Polygamer #85: Shannon Symonds of The Strong Museum of Play

Posted on January 9, 2019 by Ken Gagne

Shannon Symonds is a curator at The Museum of Play, home to the International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG). This institution in Rochester, New York, is home to 60,000+ artifacts of gaming history, from rare game consoles, coin-ops, and prototypes to design documents, periodicals, and transcripts. Shannon, who last month was profiled in the book Women in Gaming, recently curated the Women in Games exhibit, showcasing the contributions of generations of women to video games.

In this interview, Shannon and I discuss what gaming rarities ICHEG houses, where they come from, and where they go; the challenges in preserving a digital medium; what a visitor to the Women in Games exhibit will see if they look up; why Bahiyya Khan deserves a place in gaming history; what to study in college to become a museum curator; why Shannon was surprised to be in Meagan Marie’s Women in Gaming anthology; and what we both love about Star Trek: Discovery.

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 in the Internet Archive

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Ken Gagne

Polygamer provides a platform for marginalized voices — those who are often excluded from mainstream dialogue and debate. I founded Polygamer on the belief that it’s important for all voices, regardless of race, creed, origin, ability, gender identity or preference, to be heard. A podcast provides a permanent, sustaining record for those voices, so that their experiences and lessons can be shared not just in a moment, but for all time.

It’s vital that those voices never be silenced — that they ring out long after Polygamer‘s run concludes. Although I see no end for this show, there is always the unseen: hacks, accidents, and major life events. So I am taking steps now to ensure that even those events will not mute that which has been heard here.

That is why, as of today, the entire collection of Polygamer podcasts is available in the Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit digital library. For over two decades, the Internet Archive has been collecting, digitizing, storing, and serving media: books, movies, videos, and, via their popular Wayback Machine, websites. The Internet Archive has been particularly active in the games industry the past few years with their Console Living Room, which makes games for classic consoles — the Atari 2600, Mattel Intellivision, the Colecovision, and more — playable right within a user’s web browser. The Internet Archive’s dedication and action in support of gaming history is powerful and undeniable.

By accepting Polygamer into their collection, the Internet Archive ensures that each MP3 and its transcript and metadata will be available to listeners and researchers for years to come. This decision is consistent with the show’s Creative Commons license, which empowers any listener to copy or modify the podcast.

Polygamer recently celebrated its second anniversary and its fiftieth episode. I’m eager to feature the stories and successes of many more voices in future episodes, all of which will be added to the Internet Archive as they are made available.

(My thanks to Jason Scott for uploading the first fifty episodes and providing a metadata exemplar.)

About Polygamer

Polygamer is a monthly audio podcast that encourages and celebrates equality and diversity in gaming by interviewing voices pushing for change. By speaking with traditionally marginalized voices, Polygamer provides a platform to discuss problems and seek perspective on matters of sexism, racism, ableism, ageism, and more, within our industry, our community, and our games. Polygamer publishes on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, Mixcloud, Overcast, acast, Pocket Casts, Castbox, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive the second Wednesday of every month.

This podcast was inspired by a PAX East 2014 panel I moderated, “Sex, Sexy & Sexism: Fixing Gender Inequality in Gaming“, featuring Susan Arendt, Brianna Wu, Tifa Robles, and Duane de Four. That panel was in turn inspired by Anita Sarkeesian’s Kickstarter for Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, which I backed.

About the Host

I’m Ken Gagne, Polygamer‘s straight, white, cisgender, male host. Over the course of these interviews, I hope to diminish my ignorance of other people’s experiences and gain a better understanding of what it means to be a gamer in the 21st century.

I’ve been a gamer since the Atari 2600 and Apple II. I was the community manager (sysop) of the Video Gaming Central Forum on CompuServe (1994–2004) and of the Gamebits forum on Syndicomm Online (2001–2006). I have been a member of the press since 1997 as a reporter, editor, and freelancer, having been published in such outlets as Computerworld, PCWorld, ITworld, and TechHive. I have spoken at conferences in Boston, Denver, Portland (Maine), and Kansas City on such subjects as podcasting, retrocomputing, crowdfunding, and WordPress.

I bring years of podcasting experience to Polygamer, having been the producer of the Computerworld Editor’s Note, founder and host of MS Challenge Talk, and founder and co-host of Open Apple. I am also currently the co-host of Transporter Lock, publisher of The Pubcast, and occasional guest of the Retro Computing Roundtable.

Credits

The audio podcast’s intro and outro music is Zircon’s “Full Speed Ahead”, part of OCRemix‘s Final Fantasy VI: Balance and Ruin remix album. Voiceovers are provided by Lucky Annie.

Interviews are recorded with a Logitech USB H530 headset, Skype, and Audio Hijack Pro; edited with Audacity, Levelator, and iTunes; published with WordPress and Blubrry; and hosted with DreamHost.

This site was designed by Moira Racich based on the Blox theme. Racich further adapted the logo by whiteseobox into the MP3’s album artwork.

The site’s content is created and maintained using such software as BBEdit, MarsEdit, GraphicConverter, Transmit, and Chrome.

My thanks to Andy Molloy, Lorien Green, Aleen Simms, Nicole Tompkins-Hughes, T.J. Awrey, Michele DeFilippo, and Lon Seidman for their support.

Disclaimers

I am active on Kickstarter and Patreon; my profiles and the projects and artists I’ve backed are public. Any potential conflicts of interest will be cited in the associated blog post and/or podcast.

Polygamer is an independent publication that is not affiliated with Polygamer.com, Less Than or Equal, Open Apple, the Retro Computing Roundtable, the Polygamerous podcast, my employers, or any other organization. The views and opinions expressed on this show are solely those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect those of their colleagues or employers.