Cerise Magazine

Finally, 16 years after the original release: an international and legitimate way to purchase and play Final Fantasy III. The Nintendo DS version is a genuine remake with a 3D overhaul, new characters, and more. (more…)

Girls Don’t Play Video Games

Well, that’s what they say. And like most self-fulfilling prophecies, it seems to have held true for quite a long time. Since my earliest days I found myself among a crowd of awkward young boys who seemed alone among the sexes with their love for video games. There were no girls copying down Megaman passwords, trading Pokémon or clicking feverishly through Diablo. The gaming world appeared as a perplexing no-woman’s land, and as an adolescent I began to wonder what made video games so restrictive. (more…)

During the Christmas season of 1996, the game Barbie Fashion Designer sold over 500,000 copies, flying off the shelves faster than the high-profile first-person shooter Quake. Before this unexpected success, many game developers had discounted the possibility of women or girls actually wanting to play games, with some believing the female population was somehow adverse to technology. Some game developers, eager to capitalize on Barbie’s success, were spun into a frenzy. (more…)

The Issue

Blow jobs in Grand Theft Auto, breast physics in Dead or Alive and the nude code in Tomb Raider: the very essence of video games seems to rely on the intimidation and objectification of women. Yet women are playing games more than we assume, even though they are not the target audience. Girls and women have a right to have access to and become comfortable with technology. A woman shouldn’t feel alienated for wanting to sit on the couch and kick some butt on the TV. More importantly, video games, while entertaining, are filled with misogyny. And any misogyny that runs rampant in our culture has the ability to do some damage. (more…)

There has been much ado in the gaming industry about the state of gaming, particularly in reference to how to attract girl gamers. Designers are racking their brains on how to expand the market to include women without realizing that women are already in the gaming market – and have been for quite some time. The ideas disconnect between designers and players once a company gets the misguided idea that they need to create a “girl-friendly” game to attract female players. Glitter-strewn chaos ensues. So how is a game designer supposed to know what girls want to play? The answers are simple: girls just want to have games. Good games. The 5 steps below will put you on the path to designing a game that is well received by the X-chromosome crowd. (more…)

Having trouble finding miniatures that accurately reflect the characters you’re creating for your tabletop RPGs? Prefer sculpting to painting? Have more time than money? Why not try making your own miniatures out of polymer clay? (more…)

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.

Features

From the Editors

Craft Check: Make Your Own Miniatures

In the very first edition of Craft Check, Robyn Fleming shows you how to make your own quirky miniatures (for use in tabletop gaming) out of polymer clay.

Articles

Attention Game Designers: 5 Steps to Attract Girl Gamers

Author: Latoya Peterson
Latoya Peterson gives game designers five simple suggestions for tapping into a greater share of the potential female video gamer market.

Playing With Patriarchy

Author: Natalie Hill
Natalie Hill explores some of the ways in which video gaming culture is constructed as a boys’ club, looks at problems with female gaming avatars, and talks about the damage that casual misogyny can do to girl and women gamers.

Lagging Behind: The Girls’ Games Movement and the Future of Gender in Games

Author: Lindsey Galloway
Lindsey Galloway gives the history of the Girls’ Games Movement, kicked off by surprise hit game Barbie Fashion Designer in 1996, only to fizzle out almost as soon as it began, leaving behind little more than pink and purple packaging and some persistent assumptions about what girls want out of video games. Are games that play with gender the answer?

Girls Don’t Play Video Games

Author: Nick Cummings
Do girls play video games? Nick revisits this myth and talks about why it may be more damaging than it first appears.

Reviews

Final Fantasy III