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A while back I posted about my own personal experience with World of Warcraft, and as I stated, I had been WoW free for almost 2 years. Well that was true until this past Friday.
At a social Geekdom event at a friend’s house, I was confronted with my arch rival once again. The group had all crowed around the Xbox360 to get a little Lost Planet and Gears action on the go while my attention was begin compelled by a solitary ex-guild mate playing on his desktop. Now, me being me, I had to see what all this rage was about. So I sat down next to him and watched. By now I had asked a dozen of questions about the expansion when he turned and said. “One of the guys has his laptop, and the game, why don’t you play it for a bit.”

Q: Is gender inclusive game design important?
A: Yes.

For anyone familiar with my blog, you'll know already that I take the above answer as a given in most of my posts. But today I got an e-mail from my sister. She's taking an Online Games Seminar for her law degree (you know, if they had more classes like that I might be persuaded to go to law school after all...) and gave me a link to one of her required readings: Playing with Fire: When Advergaming Backfires.

Her request? That I write a short blurb on whether or not I think it's okay to have avatars of only one sex in a game without a darn good reason. The short answer to that is, of course, is that I think it not only ruins gameplay (for women and men who like and respect women), but it also reinforces the "no girls allowed" message that we find in so many places in society.

Since I can never just be short and leave it at that, my long answer is behind the cut.

Do you remember when Valentine’s Day was about having a little party with your class mates, going around giving out valentines to all your friends, which you placed in hand made bags with pink and red hearts all over it? No? ok then, just humor me for a bit.
I believe that we should bring back the love of these simpler times, where we didn’t have to worry about getting dinner reservations, big gifts, or being bitter because you’re alone. I say we bring back the love of friendship! So I’m spotlighting Valentines for Geeks!! ^.^

Both Four Color Rebellion.com and Play Nintendo.com have posted some really cute Valentines that you can give to your friends, your lover, or even your Mom. (Though I wouldn’t suggest Play Nintendo’s set for your Mom, they are a bit dirty.)

I'm labeling this as an "interlude" because the constructs of femininity I'm about to address don't all directly intersect with the beauty myth, but the way that they interact with femininity as a whole is a topic that I feel needs to be addressed. I've been sitting on this one ever since Shannon over at Egotistical Whining wrote a commentary on the second part of this series.

In life, and especially in male-dominated areas, femininity gets a bad rap. It's seen as frivolous, as emotional, as irrational, as naive... the list goes on an on. It's not, however, seen as desirable to possess because it's somehow lesser than masculine traits.

I've tried to dispel that false dichotomy in my series thus far, but it's hard to see the bigger picture when the topic at hand is the beauty myth, a cultural paradigm that relies on ruthlessly exploiting the negative aspects of femininity in order to maintain the connection between women and sex. So I'm going to try here again to illustrate why, exactly, despite its flaws it's not in our best interest to throw femininity into the same trash bin as the beauty myth itself.

Do you have a Bejeweled fiend within your life? Ever wanted to tell them that you loved them, but can't tear them away from the game long enough to say so? Do not dispare my friend! There is still hope!
There is a special Valentine's Day edition of the game!! The game has little sparkly red heart jewels, and even has messages that can be created by the user. So you can let your gamer girl you think she keen. ^.~
Downside is that it's not free u.u

Bejeweled Valentines

I kind of see a theme going when it comes to these blogs as of late. Maybe It's a reminder to you all out there ^.~ or I'm just a dork for stupid holidays.

Meet Hunter.

She’s 5’5 with dark hair, brown eyes and a temper that she struggles to contain.

She’s jacked cars in some of the scariest areas of town, fought gangs in dark alleys, competed in 100’s of martial arts tournaments and beaten a ridiculous number of people to a messy bloody pulp. And that is when she is in a good mood.

She is however a terrible driver.
I try not to think about the number of people she’s run over or crashed into. Or the cost of repairs that must come with completely totalling a vehicle, after she tried to getaway from the cops by driving off a bridge and into the murky water below.

I am a huge fan of satire. Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" was a delightful read. Irony is my bread and butter and I appreciate it when people can use it to great effect. But, therein lies the rub: most people can't use it to great effect. Most people can't even use it properly. Heck, I'm not even sure that I could effectively satirize something, which is one reason why I stick to only short bursts of sarcasm.

And yet one of the most common responses I get when I criticize a girlfriend list is that it's a "joke", a "satire". That may be so, but for the satire to succeed then it needs to be more than vicious criticism of something, it needs to question a person's assumptions about the nature of the subject at hand. Because otherwise what you're left with is a piece of vitriol that is offensive without being thought provoking.

