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Will such diversions capture the hearts, minds and leisure time of nine-year-old girls? Something's bound to. "Half the people who shop in our children's area have girls at home," notes CompUSA's Groatman. That kind of market power surely abhors a product vacuum.
And corporate culture abhors an undereducated employee. Three-quarters of today's working women regard computer proficiency as essential to women's professional advancement, a survey released last week by Avon Products reports. For years, boys have been using video games as entry points into the world of serious computing. Purple Moon and its competitors think it's high time America's girls got their share of the action.