Dear Harmonix,

Happy Christmas and how are you? I hope you are well. We are all enjoying Rock Band to excess. Thanks for releasing The Sounds as DLC! But as you can probably guess some of us female fans want more music featuring female vocals. Orange Crush seems like it should be easy but it's not, as it turns out!

So I was wondering if you could possibly release more girl-rocking songs as downloadable content in the future. That would make my year!

Here is my wishlist. Some of these would be perfect for a Goth Pack as well, which I hope you are also working on. And they have all been tested v. scientifically for singability in my shower. Thanks!!

Sincerely,

Jane

P.S. I LOVE YOU! XOXO and Happy New Year!

*******

Jane's Wishlist for Girl Rock:

Patti Smith - Because The Night
L7 - Pretend that We're Dead
Luscious Jackson - Naked Eye
Concrete Blonde - Joey (maybe too mellow? but so catchy!!)
Bikini Kill - Rebel Girl
Le Tigre - Deceptacon (ok this might be tough but it's SO GOOD!!!)
Lush - Ladykillers (I <3 Miki!!!!)
Elastica - Connection, Stutter
The Go Gos - We Got the Beat, Our Lips Are Sealed
Rilo Kiley - Portions for Foxes
Veruca Salt - Seether
The Breeders - Cannonball
Pat Benatar - Hit Me with Your Best Shot
No Doubt - Just a Girl
Siouxsie Sioux and the Banshees - Hong Kong Garden, Kiss Them for Me
Sleater-Kinney - One More Hour (ok, no bass, but two guitars!!)
Heart - Barracuda
Liz Phair - Rock Me
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - Bad Reputation
The Cranberries - Dreams
PJ Harvey - A Perfect Day Elise

So I'm settling in on a Saturday night for adventure with my homies Liara and Kaiden (who, we all agree, isn't half the man that Carth Onasi was and the ONLY reason I'm even pursuing romance with him is that it's the same voice and, yeah, I want the achievement) when what should happen but a gruesome grinding noise emanates from my 360 drive. I leap up in alarm and immediately extract the disc, only to find a perfectly circular scratch that now decorates my copy of Mass Effect.

Who gets away with putting out hardware like this? Not to mention the fact that even without the grinding the thing is so fucking loud it gives me a slight headache every time I turn it on.

So now I'm out one copy of Mass Effect and possibly out one console, too...! I'm scared to put anything in it. Well, I may play some puzzle fighter or something... but man, what a bummer!

Tracey John, a writer over at the MTV Multiplayer blog, is working on a series of interviews with women in the game industry. Yesterday was Morgan Webb. Today is me. I get a little, uh, worked up near the end, I'm afraid. I gotta watch the cursing.

The interviews go a long way, I think, towards dispelling the myth that one woman speaks for all women in the industry. We're a pretty diverse bunch, it turns out.

I have a lot of anecdotal evidence that my friends are having trouble finding Wiis, but I didn't realize how widespread and global the problem was.

Is Nintendo really having such a tough time manufacturing units? Maybe they should raise the price - isn't that the law of supply and demand?

I have to say that as fucked up as the situation appears to be, I am encouraged by the tide of popular support for Jeff and the sheer rage that is burning up the message boards right now. I am appreciative of responses like N'Gai's blog post, and by 1UP's sincere show of support for GameSpot editorial.

I don't know if there is a way to escape the system so eloquently described (with an edge of pure fury) by N'Gai. I'm not sure that other entertainment media have successfully broken the ties to their advertisers. If gaming press can secure non-endemic advertising that could be one way. Or if they drop review scores, then they would also drop out of the publisher's radar and be free to write whatever they wish.

Hm.