If you've ever been to E3 or any of the large industry game cons -- or read about them after the fact you no doubt know about "booth babes." Now I suppose I can't really complain too much. After all, games of all varieties and genres are filled with mostly naked, super shapely, a$$-kicking, hyper-armed, sleek babes who would kill as soon as kiss you. All this does rile my feminist side just a tad, but I realize its business and besides, it doesn't interfere with my game play so I'll forgive them and overlook the blatant sexism. My big problem is that these "booth babes" are frauds. These chicks don't even game. Believe me, I've asked them.

The gaming industry says it's working hard to attract more women gamers. There are a lot of theories as to how they can do this effectively. Some say that giving women games that offer the kind of play that they prefer is the best way to do this. However in my experience, there's not just one or even three or four type of games women like. We're individuals with unique taste and preferences. What I like is completely different than my friend Samantha. She bugged me until I signed up on her server for Final Fantasy and I was bored to tears. I liked the various races and the customization but after I created my Elvaan white mage, I quickly tired of trying to find a group and then trekking all over creation to gain levels and experience.

My brief stint actually getting paid huge bucks working in the gaming industry gave me the opportunity to both see behind the scenes into the psyches (scary places -- do not enter without some kind of sacred talisman or powerful spell to save your soul!) of some of the people in the business. When you're trying to get funding, develop your game, create the art, the world, make sure game play is fun and oh yeah, try to find investment funds to pay for all of this, you can easily forget that slightly more than half the people in the United States are women. And a lot of us game! Since many games are created by teams made up in large part by men, women can be included as decor or distractions, but they don't think to include us as characters.

Even when you can create a female character to play, as in FFIX or Star Wars Galaxies, those characters are sleek, sexy Laura Flynn Boyle clones with nary an ounce of fat on their bones. Hardly realistic. But neither are the male characters, I hear you counter. True enough, but men are already playing these games. And there are some games where there are fat, out of shape or even homely male characters. I don't just mean Rodians, and Mon Calamari either. That's great, but ugly men aren't all that's needed.

The gaming industry claims to want to attract the fairer sex. I recommend that not every woman is built like Lara Croft's Angelina Jolie. The industry is making strides in this direction which I applaud. But we're not there yet. I still get odd looks and smirks when I tell people I game. I don't mind the looks nearly as much as I mind not finding a female character I want to play. And I definitely mind it that the booth babes are just eye candy. It'd be so much more interesting for everyone if they could speak intelligently about the games they were there promoting.