Gamasutra expert blogs: From designing female characters to story timing

[In highlights from Gamasutra's Expert Blogs, industry notables write about diverse topics, including the challenges of designing female characters, story timing pitfalls, and more.] In our weekly Best of Expert Blogs column, we showcase notable pieces of writing from members of the game development community who maintain Expert Blogs on Gamasutra. Member Blogs -- also highlighted weekly -- can be maintained by any registered Gamasutra user, while the invitation-only Expert Blogs are written by development professionals with a wealth of experience to share. We hope that both sections can provide useful and interesting viewpoints on our industry. For more information about the blogs, check out the latest official posting guidelines. Here are the top blogs for the week: This Week's Standout Expert Blogs On technology, games, and opportunity (John Krajewski) What are we doing with all this amazing technology surrounding us? Not nearly as much as what we could be doing, argues Strange Loop Games' John Krajewski (Vessel) The difficulties and controversies of designing female characters - or, how not to add a woman's touch (Josh Bycer) The issue of sexism in games has been around for a while. Josh Bycer talks about several ways designers are not helping matters with their designs. Pay what you want and the four currencies (Lars Doucet) Why do people pay more than 1 cent in Pay-What-You-Want promotions? Level Up Labs president Lars Doucet believes that maybe the "4 currency model" can help us understand. Story design tips: Top 5 timing mistakes (Guy Hasson) Story designer Guy Hasson names the absolute worst five timing don'ts with story design.