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http://www.fragdolls.com/us/

And they are paid by Ubisoft, but don't let that make you think they're not really gamers. I've spent time with a few of them, and about half are members of the PMS Clan - they're serious gamers who happened to get a job where they get paid to do gaming stuff. A friend of mine tried out for them, and would have made it were she not already busy with her helicopter lessons - and she kicks serious gaming ass.

They also won the Ghost Recon tournament at PAX in 2005.

Yes, the Frag Dolls were put together by UbiSoft, and the company does pay them to travel to various gaming-related conventions and shows. They do make media appearances and the like. And yes, they were at least partially picked for their attractiveness - though that was secondary to making sure they were all serious and GOOD gamers.

One of the Frag Dolls is also one of the co-founders of my clan, the PMS Clan, and a few more of them are members. They're not pretty faces that can barely play, they're all dead serious gamers that are quite skilled, and they're very much into promoting gaming as acceptable for girls.

Well, some of us are working on making it more acceptable for girls to play games and be open about it.

I know a bunch of girls that game just because they like games.

There's a whole group of us.

We even have a website.

Imagine that.

I almost quit playing on Live for the same reason. I had some fun playing in Matchmade games against random people, but with the percentage of idiots out there, and the lack of being able to keep a good team for team games, I was losing interest.

Then I got the gamertags of a few other people here at work, and started playing with them, and their friends. Before long, I had a couple dozen people on on friends list, and growing. Then I ended up in a game with one of the girls from PMS, and I joined it, and found more and more friends through there, too. Last time I looked, I had over 70 people on my friends list, and then a couple hundred in my clan - so I never have problems finding people to play with.

All this, and none of my friends in real life play on Live. It's just about getting the right people to seed your friends list. :)

(BTW, if you ever do decide to play Halo 2 or Forza online, feel free to send me a friend request - PMS GibGirl)

Well, part of the reason you're hearing about it is because us gaming girls are getting louder and louder about it, now that more girls are playing, and they're getting into all-female clans to play together.

We're also sick of the treatment we get by many of the guys, and drawing more positive attention to ourselves seems like a way to offset the negative comments and crap we get on a regular basis.

What, you think women don't play FPS games?

Dude, think again. There are plenty of us that not only play such games, we play them seriously and competitively.

There's not any game that us girls don't play. Ok, except for maybe the game where we try and pretend our gaming skills somehow translate into making us cooler than other people. That game we'll gladly leave for you guys to play.

Discovering girls doesn't mean gaming has to die. However I did go from being a top notch FPS player to a barely okay one.

Aah, then you just need to find a girl that can challenge you in that category. :)

Then again, finding a gamer girl is, I believe, the holy grail of most guy gamers out there. At least the ones that don't get a bruised ego by being beat by one of us. :)

With the new gen of consoles, I think I'm most interested in seeing the online experience the various consoles offer. I have broadband, and about 2 1/2 months ago I discovered Xbox Live - which has so been worthwhile overall for me. Sure, I get the obnoxious teenagers spewing garbage, but I also have plenty of friends to play with and talk to, and now an entire clan (w00t! Go PMS!) of people to team up with. So I'm getting plenty more good experiences than bad.

Which is why I want to see how things work with the next gen systems. I want online not to feel like some tacked-on thing, but integral to my gaming on the console. Live for the 360 looks like it's going to be really nice, and Nintendo's may turn out really well also, with all the downloadable games. What about the PS3's version? All that's come from them has more or less been "like Xbox Live but better" - which is meaningless and doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

I know there's not enough broadband out there for it to be the biggest deciding factor, but I bet it's going to make a sigificant impact on console sales, and even more so in the future generations.