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Orlando Sentinel: PRODUCT: DESK: DATE: EDITION: ZONE: PAGE: E2.0/ DEADLINE: 15.3/ OP: COMPOSETIME: 14.15 CMYK COLORSTRIP: E2 Orlando Sentinel ABCDE FRIDAY, Supply is limited and offer is for first time callers only DIRECTV is the leading digital television service, giving you access to up to 225 channels of programming, including 31 premium movie channels, over 31 channels of digital-quality music, 25 specialty sport networks, and ask about local channels Order today from Prime TV and get a FREE 18-inch multi-room mini-dish digital satellite receiver and remote control, plus FREE standard professional installation after ACTIVATION OF PROGRAMMING MAY BE SUBJECT TO CREDIT APPROVAL AND REQUIRES VALID SERVICE ADDRESS, SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER MAJOR CREDIT CARD Offers may not be valid in the limited areas served by members or affiliates of the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative. free installation rebate offer for new, first-time residential customers who acquire and activate a Hughes 1132 system from Prime TV and subscribe to 12 consecutive months of TOTAL CHOICE programming or above) within 30 days of equipment purchase Offer valid between and Customer must pay $140 (single LNB 1 receiver) or $200 (dual LNB 2 receivers) for installation. More complex installation may require additional charges. Rebate subject to certain rules and conditions, including proof of payment of installation, activation of DIRECTV System and return of executed 12- month agreement. Installation rebate and equipment advertising offered by Prime TV LLC, Southern Pines, NC.

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DIRECTV and the Cyclone Design logo, TOTAL CHOICE, are trademarks of DIRECTV, a unit of Hughes Electronics Corp. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. FREE DIRECTV 2 DAYS ONLY FROM PRIME TV! toll-free (800) 549-1943 Professional Installation Multi-room Satellite TV System! including Standard Satisfaction is Guaranteed! Call Prime TV Installation rebate offer extended through April 14, 2002 PRIME I I 749754801 Doonesbury By Garry Trudeau Crosswor DRAWL RAJAH GOITER SLOUCH When the big carpet was loaded it became A Jumble Answer: memo, mesic, meson, mice, mien, mime, mince, mine, miso, monies, monism, neon, nice, nine, noes, noise, nomen, nonce, none, nones, nose, eosin, omen, once, oscine, osmic, icon, income, cion, coin, come, cone, conies, conn, cosine, scion, scone, semi, since, sine, some, sone, sonic Daily Word Game Jumbled words: Dear Ann Landers: Please inform your readers that time once again to come together for the 14th annual National Youth Service Day, the largest community service event. The takes place Friday through Sunday, April 26-28. It is sponsored by Youth Service America and the National Youth Leadership Council, in partnership with Parade magazine.

National Youth Service Day celebrates the contributions that millions of young people make to their communities every day. This year President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush will serve as honorary chairpersons. young Americans are volunteering more than any generation in history. Since Sept.

11, our youth have demonstrated their patriotism by responding to President call to even greater service to their nation and local communities. More than 34 percent of American schools now offer service-learning, an extremely effective way to improve student achievement. Young Americans are inspiring their peers around the world, and millions of young people in 150 countries will join those in the United States to participate in the third annual Global Youth Service Day at the same time. Ann, you have helped us spread the word about the benefits of youth service and service-learning in the past. Please tell your readers they can check out volunteer opportunities in their communities and learn more about National Youth Service Day by visiting our Web site, servenet.org,or by writing: Youth Service America, 1101 15th St.

NW, Suite 200, Washington, D.C. 20005. We hope your readers will join us in the largest and most diverse day of service yet. A. CULBERTSON PRESIDENT AND CEO YOUTH SERVICE AMERICA Dear Steven Culbertson: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to mention National Youth Service Day once again.

Anyone who would like to participate in this superb program should contact Youth Service America for details. I hope each and every one of my readers will do so today. Dear Ann Landers: I would like to respond to on Long Island, N.Y.,” whose husband suffered from impotence. She wanted him to try a penile implant, but he refused, saying it My precious wife of many years suffered from a debilitating disease that put an end to our wonderful sex life. Before she died, she made me promise Iwould remarry.

