Welcome to the Geeky Mom Gaming and Gadget Guide

My anniversary was the day before Mother's day this year, so hubby and the kids decided to give me one big gift for the weekend instead of a couple of smaller gifts. So, they bought me a Fujifilm S700 7.1 megapixel camera. It's awesome-looking, but I've also discovered it comes with a 100-page user manual--yes, that's 100 pages of English text, not 100 pages of English, Spanish, French, German, and something obscure like Ubuntu (yes, that's a bad joke, I know....). It occurred to me that other moms might have some insight on the gadgets they've used (and this camera in particular), since we do look at these things differently. Let's face it--gadgets are marketed to guys but are used by or given to women. However, we do look at things a bit differently than our male counterparts. When I surfed around awhile on the net, I discovered there's just not a lot out there on how these things are used by women. So, I'll share some of my experiences with tech-y things, and hope you do, too.

I'm including a gaming guide to discuss consoles, games, and women in gaming. I started thinking about this after listening to a Technology Tailor program on WGN radio on women gamers over 35. Did you know that it's women over 35 who are buying and playing the most video games? Fifty-two percent of all gamers are women, according to this article on "Marketing to Older Women Gamers" . Yet who are the games marketed to? If you guessed males 18-25, you're on the right track and you've just earned a tech-silver sheep. :) I even called in to the radio show and talked with the Tech Tailor, which I thought was seriously cool. Again, there's just not much on the net on how women are using or playing these games and what we'd like to see in a good game.

Now, I consider myself pretty geeky, but I'm not that far from the average gal. There has to be other women like me who've grown up with Atari or Nintendo and now are playing console and PC games. If the two-page thread I posted in Lucasforums is any indication, there's quite a bit of interest in the issue of women and gaming. Those of us who are Geeky Moms are also looking at games from two different points of view--not only how we play them but also if the games are appropriate for our kids. Some of the games that I really enjoy are totally inappropriate for my school-age children.

You'll see a lot of gadgets or games that I've used or played myself because I want to share hands-on experience. I'd love to hear your experiences as well.