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Tag Archives: queer

Polygamer #78: Katie Kaitchuck of GaymerX

Posted on June 13, 2018 by Ken Gagne

Katie Kaitchuck is the executive director of GaymerX, an LGBT-focused gaming convention. In the past year, the organization became a non-profit, separated from the for-profit MidBoss Games, sent diverse indie developers to GDC, and began planning next year’s GaymerX conventions. Amid all this and after only two months as GaymerX’s program director, Kaitchuck became executive director in April 2018 and is now charting the future of the organization.

In this episode, Kaitchuck and I discuss the need for a safe space like GaymerX, and whether other gaming conventions have changed; when and where future GaymerX events will occur, and whether they’ll rely on crowdfunding; the benefits of becoming a non-profit; how GaymerX’s relationship with MidBoss has evolved; her previous games industry experience working for Ubisoft and Feminist Frequency; bisexuality and bi-erasure; and the many games starring queer characters (Life Is Strange, Gone Home, Mass Effect, and more!) that GaymerX is promoting for Pride Month.

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.

Links mentioned in this episode:

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https://media.blubrry.com/polygamer/www.polygamer.net/wp-content/uploads/podcast/pg78-katie_kaitchuck.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 46:33 — 22.2MB) | Embed

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Posted in Podcast | Tags: executive director, gay, GaymerX, GXEast, Katie Kaitchuck, LGBT, LGBTQ, MidBoss, Pride Month, queer |

Polygamer #19: Elisa Meléndez on avatars, FragDolls, racial diversity & rock bands

Posted on April 8, 2015 by Ken Gagne

Elisa Meléndez recently spoke on a PAX East 2015 panel about how we create and identify with our avatars in virtual game worlds. This is one of just many topics she’s researched as part of her Ph.D studies in comparative sociology — and her academic career is just one of Elisa’s many aspects. In this podcast, she discusses being, in her husband’s words, a "triple threat" — a queer woman of color — in the gaming industry, the whitewashing of PAX East, a sociological perspective on GamerGate, being a FragDoll cadet, how gaming saved her marriage, fronting for the rock band Crimson and getting her music into the Ubisoft game Rocksmith, coming out to her father as bisexual, whether being a badass is sexist — and much, much more! So much, that this episode of Polygamer clocks in at two hours, twice its usual length.

Download 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/www.polygamer.net/wp-content/uploads/podcast/pg19-elisa_melendez.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 2:07:25 — 59.2MB) | Embed

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Posted in Podcast | Tags: avatars, badass, bisexual, bisexuality, coming out, comparative sociology, Crimson, Elisa Meléndez, FragDolls, marriage, MMORPG, PAX, PAX East, Portal, queer, relationships, rock band, rock music, Rocksmith, sociology, Ubisoft, virtual |

Polygamer #01: Matt Conn of GaymerX

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Ken Gagne

Welcome to the premiere episode of Polygamer, where we look to expand the equality and diversity of the gaming industry. New episodes of Polygamer air every other Wednesday on YouTube and Apple Podcasts.

Today’s guest is Matt Conn, founder of GaymerX, an annual gaming convention for the LGBTQ community and its allies. How does the gaming industry and community benefit from having a convention specifically for this unique intersection? Who is the target audience? Are corporate sponsors willing to support this event? Conn discusses these issues, as well as the lack of queer protagonists in video games — a situation he hopes to improve with Read Only Memories, a game being developed by his company, MidBoss, and releasing in late 2014 for PC/Mac/OUYA and early 2015 for iOS, Android, and game consoles.

This year’s GaymerX is being held in San Francisco on July 10–13. There’s still time to register! Use discount code GAMEBITS for $20 off.

A video of this interview is embedded below; for the interview-only audio edition, please click the links below the video, or subscribe in iTunes.

Conn also appeared in executive produced the 2014 documentary Gaming in Color, currently available for download.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:13:19 — 38.0MB) | Embed

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Posted in Podcast | Tags: gay, GaymerX, GaymerX2, homosexuality, interview, LGBT, LGBTQ, Matt Conn, MidBoss, Polygamer, queer, Read Only Memories |

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