Ken Gagne | PolygamerPolygamer - A Podcast of Equality & Diversity in Gaming & Video Games

Polygamer #98: Nic Tompkins-Hughes

Posted on February 12, 2020 by Ken Gagne

Nic Tompkins-Hughes has been a freelance writer, company administrator, and panel moderator in the games industry. They are currently raising the next generation of gamers, empowering them to explore gaming, gender, sexuality, and orientation on their own terms. Nic also identifies as transmasculine and is transitioning to non-binary, enjoying the newfound confidence that comes with realizing their true self.

In this podcast, Nic and Ken talk about retaining your identity while being a parent; the different roles that games play in the next generation compared to our own; how society has evolved to empower more gender identities; the difference between drag queens and drag kings; and our upcoming panel at PAX East 2020.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, Mixcloud, Spoke, Overcast, acast, Pocket Casts, Castbox, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:22:19 — 38.5MB) | Embed

Polygamer #97: Dr. Carly Kocurek of Save Point & Games for Girls

Posted on January 22, 2020 by Ken Gagne

Dr. Carly Kocurek is an associate professor of digital humanities and media studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Her work in the analysis and preservation of games includes Save Point, a zine about the history of video games whose second issue is currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter. She is also researching the “Games for Girls” movement of the 1990s, courtesy a grant from the National Science Foundation.

In this podcast interview, we discuss why a zine is a format uniquely suited to this topic; how Save Point is able to be published with such a modest budget; how to make academic subjects accessible to a lay audience; what the “Games for Girls” movement was, and how it’s evolved over the last 25 years; the research that the NSF grant enables her to conduct; and how listeners can support game preservation efforts.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, Mixcloud, Spoke, Overcast, acast, Pocket Casts, Castbox, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

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Polygamer #96: Caspian Whistler of A Profound Waste of Time

Posted on December 11, 2019 by Ken Gagne

Caspian Whistler is the founder and creative director of A Profound Waste of Time, an independent magazine inspired by video games. Each issue is available in hardcopy only, and each page is uniquely illustrated, combining prose and design from renowned gaming journalists, critics, and developers into a thoughtful collection of essays. The first issue of APWOT shipped in 2018 following a successful Kickstarter campaign, with the Kickstarter for the second issue currently underway.

In this interview, Cas and I talk about the value of a print publication in an industry that moves quickly; the magazine’s origins in the zine scene; how he attracted an all-star editorial cast, including Polygamer alumni Susan Arendt and Jonathan Holmes, to his first issue; how design can be beautiful while still enhancing readability; what he learned from the first Kickstarter; how often we’ll see future issues of APWOT; and how his dyslexia influences his editorial process.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, Mixcloud, Spoke, Overcast, acast, Pocket Casts, Castbox, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive.

Full disclosure: I backed both APWOT Kickstarters.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 47:03 — 22.4MB) | Embed

Polygamer #95: Dr. Jessica Hebert of the PDX Broadsides

Posted on November 13, 2019 by Ken Gagne

Dr. Jessica Hebert is a placentologist and nerdy musician with the PDX Broadsides, a Portland, Oregon-based pop-folk trio. Their recent, debut East Coast tour featured songs about Nathan Fillion, Settlers of Catan, and mental health. Jessica is now back home, where she continues her work studying the role of the placenta (the human body’s only temporary organ!) on gestational diabetes.

In this podcast interview, Jessica and I chat about the PDX Broadsides’ piratical origin, their creative songwriting process, why so many nerd musicians sing about Rosalind Franklin, and how to request vacation time from your day job to sing in a nerd band. We also dive into myths about the placenta, the value of communication in the sciences, and scientific role models.

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Polygamer #94: Jeri Ellsworth of Tilt Five

Posted on October 9, 2019 by Ken Gagne

Jeri Ellsworth recently launched the Kickstarter for Tilt Five, a mixed-reality headset and game board. Its proprietary approach to augmented reality allows gamers to bring Dungeons & Dragons, racing, pinball, and other games to life, using either symmetrical or asymmetrical gameplay, both locally and online. Having successfully reached its crowdfunding goal of $450,000 in just 17 hours, Tilt Five is on track to ship in the summer of 2020.

In this podcast interview, Jeri and I talk about what makes Tilt Five unique among todays many approaches to mixed reality (MR); how its technology and applications differ from professional-grade devices such as the Microsoft HoloLens; whether Tilt Five is aimed more at video gamers or board gamers; what lessons Jeri learned from her previous MR project, castAR; what she’s doing differently this time to avoid the obstacles castAR encountered; and Tilt Five’s reception at PAX West and JoCoCruise.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:02:15 — 29.5MB) | Embed

Polygamer #93: Dr. Aurit Lazerus on playfulness

Posted on September 18, 2019 by Ken Gagne

Dr. Aurit Lazerus, PsyD, is gamer and board game geek with a private clinical practice in Providence, Rhode Island. She uses playfulness and creativity to help her patients feel more understood, connected, balanced, self-aware, and empowered.

In this podcast, we chat about the mental health benefits of video games; what playfulness can look like, and how to incorporate it into one’s daily life; how it feels when video games are used to procrastinate; and whether video games can be addictive. We also discuss the difficult subject of abusive relationships, how they work, and how to both offer and get help.