Once again, we’re happy to be introducing new content in this month’s issue of Cerise. Andrea is kicking off a new monthly feature on marketing to women gamers, and we’re running the first of what we hope will be many interviews with women gaming bloggers – Regina Buenaobra from Acid for Blood.
We’ve also got reviews, a new Gamer Story, the regular features you’ve come to expect in each issue and a great collection of articles focusing on different aspects of the “blue is for boys, pink is for girls” divide. And, of course, the much-anticipated continuation of Samara Steele’s series on gender in Live-Action Role Play.
When you’ve paged through the issue – and paused at the Back Page for a few laughs – be sure to check out our submissions guidelines. We’re always on the lookout for new contributors and expanded content. Hope to hear from you soon!
We’ve got an exciting line-up of content this month at Cerise. In addition to our regular features – Craft Check, and Latoya Peterson’s Gaming in the Media column, focusing this month on the potential impact of Adults Only ratings – and an interview with Miriam Ruiz, a game developer and blogger active in a variety of online communities, we have some great articles for you. There’s the first in a series of articles about gender in Live-Action Role Play by Samara Hayley Steele, a discussion of the myth of the anti-social gamer by Andrea Rubenstein and a report from Yvonna Lynn about her impressions of Stranglehold, which she played at E3.
We also have reviews, of course, and be sure to check out the three excellent Gamer Stories revolving around this month’s theme, “The Social Gamer.” And when you’ve read all of that, take a look at our newest addition to the magazine’s line-up, the Back Page – a place for fun odds ‘n ends.
We’re featuring more contributors, and a greater variety of content, with every issue. Want to be a part of it? The submissions guidelines page will tell you how.
As we enter our third month here at Cerise, we’re still going strong. The topic of inclusive game design – what it means, how to do it, and whether it’s worth doing – has inspired some great writing, and we’re pleased to be able to share it with our growing readership.
This month, we’re bringing you interviews with industry professionals Jess Hartley, a freelance writer who has written several gaming supplements for White Wolf, and Robyn Bremner, game tester for Capcom’s mobile division. We’ve got reviews of some current video games and one very old one. And in Gamer Stories, we have a tale about the irritation of dealing with stereotypes even while in pursuit of a truly gender-neutral piece of gaming equipment, alongside a self-reflective piece from one of our editors. And, of course, we have the articles and regular features that you’ve come to expect from our monthly issues.
Next month, we hope to bring you more of the same great content, and a few new surprises, as well. If you’d like your piece to be one of them, be sure to check out our submission guidelines. We’d love to hear from you.
Last month, we invited you to think of our first issue as the beginning of a conversation. This month, we’re delighted to be able to introduce several new voices, and new topics to the discussion.
Like our cover model this month, Cerise is still small – but growing fast. In this, our second issue, you’ll find interviews with industry professionals in addition to the articles and reviews. We’re also pleased to be debuting a new feature column, “Gaming in the Media,” which will focus on analysis of gaming news, and a new category of writing, “Gamer Stories:” informal personal narratives about individual gaming experiences.
Next month, we plan to bring you more of the same great content, and even more new additions. This month, we hope you’ll enjoy reading about a recent convention, the women of the Final Fantasy franchise, recommendations for recruiting new gamers, and the fascinating histories several individual women gamers have shared with us. We hope you’ll learn something interesting about working in gaming from interviews with Heather Michelle Rousse and Patrick Weekes, that our reviews will help you decide which games to try, and that you’ll gain a better understanding of some recent media coverage of gaming. And we hope that the creative among you will have a little fun with “Craft Check.”
But most of all, we hope that you’ll want to join our conversation. Check out our submissions page and consider writing an article or other content for the magazine, join the Iris Gaming Network forums to discuss articles published in Cerise with other members, or use our contact form to send a letter to the editors. Speak up — we’re listening.
Women gamers of all types have often been told that they just don’t exist (or that if they do, they don’t count), and many of us have been trying to make our voices heard for a long time.
When we first conceived of Cerise a little over a month ago, we had sweeping visions of a massive publication covering all angles of the gaming hobby, from reviews to interviews with gaming industry professionals and prominent fan voices to tabletop gaming modules to opinion pieces to comics to how-to’s – and all written with the inclusion and support of women in mind, providing a comfortable space where women gamers and their allies could speak openly, and find an audience eager to listen.
This first issue is a little more modest in scope than what we imagined it might be, but our contributors are speaking clearly on a variety of topics ranging from the current climate in gaming culture to the history of the failed Girls’ Games Movement to how to make games that girls and women will enjoy.
Think of this issue as the beginning of a conversation that will just keep on getting better and better with time, as more voices are heard.
So now that the introductions have been made, come in and listen for a while. And perhaps, for our next issue, you’ll have something to say.
