A recent issue of The Escapist focuses on women in gaming with articles discussing everything from sexism in games to ideas for creating games which women will buy. An interview with a "girl gamer" is also featured in the issue. As the percentage of women involved in gaming grows, the gender differences in game choice are also likely to grow in importance for the industry.

From "Women In Gaming" by Chris Crawford:

By any technical measurement, today's games are thousands of times superior to Pac-Man. But in one regard, nothing has changed. When somebody decided to build a woman's version of Pac-Man, the best they could come up with was giving Pac-Man a sex-change operation by putting a bow on his head and calling him "Ms. Pac-Man." Nowadays, the best we can come up with for women in gaming is giving them pink guns. Whoop-de-doo.

I have long since given up participating in discussions on women in gaming. The games industry is so out of touch, such discussions are a waste of perfectly good electrons. When Microsoft wanted to publicize an event for women at a Game Developers' Conference a few years back, they splashed around banners showing a woman in a low-cut dress.

The Escapist: Issue 17

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