• Her official photographer has posted many of the pictures on Palin's Facebook page, along with the credit "The Photo Opportunity is Provided By SarahPAC," so, if you want a shot of yourself wearing an Obama shirt next to Palin you'll have to contribute to her PAC. • Sarah Palin will give the keynote address at the International Bowl Expo 2010, the "premier international convention" of bowling in June. A rep said: "Regardless of your political affiliation, Ms. Palin is a force in American politics and culture. Her presence underscores the impact and importance of bowling, one of our country's leading national pastimes and a growing $10 billion industry." • Leroy Benros was charged with rape at a New York nightclub after his alleged victim texted her friends during the attack. After he forcibly kissed her, the woman texted her friend: "I'm being molested. Help." By the time two of her friends found her, police say she was partially naked under a coat with her eyes closed and her arms dangling. Her friends pulled her away and Benros was arrested. • Now that Maurice Clemmons, the ex-convict suspected of killing four police officers, is dead, authorities are focusing on the people who may have helped him escape and stay on the lam for two days. Prosecutors are expected to charge alleged getaway driver Darcus D. Allen today. Clemmons' aunt and another woman have been arrested and are expected to be charged for giving him first aid and helping him escape. Police are still investigating a handful of other suspects. "Some are friends, some are acquaintances, some are partners in crime, some are relatives. Now they're all partners in crime," said a police spokesman. • Cocaine abuse is on the rise among young English women. Among women ages 18 to 25, the number of women who needed treatment for cocaine abuse in England. jumped 80 percent in the past four years from 329 to 592. Experts point to a growing "ladette" culture, which is also blamed for increasing alcohol abuse among young women. • In a new British study, researchers say they have discovered how and where androgenic hormones work in the testis to control normal sperm production and male fertility, which may allow for the development of a male birth control pill. "This study provides a new opportunity to identify how androgens control sperm production, which could provide new insight for the development of new treatments for male infertility and perhaps new male contraceptives," said Michelle Welsh, Ph.D., co-author of the study. • An increasing number of British women are hiring doulas to help them give birth, but anesthetist Dr. Abhijoy Chaklader questioned their role in the British Medical Journal. He wrote the trend toward hiring doulas, who have no medical training, may "be a sad reflection of failures in the delivery of medical and midwifery care, a sticking plaster concealing greater problems... a cynic might ask whether the doula business is actually necessary or whether it is exploiting - for profit - unspoken fears about NHS perinatal care and the seemingly limitless market for birth related products and service." • Switzerland elected women to the nation's top three political positions today: president, speaker of parliament's lower house, and speaker of the upper house. Swiss women couldn't even vote in national elections until 1971. • A Dutch man was arrested for allegedly collecting information on more than 30 girls from social networking sites, then blackmailing their parents. He posed as a photographer and told the parents their daughters had performed sexual acts on camera, or suggested they had been raped by others, then said he'd upload the non-existent pornography online if they didn't pay him. • Family members say a New York hairdresser who disappeared last week after dropping her 6-year-old daughter off at school complained about a creepy man she kept encountering near the school. "She mentioned to us about this guy in the street she would see every day," said Jamaica Smith's niece. "He was real aggressive toward her, always saying, 'Hey, baby, you look so pretty.' ... We know for a fact she was abducted because she would never leave her daughter." There are rumors that some people saw her struggling with a man near her home, but police deny the story and say they don't think foul play was involved. • After General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson announced yesterday that he was stepping down, someone claiming to be his daughter Sarah Henderson posted on GM's Facebook page, "HE FUCKING GOT ASKED TO STEP DOWN ALL OF YOU FUCKING IDIOTS. I'M FRITZ'S FUCKING DAUGHTER, AND HE DID NOT FUCKING RESIGN. WHITACRE IS A SELFISH PIECE OF SHIFT [sic], WHO CARES ABOUT HIMSELF AND NOT THE FUCKING COMPANY. HAVE FUN WITH GM, I HOPE TO NEVER BUY FROM THIS GOD FORESAKEN [sic] COMPANY EVERY [sic] AGAIN. FUCK ALL OF YOU." It was later removed. • Adeline Bayne-Goody, a 56-year-old New York City subway driver, may lose her job over an incident in October in which she subdued a crazed man who threatened other passengers, spewed racial epithets, punched her and spit in her face. She held him down until the police arrived, but officials told her she committed "gross misconduct" and should be fired because she left her post. • Carmen Huertas, the woman accused of driving drunk in Manhattan, injuring six children who were in the car and killing one, has been trying to commit suicide in jail. "She's tried to place objects around her neck," said her lawyer. "She's confused and devastated, and understands the consequences of her actions." • Thirteen female ski jumpers have filed a request with Canada's Supreme Court to allow the sport in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The International Olympic Committee voted in 2006 not to include women's ski jumping in the 2010 Olympics because they say the sport is not developed enough. • The Japanese man who recently married his virtual girlfriend from the Nintendo DS game Love Plus has responded to media reports with a letter and some photos from his honeymoon. He writes: "Now that the ceremony is over, I feel like I've been able to achieve a major milestone in my life. Some people have expressed doubts about my actions, but at the end of the day, this is really just about us as husband and wife. As long as the two of us can go on to create a happy household, I'm sure any misgivings about us will be resolved." •

Lisa Katayama created a video about the proceedings and the wedding:

Katayama links Sal9000's actions to a fringe group of Otaku concerned with what they call 2-D love.

Writing for the New York Times magazine, Katayama explains what differentiates 2-D men from other Otaku:

Like most otaku, the majority of 2-D lovers go to work, pay rent, hang out with friends (some are even married). Unlike most otaku, though, they have real romantic feelings for their toys. The less extreme might have a hidden collection of figurines based on anime characters that they go on "dates" with during off hours. A more serious 2-D lover, like Nisan, actually believes that a lumpy pillow with a drawing of a prepubescent anime character on it is his girlfriend.

According to many who study the phenomenon, the rise of 2-D love can be attributed in part to the difficulty many young Japanese have in navigating modern romantic life. According to a government survey, more than a quarter of unmarried men and women between the ages of 30 and 34 are virgins; 50 percent of men and women in Japan said they were not "going out with anybody." One of the biggest best sellers in the country last year was "Health and Physical Education for Over Thirty," a six-chapter, manga-illustrated guidebook that holds the reader's hand from the first meeting to sex to marriage.

Katayama then introduces 2-D guru, Toru Honda, a man with an interesting view of what it means to be in a modern relationship:

A few years ago, Honda, a college dropout who worked a succession of jobs at video-game companies, began to use the Internet to urge otaku to stand with pride against good-looking men and women. His site generated enough buzz to earn him a publishing contract, and in 2005 he released a book condemning what he calls "romantic capitalism." Honda argues that romance was marketed so excessively through B-movies, soap operas and novels during Japan's economic bubble of the '80s that it has become a commodity and its true value has been lost; romance is so tainted with social constructs that it can be bought by only good looks and money. According to Honda, somewhere along the way, decent men like himself lost interest in the notion entirely and turned to 2-D. "Pure love is completely gone in the real world," Honda wrote. "As long as you train your imagination, a 2-D relationship is much more passionate than a 3-D one." Honda insists that he's advocating not prurience but a whole new kind of romance. If, as some researchers suggest, romantic love can be broken down into electrical impulses in the brain, then why not train the mind to simulate those signals while looking at an inanimate character?

