CompuServe Messages

If "sexism" is the -ism which claims that if you know a person's sex, you know with certainty a great deal about that person's math abilities, negotiating tactics, physical strength, annual cosmetic budget, and lots more, then a game designer who allows that a full-figured woman can behead the foe with a battleaxe just as savagely as can a steroid abusing man has absolved her- or himself of charges of "sexism." That is a fairly narrow definition. Anything which appeals to the glands rather than the mind is "base," or "vulgar," or "low-brow." If the appeal is to the adrenal glands, we have adventure-films, roller coasters, shoot-them-ups. If the appeal is to the reproductive glands, we have romance novels, Cinemaware box covers (usually), digitized Strip-Poker. People are free to persue happiness where they will. If one finds it in a first-rate production of Hamlet, and another in the World's First Stand-up Rollercoaster the Shockwave where You Turn Upside Down, well that's what makes markets. However, "Hamlet" should never pretend to be a wrenching experience ("in our production the audience will be securely buckled in") and "Shockwave" should never pretend to be a deep one ("this ride will make you re-examine your life"). "Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess," if judged by the cover, is not going to provide the same sort of experience that Dungeon Master did. Dungeon Master does a fine job of demonstrating that all body types (well, none of figures would be confused with Mrs. Thatcher) make excellent champions.