Up this week at Gamasutra is a feature I put together on the top 20 women currently working in the video game industry. Joining me on the official selection panel were game designers and generally awesome people, Brenda Brathwaite and Sheri Graner Ray. Though similar lists have been published in the past, this one is set apart by Brenda and Sheri’s priceless–and amusing–insights on their fellow industry members.

While I’m glad to shine as much light as possible on the awesome work women are doing in games, I’ll admit the piece was a doozy (wow, that may be the first time I’ve ever used the word “doozy”) to work on. Plus, picking only 20 women got downright hard. Check out the piece to see who made the final cuts:

Some of these women are also industry veterans, and others are newcomers, dazzling the gaming world with their novel energy and creativity. In deciding who would make the list, the 2008 panel strove to include women from all parts of the industry — from development, to marketing, to writing — and to represent many different talents, both old and new.

Need a break from the plastic fakeness of professional porn? Why not read this week’s Click Me, and journey to a magical land where the orgasms are real, the girls are beautiful but not perfect, and the landscape is dotting with kangaroos? That’s right, it’s Abby Winters, online home to well-lit amateur porn. There’s also a gallery of images from this Australian site which hires happy, healthy young women to masturbate on camera and penetrate each other with glass dildos. Yeah, you know you wanna go see it. From the column:

According to the site’s founder and namesake, Abby Winters, what makes her models so enthusiastic—and her porn so sexy—is her emphasis on “naturalness.” Unlike most pornography, where even amateurs get dolled up with makeup and “six-inch plastic high heels,” Winters says her models have regular clothes, no fake boobs, and plenty of pubic hair. (“Shaving is so ’90s,” declares the “Be a Model” section of the site.) She only hires women between the ages of 18 and 25, and proportionate figures that promote “a positive body image” are a must. “We’re basically subverting the porn paradigm,” Winters explains. “All our models are just normal women.”

Thanks to Regina Lynn, who’s earlier column on the subject cued me in to checking out Abby Winters. Oh, also, two redheads making out: both strangely appealing and strangely wrong. Their are so few of us in the world, it seems like redhead incest. Anyone? Anyone?

I’d heard about Cute Overload before, but knowing my proclivity to become obsessed with adorable things, I’d stayed away. Then, in response to last week’s post on cute in contemporary design, a clever reader suggested I check out their “Rules of Cuteness.” Now, needless to say, I am addicted to all the squishiness.

Anyways, if you’re not already a Cute Overload fan, I definitely recommend their “Rules of Cuteness” posts. Much like Stuff White People Like, they make me giggle every time because they’re so true (insert amazed emphasis here). There’s rule #18, “If you have a tiny tail, it’s cute.” There’s rule #14, “If an everyday, small item makes you look small, it’s cute.” Even rule #35, “If you try and eat your own appendage, it’s cute.”

Of course, almost all of these cuteness rules apply to photos of adorable animals–but heck, analysis is analysis, without or without fuzzy bunnies. So let’s break out the real question: why do we find these things cute, and what makes cuteness so appealing? One essay I’ve read, which focused on cute in Japanese culture, suggested that adorableness soothes and relaxes us. Thoughts?

Well, this explains some things.

Club Penguin, the giant of a kids’ MMO, reportedly adds 500-1,000 new words to its banned list each day in an attempt to keep up with inappropriate slang. According to the game’s co-founder Lane Merrifield, two thirds of the company’s staff is dedicated to safety moderating and customer service. Despite Club Penguin’s sheer numbers (its players add up in the millions), the company hasn’t had a single “reportable incident.”

While my gut response to banning words is always an anti-censorship twitch, my own research has shown that Club Penguin–unlike practically every other virtual world–is indeed free of virtual sex. For better or worse, it sure seems like an uphill battle. Personally, I’d love to get my hands on that ever-growing list of banned words–even just to see how internet slang evolves and works around barriers. The mere fact that so many words get added every day means players (presumably children) are trying pretty damn hard to communicate about sex…

Update: So I’ve contact Club Penguin to talk about their list of forbidden words, and for the first time in the three plus years I’ve been doing this, I’ve been told there was literally no one was willing to speak to me on the subject. Thanks, Club Penguin. Personally, I can’t help but wonder if that means Merrifield was exagerrating, or even just wrong. Because really, how top secret can that list be?

I just got back from being in Morocco for a week, and boy has the world of sex and video games been a crazy place since I went away. Ok, that’s a total lie; not much went on. However, while I retrace the fading henna on my hand with a Sharpie, why not read some tidbits from the last seven days?

-Zero Punctuation is my hero. Unlike the rest of the game reviewing world, who’s blushed then fainted in admiration at the very sight of Grand Theft Auto IV, he has the balls (and the adorably coarse British wit) to call it on its mediocrity. Good game? Probably. Second coming of zombie Jesus. Probably not.

-Meanwhile, Lesbian Gamers scoffs at the idea of GTA IV pushing a gay agenda. Personally, I think Rockstar’s daily planner looks like this: 9 a.m. wake up and eat pancakes, 10 a.m. turn the American youth into violent, sex-crazy criminals, 11 a.m. commence the giant gay party. There’s most likely a cover charge at the door, which the sex-crazy criminal youth can pay for with all the money they’ve stolen. I’m quite certain it’s some sort of world domination plot.

-In hot chick news, Playboy has named a “Cyber Girl of the Year”–whom Kotaku reports with wide-mouthed astonishment, is a “true player,” not one of those girl gamer posers. While I’m not quite sure what makes her a “cyber girl,” I am sure Heroine Sheik readers will get a kick out of the massive conversation thread in which Kotaku commenters try and figure out whether someone so attractive could actually play games. It’s like an awesome mind puzzle or something.

And yes, this wonderful LOLcat has nothing to with anything–except that it makes me happy. Of course, it would’ve made more sense to post a picture of that sexy Playboy model. But it’s Friday. You’ve got to live a little. Hug a kitty. Even a communist one. So happy weekend!

I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about OkCupid recently–the online dating site preferred by polyamorous people, my friends, and apparently grungy hipsters everywhere. So for a recent column I called up Sam Yagan, co-founder of the site. He’s a young humor writer turned fast-talking suit who so isn’t joking when he says he wouldn’t leave the island of Manhattan even for the hottest date (”I’m not getting out my passport to go to Queens”). Here’s what he has to say about his site being more accepting of alternative sexualities:

We allow people to be really expressive on OkCupid. It’s not just a matter of filling out check boxes… There are certain niches of people—like polyamourous people—who find OkCupid to be a much more open and accepting place [than other dating sites]. Someone who’s polyamorous doesn’t fit into the Match.com box, and God forbid doesn’t fit into the Eharmony box. We also have a slightly higher than average percentage of people who identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, probably 13% or 14%. So the people who are marginalized on some of the subscription sites find a really welcoming venue here.

And on the possibility of using OkCupid for cybersex:

If you were to put on your profile, “Hey, one of the things I’m interested in is cybersex, I’m very, very confident than in short order you’ll start finding people who have that interest… If I go to your profile, and you’ve taken the “Do you give a good blowjob?” test, then I’ve got an easy segue to start talking to you about blowjobs. I don’t have to ask, “Do you wanna cyber?” I can just be like, “Hey, you seem to think you give good head. Tell me about it.” Now you’re essentially cybering, right?

Something like that, Sam Yagan, something like that.