Honda's fans took his message to heart. When he admitted to watching human porn at a panel discussion in Tokyo in 2005, several hundred hard-core 2-D lovers in the audience booed with shock that their dear leader had nostalgia for the 3-D world. Later, in an interview with a Japanese newspaper, Honda clarified his position, saying that he was worried 2-D love was becoming an easy way out for young otaku, who might still have a shot at success in the real world. "I'm not saying that everyone should throw away hopes of real romance right away. I am simply saying that guys like me who have gotten to a point of no return can be happy living in 2-D."

Indeed, many of the stories shared reveal men in various stages of arrested development, making the choice to move to an imaginary world due to real or perceived strikes from the real world.

[38-year old businessman Ken] Okayama has turned to 2-D for all his emotional needs - the desire to buy new anime helped him get through a period of unemployment in 2003, and his body-pillow girlfriends, whom he dates two or three at a time, consoled him when his first real-life girlfriend dumped him in 2007.

"I was steps away from getting married," he explained earnestly when prodded about his experience. "You have to make sure you don't hurt a real person; you have to watch what you say, and you have to keep your room clean. In Japan, it's not O.K. to like another person if you're already with somebody else. With an anime character, you can like one character one day and a different character the next."

Okayama's flings were unconsummated, but for others 2-D love is a full-fledged alternative sexual lifestyle. Several hours after parting with Okayama in Akihabara, I met Momo at a fan convention. Momo, who makes X-rated body-pillow covers and sells them through his one-man club, Youkouro, which translates roughly as Furnace of Child Love, was there on business. The convention was being held inside a stuffy warehouse filled with boxes of 8-by-10, pamphlet-style, home-brewed manga and swarmed with thousands of anime fetishists, mostly men. Many 2-D lovers are unsatisfied with what the market has to offer, so they custom-make their own fantasy goods and come to conventions to barter and socialize with the like-minded.

In the context of a rejection of the real world for a more complete fantasy world, one could imagine that Sal9000 is just an early adopter. While some of the commentary surrounding the Sal9000-Anegasaki wedding focuses on "wacky Japanese!" stereotypes, reading through some of the writings on 2-D brought to mind another subculture driven mostly by men: the RealDolls.

BBC did a documentary on the phenomenon, called "Love Me, Love My Doll' focusing on the dolls themselves and the lives of men who become devoted to their plastic partners.

An article in Salon also explored the life of Davecat (pictured above) and his doll-companion Sidore, showing how even outside of an otaku-context, people are trying to bring their fantasies to life with the help of simulations:

Davecat keeps a picture of his girlfriend in his wallet. She's pretty, with long black hair, an alluring mole under her left eye, and glossy red lipstick. Her sheer tank top shows off her full breasts and the hoop through her left nipple.

Ask Davecat about Sidore — pronounced She-doh-ray — and he'll tell you she's everything that turns him on: beautiful, loyal, a great listener. Si-chan, as he affectionately calls her, is half British, half Japanese, which is nice because he's always had a thing for both British and Japanese culture. Even their clothing style and taste in music is simpatico — they're both Goths.

Like many born in the sun sign Cancer, Sidore is a homebody, but then, she couldn't leave the comfort of the bed she shares with Davecat even if she wanted to because Sidore is a 100-pound solid silicone Real Doll.

Go ahead. Flinch at the notion of a man having sex with an imitation woman and classify him: lonely loser. Pathological creep. Misogynist. Potential rapist. Sicko. True enough, some men who have sex with Real Dolls are creepy, the kind of guys you wouldn't want to be alone with. But not all. Many are simply lonely — some tragically so. Others are disfigured or infirm. Some are oddly sweet, like Davecat, for whom a Real Doll is a "teddy bear with benefits." And others proclaim their normalcy and defend their Real Dolls as no different than a 3-D version of a Playboy centerfold.

Many doll lovers — or "iDollators," as some of them call themselves — participate in a confusing online subculture where the lines between art and pornography, the ludicrous and the tender, and fantasy and fetishism blur like watercolors. Spend time talking to Real Doll aficionados as I have over the past year, and you come to understand that behind every Real Doll is a man with a reason.

Over at the RealDolls website, some interesting modifications have emerged since the stories about Real Dolls were published back in 2005 and 2006. For one thing, you can now order an elf-ear modification for the dolls. For those of us with Tolkien fantasies, perhaps? Another newly offered modification is blue skin - perhaps to appease fans of the video game franchise Mass Effect? (See one the blue skinned female aliens from the game, above.)

Why are so many men looking for satisfaction in fantasy items and inanimate objects? Is it a symptom of our culture's increasing dependence on technology? An unanticipated side effect of a global marketing culture dedicated to presenting a perfect fantasy life, which is only available through purchases? Or is this just a long-needed outlet for those who never felt comfortable engaging in personal relationships?

(Image via Boing Boing)

Video: Man In Japan Weds Anime Game Character [Boing Boing]

Related: Love Plus Has Your Virtual Girlfriend Experience Covered [Kotaku]
Love in 2-D [New York Times]
Of "Wacky" Japan and the Myth of the Other [Racialicious]
Love Me, Love My Doll [BBC America]
Just like a woman [Salon]
Official Site [Real Dolls] [NSFW]

The Pixels and Policy bloggers interviewed forty Second Life players that presented as female in the game. After acknowledging the extent of gender-swapping that occurs in virtual worlds, the team got down to business.

Out of 40 female avatars interviewed, 70% regarded their bust size as a primary concern when creating a Second Life avatar. Real-world females proved more likely to rebel against the Second Life ideal described by one female avatar as "a balloon chest and a low-cut top." There were several real-world females who embraced a large-chested avatar, though their reasons varied.

"At first I played with an avatar that I thought represented me physically," a Burning Life visitor told me, "But not many people talked to me. Now [with a large-chested avatar] people go out of their way to IM me and send me friend requests." The need to adjust physical features to promote conversation ran deep among real-world women.

Being in a virtual world means that we should be able to don any time of representation that we wish. However, as seen in studies like this one, the biases, prejudices, and beauty standards from the real world follow us into the virtual realm. Interestingly, these ideas were not ascribed to conforming to pre-existing ideas of beauty, but as a virtual beautification process - a way in which to represent an idealized version of our existing real world selves.

It's nothing new to strive for perfection when creating an avatar, but what was especially striking is how many women, when prompted, said their avatars were "better" than their real selves. Not just skinnier or sexier, but better.

