"Women are out there in significant numbers," says G.I.R.L. boss

Torrie Dorrell, head of the SOE G.I.R.L. (Gamers in Real Life) program to provide scholarships to women to get into games development has said that the initiative is designed to address the balance the man-woman ratio in the average studio.

"Women are out there in significant numbers playing MMOs, action games, first-person shooters," she said. "What is lacking in the equation are women behind these games."

Dorell's colleague, SOE's Courtney Simmons, added: "Go to any video game convention and it appears quite obviously that there are more men than women in the industry."

Simmons, who enjoys playing video games with her three children, believes that women are being "gamed down to," because, she says, "there is a lack of understanding about how women play."

G.I.R.L.'s initial aim is to give a give a winning female student currently enrolled at an Art Institute school $10,000 toward her tuition and a paid internship at one of SOE's development studios.