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.

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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.