The idea of the avatars being seen as "better" should be suprising. As Andrea Rubenstein, avid gamer, game designer, and anti-oppression activist writes:

Studies have shown that many qualities are attributed to people with attractive features–sometimes referred to as the halo effect. These qualities include being seen as warmer, kinder, stronger, more sensible, more outgoing, more socially persuasive and dominant, and even smarter than others. [From Better Game Characters by Design by Katherine Isbister, p. 7]

When I criticize the portrayal of women in video games as being hypsersexualized it has almost nothing to do with creating "attractive" characters or not and everything to do with conflating objectification with attractiveness. As Isbister points out in Better Game Characters by Design, "Whatever the reason, it is the case across cultures that myriad traits considered positive tend to be associated with more attractive people" (p. 8 ). This includes both men and women and is the basis for her recommendation to make most of your characters attractive. [...]

The problem comes in when "attractiveness" for women is defined, as Sheri Graner Ray points out in her book Gender Inclusive Game Design, "as male players would like them to be–young, fertile, and always ready for sex" (p. 104). [...] Simply put, the point I try to make every time I bring up how female characters are hypersexualized is that it is inappropriate sexualization, which puts many women off (not all of women are interested in playing characters created for a presumably male player's wank fantasy) and perpetuates the idea of "attractiveness" in women being inseparable from sexual availability.

While Rubenstein's analysis works well when discussing games with set characters - or with restrictions on how customizable a character can be - it does not quite extend to games like Second Life where people can design their own characters to their own specifications. It is here that we start to see the replication of certain structures in society.

The Pixels and Policy article notes:

Drin Brewster, a provocatively-dressed female avatar, said she dressed suggestively in Second Life because there were no restrictive social norms. The desire to be approached and talked to by another avatar is realized by creating a sexually idealized character.

As in real life, there are benefits to being seen as attractive - the virtual world just adds another level, where the expectation is to be not just attractive, but also sexually attractive. The writers at Pixel and Policy point out:

Far from being openly pushed to a large-breasted, oversexualized ideal, countless Second Life residents are so enveloped in a popular definition of "attractive" that they need no coercion to create a sexually idealized character. In fact, the creation of the sexually-idealized character at the expense of a character more in line with many player's tastes is mostly deemed necessary for making friends.

That reasoning is interesting, but not quite the whole story. For one thing, oversexualized avatars are so prevalent that they have become part of the visual norm in gaming. From the Asari in Mass Effect, to the Viera of Final Fantasy XII, we have come to expect our heroines (and villains) to be attractive, slender, and somewhat sexualized.

And secondly, while the article explains that while women may be subject to the whims of other players, ultimately, they choose their own representations. However, these choices do not exist in a vacuum. As Brinstar, gaming blogger and industry professional wrote, when explaining the shift toward a more feminist consciousness in her personal blogging:

I used to blame attention-seeking women gamers like Jessica Chobot for making it harder for other women gamers to be accepted and welcome amongst male gamers. I heaped scorn and disdain upon women like her for using their sex appeal to get ahead, arguing that they weren't "real" gamers (whatever that meant). I used to think that these women were the problem, rather than indicative of historically and socially constructed structures that went beyond their individual experiences. Rather than examine the reasons why such behaviour is acceptable and rewarded in gaming culture and in society as a whole, I just blamed attention-seeking women gamers for sexism against all women gamers. I was focusing on the wrong things.

These women are acting in ways in which our society encourages and approves of. Sure, they are independent women and capable of making their own decisions in the end, however there is unbelievable pressure for many women gamers to be accepted amongst male gamers, to be "one of the guys". Women gamers have to prove themselves to be twice as better as male gamers to gain the same kind of acceptance that male gamers have automatically just by being male. Is it any wonder that some women will use whatever means they have to their advantage, either consciously or subconsciously? I realised that the problem was far more complex than I'd initially perceived.

I applaud Pixels and Policy for taking the initiative to gather some data. Studies of gaming and culture are still in their infancy, and discussions of things like racism and sexism are newer than conversations surrounding how people respond to newer technology. But it is important to continue to refine and gather data as it is one of the only ways to measure progress, and how attitudes and perceptions in gaming shift as move closer into a pop culture landscape where gaming is on par with movies and television. The Pixel and Policy conclusion is on point:

Virtual worlds aren't a place to escape the confines of gender, because real people will ultimately carry those gender biases and expectations with them. This was made evident during our conversations about how real-world women viewed their avatar.

The Power Of Real-World Gender Roles In Second Life [Pixels and Policy]
The Beauty Myth And Character Design [Official Shrub]
Better Game Characters By Design: A Psychological Approach (The Morgan Kaufmann Series In Interactive 3D Technology) [Amazon]
The Sexy Space Women Of Mass Effect [Girl in the Machine]
Sexy Bunnygirls Want to Play With You [Girl in the Machine]
Discourse [Acid for Blood]

Related: Idealizing Fantasy Bodies [The Iris Network]
Introduction (The Gaming Beauty Myth, Part 1) [Official Shrub]
Female Gamer Archetypes (The Gaming Beauty Myth, Part 2) [Official Shrub]
Using Beauty To Establish Gamer Cred (The Gaming Beauty Myth, Part 3) [Official Shrub]

Hiroyuki Kobayashi, the game creator, opines:

From a social point of view, his experience is also interesting. He believes women are partly escaping into fantasy because they cannot find suitably heroic partners in real life. Capcom's samurai groupies may be the corollary of a widely discussed trend in Japan, that of "grass-eating men", who eschew the typical male trappings of cars and big salaries, and may prefer shopping and fashion to sex.

The Economist article refers to "grass eating men" which sounds a bit strange. The more commonly translated term is "herbivore men," (read: meat as a stand-in for manliness) and the Times of London explains why these men who are choosing a nontraditional lifestyle are capturing the attention of a nation:

Two phrases have been coined to describe them: soshokukei danshi or "herbivorous males", and Ojo-man – or "girly men".

Definitions vary, but the new herbivores could be described as metrosexuals without the testosterone. Although most of them are not homosexual they have in common a disdain for the traditional accoutrements of Japanese manhood, and a taste for things formerly regarded as exclusively female. Girly men have no interest in fast cars, career success, designer labels and trophy women. Instead, they hold down humble jobs, cultivate women as friends rather than conquests and spend their free time shopping at small boutiques and pursuing in Japan what is regarded as a profoundly feminine pastime: eating cakes.

(Aside: When Anna N. covered this earlier, some people expressed confusion about the reference to eating cakes as a feminine past time. Now, I'm just a pop culture junkie, not an expert on Japan, but the idea that men don't eat sweets is a prominent one. In addition to Men's Pocky, a less-sweet version of the popular snack, a popular trope is to show a man eating sweets to demonstrate how he is strange, different, or child-like. In the series Ouran High School Host Club, Honey-chan is a male host with a sweet tooth - along with a babyish demeanor.)

