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The quest to incorporate digital games into US classrooms has been pervasive in educational communities over the last two decades. Educational video games have been studied as a mechanism for enhancing the engagement and performance of underrepresented groups (UGs) in spatial learning, physics, computer science, general engineering, software and electrical engineering, mechanical engineering (ME) computer aided design, and aerospace engineering. Less than a handful of these studies have explored games’ appeal, efficacy or UG performance as a function of gender. Preliminary findings on a study that explores the appeal, efficacy, and performance of UGs in engineering-based educational video games as a function of gender and those of intersectional backgrounds is discussed. Emphasis is placed on elucidating these students' perceptions of serious game structure, design and content, and how these factors motivate their learning of engineering concepts and self-identification as engineers. This work builds upon the Technology Acceptance Model.