PAX South | Polygamer

Polygamer #40: Chachi Bobinks of The Dialogue Wheel

Posted on March 23, 2016 by Ken Gagne

Chachi Bobinks is the co-host of The Dialogue Wheel, a fan podcast dedicated to Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and all things BioWare — including diversity! Fittingly, Chachi wears multiple hats herself: podcaster, feminist, PAX Enforcer, parent, and cat lady. How she juggles it all is anyone’s guess.

In this rollicking hour of hilarity, Ken fires a series of difficult questions at Chachi: What makes BioWare so special that they get their own fan podcast? What’s your favorite BioWare game? How does podcasting ameliorate social anxiety disorder? Why volunteer to be a PAX Enforcer and thus miss most of the show? Does GamerGate require that we take sides? What does it mean to be a New Age feminist, and how many other kinds of feminism are there? And, most important: can a sex-positive feminist patronize Hooters?

Listeners are invited to make a donation to the organ transplant program of UMass Memorial Health Care in memory of Edward F. Gagné, guest of Polygamer #24.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from Apple Podcasts, 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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Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:22:14 — 38.5MB) | Embed

Polygamer #21: Sabriel Mastin, indie game reviewer & Let’s Player

Posted on May 13, 2015 by Ken Gagne

Sabriel Mastin is a prolific game reviewer and YouTube personality, having produced content for such sites as Indie Haven and Indie Gamer Chick. She has attended both PAX East and PAX South and is a regular guest at events in the Minneapolis area, only a short drive from her native Fargo. And, if all that weren’t enough, Sabriel is also a former roller-derby athlete, having torn up the local circuit with her unique brand of hell on wheels.

In this episode, Sabriel and Ken talk about how to break into games writing and whether it’s fair to expect a volunteer to write for free; what equipment goes into an amateur audio/video studio; strategies for Twitter networking and hashtagging; the moral objections to attending Penny Arcade Expo; the local gaming scene in Fargo, North Dakota; and teaching yourself HTML and CSS.

Download the audio edition of this interview below or from Apple Podcasts, 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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Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:24 — 30.3MB) | Embed

Polygamer #16: Fiona Cherbak on hiring and retaining women, GDC & BostonFIG

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Ken Gagne

Fiona Cherbak is a human resources and staffing specialist with a storied career in the entertainment and games industries. At this year’s Game Developers Conference, she will moderate the panel "Turning the Tide: Hiring and Retaining Women in the Games Industry". In this exclusive preview with Polygamer, Cherbak discusses how and where in the pipeline to effect change in the industry’s gender diversity; how to create work environments that are appealing and safe for women; and whether changing an industry’s gender ratio is "disruptive".

Cherbak is also one of the founders of the annual Boston Festival of Indie Games, or BostonFIG, and shares her motivations to start this event and how it’s grown since its 2012 inception.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 49:43 — 25.8MB) | Embed