The Times continues, noting that this new take on masculinity is starting to impact heterosexual dating:

Japanese women, according to Professor Yamada's research, have not caught up. Two out of five say they wish to marry a man who earns at least 6 million yen (£40,000) a year - but such men make up only 3.5 per cent of the eligible population. The result of such unrealistic female expectations is a generation of men, and women, who may never marry and have children.

About half of men aged 20 to 34, he says, are unmarried and only 20 per cent of them have girlfriends. Thirty per cent, according to Professor Yamada, have never had a girlfriend in their lives. For a country like Japan, which already has a shrinking population, this is a disaster.

So, back to the Economist article. The article shifts focus from the video game's popularity to the larger, societal implications:

The phenomenon may also reflect a bigger issue: young women failing to find marriage partners. Since the 1970s the number of men and women marrying in their 20s and early 30s has fallen sharply, which is one of the main reasons the birth rate has fallen so low. It is largely the result of poor job prospects for men-and for women who marry. It will also have a severe impact on Japanese GDP in coming years.

However, this dynamic has been in play for a few years now. Much has been written about "freeters," a generation of people who are opting out of employment, or who cannot find gainful employment, and how that impacts the romantic and home lives of a generation of young Japanese professionals. In addition, due to traditional structures in Japanese society, women looking for men of means isn't a sign of shallowness - it is a reaction based in the grim job prospects for women, normally low paying temporary jobs or jockeying for a position in a glamor industry.

And with this much stress, can you really blame women for finding an escape in mythical lands with sword wielding hotties?

They Need Another Hero [Economist]
Girly Men Of Japan Just Want To Have Fun [Times Online]
Ouran High School Host Club [Wikipedia]
Youth Employment In Japan's Economic Recovery: ‘Freeters' And ‘NEETs' [Japan Focus]
Young Japanese Women Vie For A Once-Scorned Job [NY Times]

Earlier: Japan's "Girly Men" Choose Cakes Over Consumerism

Related:
Of "Wacky" Japan and the Myth Of The Other [Racialicious]

I don't think either of us are what you would call "gamers." And yet at some point about in the late '80s my mother could not get enough Tetris. Day in, day out, until her eyes glazed over. And then she'd play some more. She became a fixture at the computer — her back to the room, silent, motionless, furiously clicking, oblivious as hours passed.

I developed a similar problem with Tetris, which I had a on Gameboy for a spell. I'd play a game, the board would fill up, and the prompt would ask, "Play Again?" The answer was almost always yes. It was hypnotic, mesmerizing, and impossible to put down.

Many years later my mother got a Motorola phone with a game called Bubbles in it. My family was on a Christmas vacation in Florida, sharing a hotel room and there was a moment when my sister and I realized my mom had been in the bathroom a really long time. When questioned, Mom admitted she was in there playing Bubbles. On Christmas! While hogging the bathroom!

Wednesday afternoon, I discovered a game called LineUp for my iPhone. it's similar to Tetris and Bejeweled. I played it once while waiting at the doctor's office; then again. And again. And again.

I played some more on the subway, and once I got home, I burned through a few more games. I got a pedicure, and played Line Up the whole time — then played a few more games while my toenails were drying.

I recognized the signs of addiction, so I did the only thing I could think of: I texted my mom, telling her to download LineUp.

I received no immediate response to my text.

Yesterday morning Mom called, half-laughing, half-crying. "I've been up all night," she wailed. Doing what? I asked, innocently. "PLAYING LINEUP," she shouted. Amused. And accusatory.

I saw my Mom last night, and she complained that her eyes were "gone," thanks to round after round of LineUp. I almost felt bad… Then she told me her high score, and I found myself itching to try and beat it.

Tetris Dress: [BuzzFeed]
Finally: Tetris Dress! [A Dress A Day]

I've written about this before, in most directly for the online magazine Cerise. My colleague Andrea also had a regular series called "Market to Me," as kind of an open letter to the marketing arms of major games makers.

I mean, the statistics are fairly clear. When I reviewed the academic work Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat, the stats revealed some interesting trends:

The book's introduction lays out some pertinent facts: about 38 percent of video game players and 42 percent of online game players are female. About seventy percent of casual gamers are women. Estimates vary, but it is clear that women have become a major subgroup in gaming. Yet the industry still ignores them. [...]

The population that does play games is frequently seen as an anomaly rather than a prime informant for understanding how play works. Researchers, and people in the gaming industry, often talk about trying to capture that demographic of nonplaying "Vogue readers" to the exclusion of looking at the group that actually seems to be succeeding in inhabiting game culture now.

Instead of paying attention to why women play certain games or speaking to women who identify as gamers, it appears that game companies prefer to work with stereotypes. This isn't something that is characteristic to the gaming industry - it plagues advertising in general, as we last discussed when talking about the Femme Den and their aversion to the "shrink it and pink it" strategy of marketers trying to reach women. This attitude runs rampant at all levels of game marketing, from the games that are even recommended to women down to store displays.

The photo illustrating this post? It was snapped at a Gamestop, and Wired blogger Eliza Gauger sums up my thoughts perfectly with her choice of title: "Games 4 Girls at Gamestop: Gagging, Weeping, Bleeding From the Eyes ."

Will someone please tell me who was in the back yelling "More pink! More sparkles!" for this display? Remove them from your marketing department immediately. Instead, have your remaining employees pay attention to some things that should be fairly obvious.

1. Women Gamers Are Not a Monolith

Let me just run down a quick list of people I know personally.

P: Some would term her "hardcore." P actually works at a gaming store, part time, to help feed her habit. She maintains all systems and normally keeps a PSP and a DSI in easy reach. She also has modded machines for import games and spends multiple hours a week in play, often using XBox Live to connect with our other friends and other players in games like Left4Dead, Gears of War, and Halo.

H1: Plays a lot, often with P. Also plays a wide variety of games, everything from Beautiful Katamari to Gears of War. She also spends multiple hours a week in play.

H2: Social gamer. She prefers to play either handheld games with friends or linking up through XBox to enjoy the Left 4 Dead insanity. She is a big fan of party games, everything from Rock Band to Mario Party.

H3: Loner. She will occasionally participate in the linked games like Left 4 Dead, but generally prefers survival horror games like the Resident Evil franchise, the Fatal Frame franchise and other high suspense games.

T: T lives for first person shooters. She's highly into competition, and prefers games that allow her to let out some aggression. However, she also has a spot for well-crafted, innovative games, which is why Okami ranks among her favorite games.

V: What many would term the casual gamer, she doesn't identify as even liking video games. Yet, her cell phone has a wide range of games downloaded, and she takes part of different games on Facebook. She will also play social games, but prefers sports games on Wii.

Me: I game a lot less than I used to, but I am a sucker for any and all RPGs and the occasional fighting franchise. I'll try playing just about anything, but tend to stay away from first person shooters.