She said she want me to finish my life alone. Idiscovered that I suffer from erectile dysfunction, which limited my ability to develop an intimate relationship with another woman. My urologist introduced me to the penile implant, and I decided to give it atry. It was the perfect solution. Imet a wonderful woman, and we were married last year.

Please tell that the implant is so natural, her husband know he has it until he needs it. If he truly loves his wife, he will do what he can to enrich their life together. IN CALIFORNIA Dear California: There are many methods of treating erectile dysfunction, and each man must find what works best for him. Thank you for providing some words of encouragement to those who need it. Dear Ann Landers: I hope this question too silly for your column.

No one else seems to know the answer. When making a bed using sheets with a pattern, which way does the top sheet go? Thanks, Ann. IN BED IN FLORIDA Dear Florida: The print on the top sheet faces down so the pattern shows when the person opens the bed. welcome. Ann column is distributed by the Creators Syndicate.

Write to her in care of the Orlando Sentinel, P.O. Box 211, Orlando, FL 32802-0211. For a reply, please enclose a stamped, self- addressed envelope. Special weekend will celebrate young volunteers across nation Ann LANDERS AMERICA'S COUNSELOR ries says Cornelia director of the nonprofit Center for Children and Technology in New York. The biggest selling games none of which features women prominently have been the likes of Mortal Deer Hunter and Counterstrike.

games are like a nearby wilderness where boys can do the dangerous things necessary to be inducted into the culture of says Brunner. girls want in a game is to rehearse their femininity, everything from issues of fairness to being bad by starting a nasty rumor, like loose From Nancy Drew to Britney Inertia has a lot to do with the current state of affairs, industry experts say. That is, most games have been aimed at boys and men, because they were regarded as the most likely players. Nobody wants to risk $10million in development costs on a new game aimed mostly at girls and women for fear it find a mass audience. industry has always been a culture of guys making games for says Robert of product development for Her of the Nancy Drew series of interactive games.

kind of stuck in an infinite loop of games that look the same. Although half the online gamers are women and nearly half of GameBoy players are female, we have this big inequity in content of games for Yet, the growing number of female enthusiasts and the $75 billion buying power of teenage girls alone is making game producers reassess just who is at the controls. The gender-neutral game The Simshas sold more than 12 millioncop- ies and has attracted an equal number of maleand female players. An add-on to The Sims, Hot Date, lures an audience 65percent female. Elizabeth a Colonial High senior, enjoys playing strategy games such as Sim City and Civilization 2.

challenge your mind, not just how many people you can says Williamson, who received a Microsoft Xboxgame console for Christmas. The themes in games such as these appeal to a broader group than those with action heroes, says Patrick director at produces Sim City and The Sims. The Sims, you are building houses and creating the people in a says Buechner. have added new 1-on-1 interactions, where you play footsie under the table and share passionate kisses and get involved in short-term and long-term Another new female-oriented title is Dance Beat, aimed at girls aged the popularity of nearly all things Britney, the game seems agood investment for its creator, THQ, which also makes a slew of action-oriented, male games such as Red Faction and WWF Raw. The new Britney title, which has been in development for 18 months and is due out in May, is for Sony PlayStation Boy Advance and personal computers.

The game lets the player for a role as a backup dancer on tour. The player can listen to Britney songs while learning dance steps and also watch backstage footage from actual Britney concerts. is the first superstar celebrity-based game says THQ publicist Jennifer expecting the audience will be about 66percent female. Britney herself is a Another game with a glamour hook is Fashion at the CosmoGirl online Web site (cosmogirl.com). The game, which challenges the player to put together outfits and accessories through sevenlayers of difficulty, is one of the three most popular areas at CosmoGirl.com, says Ann editorial director.

are consistently the No. 1 thing girls search for at the she says. is part of their lives. Half of our visitors have a game-playing device or Aseries of games with proven girl appeal, the Nancy Drew line, is aimed at ages 10 to 15, says Her Interactive president Megan Gaiser. now on our sixth game since beginning the series in says.

