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Yes -- I'm always amazed at how themainstream media "discovers" girl gamers every few months. Although, every year when I go to E3 (the big games trade show), plenty of industry professionals are surprized by the women's gaming angle as well.

I always mention this, so the best source out there for mainstream girls gaming news is http://www.gamegal.com/.

I find this to be an interesting discussion, especially because it's a topic that gets revisited every so often without ever being resolved.

If we pull back and look at the big picture, we can see that a lot of the same issues are raised, or example, against film reviewers (biased, paid-for reviews, etc.). But film criticism is still held in higher regard than game reviews - largely because film critics are most often journalists first, while game writers are gamers first, journalists second (often a distant second).

I've written reviews of everything from films and music to beer and wine, and I do some of game reviews/previews, which on their face are not really all that different.

Obviously different publications will treat material differently. This isn't "bias," it's the editorial focus of the publication. The New York Times and the Village Voice have different focuses and editorial directions, so its no wonder they have different things to say about the same film (although, much as in game reviews, there is an overall trend towards positive/negative reviews most of the time).

If you've ever seen an ad for a turkey of a movie with one or two positive quotes from reviewers you've never heard of (often a UPN affiliate in nowheresville), that's the equivalent of some website giving a great review to, say Driv3r (Driver 3) as a favor. It happens, but it's usually pretty easy to spot.

Bottom line? Game reviews are no more or less corrupt than mainstream film/music/etc. reviews, but game reviewers should strive to up their journalism skills so they can be taken as seriously as say, Roger Ebert, Janet Maslin or Elvis Mitchell (not a personal endorsement of these cats, so don't flame me if you hate them).

[Personal disclosure: I've had game reviews/previews in (partial list) Sync, USA Today, UGO.com, Happy Puppy and I edit a lot of material for girl gamer site http://www.gamegal.com/.]

They also have appaling grasp of the English language. I can understand Taito having "Train Shimulation" at TGS because, well, they're Japanese, but why do we English speakers have to endure such obvious wrongs as "Who is hair ..." when it's "whose hair"?

Surely they have the 5$ or so to pay someone to vet their signs.

Exposing the ridiculousness with good humour works much better than some feminist ranting. I'm a guy and find that funny.
".....let's just have the girls dance around on stage for a while.."
Exactly.. this is the kind of thing that would make me feel a plonker for going to this show.. it's not the girls that are sad, they're probably being well paid and have nothing to fear, it's the guys standing around photographing them (i realise some of those are for magazines, that's a whole other rant)... i mean come on, whack off/have sex *before* you go to E3 and maybe next year the companies can concentrate on the games... we can have an agreement sort of thing. never mind what the gamer girls think, it just makes more sense aiight guys ;)

Most game developers don't target demographics when conceptualizing games. They may decide to move a level from Syria to Iraq based on feedback from their target demographic, but when coming up with the overall concept that drives the game they generally do what pleases themselves. This is then presented to the publisher, who decides what they think will be the great games and demographics depending upon how they feel.

Women are sorely underrepresented in game development. While other people may have more accurate figures, I would estimate that only one in twenty is female. There are many debates on why women are as rare as they are, but the result is that games are made to satisfy their largely male creators.

This isn't always a bad thing, or a necessarily sexist thing. The two designers most responsible for bringing women into gaming, Alexey Pajitnov and Will Wright, are both men, and both enjoyed great financial success. That's not to say Roberta Williams and other women in dame development don't exist too, or that Game Gal and Game Girl Advance haven't had a tremendously positive influence, but games that are successful in drawing in women are successful in drawing in men too.

Companies would like to sell to the female gamer... As far back as 83 debates have raged as to how to do that. Just about the only rules of thumb that have come out of this debate are "make a great game" and "no blatant negative sexism."

Of course, Video game magazines achieve a degree of sexism only matched by their tremendously poor use of the language. I can't even flip through a "Game Pro" without cringing. That is a boys-only locker room, and that does need to change As Soon As Possible.

Most game developers don't target demographics when conceptualizing games. They may decide to move a level from Syria to Iraq based on feedback from their target demographic, but when coming up with the overall concept that drives the game they generally do what pleases themselves. This is then presented to the publisher, who decides what they think will be the great games and demographics depending upon how they feel.

Women are sorely underrepresented in game development. While other people may have more accurate figures, I would estimate that only one in twenty is female. There are many debates on why women are as rare as they are, but the result is that games are made to satisfy their largely male creators.

This isn't always a bad thing, or a necessarily sexist thing. The two designers most responsible for bringing women into gaming, Alexey Pajitnov and Will Wright, are both men, and both enjoyed great financial success. That's not to say Roberta Williams and other women in dame development don't exist too, or that Game Gal and Game Girl Advance haven't had a tremendously positive influence, but games that are successful in drawing in women are successful in drawing in men too.

Companies would like to sell to the female gamer... As far back as 83 debates have raged as to how to do that. Just about the only rules of thumb that have come out of this debate are "make a great game" and "no blatant negative sexism."

Of course, Video game magazines achieve a degree of sexism only matched by their tremendously poor use of the language. I can't even flip through a "Game Pro" without cringing. That is a boys-only locker room, and that does need to change As Soon As Possible.

Atchly, looks like "Libe Goad" is a real person, according to their site, and helped make kozmo.com the success that it is today. And she has degrees in Journalism and English Literature, so she must be qualified to be an editor. So there.

• Linux Chix
• Unix Sluts
• Girl Geek
• The Systers Home Page
• For gamers, GameGal.com
• and the slightly more gamer-oriented GameGirlz.com
• and the ever so punk GrrlGamer
• Of course, there's The Society of Women Engineers

This is just with five minute's looking.