Here are some key trends: None of us wished upon a star for something pink or sparkly. (Though we have been known to play Lego Indiana Jones.) Some of us like pink, some of us don't. Some of us have all the latest tech, some of us don't. Some of us prefer computer games, some of us don't. Getting the picture? We're all different. Stop using a marketing strategy aimed at twelve year olds for everyone, and stop assuming all women are driven solely by a desire to lose weight. Please take a lesson from the ill-fated Della.

2. Switch Up Your Advertising

Advertising through the same old outlets will get you the same old results. In order to find girls who play video games, try researching where there is over lap. For example, the now-defunct magazine Shojo Beat was a monthly magazine aimed toward 12- 17 year olds who like to read manga. There was also an interesting tidbit in the media kit - the majority of the readers of the magazine also played video games. While the editors quickly responded, providing coverage of popular video games releasing in the US and Japan, game makers were slow to advertise in the magazine. Even though Japanese clothing companies like Baby, The Stars Shine Bright found it worthwhile to purchase advertising, the gaming industry was not represented on a regular basis.

Recently, this ad aired for Rhythm Heaven:

While the ad didn't personally appeal to me, I liked quite a few things about it. Positing Beyonce as a player, using a black DSi, having a celebrity promoting a game rather than the hardware are all important steps to take that defy stereotypes. Additionally, this is just one of many spots Nintendo has used in their quest to appeal to non-traditional gamers which feature a wide range of players enjoying their content. It's really just that simple.

3. When Rethinking Marketing, Start Internally

A while back, I read an interview by Fast Company with Will Wright, the creator of mega-blockbuster The Sims. Wright made one small comment that actually illuminated a lot of key issues:

Having more women in the industry would help a lot. We've been making games that cater to ourselves, to 40-year-old men. We've noticed with Spore that women don't mind if there's violence in the game, as long as they have a path they can take that doesn't involve them having to kill everything. I think one of the reasons The Sims did so well with women is that 40% of our development team were women.

If you want to attract more women, involve more women in the process of creating games. Hire more women at your organization. Reach out to women who already identify as gamers.

However, none of this will work if people aren't willing to challenge stereotypes. The Wall Street Journal article states:

Making games for girls has "had a transformational impact on Ubisoft," Mr. Key said. The company in 2004 also began sponsoring an all-female team of game players called Frag Dolls, to help promote women in gaming.

The Frag Dolls play games like Left 4 Dead, Gears of War 2, and Heroes Over Europe. What games are mentioned in the article? Petz, Littlest Pet Shop, Charm Girls Club, and Your Shape.

Gentlemen, we still have a problem.

Videogame Firms Make a Play for Women [WSJ]
Attention Game Designers: 5 Steps to Attract Girl Gamers [Cerise]
Market to Me [Cerise]
Gamer Girls Rising [Women's Review of Books]
Games 4 Girls at Gamestop: Gagging, Weeping, Bleeding From the Eyes[Wired]
The Simemperor [Fast Company]

Earlier: "Shrink It And Pink It" Gets Slaughtered By The Femme Den
Dell Discovers Ladies Use Computers For More Than Diet Tips

Nine-year-old Caitlin McDermott told a reporter: "We don't need men. We girls can do what we feel. We girls are as strong as boys. Girls can stand on their own feet."

An 11-year-old told Monica Hesse of The Washington Post: "We have more rights than other women around the world and we should use our rights to help others"

Another 11-year-old named Gabby Cano said: "Please stop polluting. We only have one world."

But it wasn't all serious business at the Tween Summit. Attendees were exposed to video games like "Charm Girls Club," made by conference sponsor Electronic Arts. Hesse writes:

The players frantically wave a Wii remote at the screen, where gorgeous avatars are busy styling their hair. The winner is the player who teases the virtual locks into the highest bouffant.

Empowering! Other sponsors included PBteen, Disney Book Group and Dove Go Fresh.

Plus, USA Today reports that the exhibit hall "had a definite tween flair, with lots of pink and purple balloons, a gaming lounge and pale pink sofas." Because you simply can't have a Tween Summit without pink sofas! Duh!

It's true that tweens are plugged in — a YouthTrends survey shows that 39% of girls played a game on a video game system in the past week, and 29% of girls gave product advice to parents in the last week — but that doesn't mean that tweens are frazzled. As Perri Klass writes for The New York Times (after speaking with Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington who is studying children and the media): "Parents are digital immigrants… children are digital natives."

Luckily, you get the idea that the positives outweigh any negatives. The Youth Trends survey shows that 52% of girls have read a book for fun in the past week. And when Monica Hesse from WaPo asked about sexting, a 14-year-old named Angelique Gaston said, "Ew," and then proclaimed: "That isn't what we're doing. The media bases ev-er-y-thing on sexuality."

A Summit For Tweens: It's All About Empowering Girls [USA Today]
At Girls' Summit, An Image Betwixt And Be Tween [WaPo]
18 And Under: Texting, Surfing, Studying [NY Times]

In the video above, Daniel Floyd, who posts analysis of various video game issues, tackles the problem of "Video Games and the Female Audience," and suggests that the problem is actually that even when those creating the video games include more female characters, they're really only adding hot, large-breasted characters for the benefit of men.

For the video, Floyd collaborated with female video game journalist Leigh Alexander, who sometimes writes for Kotaku, and her own blog Sexy Video Game Land. They report that even when female characters are portrayed as strong and competent within a game, they're often marketed on their looks. Case in point: Lara Croft, who may be powerful as a character, but is know mainly as a sex symbol in pop culture. Almost every video game character, male or female, is designed to let players control an unrealistically attractive avatar. That makes sense, because the medium is based on letting people act out their fantasies, and no one really daydreams about being an uglier, weaker version of themselves. But while a male character's sex appeal is never stressed in the game's advertising, basically the only thing consumers will learn about a female character is that she's hot, and her clothes may be torn off in strategic spots during game play.

Georgia Kral writes in On The Issues Magazine that people often play as characters that are a gender other than their own. Sometimes it's about exploring through a fantasy world what it's like to be the other gender, but in the case of hyper-sexualized female characters like Lara Croft, men often just want eye candy while they're playing the game. Women may prefer to play as a certain male character for fun, but sometimes they're driven to play as a male character to avoid discrimination during online game play. Kral reports that a 2008 study from the Palo Alto Research Center found some women play online as men because they don't want to be "branded as incompetent." Author Nick Yee said they, "must either accept the male-subject position silently, or risk constant discrimination and harassment if they reveal that they are female."

Video game companies have developed an interest in attracting more women (what executive wouldn't want to increase his or her potential customers by 50 percent?) but so far they haven't figured out a way to bring a large number of women into that group of intense gamers who will line up outside a Game Stop on an opening day. In the video, Floyd concludes that the industry needs to stop putting forth a message that conditions women to think "this is not for you." He says:

"As an industry, we need to seriously reconsider our marketing. We need to examine our habit of manipulatively using women for appeal — 'booth babes' at our conventions, exploitive character design. We need to consider the effect this stuff has on our industry's image.

