Barring all cliches and stereotypes, girl gamers do exist, and they can probably whoop your butt in Halo. Now, not every gamer is like Morgan Romine of the Ubisoft-sponsored FPS team, so for those game-playing ladies out there who enjoy the love of play, then this one's for you.

Over at Shiny Shiny, Katherine Hannaford writes some standard (and non-standard) reasons for women to pick up a PS3. Citing things like graphics, game prices, and PSP connectivity, she definitely has the arguments for and against the PS3 down pat. Props to her as well  for noticing that the PS3 also has a host of peripherals that are set to enhance the experience of playing games.

Of her different reasons though, the one that strikes us as most poignant has to be the inclusion of PlayStation Home and LittleBigPlanet as viable reasons to grab a PS3. She does make her point clear though, saying how this could be the console version of Second Life, but we're wondering what a legion of Sony fans are going to do at Home for hours.

Will they end up building Xbox 360 effigies and burning them online? Only time can tell.

It's always an interesting sight to see when news makers like Reuters talk about video games. It makes you realize that we're slowly getting more exposure and acceptance the way rock and roll and television managed to grow out of obscurity and into the public consciousness.

Of course, it would probably be better if we were talked about in the news for good reasons, and for wholly positive things. Women in gaming, while stereotypical as a topic of discussion for news and features articles are always worth talking about, if only because you can be sure that there are gamers who are better than you and are female.

The Frag Dolls (pictured left) of Ubisoft and the PMS clan are perhaps two of the most prominent female FPS gaming clans out there, not only because of their skill, but also because their core members look good. While the common statement among lady gamers happens to be promoting games and gamers of all genders (rather than focusing on men), does it really help that these female gamers look good?

Even Frag Doll Morgan Romine mentioned that "by virtue of being a novelty we usually got a bit of attention." Until women gamers are treated beyond the stereotype, without the focus of women in games being some sort of sexual stereotype, it seems very unlikely that people in general (and gamers in particular) will really offer full-fledged respect to gaming as a medium and female gamers as a norm, regardless of looks.

It might come as a shock to you, but there are women in this industry of gaming. In fact, there's a good chance you've either played something they've designed or marketed, learned something important about the reality of the industry from them, or got massacred by a team of them during an FPS battle.

Over at Next Generation, they've decided to take an accounting of this and made their own list of 100 most influential women in the games industry, and you might be surprised at what they're doing. Since we can't go over all 100, let's take a good cross-section of the women featured, and give you some insight into just how important they are for games in general, and the future of the industry in particular. Click on the Full Article link below and read on!