Bhubaneswar, Oct. 2: Social worker Lipsa Priyadarshini, 24, always used to take her brother along to a gaming parlour near her house at Jayadev Vihar. As she would enter the parlour, everyone - all male players - would turn to look at her, making her feel awkward.

Few months later, she is now a regular visitor to the parlour. Accompanying her would be a gang of girls, who would often engage in Counter Strike matches these days.

Breaking even

There was a time when men dominated the world of gaming, but not any more. Now, the gaming audience in the city is gradually drifting towards a female consumer base.

"Time has changed and so have priorities of women. Earlier for a girl, playing video games was a big thing. But these days, a number of girls of our age have taken to gaming," says Priyadarshini, better known as Fairy in her gaming community.

While many women have taken it up for fun, others have taken it up as a challenge. "Earlier I used to get irritated whenever I saw my brother playing, but now I have got addicted to it. It is exciting," said 25-year-old student Anuradha Nayak.

Her cousin, however, took to gaming to prove her male friends wrong.

"I was always inquisitive about the fighting games on consoles, but my friends never taught me. When I joined college, I bought a console and started playing on my own. Today, I am better than many of my male friends," said Akanksha, an engineering student.

Tapan Sahoo of Game Zone in Chandrashekharpur set up a Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming console in his parlour eight years ago. He said that the inflow of crowd has gradually evolved from only men eight years ago to both men and women these days.

"Girls are thronging my parlour, individually and in groups, and are taking part in games that were predominantly played by boys earlier. Many a times, they challenge boys in matches of Need for Speed and Grand Theft Auto series," he said.

Sahoo added that around 35 per cent of the crowd at his parlour comprises women and most of them are college students.

Adrenaline rush

Initially, women start off with games such as Counter Strike and later raise level to play more high-end ones such as Mafia and Blockbuster.

"I love the adrenaline rush that gaming offers. They involve chasing enemies, targeting bull's eye, using guns and firearms and shooting and shedding blood, driving fast cars and riding speed bikes. They are exciting," said Priyadarshini.

Ankita Pattanayak and two of her friends started a gaming parlour-cum-café joint a few months ago near the Ravi Talkies. The joint, Let's Go Bananas, has an area for console gaming on a 55" HD TV.

She affirms that the gaming zone has been attracting a large number of women.

"A few of them are quite adept at using the consoles and keep themselves abreast with the happenings in the gaming world. After witnessing the crowd, we have now decided to initiate tournaments between boys and girls," she said.

She added that the football game, FIFA, and the fighting game, Injustice: Gods Among Us, are popular with the women.

"There is a lot of interest among girls to get into gaming," said Pattanayak.

Leisure games

Not only video gaming, several women are into a number of leisure games like bowling and billiards.

Sukant, the manager of Funky Town Game Zone, a game centre based at Saheed Nagar, said: "During weekends, a number of women college students and working professionals spend time here. A number of them are my regular customers and many of them are quite good at it."

He added that the parlour attracts 10 women gamers every day on an average, which goes up to 50 during the weekends.

Many Odia actresses are also into leisure games. "After shoots, I often take out time to play pool with my friends. It acts as a stress buster," said Odia actress Bidusmita.

There are a number of clubs and restaurants in the city that offer leisure games and they have a large women customer base.

Challenges ahead

While there are a number of gaming tournaments organised in colleges and also a number of gaming teams in the city, there is no team that represents the women gamers.

"The acceptance from the society is still lacking. While men do not stare at us any more, but the fact that women could be better than them at gaming or could win tournaments still does not go down well with them," adds BJB College student Anusuya Nayak, who is actively into gaming.

Video games with female protagonists or female game developers are also in the minority.

But hopes are high among female gamers. "After a few years, women would indulge into game designing and develop ones with female protagonists. Someday, there would also be tournaments only for women," said Sweety Samantray, a 24-year-old information technology professional.

"A few of my friends and I have started a social networking page of only female gamers and we are trying to expand the group so that the community widens," said Samantray.