Aside from just hiring more female video game designers and executives, one way to change the industry is to stop marketing games to two gender extremes and find the medium between games featuring bloody cage fights and babies. (Not that women can't enjoy a good cage fight.)

On her blog, Alexander writes,

"I've always really preferred not to be pegged as a 'woman in games'. My philosophy's always been that the way to confront gender barriers is to stop drawing lines, and that's why I've always strongly aimed to be 'person writing about games who is, among other things, female.'

Women Audiences, Women Characters [Sexy Video Game Land]
Virtual Switching, or Playing Games? [On The Issues Magazine]

Earlier: Yup, It's True: Girls Play Games
Is It Every Little Girl's Dream To Babysit? One Video Game Company Thinks So

When news surfaced that the Fat Princess game was being developed by Titan Studios for PlayStation 3, a war broke out on the internet when "women who consider themselves feminists - declared the game hostile to ladykind, offensive to overweight people and, apparently, unsympathetic to the plight of royalty everywhere," according to MSNBC. The women "blogged about how offended they were" and in response, male gamers/trolls harassed the women online. (They still are.)

The game was finally released this month, and, after playing it, Benedetti - who says she "would happily pay the dues to join Club Feminist" - reports that there is nothing offensive about Fat Princess because overfeeding the young lady is funny within the game's zany computer kingdom. The cartoonish medieval game's plot is similar to capture-the-flag, but opposing kingdoms attempt to prevent each other from capturing or rescuing their princess by feeding her pieces of cake until she can't be hauled off.

Chris Millar, the game's producer says:

"The damsel in distress is a very archetypical situation, and the idea of the princess enjoying cake and eventually getting larger and harder to carry back, it just added to the overall nature of the game," he says. "The game is just really silly overall."

Millar argues that the princesses are worshipped by the villagers at any size and points out that the princesses were drawn by a female artist, Weng Chen, who has said she tried to make the princesses "cute and lovely" even when they get large and lamented that only cute female characters are featured in video games.

There's a wide variety of more active and heroic female characters in the game, but even after reading Benedetti's endorsement, the game's concept is unsettling. It's a bit of a stretch to say that the game champions unconventionally attractive women, since the princess' main function is to sit still and gain weight or to be hauled off as a trophy. Benedetti also goes on to describe the game as a "delightfully deserved send-up of the save-the-princess cliche," and says it's funny to watch a "skinny princess pack on pounds." Maybe to her, but if the game is making fun of thin princesses for getting fat, that pretty much undermines the whole conceit that these large female characters are empowering in any way.

Controversial "Fat Princess" Game Is Big Fun [MSNBC]

Related: I Get Letters [Shakesville]
More Fat Princess Mail [Shakesville]

• Playboy Enterprises has announced that their website is getting a conservative makeover to attract mainstream advertisers. • Broke consumers are eschewing traditional medicine in favor of vitamins in attempts to save a few bucks, the New York Times says. •  Researchers believe that sex could be the cheap new way to cure hay fever. • Aw: 45 people volunteered several nights ago in New Haven, VT, to help carry salamanders, newts, and frogs across the road during their annual migration. These so-called "bucket brigades" are common throughout the Northeast. •  Click here to see wax sculptures of Barack and Michelle Obama. • And if that doesn't creep you out, here is a video of a Japanese robot that has been programmed to mimic baby behaviors. •  A California man stabbed a woman in front of Toys 'R' Us, immediately laid down on the ground, and when confronted, claimed that "God made me do it." •  Indian men living in the U.S. are having a harder time finding brides willing to make the move to America since the economy has tanked. Many Indian women feel that it is safer to stay in India, where layoffs are not as widespread. •  Annoyed by Madonna's adoptions but unsure why? This article by Robin Givhan may help you figure it all out. •  Not everyone loves April Fool's pranks: the Taipei Times has received complains from the Taipei Zoo about their misleading "fake panda" story. •  Now that Obama has lifted the ban on stem cell research, scientists are looking for donations of excess embryos to help them find cures for debilitating conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's. • Newsweek examines the gay love for Grey Gardens, and argues that gay icons may actually be kind of a bad thing. • Walgreens has pulled the "Chia Obama," saying that the presidential house plant is not appropriate for sale. • New data shows that Nebraska is the "happiest" state, financially, with Iowa close behind. •  And now for some truly terrible news: Researchers have identified a certain kind of yeast that can mutate rapidly, rendering anti-fungal medications ineffective. Ugh. •  Atomic games is working on a new video game based on the Iraq war, currently titled "Six Days in Fallujah." •  More than 1 in 10 Britons say they would cheat if they could get away with it, according to a recent survey. •  In India, soaps that focus on women's issues are gaining in popularity, especially those about "girl child issues." • 

In an article on Slate, Leigh Alexander writes that Quinn, who is working with the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault, is unlikely to get RapeLay banned since it was never sold in U.S. stores and has already been removed from Amazon and eBay. Hacked versions of the game's English translation are easily found on the Internet, but it's essentially impossible to police the transfer of the pirated software.

Alexander downloaded one of these illegal copies of RapeLay, in which a man stalks and rapes women in a subway station. She says playing the game resulted in "hours of getting depressed about the fate of humankind." She writes:

While the moral outrage from the New York City Council and Web sites like Jezebel and Shakesville is obviously well-placed, there's little hope that legislation or activism can stem the perversion. Not only is RapeLay rooted in a social illness that's embedded in Japanese society, it's just one game in a niche industry that's more closely related to the porn business than to the video game world.

The concept for RapeLay is actually inspired by Japan's current problem with chikan, or subway perverts. According to a 2004 study, 64 percent of Tokyo women reported that they've been groped on a train. The country has a high conviction rate for chikan, but it's easy for predators to hide on a crowded train and Japanese women are often too ashamed to report the crime.

RapeLay is part of a larger genre of sex-themed Japanese video games known as eroge. The games are usually sold in pornography stores, not with other video games. Eroge is popular in Japan, but Alexander says most games in the genre are not violent, but rather feature, "high-school dating stories, standard soap-opera melodrama that prioritizes narrative, and plenty of oddball pap starring cat girls and alien maids."

The Japanese government places no restriction on the themes of the games, but they are subject to censorship laws, so even in violent sex scenes genitalia will be blurred. As the blurring is removed in the pirated games, English language versions are actually more graphic than the games sold in Japan. Few manufacturers attempt to sell legal versions of eroge in the U.S., and websites that sell Japanese imports will often change the ages of underage characters to 18. No matter how disturbing these games may be, technically, the versions sold in the U.S. are not illegal.

