The IRIS Gaming Network: A Year in Review
May 2008 Issue
Features
- From the Editors
- Craft Check: Crafts Revisited
- Gaming in the Media: How Can Grand Theft Auto Transition from Base Entertainment to Art?
Articles
- Gender & Live-Action Role Play: Into Monster Camp
Author: Samara Hayley Steele
In this ongoing series, Samara shares her experiences as a female LARPer in a male-dominated LARP organization.
In an IRIS retrospective, Olivia recaps some of the more memorable milestones of the past year.
Robyn shares her thoughts on a recent preview of D&D 4th Edition, held by Wizards of the Coast in Los Angeles, California.
Gamer Stories
Reviews
- Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
- Ikariam
- Retro Review: Final Fantasy VI
Odds 'n Ends
Can you believe we’re already celebrating the first anniversary of Cerise? One year ago this month we launched Cerise with the goal of “Getting Noticed in Gaming.” A year into our project, how are we doing? Let’s take a look back at some of the exciting things we’ve accomplished this past year, as well as look forward to what we’ve got in store for the future!
Last summer, in the early days of Cerise, we kicked things off well with some exciting interviews and the introduction of some of the features that have become mainstays of each issue of Cerise, such as the Gamer Stories, Retro Reviews and our regular columns.
October was a momentous month for Senior Editors Robyn Fleming and Andrea Rubenstein. Robyn represented Cerise in “Women in Gaming,” an event hosted by the Xfire Debate Club. Meanwhile, Andrea received notice that she was accepted into HAL, a noted game design school in Osaka, Japan. Make sure to stop by their respective game blogs, launched under the IRIS banner in the past year: Robyn Can’t Jump and The Life and Times of a Video Game Design Student, which are joined by Staff Writer Latoya Peterson’s Gaming in the Media blog.
One of the most exciting developments for Cerise over the past year has been to see how our articles are received by others, and what kind of impact they’ve had. So far, articles that we’ve published have been linked on Wikipedia, reprinted on other blogs, sites and magazines, translated in multiple languages and used in college curriculums. We’ve been asked to participate in podcasts, contacted by filmmakers and approached by gaming companies for reviews—all of this in just one year! Phew!
With each passing month comes a rise in Cerise readership, with increased traffic here and on the forums. The number of unique hits we receive at Cerise grows exponentially as time passes—they’ve more than doubled in recent months. More and more gaming companies are starting to take note of the work we are doing here. Just this past month Robyn traveled to Los Angeles as a member of the press invited by Wizards of the Coast to attend a preview of the 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons.
Coming up on the horizon for Cerise, editors Robyn Fleming and Olivia Luna will be participating on several panels at this year’s WisCon, including “Gender in Virtual Worlds” on Sunday the 25th at 11:30am. We’ll also be co-hosting a “Capes and Consoles” party with Girl-Wonder, so if you’re attending WisCon this year, make sure to come by and join us Saturday night the 24th in Room 263. In addition to food, drinks, games and music, we’ll be holding a prize drawing and selling Cerise swag. We encourage party-goers to come dressed up as their favorite game or comic book character—we don’t want to be the only ones cosplaying!
Thanks for a fantastic year everyone, and let’s continue to look forward to the bright future of Cerise!
