An exclusive gaming industry community targeted
to, and designed for Professionals, Businesses
and Students in the sectors and industries
of Gaming, New Media and the Web, all closely
related with it's Business and Industry.
A Rich content driven service including articles,
contributed discussion, news, reviews, networking, downloads,
and debate.
We strive to cater for cultural influencers,
technology decision makers, early adopters and business leaders in the gaming industry.
A medium to share your or contribute your ideas,
experiences, questions and point of view or network
with other colleagues here at iVirtua Community.
Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto confessed today that he used a "wife-o-meter" to test if gaming was being opened up to new audiences.
At a packed conference hall in San Francisco he said his wife had never shown any interest in gaming.
But by broadening the types of games that Nintendo produced he had seen his wife become a "hard core gamer".
"She has now accepted video games as part of her daily life - and begun to understand the new interactive experience in video gaming," he said.
Some female gamers will feel patronised by this, I'm sure. I know I was taken to task for a review I wrote of the Nintendo Wii when I extolled how it had brought my wife to a console for the first time.
The gaming industry remains largely male-dominated and gaming is primarily done by teenage boys.
I've read plenty of surveys which say women are playing lots of games, mainly casual games, but my own experience is very different.
I know of only a handful of women who play video games. I know I shouldn't generalise based on personal experience - but it's hard not to.
At the GDC men outnumber women by about 50 to 1.
So are women happy with the experiences they are being served up? What do you think of the wife-o-meter?
Is gaming something that still needs spousal approval?