Friday, June 12, 2015

This this thisthisthisthis THIS.

The Legendary Adventures of a Fearless Girl Gamer by Latoya Patterson.

"But even though I'm not so off from the average gamer, who is 35 years old and nearly as likely to be female (44 percent) as male, according to the Entertainment Software Association, no one looks at me these days and thinks "gamer." Nobody."

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Fixing Gaming

The Huffington Post just published this article: How To Fix Gaming For Women and Minorities, According to One Major Critic

It's about off-shoot of Boing Boing, Offworld, "an unequivocal home for women and minorities" in the gaming and tech spheres. On one hand, seems like a cool idea to have a safe space. But rather than segregating ourselves I'd rather diversify the current spaces... by force, if necessary. I'm kidding! (Am I???)

But it's early days yet, and maybe this will grow into an awesome forum for discussion of these issues. For now, go for the article on the #GamesSoWhite hashtag, stay for the weird, weird, WEIRD game recommendations (awesome).

Sunday, June 7, 2015

*blows dust off blog*

Welp, here I am again!

The last thing I posted about on this blog was Awesome Con 2014, so maybe it's fitting that I come back strong with Awesome Con 2015 (and beyond). As you may recall (or see below in my previous posts), I was unimpressed with the "women in gaming" panel last year. So this year I organized and moderated my OWN panel called "Your Move: Creating Inclusive Gaming Spaces." At first I was like, "WHAAAT why do I think I can even?" But it all came together fabulously thanks to my wonderful, wonderful panelists.

We talked about some of the problems that plague various gaming spaces (online communities, game design and marketing, friendly local game shops) and suggested solutions (what to do if you're being harassed online, how to send a message back to game developers,  how to make in-person gaming more friendly). A video of the talk will (eventually) be put together with the power point (of course there was a power point) by my good friend Mac. We'll either post on YouTube or send a copy out to interested parties. Further updates as events warrant!

After our talk finished on Friday night, I got to relax and enjoy the rest of the Con. There were plenty of Diversity Panels (in comics, in pop-culture, etc) but just like last year they seemed to focus on problems and not a lot on solutions. It also seemed that a lot more of the panels I attended were fan-driven, rather than creator-driven. And Nexus Gaming Alliance was out in full force... *eye roll*

To end on a high note, I leave you with two heartening (official) signs from Awesome Con 2015. The times, they are a-changin'!