Women and/in Video Games

I was remembering myself playing a video game earlier, while at the same time noticing one of my friends got a new girlfriend, and then remembering that, when I went to see an action movie recently, this friend had asked me if he could bring that now-girlfriend along. Then, the three thoughts collided in this. Why is it that women tend to like action movies, as do men, but many women don’t particularly care for video games, at least the way many men do?

Notice I’m using the absolute term “many” instead of the relative term “most.” I’m trying desperately to avoid stepping into stereotype territory.

Anyway, after pondering this for a while, I thought of something that had been bugging me concerning various video games I’ve been playing in the past. I’m particularly interested in the stories video games present, and by extension I love getting to know the characters in the story. But one thing that has bugged me recently is noticing how the female characters in video games (at least, the female lead characters) always tend to be cookie-cut from one of three designs. Male leads are generally varied in character (let’s forget Final Fantasy V exists for a moment), but female leads usually get the same general treatment. Or, one of a few general treatments.