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Maranda Carvell is a stay-at-home mother of four and video game enthusiast photograph at her home in Rockland, Ontario.

Maranda Carvell

The 36-year-old stay-at-home mother of four and blogger from the Ottawa suburb of Rockland, plays role-playing and shooter games on the Xbox with her husband, after the kids have gone to bed. She has recently enjoyed Gears of War, a military science-fiction shooter; and the fantasy action game Skyrim, a so-called open-world game in which the player is free to roam a virtual world. "I used to joke I was the only mom in the playgroup with a gamer tag ... For years, I felt I was the only one, but since social media, especially Twitter, I have found like-minded gaming friends across North America."

Brittney Le Blanc

The 26-year-old Edmonton radio reporter loves console games that involve strategy and quests. She is currently playing Batman: Arkham Asylum, in which the only characters that players can become are male, and the women who do appear are scantily clad. But, she figures, that's comic books. "It's kind of fun to save the world."

Angela Sheppard

The 63-year-old Caledon, Ont., grandmother is a retired elementary-school teacher who currently plays Brain Age, which purports to exercise the mind, and puzzle game Zoo Keeper, as well as Sudoku on a Nintendo DS. She uses the games when suffering from insomnia. During the day, she also plays Lego Star Wars with her six-year-old grandson. "There are so many anxieties every day. It keeps me out of that."

Natalie Sit

The 30-year-old writer for a Calgary tech company plays console games, including first-person shooters, and has just finished Skyrim. She is looking forward to the third-person space-combat game Mass Effects 3, slated to appear next month, and praises the strong, neutrally presented female characters of that franchise. "As a woman who games, you realize you are not the target market and that's the way it is … If it's pink and girly and not a good game, I'm not interested; if it's an interesting game and girly and pink, I'll give it a shot."

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