Digital Cowboys: Episode 111

Leigh Alexander on Women in Video Games.

We're very happy to welcome Leigh Alexander to the show this week. Leigh is the news director for Gamasutra, pens a monthly column for Kotaku and has written for Slate and Variety. Her personal, more casual blog is Sexy Videogameland. It becomes immediately apparent on meeting Leigh that she can talk, virtually nonstop on a professional level about the things she's passionate about. Social and cultural issues surrounding games, as well as games themselves, music, twitter, the works. We decided she'd be perfect to tackle the tricky business of women in gaming; how they are portrayed, how they are marketed to and how they are percieved by the other half of the gaming species. To put it mildly, we got a great discussion out of her. Ms. Alexander kindly stuck around to chat about the news and what we've been playing and we got some great banter and points of view from that too. I'll be honest, it's one of my favourite episodes.

The news about Michael Jackson's death came to me while I was editing the show and I was sorely tempted to make some reference, but it wouldn't have worked in context so I held back. You can probably guess what the not-so-random game of the week will be for #112.

Link's to Leigh can be found here. Many thanks go out to her and she'll be welcomed back any time.

Gamasutra
Kotaku
Sexy Videogameland
Twitter