industry may have thought girls were computer-phobic, but we thought it was simply a matter of nobody addressing their preferences. These are not games, but games that ask you to solve a mystery by finding clues and questioning Dual appeal Anew generation of game consoles, including GameCube, is bringing new titles that appeal to both genders. Nintendo games such as Smash Brothers of Zel- daand Pikminappeal to both genders because they tell an interesting story, offer challenging puzzles and have appealing music. The new GameCube game, Pikmin, is a non-threatening story in which a space traveler, who has crashed on another planet, involves friendly little plant-like figures, Pikmin, to help rebuild the spaceship. Nintendo realizes, says spokeswoman Beth Llewelyn, that video games are a $9billion business, and not just for little boys anymore.

industry is in an interesting state of says Schelley analyst for IDC, which studies technology trends. develop and buy most games, but you reach a point of saturation. There is thought being given to games that appeal to a broader The safe bet and the one increasingly being played making games that will appeal to both sexes, experts say. younger boys and girls today, video games are part of their lives, like TV and the says Buechner. are going to succeed with games that appeal to both One such company is Belli- San Francisco startup headed by Kimberly Unger, who began playing computer games two decades ago on an Apple II.

want to do a game for casual male and female gamers, a game quick and easy to she says. not going to have in your face blood and Mom likes purple dragon Orlando mother and video- game enthusiast Cheryl Johnson agrees up to a point. After crunching numbers all day as an accountant, Johnson likes to relax when she gets home by firing up one of her video-game machines. Obeying the maternal urge to pass along essential life skills to the next generation, Johnson, plays and coaches daughter, Emily, the Sony 64 and GameBoyAdvance. Donkey Kongand Mario Brothers are high on their list, but their favorite game is Spyro, the Dragon.

a little purple dragon that has to be a big hero and save all his dragon friends that were turned into the Altamonte Springs mom. cute and a humorous game, plus the graphics are great. just a lot of Although Johnson is also a fan of Lara Croft, she shares some of the same reservations as other female gamers about such a robustly-endowed figure. got humor and can do anything a man can do, but it have hurt if she quite so err Johnson says. know they had to appeal to the male audience, as The majority of games would benefit from rethinking the appearance and capabilities of female characters, many women say.

For example, in the Crash Bandicootgames, the main female figure is spunky, but not as powerful or fun as male characters, says Johnson. In Spyro for Playstation and GameBoy, the females are fairies whose roles are to provide hints on gameplay and also to save games in progress. Sony is working on games that go beyond the male-oriented hack-and-slash genre, says Holly Hirzel, a producer for Sony Online Entertainment. The titles under development are action and strategy games involving community- building. To bring about radical change in the kinds of games being developed, social attitudes need to evolve, says Hirzel.

targeted for girls will become more common when developers get in tune with the consciousness of says Hirzel. mean, there are lots of girls becoming active in sports, having hobbies and not feeling they have to spend their young years looking for boyfriends. a fact that girls in sports are 80percent less likely to get Translation: Games can become a substitute for boys. How boys react is their problem. You can reach Chris Cobbs at 407-4205447 or Girls want a challenge not just to keep score GAMES FROM E1 To be sure, there are differences in the ways boys and girls approach video games, gaming experts say.

For example, female preferences include: A goal beyond shooting, stabbing, killing and conquering. Human relationships and consideration of the wants and needs of other individuals. Complex, collaborative efforts among individuals or groups. Boys can justify spending 12 hours on a role-playing game, but girls have hang-upsabout devoting so much time to a game, says Lauren reviewer for Ga- meSpot.com,a Web magazine. like a game where you can play three rounds and be she says.

game you can get into quickly, but that still takes some thinking. Girls also like Going a step further, the masculine perspective is that a game is a magic wand that allows a person to transcend time and space, says Cornelia Brunnerof the Center for Children and Technology. The female perspective is that playing a video gamelinks individuals, she says. Despite these differences, games fulfill a deep-seatedneed in both sexes, Brunner says. power of the game is that it allows you to be a god controlling things or she says.

male or female, you can find a meaningful match for What girls want BOBBY ORLANDO SENTINEL Time to unwind. Cheryl Johnson, with daughter Emily, shares concerns about how some female game characters are portrayed. Ticked The column will return on Wednesday..