Princess Fix IT

I was futzing around this evening and happened upon a site I had yet to hear about before, WomenGamers.com. If you say you knew about this site already and didn?t inform me of its existence I will, in fact, call you a tool for not dropping the line to me previously (and if you even try to say the words Frag and Dolls, I will most certainly call you, well, something worse).

I was fairly impressed with the reviews and the slant towards women. Not in an ?I hate looking at naked and\or objectified women all the time,? kind of way, but a very insightful and intelligent kind of gamer way. This article in particular struck home with me. The second page makes some excellent points about marketing and gaming magazines. I particularly enjoyed this bit:

I really do understand that these are effective, time honored marketing strategies. I?m not offended by half-naked women. But it is this public face of gaming that reinforces the stereotype that most gamers are pimply faced, socially awkward boys or men that play, in part, to see boobies, with a small population of female gamers that play to socialize or to trigger an emotional response. This insults me as a gamer, and probably insults the pimply-faced gamers boys out there who want a real game, not just a piece of fluff. While I have no doubt that the buxom figure of Lara Croft contributed to her success (supported by the existence of games such as Leisure Suit Larry), I find it hard to believe that the boob-factor is really that big of a draw compared to content, graphics, and gameplay mechanics.

Makes sense to me...