A new NPD study shows that more and more girls are interested in videogames and especially to online virtual worlds. The main attraction is the built in social element that they exhibit and the fact that they are easy to play.

1,541 girls were questioned as part of the study and over half of them claimed that they spend more time with video games and with electronic gadgets than they did the previous year.

According to the study, girls aged 9 to 12 still favor traditional toys over videogames or computer mediated games, but the difference between the categories has narrowed considerably.

The study shows that, in 2008, girls between the ages of 6 and 8 are set to spend more time playing in virtual worlds, attracted to their social aspect and to the board games that they offer. There's also a strong feeling that such games provide a safe environment in which kids can express their personalities.

Anita Frazier, who is an analyst for the NPD Group and a girl (a woman, actually), which makes her double qualified to talk about the issue, said that “Girls, in general, are famously social creatures. The growth in use of social networking and virtual world websites by girls is a natural extension of this core value which needs to be recognized by manufacturers who count girls as primary market for their goods and services”.

The good news for the macho gamers out there is that girls seem to be less competitive, in average, than boys so it's unlikely that we will see hardcore female players dominating the leaderboards for Halo 3 or for Call of Duty 4. On the other hand, we might see more and more virtual worlds which aim to capitalize on the yet unexplored potential of the social girl gamer.