Will women playing games work for her?

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Phaedra Boinodiris, 27, is nothing if not an optimist. After six months, her Raleigh-based WomenGamers.com Inc. had raked in a mere $5,000, mostly from advertising and computer-game sales commissions. Its five full-time employees are paid mostly in stock and promises. "We're still ramping up," she says. "We're actually making more than we had thought we would at this point."

WomenGamers.com is an online mix of computer-game reviews, news and opinions. Its Gamequest search engine takes into account how much violence, nudity and other naughty stuff users can stand. When they buy a game, WomenGamers.com gets a commission.

That leads to a ticklish question: If the company makes money selling games it reviews, how much faith can gainers put in the reviews? "You can look at our reviews and see," Boinodiris says. "There are very few games that we give extremely high ratings for."

In fact, the site gives few ratings below 5 on 10-point scale. The average in early February was 7.7. That generous curve might not matter to those hungry for a feminine perspective on computer games. Since its July launch, WomenGamers.com has grown to 1,300 members.

Studies show 43% of gamers are women, Boinodiris says. When she and her sister, Ismini, who is in charge of...