The Escapist Issue #17

[Evil Avatar]

The Escapist Issue #17 (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/) is now online. Why do current games appeal primarily to men, and what sort of games might appeal to women? Why do survival horror games have the most dynamic female protagonists? What’s the difference between motherhood and MMOG community management? What’s the lifestyle of a woman worker at GameStop? What can men do to stop sexism in game development? And do girl gamers actually exist on the Internet, or is it all just men pretending?

These questions find answers in this week’s jumbo-sized issue of The Escapist, “Girl Power”, including feature articles by game design guru Chris Crawford and contributors Bonnie Ruberg and Whitney Butts. Also in Issue 17 are a column by Shadowbane community manager Danielle “Sachant” Vanderlip and spotlights by contributors Pat Miller and M. Junaid Alam.

[Intruder]

All I can say is I have to pry WoW from my wife's hands. Same thing was with CoH.

[agentgray]

Whitney Butts
I'm sorry, but, "Ha! Ha!"

[sebastard]

The Escapist is a great gaming mag. WIth them and the re-birth of Next Generation, it's great to see some more critical and "mature" game journalism that isn't just advertorials (like game reviews and/or previews) and amateur commentary.

[TheKeck]

I haven't finished issue #17 yet, but I have to say, it's shaping up to be one of the better issues of The Escapist. On par with the first couple of issues. Yippee.

[teleios]

I'm sorry, but, "Ha! Ha!"

Damn, thought I got enough of this in third grade.
You may laugh and make fun of my name, but hey at least it gets remembered ;)

[Oblivion]

take that agentgray!

[A-Team]

Someone just got burned by their own lighter.

The Escapist is a great gaming mag. WIth them and the re-birth of Next Generation, it's great to see some more critical and "mature" game journalism that isn't just advertorials (like game reviews and/or previews) and amateur commentary.
Agreed, though I should point out that this is definitely a case where you can't have one without the other. If gaming journalists everywhere adopted the mature agenda that Next-Gen and The Escapist both follow, I think we'd be depriving ourselves of something more than just amateur commentary. Well-established gaming communities everywhere would simply crumble and people would end up stooping lower than they already do when major announcements (aka the whole ordeal with exclusive rights to use sports IP) spring up.

That said, this issue of The Escapist was one of the best yet. Surely can't wait to see what comes around next. :)

[bapenguin]

Damn, thought I got enough of this in third grade.
You may laugh and make fun of my name, but hey at least it gets remembered ;)

Welcome to the site Whitney! Excellent work on the magazine.

[fitbabits]

Damn, thought I got enough of this in third grade.
You may laugh and make fun of my name, but hey at least it gets remembered ;)
Holy moly, not only does your name RAWK, you live up the road from me!

[fitbabits]

The Escapist Issue #17 (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/) is now online. Why do current games appeal primarily to men, and what sort of games might appeal to women? Why do survival horror games have the most dynamic female protagonists? What’s the difference between motherhood and MMOG community management? What’s the lifestyle of a woman worker at GameStop? What can men do to stop sexism in game development? And do girl gamers actually exist on the Internet, or is it all just men pretending?

These questions find answers in this week’s jumbo-sized issue of The Escapist, “Girl Power”, including feature articles by game design guru Chris Crawford and contributors Bonnie Ruberg and Whitney Butts. Also in Issue 17 are a column by Shadowbane community manager Danielle “Sachant” Vanderlip and spotlights by contributors Pat Miller and M. Junaid Alam.
And for perhaps the 17th time - I LOVE THE ESCAPIST!!! If I were an online magazine, I'd want to make love to it and make little flyers.

[bKangy]

Ah, yes, fantastic magazine! Heck, you even made me feel slightly guilty about being male there for a moment ;)

[teleios]

I'll pass the praise onto the whole team, I just write code ;)

Yes, we are in Durham, NC.

My article wasn't in the main issue, it will be in Friday's - I just got put on the contributors list today. Glad to hear everyone is liking this issue though.

[TheKeck]

And for perhaps the 17th time - I LOVE THE ESCAPIST!!! If I were an online magazine, I'd want to make love to it and make little flyers.

I'm glad you kept it politically correct. I wouldn't want to see any man-on-online-magazine action!

(As opposed to the pure love that two online magazines may share.)

[fitbabits]

I'm glad you kept it politically correct. I wouldn't want to see any man-on-online-magazine action!

(As opposed to the pure love that two online magazines may share.)
My head hurts! :confused:

[Bushido]

From the article:
he male pelvis is well-structured for the efficient operation of the leg muscles. But the female pelvis has been subject to a more powerful selection effect: death in childbirth.

I stopped reading about here. I must be the only person who thinks the escapist is a vapid, contrived, sad attempt at bringing the Printed word to the internet. The tiny words, the giant pictures; the escapist is trying to force an outmoded theme. The barbaric journalism is more sensational than sensible, I'm not suprised its popular, of course guys are gonna love backwards opinions and rants on women being physicaly weak and inferior and that it somehow correlates to video games. Correlation implies causation (logical fallacy) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_implies_causation_(logical_fallacy)) also known as cum hoc ergo propter hoc (Latin for "with this, therefore because of this") is a logical fallacy by which two events that occur together are claimed to be cause and effect.

[Eon]

From the article:
The barbaric journalism is more sensational than sensible, I'm not suprised its popular, of course guys are gonna love backwards opinions and rants on women being physicaly weak and inferior and that it somehow correlates to video games.

Perhaps we can discover together why, as a man, I have narrow hips and huge shoulders, coupled with a naturally larger muscle mass, heavier bone and so on and so on and so on.

You do have some etheral guys and you have some fairly chunky girls too - but the average woman is a damn sight slighter than the average guy. Claiming that the odds start even there is totally bogus.

In addition, whilst I hate the objectification of the female form in games, can you tell me the last time a male protagonist WASN'T tall and slim with well developed musculature? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

[Adewade]

Well, Manny from Grim Fandango didn't have well-developed musculature, per say...

[Eon]

Can't argue about the tall and slim part though, eh? ;)

Besides did Grim Fandango have overly endowed female representation either?

[Roc Ingersol]

of course guys are gonna love backwards opinions and rants on women being physicaly weak and inferior and that it somehow correlates to video games.
Maybe you should have checked your baggage at the door and finished the article first?