And You Thought Grand Theft Auto Was Bad [Slate]

Earlier: Amazon Drops Rape Simulation Video Game

• Sad face: Mickey Rourke's 18-year-old chihuahua, Loki, has died. Rourke called Loki "the love of his life." And famously thanked his all his dogs in his Golden Globes speech. RIP little dude! [E!, TMZ]

• Sarah Jessica Parker's been talking about the Sex And The City sequel. She wants the new movie to be a "massive romp." And she's worried about the consumerism: "How do we address these economic times in a franchise that has a lot to do with luxury and labels? You know, there is a lot that we have to think about because times are very different." Indeed. [UPI]
• Lindsay Lohan was seen having a fabulous time in New York while Sam Ronson was in San Diego, what does it mean??!?! [Page Six]
• The lone Asian dude in Miley Cyrus's "goofy" photo has been identified; his name is Chuck Willis, and he is a model/actor/photographer. Who hangs out with Hannah Montana. [ONTD]
• The Guardian's Hadley Freeman spends five minutes with "the surprisingly tall" Justin Timberlake and promptly falls "a little bit in love." [Guardian]
• Oscar producers want M.I.A. to be on the show so badly — even though she just gave birth — that they're willing to let her perform her track from Slumdog Millionaire from a "large bed" on stage. Or she could appear via hologram. The bed idea sounds kind of awesome, but only if there are dancing orderlies. [NY Mag, MSNBC Scoop]
• More Oscar gossip: Hugh Jackman is hosting, but he'll be joined on stage by Beyoncé, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens and Mamma Mia's Amanda Seyfried for a big song and dance number, directed by Moulin Rouge's Baz Luhrmann. If they do "Dancing Queen," it just might be the gayest thing on TV since Charles Nelson Riley. [Yahoo News via E!]
• John Mayer will be attending the Oscars, and says: "It's my first Oscars. And it's my first being an Oscar boyfriend. After that night I have a deal almost signed in blood that says I must go into the studio and finish this record. So after Oscar Sunday, Monday morning I'm invisible." [PopSugar]
• Bookies who deal with Oscar bets says Heath Ledger is "such an absolute certainty you've got to feel a bit sorry for the fellow nominees. They have no absolutely no chance whatsoever of winning." [Mirror]
• An L.A. Superior Court judge has ruled that Roman Polanski will have to come to the U.S. and face a judge before his 1977 child sex case can be dismissed. Of course, if Polanski arrives in the States, he faces immediate arrest, as he is a fugitive. [Variety]
• Hayden Panettiere, 19, fresh off of her breakup from Milo Ventimiglia, 31, was seen flirting with Gerard Butler, 39. Can you blame her? He's hot! [MSNBC Scoop]
• Seth Rogen will appear on the cover of Playboy, only the 9th time a dude's been on the cover in 56 years. But will he be clothed? [Page Six]
• Rachel Bilson and Hayden Christensen are engaged, by the by. [Page Six]
• Kanye West looks morose on the new cover of Details and inside says the kind of stuff you expect Kanyeezy to say. Like: "Put this in the magazine: There's nothing more to be said about music. I'm the fucking end-all, be-all of music." And! "People ask me a lot about my drive," he says. "I think it comes from, like, having a sexual addiction at a really young age. Look at the drive that people have to get sex-to dress like this and get a haircut and be in the club in the freezing cold at 3 a.m., the places they go to pick up a girl. If you can focus the energy into something valuable, put that into work ethic..." [Yahoo News via E!]
• Also, when Kanye was 12, he produced a video game: "My game was very sexual. The main character was, like, a giant penis. It was like Mario Brothers, but the ghosts were, like, vaginas. Mind you, I'm 12 years old, and this is stuff 30-year-olds are programming. You'd have to draw in and program every little step-it literally took me all night to do a step, 'cause the penis, y'know, had little feet and eyes." [Yahoo News via E!]
• Michael Phelps is so afraid of people snapping his picture, he's had the windows of his home tinted and he's been hiding out in strip clubs, where photographs are not allowed. No, really, that's the only reason. [Page Six]
• Has Kylie Minogue had cosmetic surgery? The latest edition of the UK's Grazia magazine asks on its cover: "What has Kylie done to her face?" A surgeon who does not treat her has the answer: "Kylie's brows look a little higher than usual, which suggests she's having regular Botox to lift them. One of Kylie's brows is slightly more arched and higher than the other, which is often a telltale sign." [News.com.au]
• Boo-hoo: Eva Longoria Parker is sad that Nicolette Sheridan is leaving Desperate Housewives. "I love her so much as a person, and I love the character of Edie Britt, that I can't imagine the show without her," Eva says. [Mirror]
• Here's a video of Benicio Del Toro talking about playing Che Guevara and doing some really good stuff with his expressive eyebrows. [Guardian]
• Kid Rock is making Kid Rock Beer, which is expected to create 394 new jobs in Michigan. Those without jobs will at least have something to drink? [Detroit Free Press]
• Ashton Kutcher is in negotiations to star in a flick called Traded, about a superstar NFL quarterback and a 12-year-old middle school geek who magically trade bodies. Sort of Freaky Friday Night Lights. [Variety]
• Bob Barker "relaxes in retirement with dog and bottle of tequila." He doesn't watch Price Is Right. [ABC News]
• Set your DVR; A&E has ordered 11 episodes of Hammertime, a show which tracks the life of MC Hammer and his family. Can't touch this? [Variety]
• Luther Campbell from 2 Live Crew was arrested for contempt of court last night; he owes $10,233.36 and he'd better pay up. [TMZ]
• Morrissey, who turns 50 in May, says of the chance that he'll still be in the music biz at age 55: "I think it's incredibly slim. For heaven's sake!" [Daily Express]
• Blind items! 1. Which movie producer is finding out bad habits die hard? Despite being married, he asked a gorgeous, dark-haired woman back to his hotel for a "late-night private audition" after a dinner at the Berlin Film Festival. As the actress accepted, look for her to appear in his upcoming pictures. 2. Which kooky fashion figure asked for illegal substances on her contract rider? She said in order for her to appear at a fashion show, she needs two bottles of Cristal and "cocaine - a lot of it." [Page Six]
• Blind item: "Which F-list celeb had an abortion six months ago? We hear she's still not sure who the father was." Wait, why do we care about this? [Gatecrasher]
• "God, I might pass out. Your heart pounds really hard, and just that moment…wow. My grandmother is coming. My mom and my grandmother. Three generations. " — Taraji P. Henson, on being a nominee at the Oscars. [Washington Post]
• "My mother, she was like, 'I don't know if Mama wants to come because she had a knee replacement surgery and she's been going to the doctor and it's a long evening.' I said: 'Mom, you know what? Why don't we just let Grandma make the decision? Let's call her and let her say no.' We called her on a three-way and I said, 'Hey, Grandma, we got an extra ticket for the Oscars, you wanna come?' 'I sure do, baby!' She did not hesitate, do you understand? Grandma is not going to miss it for the world, do you hear me? She didn't want to hear about how long it was going to be. She didn't want to hear about that, she'd moved on to what she was going to wear. She was like, 'Well, I have this outfit and these shoes.' I was like, 'Bring it, Grandma.'" — Taraji P. Henson. [WaPo]
• "It's just something for your eyes to look at. It's just a change from the norm, innit? The problem is, I never buy a piece of art. I don't see the point in buying something because I know my eyes will get bored of it eventually. You know, a lot of museums keep the stuff, they rotate it, because people get sick of looking at it. They shift the art around, don't they? People go, 'I'm sick of that now.' They move it around the world, let someone else's eyes look at it." — Ricky Gervais, on art. [Guardian]
• "I really believe I'm on the very tail end of television as a big money-making business. I think there will always be a certain number of people who make a lot of money, like American Idol or NFL football, but I just think that in 10 years when people have good Internet connections, there are going to be a thousand channels. People will be making money, they just won't be making a lot of money. Even successful shows or programming will bring in small amounts of money." — Jimmy Kimmel. [Broadcasting & Cable]
• "Oh my God, I'm one of the greatest rappers in the world. I'll get on a track and completely ee-nihilate that track, I'll eat it and rip it in half. I wouldn't have to think of it. […] I have, like, nuclear power, like a superhero, like Cyclops when he puts his glasses on." — Kanye West. [Yahoo News via E!]
• "The next chapter of your life has begun. The toughest decisions you will ever have to make lie in front of you. You have shifted the cultural paradigm of America, but now you have to live up to the ideal that fostered the shift and ensure that the paradigm doesn't shift back. You must deliver." — LL Cool J, in an (open, unsolicited) letter to Barack Obama. [Mirror]
• "I am her biggest fan and I can't get enough of her. But wearing my fashion hat, I want to say to Meryl Streep, 'You need to accept responsibility for what you are wearing. I don't know that you do.' The message she's sending is, 'I'm too smart for this and it doesn't matter to me what I'm wearing.' I want to say to her that it should matter to you." — Tim Gunn. [MSNBC Scoop]

