One thing amusing about these topics is just how superficially they look at the essence of the "real" games and why they might not be favorable to females. The violence! The scantly clad females! Society says gaming is a loser activity! No female leads!
Gameplay is almost rarely discussed. I can't find it now but I seem to recall a group of studies a few years ago that included gaming but also play in general that indicated one of the larger gender gaps was in terms of the "accomplishment" or "goals" of the play. The short version being that males tend to enjoy "destructive" play, bad guys to beat, physical challenges to overcome, etc. While females lean towards "constructive" play, improving the self/character, building something especially relationships, etc. And just anecdotal where many of the females I know* tend to like stuff like The Sims or Animal Crossing or Zoo Tycoon or RPGs where the goal is more of a constructive one. Now there's plenty to quibble about and such with a skimpy analysis like that and it obviously doesn't apply to everyone as we're all individuals and obviously social cues and what not must factor in but it is interesting to consider the possibility that it's a situation where the genres haven't truly been found yet and established to the extent that "male favored" ones have. With the "casual" correlation being merely a factor of those genres coming closest to being whatever a series of female favored AAA genres
could look like AND the greater leeway in the PC/Mobile/Browser/Social market for small scale "test" concepts.
By ignoring the gameplay it ignores the unique aspect of the medium, for movies or whatever you just have to take what works in the other less-interactive mediums like plays or novels that came before and showed how to engage both genders.
Which is somewhat amusing for a group that self-identifies as these intense hardcore gamers and essentially often publicly demands to be respected just for being such.
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*and by "know" I of course mean "made up" and/or "once made accidental eye contact with in biology"
