- Sony is deliberately shorting the supply of PS3s to create buzz.

Are you insane? Why?! There are so many better ways to create buzz - like a controversial ad. If Sony is truly guilty of this, it's an extremely poor decision and something that Sony (despite its recent slump) probably isn't doing and something I would be very surprised to see as truth. The number of people this would offend, the profit risks... I mean, who wants to start last in the console war? Why would Sony, with how much it has already invested in production, marketing and above all - time - even think about shorting the PS3 supply? No. Just no.

- Women who game either don't read gaming magazines or advertisers aren't catching on.

Flipping through an issue of Game Informer, the advertisements struck me. Most non-gaming related ads were things like Bowflex, Get Milk? (with a basketball star leaping in the center of the page), John Cena (as an ad for Marine), abovetheinfluence (with male characters), BOSE (with two men staring at a computer screen), and the U.S. Army Reserve (where each soldier in the ad was male). Sure, every now and then there are some ads about buying 5 DVDs for a dime or something, but by and large, the ads are projected towards a male audience. I'm not sure if this is particularly wrong, since if men dominate the mailing list of gaming magazines, then sure - what's the problem? But I wonder whether women, at least in America, will ever be as involved as men in gaming culture - and if it does, whether the advertising will become more gender-free. Perhaps, gender inequality in games is just a constant.

- A picture of a female black knight with a ponytail slit coming out of back of the helmet.

First off, this is rad. But how does someone put this on? Ponder, ponder. Does a girl furl her hair in her hand and then put the helmet on? But then, how does she get her hand out of the helmet? Does she just pull her hair from the slit in the back of the helmet? But then, how does she fit her hand in the slit? Ponder, ponder. Would a woman really wear such a ill-designed accessory?

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	Felix_Arabia - January 31, 2007 (08:30 AM) Are you insane? Why?! There are so many better ways to create buzz - like a controversial ad. If Sony is truly guilty of this, it's an extremely poor decision and something that Sony (despite its recent slump) probably isn't doing and something I would be very surprised to see as truth. The number of people this would offend, the profit risks... I mean, who wants to start last in the console war? Why would Sony, with how much it has already invested in production, marketing and above all - time - even think about shorting the PS3 supply? No. Just no. Why? If there are fewer PS3s on the market, then it's going to cause a higher demand as long as Sony is able to communicate to gamers that their machine is powerful and better than the competition. It's simple economics. Maybe Sony realize that their machine doesn't have much of a library? Why release a whole bunch of PS3s that are going to sit on store shelves collecting dust? Maybe they think if they did that, the general public will think their machine sucks, and then they wouldn't want to buy it. Large companies like Sony don't get to where they are at now by being lucky in how they do business. If Sony is indeed trying to make it seem as if their is a PS3 shortage, then it's part of a strategy. Granted, it may backfire, but any strategy always has a chance of going awry. As for a controversial ad, why risk alienating the target consumers when they can use the illusion of ultra-high-in-demand PS3s being super hard to come by? People tend to like things that are rare or hard to come by. An elusive PS3 is a lot cooler than one that simply sits on a shelf.
	honestgamer - January 31, 2007 (09:38 AM) This issue isn't even an issue anymore. Sony has barely been producing any PS3s at all and still they're sitting on store shelves, unpurchased. If I wanted a PS3 today and had $600, it would be ridiculously easy to walk into any number of stores and come out with one in hand.
	Felix_Arabia - January 31, 2007 (10:04 AM) Then what is Draqq bitching about?
	draqq_zyxx - January 31, 2007 (01:55 PM) Some argue that Sony is deliberately shorting PS3s for the sake of buzz, but Sony has simply failed to manufacture enough PS3s and the demand for it is still low. They are not deliberately shorting anything. The buzzworthiness of this is just a side effect.
	zigfried - January 31, 2007 (03:28 PM) Same way women pull ponytails through the back of a baseball cap, I'd imagine. //Zig
	Genj - January 31, 2007 (07:01 PM) I think the better question is how chainmail bikinis are effective armor for all those D&D women folk.
	draqq_zyxx - February 01, 2007 (09:34 AM) I guess chainmail bikinis open the woman's soulspace.