As long as it has existed, the virtual world has seemingly belonged to men.

According to gamespot.com, a leading video game resource web site, not a single top-selling game in 2008 boasts a female main character, though some of the multiplayer games do provide a female option.

It doesn't stop there. Girls who play online video games, such as Call of Duty, Halo or World of Warcraft, often face ridicule or harassment from other gamers. If female gamers aren't being hit on, they're often being told that they must be unattractive and awful at gaming simply because they are female.

"A lot of people kind of look at it as, 'Oh, girls, you know, they don't play video games, they don't know anything about that sort of thing. Girls can't really be nerdy.' Girls can be nerdy; anyone can be nerdy," said April Stair, a photography student and social gamer.

The portrayal of women in video games is often under fire as well, as female protagonists are typically sexualized to the point of absurdity. For instance, the OneChanbara series of games revolves around a bikini and cowboy-hat wearing protagonist killing hordes of zombies and demons with a katana.

"It's unfair, but what isn't?" said Terra Cole, a biology student and role-playing game fan.

The portrayal of women in video games is beginning to change, however. Several recently released games are subverting the trend of sexualized female characters by including strong female protagonists. Portal and Half-Life 2, both released in 2007 by local developer Valve, include female characters that are intelligent and powerful, not to mention reasonably dressed, rather than damsels in distress. In addition, Mirror's Edge, by Swedish developing company DICE, released in 2008, features an athletic female character, Faith, as its lead.

"We didn't want to sexualize her," said Mirror's Edge producer Tom Farrer in an e-mail. "We wanted to get away from the stereotypical portrayal of women in games as adolescent fantasy objects. Faith is strong, athletic, realistically proportioned and doesn't look like she just crawled out of a top shelf magazine. I believe she is an accessible, inspirational figure and a character that is easier to relate to because of her basic humanity.

"Yes, we consciously tried to avoid doing this [portraying women as sex objects] in Mirror's Edge."

According to Farrer, Faith developed organically. Originally, the main character was male and Faith was a side character. The developers liked the character concept so much that they made her the focus of the game.

Because both Portal and Mirror's Edge feature strong female heroines from first-person perspectives, the comparisons between the two are inevitable. Both games have incited conversation among bloggers and video game critics about feminism and the portrayal of women in video games.

"I think it was Picasso who said that art is a lie that makes us realize the truth. The fact that Portal and Mirror's Edge have been catalysts for these kinds of discussions is something we should be proud of and encourage," said Farrer.

With companies like Valve and DICE working to fix the stereotypes prevalent in the gaming industry, female gamers have something to look forward to.

"I think it's looking pretty bright for, not only females, but just everyone in general," said Stair. "There's becoming so many different games that everyone can find something that interests them or a game that they like."

"Ladies can be gamers too, and it doesn't have to be about them being ladies, it has to be about their skill," said Cole.