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Features
Robyn is assisted by Karen Healey this month as she teaches you to make your own gaming-themed glycerin soap.
Latoya examines some reactions to Guitar Hero III and the makeover of character Judy Nails.
Does sex really sell? Andrea looks at some skin-baring advertising images, and discusses the difference between sexiness and objectification.
In the debut of our debate feature, Mara Poulsen and Regina Buenaobra deconstruct the objectification of women in video games.
Interviews
Articles
Author: Samara Steele
In this ongoing series, Samara shares her experiences as a female LARPer in a male-dominated LARP Organization.
Author: Cherie Thomason
Cherie discusses the portrayal of sex in console video games.
Author: Pat Miller
The trauma of a sexual assault is not limited to physical hurt. Pat discusses the violation of virtual bodies as analogous to that of real bodies, and wonders how it can be stopped.
Author: Latoya Peterson
Latoya discusses the lack of sex in mainstream video games and critiques the interplay between hyper-sexualized characters and their chaste actions.
Gamer Stories
Author: Elizabeth McDonald
Author: Ariel Wetzel
Author: Latoya Peterson
Reviews
Author: K.Tempest Bradford
Author: Regina Buenaobra
Author: Robyn Fleming and Karen Healey
Author: Nick Cummings
Author: Abby Wilson
Odds ‘n Ends
By Robyn Fleming
After reading her book last month, I contacted Shelly Mazzanoble, author of Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress: A Girl’s Guide to the Dungeons & Dragons Game and employee of Wizards of the Coast, to ask if she might like to do an interview for Cerise. Happily, her answer was yes. I hope you all will enjoy reading what she has to say as much as I did. (more…)
By Robyn Fleming and Karen Healey
If you’re a gamer with a non-virtual sex life, you probably already know the value of good hygiene. Soap is your friend! And, it turns out, bars of glycerin soap with a gaming theme are easy and fun to make. Also, the clean-up after crafting is super easy. w00t!
For this month’s Craft Check, I was lucky enough to have the assistance of my normally craft-allergic best friend, Karen Healey. You’ll see her shapely hands in the illustrative photographs, and her commentary about the crafting experience in bold text throughout.
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By Cherie Thomason
While violence of all shapes and sizes has long been the purview of video games, sex and sexuality has not been treated with as directly or as frequently. Sexuality is certainly compelling enough to be used in selling video games, primarily to men, but developers have seldom included it as part of the gameplay. Within that scarcity, video games continue to cater to the common misconception that only heterosexual men play games. (more…)
Virtue of Reality
By Mara Poulsen
Once upon a crunch time, my team was ranged in a bleary-eyed semi-circle around a Playstation for the purpose of “research”. Our N64 fighting game, though fun (we thought so, anyway)in the four-person mode that we were so heavily touting, still seemed shallow in the regular two-person, so we were playing Dead or Alive for comparison. Either that or we were so tired of making our own damn game that we just needed to play someone else’s for awhile.
John, our “soft body dynamics” programmer was ostensibly doing a little research of his own. As the female fighters circled each other in their battle-kinis*, breasts reverberating around their torsos as if at any moment they might shotput off into the atmosphere, he whooped, “Now that’s what we need.” Alan, the artist who was playing, chuckled.
Enter me, the wet blanket. “You know, the reason why the sports bra was invented is because it hurts like hell to have your boobs jiggling around like that. Also, you have a gigantic breast moving around that much and you’re going to end up accidentally punching it.”
Alan grinned at me, as his Amazon cycloned and felled his boobalicious opponent. “Clearly, on so many levels, this game is not about reality,” he said. (more…)
Welcome to the Back Page! This is where we publish the odds and ends that our readers send in, from artwork and writing, to shout outs, thoughts on gaming, and whatever fun and silly things we can come up with. If you have something you want to show off to the rest of our readers, head over to our submissions page and fire off an e-mail to us! (more…)
By K. Tempest Bradford
A couple of years ago a friend introduced me to Diner Dash. It’s a fun puzzle game framed by the story of Flo, who is so stressed over and hateful of her 9-5 office job that she buys a restaurant and goes into business for herself. Because she has little money, Flo has to do everything but the cooking — take orders, serve guests, bus tables, etc. As you move along in the game, Flo earns enough to fix up the place, open new restaurants, and become a successful entrepreneur.
Diner Dash is addictive and a lot of fun to play. I also love that the main character is a woman and that she achieves success in a very straightforward way — she works hard, improves her skills, and makes smart business decisions.
The game is very popular and has spawned several sequels and knock-offs. PlayFirst then developed their own spin-off called Wedding Dash. I decided to give it a try because it was by the same developer and because, after finishing the last level of Diner Dash 3, I needed my fix.
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By Regina Buenaobra
I have been anticipating Hellgate: London for a couple of years now, ever since I saw the amazing cinematic trailers that premiered at E3 2005. I have never played any of the Diablo games, though, which were highly influential in the development of Hellgate: London.
I played about of five hours of the Hellgate: London beta and got my character up to level seven. I only completed main quest chains. I did not reach the “end” of the beta. However, I think five hours of play is a decent amount of time to invest in a game so I will share my impressions below.
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By Elizabeth McDonald
I don’t identify myself as a gamer, or at least it’s not how I’d describe myself, but I’ve been playing games on computers since I could reach the keyboard. Frogger, Pitfall, various games where the map was represented by the surplus ASCII characters, text based adventures–I dipped my toes in everything. I’m fairly certain that the first game I ever played where I got to choose my avatar was King’s Bounty. It had a barbarian, a knight, a paladin, and a sorceress. The game-play guide recommended that new players start with the knight (I seem to remember) and, the perennial newb, I did. I never graduated from the knight. I never finished the game. But I never felt the least curiosity about the sorceress.
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By Abby Wilson
Tecmo Bowl, Tecmo Ltd, Nintendo Entertainment System, 1989
I grew up in a household with an NES at the end of the 80’s, along with several other middle-class urban households. Now, this sounds all well and good – I grew up a good little geek and am now enjoying the “geek chic” trend, however fleeting it may be. There was a disadvantage to this situation, however. The NES technically belonged to my older brother . Whenever I wanted to play it, I had to ask him (this usually wasn’t a problem) and we always had to fight over what games to rent. Having a twin sister who also liked playing NES wasn’t easy, either – we could only have two games, and my sister was GOING to rent Mega Man, so help her God!
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Compilation copyright © 2007 - March 15, 2010 Cerise Magazine.
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