I think the real problem with the trope is that people assume "male tastes" to encompass everything except Bejeweled, Peggle and The Sims. The increasingly complex and artistic nature of video games has led to far closer gender parity in gamers than people are willing to admit. Many women enjoy mainstream games - a good story with entertaining characters and enjoyable gameplay can be appreciated by anyone, and people tend to ignore the fact that a game featuring a Third Person Seductress will also invariably include some Estrogen Brigade Bait as well - and while Halo and Gears of War may well be wildly successful, all that tells us is that most Xbox gamers are male, a point I wouldn't even begin to doubt. One can generalize across an entire population, but not between individuals. Now more than ever, the entire trope seems outdated.

"Now more than ever, the entire trope seems outdated."

I wouldn't be so sure. I live in a first world country, and it's a view that's commonly held up in the mainstream - if newspaper articles bother to point out that "much more women play videa games than the reader might think", it's because they suppose that most people think women don't play much videao games at all.

As for the gaming community, I've recently been told "wow, a girl playing video games? That's uncommon" by a MMORPG player less than 30 of age. He wasn't being ironic. So I'd that this myth still exists. Even if it's at least partly a myth.

Sure, it's still a commonly held view. Frustratingly commonly held. And it's still not true. As you said, it's a myth. As I said, now more than ever.

If you just say video games in general, then yes, this trope is false.

But, when people think "gamer", they often think of console games, e.g. Nintendo, Playstation, XBOX, etc...

While especially with the release of the Wii, even console games see a large number of female players, it's still easy to think that males outnumber them in this category by a fair amount.

I know that where I live, it is still very much a rare thing to meet a girl who plays video games. However, this is only if you don't count things such as Facebook games (farmville) or iPhone app games and the like.

As I said in the other topic, it's console gaming that still seems to be male-dominant. With the exception of the Nintendo Wii, game consoles like the XBOX still appear to have a primarily male population. At least in my experience.

Whereas most women I know would be insulted if someone suggested female gamers just play Peggle and Farmville. Saying women don't play "real" games is sorta like saying women don't read comics.

You might actually be surprised at how many female players play 'under cover,' as it were. I and many other girl gamers I talk to tend to keep mum about their RL gender in online games due to wanting to avoid criticism. Women being insulted due to their gender ("Girls can't play games!") or just plain being subject to sexist insults, ("Go make me a sammich" is a common and fairly mild one) can make some women hesitant about outing themselves. In my experience, possibly 10% of players I interact with on a daily basis in World of Warcraft are women, and those are the ones that I KNOW.