"Hardcore" is perhaps the wrong word. But I was referring to the "Triple-A" titles, the ones with storylines and high production values, as opposed to "casual" games which require a lot less investment (monetary, temporal, and emotional). Wasn't referring to violence or fantasy setting or whatnot. I would categorize The Wind Waker as a hardcore game.

And while those games might have female fans, they're a vanishingly small percentage of players. That's where the mystery lies. I don't know a single woman who has played Assassin's Creed, but I know dozens who play Angry Birds. So the question is, how would you make a game like AssCreed more appealing to those lost 49 percent or so of the market? Having a female protagonist in there would do squat for sales, I believe. It would still be men buying it, playing it, and enjoying it. Look at Tomb Raider. I think it's all down to what culture says you can or can't do.
Angry Birds - ok.
Assassin's Creed - for kids and manboys.

I don't agree with it. Neither do these fangirls of which you speak. But we're not representative of society in general, and it's society in general which needs to change if women are going to start playing "Triple-A" games.

I really don't think adding a playable female lead character to everything is the answer. I'm a man and I have very little in common with the usual muscle-bound he-man videogame protagonists. You can play as a female in plenty of games (WoW and Mass Effect, for instance) but the overwhelming majority of players are still men. So I want to know what the article thinks those mythical "needs and preferences" are for female gamers. From the available data I'd say they're actually pretty well catered for - only we call them "casual gamers". Browser games, smartphone puzzle games, word games, etc - they're all at 50% or more female gamers.

This discussion seems to crop up every now and then and the question needs to be rephrased - why don't females play "hardcore" games? What is it about them that makes them inherently male? Me, I don't think it's about what your avatar looks like or how story-driven the game is. I think it's all down to culture. Same culture that tells us videogames are for 13 year old boys. All we need is for games to be great, immersive, well done, and for the shift to happen. It's gonna be slow, though.

Ryan Giggs. Not Gibbs. Agile but hairy Welsh player who's been playing for Man U practically forever. Or maybe the spelling mistake was a bid to avoid a superinjunction?

This is actually an EU directive, to be implemented by every member state. Governments need to store at least 6 months of logs. Costs to be borne by individual ISP:s. So if any brits were looking to the mainland for escape from this idiocy, think again. By the way, the man responsible for the creation of this law is one Thomas Bodström, former Swedish Minister for Justice. He's moving to the USA. Please make sure he doesn't get to hold any public office...