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Why is it that girls don’t like video games? This was the question that cropped up at dinner the other night and prompted a raucous debate.

The first thing that was said is that no girl likes any games but this is untrue. Games like The Sims were played by both girls and guys. People at the table said that the reason girls liked The Sims was because they got to build house, fill them with crap and make little families.

But again, this doesn’t get to the bottom of things. Games like Guitar Hero are played by girls too. Maybe it’s because it’s semi musical and girls wanna be rock stars too.

The games that everyone thinks girls don’t like are the shooting games or first person shooters. But I have theory why they don’t like them. When girls ever play these games they are surrounded by guys who have all played the game by themselves and gone through the tutorials.

Therefore they know how to play. A girl who’s never played from the beginning will just be frustrated. So in the interest of fair play and even science we need to get girls playing games from the beginning. That way, everyone can play with each other nicely in a virtual world. Game on.

They used to be known as computer games when i fist got into them, and if you played them you were, well, let’s face it, a bit of a geek. But times are changing. Since the consoles first came out it’s just something that guys do. And now girls are starting to get into gaming too.

Games now have sexy PR people dealing with making the games look sexy. Last week Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 came out and was the first game to get a release in Leicester Square. The games industry have learned much from the movie industry. They had actors dressed as US Marines deliver the first available copies of the game in a ammo crate.

Yesterday I went round to my friend Tarik’s house and they were playing on the Xbox 360. 2 guys and 1 girl. Yes, a girl. Playing video games. Sorry for the tangent, but that’s another thing. They’re no longer called computer games. Computers are geeky. They’re something you work on. They’re now called video games.

But the girl playing at Tarik’s wasn’t some one off freak. The game they were playing, Assassin’s Creed 2 (plug, plug, plug) was so good that I spontaneously went to Game and bought it. And was surpried to be the only male in the shop! There were about 3 groups of young girls buying games and both the staff happened to be female too. All very strange.

But this is the way things are going. The kids who played computer games have now grown up to be adult gamers who have real jobs and real money. So there’s more money to spend on glitzy things like PR. Not only that but some of them even work in the industry, bringing innovation and making the games better.

Assassin’s Creed is like acting out your very own movie and we’re still taking the first baby steps into gaming. Give it 10 more years everyone, young and old will be gaming their little hearts out in their own virtual worlds. Anyway, time to un-pause the game and go back to exploring Renaissance Florence. Till tomorrow.

Assassin’s Creed 2 trailer – check it out.