Tifa Robles | Polygamer

Polygamer #87: Tifa Robles and The Explorers of Azullucent

Posted on March 6, 2019 by Ken Gagne

Tifa Robles is the author of The Explorers of Azullucent, a young-adult fantasy novel currently on Kickstarter. Over 16 years in the making, this book features a trio of diverse female protagonists on an epic adventure of discovery. Tifa is no stranger to writing, being a regular contributor to the board game website Tabletop-Test. Her love for gaming continues as co-host GenCon’s TableTakes show and as founder and former organizer of the Lady Planeswalker Society, a community for introducing players to Magic: The Gathering.

In this episode, Tifa and I reunite after three years since her last appearance on Polygamer. We chat about how her book has evolved over almost two decades; the advantages of going the crowdfunding, self-published route; who she turned to for help with peer reviews, art design, and crowdfunding; how a degree in creative writing informs her non-fiction writing; how a minor in biological anthropology can be essential to developing empathy; the challenges and tricks to being a writer with dyslexia; and how she juggles it all with being a mom.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spoke, 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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Polygamer #42: Tifa Robles of the Lady Planeswalker Society

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Ken Gagne

Tifa Robles is the founder of the Lady Planeswalkers Society, which aims to create welcoming, friendly environments for women (and everyone) to learn Magic: The Gathering. Since its founding in 2011, the group has grown and now has branches in cities around the globe.

In this episode, Tifa and I discuss how the Magic: The Gathering scene has changed in the last five years and what the LPS has done to address issues of harassment; how players can create diverse, safe play spaces, including starting their own LPS branch; and how playing a collectible card game isn’t as expensive as it may seem.

We also talk about Tifa and her husband’s challenges raising a family. In 2015, Tifa and Mike experienced a miscarriage — a phenomenon that is more common than they realized. They want to let parents-to-be know how to cope with this tragedy and that it’s okay to talk about it.

This episode does contain some language as an example of the harassment some gamers receive, and discussion about starting a family may hit close to home for some; therefore, despite the absence of swear words, this episode has an “explicit” tag.

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Polygamer #06: The F-Word panel at PAX Prime 2014

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Ken Gagne

At PAX East 2014, I moderated a panel titled "Sex, Sexy & Sexism: Fixing Gender Inequality in Gaming" in which three women and two men discussed the problems and solutions facing the industry. Four months later at PAX Prime, those same three women reunited for another panel: "The F Word", that being "feminism". In this panel, they share their experiences in the industry, giving us some perspective on problems that may not be obvious to those who have not experienced them, before taking Q&A.

This panel features Alexa Ray Corriea (Reporter, Polygon); Brianna Wu (Head of Development, Giant Spacekat); Susan Arendt (Managing Editor, Joystiq); Andrea Rene (Senior Producer, GameTrailers); and Tifa Robles (Founder, Organizer, The Lady Planeswalkers Society).

The audio of this session is provided to Polygamer by Travis Stewart of BrokenCRT Productions and is used here with his permission, as well as that of the five individual panelists. Download the audio edition below or from iTunes or Stitcher; the video is available on YouTube.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Polygamer explores issues of equality and diversity in the gaming industry. New episodes air every other Wednesday on iTunes and Stitcher.

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