Magazine Content also Fails to Target the Female Gamers
At times, gaming magazine content (the articles, reviews, and features) can be disturbing as well. For example, game reviews can be slanted towards how sexy the female characters are, rather than on gameplay. In one particular gaming magazine, I found an article on Drakan in which they took a screenshot of every move Rynn (the main character) made as she swung the axe down between her legs.

In another magazine, I noticed a letter to the editor written by a male. He stated that he likes women, and he likes games, but he does not like the way the gaming industry is combining the two. In particular, he was upset at the magazine for supporting a "Girls and Games" calendar. The magazine admitted that they had received numerous responses in protest to the calendar; however, the staff did not agree with this viewpoint and rather enjoys this combination of women and games. In other words, they basically said too bad because we like it.

After reading that, I decided to cancel my subscription. Flipping back through some other magazines, I realized this was no isolated incident. These magazines get complaints like this ALL THE TIME, and every time I have seen a complaint, I have noticed the magazine's responses are all the same. They simply don't care. Frankly, I think it's a bad move on the part of the magazine not to care about the opinions of their readers. Companies do well when they fill needs, and there is a need to be filled here. I have yet to find a computer gaming magazine that is willing to address this need.

It also does not help that nearly every column (with few exceptions) in gaming magazines are written by males. There is a serious lack of female role models to be found in gaming magazines, due to the lack of female staff members, the sexist portrayal of female game characters, and little to no representation of women gamers/consumers. This may be intimidating to women who are interested in the gaming industry, but who see a very male-dominated gaming scene.

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