Media Info

Welcome to the Media Kit for the Iris Gaming Network. This resource is designed to aid those interested in writing about the site for publications such as college newspapers and also to provide background information to those wishing to know more about the organization.

Background

The Iris Gaming Network was created by Andrea Rubenstein and Robyn Fleming for the purpose of helping to get women’s voices into the mainstream gaming community. Iris is the result of years of frustration born of having to choose between “mainstream” gaming sites and publications — where women are alternatively fetishized, ridiculed, and told they don’t exist — and “girl/women” gaming options which, while often providing places where women can share their opinions and experiences openly, have historically been too small and isolated to have lasting impact on the general gaming culture and industry.

Our core community is in our forums, which serves as a safe space for gamers of all different types to get together and discuss not only games, but social issues — such as sexism and racism — that affect games, gamer culture, and the industry. We also host an extensive directory of gaming-oriented blogs run by women, which serves not only as a resource for those interested in hearing women’s various thoughts on games and gaming, but also helps female gamers to connect with one another.

In addition to our community-based content, we also run a monthly magazine called Cerise, which publishes everything from articles on gaming to interviews with industry professionals. Iris is also home to various individual and group blogs that take a critical look at games and gamer culture.

For a more information about Iris and related projects, please refer to the Site History and About pages.

Review Copies

The Iris Gaming Network hosts several staff members and bloggers who are happy to accept review copies of creative and critical works.

If you wish for a review of your work to appear in Cerise, please follow the magazine’s review copy guidelines. If you have something that you feel engages with the topic of a particular blog, use the contact form on that individual blog to contact the relevant blogger(s).

Please note that, due to volume and time constraints, we cannot guarantee that any one blogger or staffer will be able to review your work.

Advertising

Advertising space is currently available only on Cerise (information on how to advertise on the magazine).

The goals of the Iris Gaming Network are to foster a socially conscious, empowered gaming community; encourage respectful, high-quality representation of women in games; and assist the professional development of women working in the gaming industry. We reserve the right to review proposed advertisements before agreeing to run them. Advertisements for products or organizations that may be at odds with these goals are unlikely to be accepted.

All profits recouped from advertising on Iris directly support the organization.

Representatives

Iris and its sub-sites are managed and maintained by an international volunteer team and features the contributions of hundreds. There cannot be said to be any single viewpoint or opinion which all participants have in common beyond the site’s core goal of fairer treatment of girls and women in gamer culture and the gaming industry.

Due to international timezone considerations, the best and easiest way to get in contact with Iris’ spokespeople is through our contact form. If you wish to contact a particular blogger, please do so through the contact form on their blog. After initial contact has been made, it is possible to arrange for phone or in-person interactions.

For a more complete list of staff and related volunteers please see our Iris Team page.