Anyone else notice that Peter Cohen's monthly Game Room column is conspicuously absent from the September issue of Macworld? Has the preeminent Mac magazine abandoned gaming coverage in favor of more productive, ad-friendly content?

Let's examine the facts. Peter's column has appeared in every issue for at least the past three and a half years without skipping a beat. However, the availability of top tier Mac games has been increasingly on the thin side -- even more so than usual. In the August issue, for example, Call of Duty 2 was the featured game. But like a quality starter with a bad bullpen, the bestselling WWII shooter was backed up by Flip or Flop Home Edition, Jets'n'Guns, and Lumox 2 - not exactly chart-burning stuff in the Windows gaming lineup. There was also a re-review of Quake 4 (but recycled content doesn't count).

Macworld's Game Room web site, which includes Peter's blog, is still up and running and interestingly enough, Jason Snell's editorial in the September issue discusses the advantages of publishing online over hardcopy. Perhaps, the dearth of Mac games no longer affords the privileges of the printed page, and in the age of Boot Camp, Mac gamers must now seek sustenance in *gasp* PC Gamer. Or maybe Peter just took a much-needed vacation.