Polygamer - A Podcast of Equality & Diversity in Gaming & Video Games
  • About
  • Episodes
  • Guests
  • Subscribe
  • Contact

Tag Archives: California

Polygamer #54: Amy Allison of WIGI on Girl Scout patches

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Ken Gagne

Amy Allison of the Vice President on the Executive Board of Women in Games International (WIGI), an organization that promotes the inclusion and advancement of women in the global games industry. In collaboration with the Girl Scouts Greater Los Angeles, Allison recently pioneered the introduction of a video games patch, offering young women hands-on lessons in video game development and design over the course of two workshops held this fall at Sony Santa Monica.

In this interview, Amy Allison and I discuss the inspiration for this patch, and how it differs from badges, loops, and other marks of achievement used by the Girl Scouts of the United States of America and the Boy Scouts of America; how these workshops address a pipeline issue for getting women into the games industry; how developers and publishers across the country can partner with WIGI to expand this program nationally; and finally, Amy’s experiences at the recent IndieCade and Oculus Connect and IndieCade festivals.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

Continue reading →

https://media.blubrry.com/polygamer/p/www.polygamer.net/wp-content/uploads/podcast/pg54-amy_allison.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 49:53 — 23.7MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Pandora | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS | More

Posted in Podcast | Tags: Amy Allison, badge, Brownie, California, Girl Scouts, Girl Scouts Greater Los Angeles, Girl Scouts of the United States of America, GSGLA, IndieCade, Los Angeles, Oculus Rift, patch, Santa Monica, Santa Monica Studio, Scout, Sony, Sony Santa Monica, STEM, WIGI, Women in Games, Women in Games International |

GaymerX (GX3)

GX, or GaymerX, is an annual convention focused on games — video games, tabletop games, card games, and creating a fun and safe space for gamers and gaymers of all identities to have fun and hang out with like minded folks.

Although it’s a “queer space”, with many of the panels revolve around queer issues or queer devs, GX is made for everyone and everyone is welcome!

This year’s special guests include:

  • Jennifer Hale, voice of Commander Shepard and a ton of amazing lead characters including Samus Aran (Metroid) Jaden Korr (Star Wars), and Naomi Hunter (MGS)
  • Natasha Allegri, creator of Bee and Puppycat and a part of the success of Adventure Time (and the creation of Fionna and Cake!)
  • Dr. Rob Jagnow, co-creator of the hit games Cogs and Extrasolar
  • Zach Weiner, creator of webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
  • Ellen McLain, voice of GLaDOS (Portal)
  • John Patrick Lowrie, voice of The Sniper (TF2)

Musical performances from:

  • 2 Mello
  • SAMMUS
  • Doubleclicks
  • Super Soul Bros.

And more!

Listen to Polygamer‘s interview with GaymerX co-founder Matt Conn!

The Queerness and Games Conference

The Queerness and Games Conference (QGCon) is an annual, community-oriented, nationally-recognized event dedicated to exploring the intersection of LGBTQ issues and video games. Now in its third year, QGCon is held on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. The event is free to the public. In 2015, QGCon will be held from Friday, October 16, to Sunday, October 18.

Accessibility, inclusion, and creativity are key values of QGCon. We seek to foster dialogue between scholars, game developers, and game players. QGCon audiences are diverse, and presentations emphasize engagement and play. We believe in an intersectional approach to queerness. Addressing topics of gender, race, ability, body type, class, etc. reminds us that the struggles (and victories) of those of us who play from the margins are interconnected struggles.

Past QGCon keynotes have included visionaries from both queer studies and video games, such as: Naomi Clark, Jack Halberstam, Merritt Kopas, Brenda Laurel, Colleen Macklin, Lisa Nakamura, and Kathryn Bond Stockton. Additional featured speakers have included outstanding game studies scholars like Adrienne Shaw and Samantha Allen.

Subscribe

Get our free email newsletter for updates on equality, diversity, podcasts, and more!
Send voicemail

Leave us a message, and we'll answer it on a future episode!

My Tweets

My Tweets

Recent Posts

  • Polygamer #126: Aenne Schumann of Arcade Spirits
  • Polygamer #125: Game to Grow
  • Polygamer #124: Cyndi Wiley, Iowa State University’s Digital Accessibility Lead
  • Polygamer #123: Honey P. Rosenbloom of Friendship Garden
  • Polygamer #122: Web developer Allison Holt

Other podcasts

  • Character Reveal
  • Ethics and Video Games
  • Spawn On Me
  • The Weekly Cooldown

Archived podcasts

  • +7 Intelligence
  • Diversi
  • Engage!
  • Fresh Out of Tokens
  • Gayme On
  • Girl on Guy
  • Less Than or Equal
  • Not Just a Game
  • Nuchallenger
  • Take This

CyberChimps WordPress Themes

Creative Commons License Polygamer by Gamebits is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Based on a work at https://www.polygamer.net/. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at https://www.polygamer.net/about/.