Video games have long been considered the dominion of males—nerdy males, perhaps, but males nonetheless. As such, the history of video games is filled mostly with games that are made by males, marketed to males and bought for males. Females usually existed in games as buxom stereotypes and female gamers themselves were seen as an anomaly.

Things are changing, however. With the advent and widespread use of the Internet and increased use of mobile phones, casual games are booming, and with it, the number of female gamers. While some men may scoff at the notion that someone playing casual Hearts online is really a gamer, the potential marketability towards such a individual is still very tangible.

GameDaily BIZ recently spoke with Maleea Barnett, a 15-year veteran in the industry, with the last 9 years spent at Atari working at the sales and distribution department. Now, however, she's transferred over to the digital distribution end of things at NeoEdge Networks, and couldn't be happier. We talked about female gaming habits, reaching all types of consumers online... and finding that special someone in WoW.

Similar to how most men and women have different tastes in movies and TV, they also have different tastes in games. Men seem to like more action oriented titles whereas women often prefer games where violence isn't the primary focus. These different tastes are also reflected in how they play as well, with men tending to be more competitive and women being more casual and social.

"I've seen a change... within the last 12 months or so, in targeting women with gaming marketing," said Barnett. "You're seeing a lot more gaming woman, especially in the casual field. There, they play things like Boggle and Scrabble and other board games of that ilk. However, there's a lot of them, making women more vocal and visual in the casual gaming center. As a result the market is paying more attention."

"Women also affect the purchases made," she added. "Studies show that purchaser age is rising, into the 40s. All this affects what is purchased, and how long the purchases are played with mothers buying games for their kids. Women are typically involved with managing the household, and are thusly involved with all purchases made in the home. This way, they affect all dollars that flow through the family income."

With this new influx of women gamers, advertisers and publishers can't afford to be reactionary. They have to market to women in different ways then men, and of course, market a whole other set of products. With technology, marketers can be more specific than ever and (hope) that their advertising dollars are well spent.

"I think digital distribution will play a big role in the in-game advertising field," explained Barnett. "We've only begun to scratch the surface. Right now, we have static advertisements that don't change. At NeoEdge, ads can change based upon information we know, like demographics, gender, location etc. We can explore even further, because we can find out who is playing, how they are playing. This is really, exciting to advertisers because it is really pinpointing. Advertisers are dying to get to the customers; they just can't get that on TV/radio. We, however, can say who's playing and for how long. This is also good for the consumer, because the ads are relevant to their interests."

"Because of our precision, we are getting to the core consumer who cares about the product and will come back," she continued. "Publishers can pick and choose what sort of ad they want, be it rolling out, pop up, on or offline, pre-roll, in-game, or picture framing banners. This is all a welcome stream to publishers as well, who can use that money to make bigger and better games. I, personally, am excited to be joining NeoEdge, which is at the cutting edge of advertising."

Talk of digital distribution could hardly preclude MMORPGs. While still focusing on in-game ads, the topic of conversation oddly turned toward relationships. While skirting the personal issue of relationship status [He's still available, ladies! - Ed.] the online community aspect of games was seen as untapped for matching people up for "personal" reasons. Barnett noted that while you might not know the real gender of a player in WoW, with NeoEdge you will. That sort of convenience will only increase with the popularity of the genre.

"You have to give customers the options to purchase things where they are... and where customers are is online," explained Barnett. "This works for MMORPGs in particular. Retail will be there, of course, but we want to be able to sell at all locations. But with MMORPGs, additional units, levels and the like can be done online easier than using a brick-and-mortar store."

"With digital distribution, MMORPG guys are there, so so are the casual game guys. The rest is education for the rest of consumers. But to make a comparison to another industry with digital distribution, distributors in the movie space, are looking to release directly via digital distribution before putting it into the theater. So the future looks exciting in this field."