MEMBER BLOG

- Sony is deliberately shorting the supply of PS3s to create buzz.

Are you insane? Why?! There are so many better ways to create buzz - like a controversial ad. If Sony is truly guilty of this, it's an extremely poor decision and something that Sony (despite its recent slump) probably isn't doing and something I would be very surprised to see as truth. The number of people this would offend, the profit risks... I mean, who wants to start last in the console war? Why would Sony, with how much it has already invested in production, marketing and above all - time - even think about shorting the PS3 supply? No. Just no.

- Women who game either don't read gaming magazines or advertisers aren't catching on.

Flipping through an issue of Game Informer, the advertisements struck me. Most non-gaming related ads were things like Bowflex, Get Milk? (with a basketball star leaping in the center of the page), John Cena (as an ad for Marine), abovetheinfluence (with male characters), BOSE (with two men staring at a computer screen), and the U.S. Army Reserve (where each soldier in the ad was male). Sure, every now and then there are some ads about buying 5 DVDs for a dime or something, but by and large, the ads are projected towards a male audience. I'm not sure if this is particularly wrong, since if men dominate the mailing list of gaming magazines, then sure - what's the problem? But I wonder whether women, at least in America, will ever be as involved as men in gaming culture - and if it does, whether the advertising will become more gender-free. Perhaps, gender inequality in games is just a constant.

- A picture of a female black knight with a ponytail slit coming out of back of the helmet.

First off, this is rad. But how does someone put this on? Ponder, ponder. Does a girl furl her hair in her hand and then put the helmet on? But then, how does she get her hand out of the helmet? Does she just pull her hair from the slit in the back of the helmet? But then, how does she fit her hand in the slit? Ponder, ponder. Would a woman really wear such a ill-designed accessory?