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Is gaming for geeks or has it gone mainstream? Will the next blockbuster appeal to the stereotypical gamer or to joe and joanna average? Charlie Brooker offers some pointers in his own unique comedic style, but for the games industry as a whole this is no laughing matter. In this, more than anything else, the Wii broke new ground by reaching people (especially women) the other consoles had failed to reach.

Let's face it, the games industry has grown (whether it has grown up is another matter) with a 'just like me' culture: hire geeks who then design for geeks to create products bought by geeks. This clearly marks the beginning of the (consumer-driven) end of this paradigm. As a result, I predict that within five years we will see both fewer geeks and more women (and not just geeky women, natch) working as game designers.

As an aside, while perusing my local game store the other day for a tasty morsel I could while away the time with, I was approached by the only female member of staff who, it was pleasing to note, knew her daikatana from her finalfantasy VII, and isn't the world a better place for it. Funnily enough her male co-worker professed that he hadn’t played a game since Tetris – a lone idiot or yet more evidence that women need to be better and brighter than the chaps to be accepted in ‘male’ roles?

It's always funny working with male gamers – the very same ones that hire ‘just like me’ – they all agree the workplace is a better place for having more women around. And, while many ‘female jobs’ within the games industry remain those in administration or production, not to mention HR, the latest figures of female graduates from gaming courses the world over show a healthy tipping of the scales.

The common wisdom has it that in bad economic times the entertainment industries do well. Cinema, and latterly videogames, the thinking goes are cheap thrills along with drinking at home and takeaways - people downsize their entertainments rather than lose out altogether. Now, then, should be a boom time in CG land as games companies and studios ramp up production to meet the bread-and-circuses demand. It's not quite playing out like that though - many companies (and the biggest are among them) - are cutting jobs. Why? One or more of the following factors is the likely cause:

• Natural cycles following M&A activity - small companies have been swallowed up and now the 'dead wood' is being got rid of
• Credit crunch woes - cashflow is king and games (and films) have long lead times before they generate revenue, leaving companies exposed when funding dries up
• Good time to bury bad news - job cuts, in the current news environment, are unlikely to result in bad publicity

So, is it all doom and gloom? The short answer is no, but expect the coming 18 months to see an increase in churn and more opportunity for freelance and short-term contracts.