Until recently, the gaming world’s attempts to drag girls into its orbit has been rather pathetic.

Those girls who weren’t already playing were taunted with such dubious enticements as pink hardware — gaming systems and peripherals in rose-toned hues — as if all girls go weak and fall madly in love with that color. (Were that true, Game Guy would have painted himself pink years ago.)

But the only thing that has proven is pink looks much better on a flower than a game console.

So, Sony Online Entertainment is trying something much smarter. It plans to offer a $10,000 scholarship and a paid internship to girls willing to work on game design.

“Video-game making is male dominated, and we need to change that,” Devra Pransky of SOE told Agence France-Presse at the Game Developers Conference going on now in San Francisco.

The plan follows a Sony-sponsored survey in January of female students enrolled in game design and programming in the San Francisco area that showed about half of those surveyed believe more women would play video games designed by women.

Trouble is, perceptions that the video game industry is an all-boys club has discouraged women from pursuing careers in design and development.

“If more women make games, then more women will play games and get excited about making games,” said SOE’s Taina Rodriguez. “We want to strengthen that cycle.”

To that end, The Art Institutes, a group of private, for-profit career prep institutions in 22 states and Canada, will begin offering an SOE-sponsored scholarship in April, with the winner receiving $10,000 and a paid SOE internship. Students at other universities and trade schools are eligible as well.

And SOE promises the scholarship won’t be printed on pink paper.

Editor’s note: The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse news services contributed to this report