A reader forwarded us the email she received from Jacob Hawkins, Senior Vice President at Overstock.com after contacting the company about the video game. He wrote:

I appreciate you bringing this to our attention. We try, but not always succeed, in catching and removing items like this from our website. This was an unintentional error and we hope you will accept our sincere apologies. We promptly removed this product from our website and added it to our prohibited items list, and in future will more carefully police for similar auction products.

The game was not being sold directly from Overstock.com, but through the auctions section of the website. All auctions of the game have been removed from the site, as well as from eBay.

Amazon.com was never selling the game directly either. It was listed on Amazon Marketplace, the section of the website open to third-party sellers. Following complaints, Rapelay was removed from Amazon.com and a company spokeswoman said today, "we determined that we did not want to be selling this particular item," according to the .

Though that specific game was removed, Melissa McEwan writes on Shakesville that after clicking on one of the games suggested by Amazon.com when "Rapelay" yielded no results, she was asked "looking for rape products?" The link directed her to pages upon pages of books and movies of interest to rape enthusiasts, mixed in with books like The Rape Recovery Handbook.

McEwan searched for similar suggestions on other websites, but says:

Nowhere else [but on Amazon.com] was I offered up an opportunity to browse "rape products" clearly tailored to people who get off on rape. Nowhere else was I asked if I meant to search for "age," but nonetheless offered a link to browse "rape products." Nowhere else did I see "revenge" or "women" associated with rape.

Ed Note: If the comments here spiral out of control the same way they did on yesterday's post, we'll have to disable them. Please, people: Be respectful, and alert us to any trolls.

Rapelay Virtual Rape Game Banned By Amazon [The Telegraph]
Related: Looking For Rape Products? Try Amazon [Shakesville]

The rape simulation game involves players chasing a mother on the subway and violently raping her, and then tracking down and raping her two daughters described as virgin schoolgirls. The game includes even more horrific details according to online game reviews, such as the option get other men to join in the attacks, having to force the women to get abortions if they get pregnant, and what a review (NSFW) from Something Awful says are "tears that glisten and move in the little girl's eyes."

Following a report from the Belfast Telegraph that Amazon was selling the English version of the game, the company has removed it from the site. Amazon has not commented on the item or said why it was being sold through their website. The screen shot below from Google's cache shows the Amazon page for the game before it was taken down.

The game is produced by the Japanese company Illusion, which makes other 3D adult video games. According to the Illusion Wikipedia page, company policy says that, "games are not intended to be sold or used outside of Japan, and official support is only given in Japanese and for use in Japan." As if somehow the game being sold only in Japan makes it any less disgusting.

British MP Keith Vaz says he is planning to raise the issue in Parliament. "It is intolerable that anyone would purchase a game that simulates the criminal offence of rape," said Vaz. "To know that this widely available through a major online retailer is utterly shocking, I do not see how this can be allowed." Last year, when Vaz brought up rape simulation video games during a discussion on a bill about film ratings, he was criticized by other MPs who said such games didn't exist and gamers who commented online that he didn't know what he was talking about.

Though the game is no longer available on Amazon, the English version of the game is still being sold on here on eBay, here on Overstock.com, and on many other websites.

[Image via Game SMS]

Amazon Drops Rape Simulation Game [The Belfast Telegraph]
Rapelay Review [Something Awful] (NSFW)

Possibly true, but a 2008 survey showed that 94% of girls now play video games (compared with 99% of boys). Maybe these Wii-loving kids aren't old enough to get jobs just yet, but then again, maybe there's another reason their big sisters aren't clamoring to work for EA. Like the fact that working in the video game industry sounds like it kinda sucks.

Game companies can have a fratty atmosphere, says game developer Brenda Braithwaite, "and there are still companies that throw recruiting parties with strippers." An even bigger problem is scheduling. "When you sign on to a game," says former EA exec Bing Gordon, "that's a two- to three-year commitment, with a crunch mode of about 12 to 26 weeks at the end of that. It's hard to be one of the top 10 leads on a team and not put in the time. I know mothers in key line positions, and they have pretty difficult choices to make every single day."

Horror stories about gaming schedules abounded a few years ago — an essay by Erin Hoffman, whose husband's "crunch time" at EA in 2004 consisted of twelve-hour, seven-day workweeks, is a chilling cautionary tale. Things have supposedly gotten better, at least in California, where a minimum hourly wage is now enforced (before that, game developers didn't even get compensation for their extra work during crunch time). Nonetheless, discussion on the website GameWatch implies that unreasonable work schedules are still a big problem, at least at some companies.

If women really are less willing to put in twelve hours, seven days a week, maybe game companies should take it as a sign that such a system really isn't healthy for anyone. Interactive media professor Tracy Fullerton thinks companies can restructure their projects to avoid excessive crunch time. The fact that they haven't done so may have more to do with workplace culture than with the true requirements of game development. If more women enter the video game industry, this culture may change — and that would be good for everyone.

Women Left On Sidelines In Video Game Revolution [LA Times]