Nothing says “I love you” like a head shot ^.^
The gaming community Gaming Angel’s is holding their very first tournament, entitled “Love and War”. This is a Gears of War Tournament, with a twist. Each team is to be made up of one female and one male. The female can be anyone from a sister, girlfriend or hell even your mother ^.^
So if your interested the sign up date ends on February the 2nd and the Tournament begins on February 17th. There is also a prize! ^.~

Welcome to a brand new year! What better then to begin the New Year with a blank slate? So I figured that I would scrap the “I will diet, and exercise more” resolution and go with something a little unorthodox. Besides it is hard to keep that resolution once you have already had two cups of coffee and a waffle. Instead I have created a set of little goals that I would like to achieve. These goals aren’t just any goals, these are gaming goals ^.~
1) Finish Twilight Princess:
I know I know, it’s blasphemy that I haven’t finished this game yet, but with sharing a Wii with my other half, and finals it just hasn’t happened. So that’s that.

Killer Betties is quickly coming upon our second full year in existence. We launched this site in January 2005, can you believe it? Where has the time gone?

We want to wish all our loyal readers and newcomers alike a very Happy Holidays and a very, very Happy New Year. 2007 should be a great year for Killer Betties, women in the industry and gamers in general, what with all these new consoles!

Thanks to everyone who has made Killer Betties the success it is today and here's looking forward to more success in the future.

REJOICE! Nintendo has taken it upon themselves to right the wrongs of the flying Wii-mote. Since there has been so many accidents dealing with Wiimotes flying into TV screens, walls or any other object due to the faulty wrist strap, it’s good to see that they are taking care of the problem.

A little bit of news for the Firefly fans out there.

Wired News recently posted an article stating:

Multiverse, maker of a free MMO-creation platform, plans to announce Friday morning that it's struck a deal with Fox Licensing to turn the show into an MMORPG in the fashion of Star Wars Galaxies or Eve Online. (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72263-0.html?tw=rss.index)

I find myself to be simultaneously flailing in excitement and anticipation as well as sinking into a deep, inescapable depression. My reasons for excitement should be clear. Firefly is some of the best science fiction ever made and I've often daydreamed in the hours before sleep of being an adorable yet very competent mechanic of a Firefly class transport ship. Or possibly living on the rim, searching for smugglers to eat alive and hang from the ceiling with chains and hooks. I do play horde in WoW after all.

It’s no secret that the PSP is not doing as well on the market as it’s competitor, the Nintendo DS. Sure it’s a system that is focused on being a multiple entertainment system with the ability to play music, watch movies, and of course, play games, but it appears that it’s just not doing enough for some members of the gaming public. I mean they have resorted to a number of “new marking” gimmicks such as the letting them come in Pink, Blue and Sliver. (I would like to state for the record that the Pink PSP is UGLY), and have dropped the price, but still no bitters. But I think they finally got something.

Hello, my name is Staci and I'm an XBox 360 achievement addict.

This, on the surface, doesn't sound like a real problem right? Well, it wouldn't be, except that once I've got the achievements on the game, I never return to it again, even if I love it, like say Uno or Jewel Quest. I'll also play some games I truly hate just to get the achievements, spending time making myself miserable (OBLIVION!) just for that little note on the bottom of the screen that says 'Achievement unlocked!' That little note is almost as good as seeing a shiny question mark in EverQuest 2.

Which brings me to my other addiction, the shiny question marks in EverQuest 2. I love EverQuest 2 and here's why. The quest journal and the collections. I feel such a huge sense of accomplishment every time I complete a quest and I love the shiny question marks. I can't even explain how excited I get when I see a little sparkle on the landscape, and as I sit and wait to see what the shiny question mark turns out to be, the anticipation builds. Sometimes, it's something I have already. But sometimes, it's something I've never seen before, a new collection to start, or that one item I need to finish my collection.

A lot of WoW players are annoyed about the Warrior changes that are expected with the Burning Crusade expansion, but someone (Myxilydian of Burning Blade, according to WoW Insider)decided to start an ingame protest. He asked everyone who's not so pleased about the Warrior changes to create a level 1 Gnome Warrior on the Thunderlord server, meet up and then march naked from Ironforge to the gates of Stormwind.

I've done some beer runs on the PvP servers, and I've spent more time than I'd like to admit emote flirting. I really like semi-character events, and the naked gnome march is goofy for a good cause.