, we talk about video games. But I've never known a woman who was incapable of playing video games. I've known quite a few women who enjoy video games. But there are people unable to believe women play video games.
This is especially baffling in the modern day. It's not like we don't have tablets and smartphones that have piles of games available for dirt on them.
If I had to offer a guess, and really all I have are guesses, it would be this: Games are still seen as childish things, however unfair or silly that idea may be. And men are still largely seen as childish. The bumbling clod is just as popular as the down-to-earth mom, who never gets to have any fun because apparently she's incapable of finding anything with a penis as smart as she is.
Hence, women don't game because they're not childish.
Which, if you think about it, is a fairly childish way of looking at things.
Yeah, but now so many women play video games too. Women are essentially like men, they aggressively pursue their careers, guys, and sex. I see men fall for women like this all the time. My ex was a gamer and loved gamer girls, but they wouldnt give him the time of day. Gamer girls are like the men, aggressive, have a potty mouth, and love to converse with other men about dumb shit over xbox. I hated him for doing that, I tried to play cool and be understanding, but he wanted the girl who didnt want him. I dont play games but I put with his crap and gave him what he wanted. He still wanted what didnt want him so I left his sorry ass and now hes all alone.
Anyways, games are childish, but so is much in life. Games release a large amount of pleasure for men in their mind, therefore theyre attracted to games, sports, chasing women, etc. Men are childish. What they love is a woman who can be childish with him...but often that woman doesnt want them. So these guys end up alone.
I think men are just more competitive by nature. That's why they love sports, games, "the chase", etc. Some women are competitive, but I don't think as many women feel the need to bask in the glory of whatever "victory" they may achieve. I LOVE sports, and I am a bit of a competitive person. I like some video games, but I can rarely spend longer than 10 minutes discussing them with guys (like I can with sports), because a) video games are kind of the same/predictable and b) they aren't real.