GaymerX Convention: July 11-13

[chazus]

The second year of the GaymerX Convention is happening July 11-13 in San Francisco. GaymerX is an LGBTQ oriented event intended to both celebrate and represent and important part of the gaming community. It includes events, videos, game rooms, and guest speakers, including James Portnow, an influential developer and of Extra Credits fame.

A couple members of my game studio will be visiting during that time to check it out.

How do you feel the LGBTQ community is represented in the gaming industry? Not just in games, but as an audience, market driver, and community? Is it over, or under represented? Are there changes the industry or developers should make to add or remove focus from this audience?

Are there any questions that you'd want to have asked to the guest speakers? I can't guarantee it'll happen, but we can try.

Are any of you going to the expo? I personally am not (due to already taking WAY too much time off of work for weddings >.<)

I'd like to remind everyone to keep discussion on this both civil, and within forum guidelines. Discussion of the above questions (or similar) are welcome, but no flaming, baiting, or negative nonconstructive comments.

[Bolson13]

Don't want to be insensitive but does there really need to be a convention specifically for the gay gamer community? Do they feel so estranged from the non-gay community? I have at least never heard gay gamers speak out against specific games as if they were gay unfriendly.

Also, gay is a sexual preference. Gaming has very little to do with what they do in bed. I think when it comes to gaming they all have different opinions on what they do and don't like I assume. One likes shooters and the other MMO's.

[Sickbro]

are non gays allowed?

also, what does gaymerx offer that any number of other cons dont offer?

[Deleted]

You work at a game studio? Which one?

Personally I think that gays are being more and more represented in games, and in a good way, not the forced "someone has to be homosexual to fill the gay-quota"-way, but more like player characters get the selection to be hetero or homo or bi and there's nothing odd about it. Of course, there are still problems, such as the whole Tomodachi Life-controversy, but since the absence of same-sex marriage in the game became controversial in the first place shows that homosexuality is on its way to become normalized in the 21st century society.

Does this convention also include transsexuals? I'd like to see more transsexuals in video gaming, tbh.

[Deleted]

GaymerX is the gaming convention made for queers, but important for everyone.

Is it ok to say queers now? I kinda lost track of what is politically correct in this regard. I've heard that homosexual is a bad term now because it's derogatory. I don't want to derail this, it's just so easy to offend people it seems. Also what do they do at this convention? I do feel that the LGBT community is important and we should keep discussing how they are underrepresented in games, but what do people do at this convention?

[draganid]

Don't want to be insensitive but does there really need to be a convention specifically for the gay gamer community? Do they feel so estranged from the non-gay community? I have at least never heard gay gamers speak out against specific games as if they were gay unfriendly.

Also, gay is a sexual preference. Gaming has very little to do with what they do in bed. I think when it comes to gaming they all have different opinions on what they do and don't like I assume. One likes shooters and the other MMO's.

to be fair, im pretty sure some of the most commonly hurled insults in the gamer community at large include fag homo and gay so maybe a gathering of gamers without the highschool boy mentality might be nice for them or something

[Deleted]

to be fair, im pretty sure some of the most commonly hurled insults in the gamer community at large include fag homo and gay so maybe a gathering of gamers without the highschool boy mentality might be nice for them or something

Plus, it must be the best pickup spot for a homosexual. At Gaymercon you know most people are homosexual and they enjoy gaming, perfect matching!

[Darknessvamp]

Isn't this the same convention that is not continuing to host further events after this year due to not receiving as much interest/funding as it's kickstarter did the previous time? Or wasn't interest lost due to it being a pleasant but largely generic con for the theme and community it was for barring the very open matchmaking going on at the event that made quite a number of people uncomfortable including the gaymers (still a really daft word).

[Kurioxan]

This is something odd, from my prespective, like, you ask "how we feel about lgbtq" being represented in games and in the community, my question is, i hadnt realized lgbtq were different from anyone else aside from their sexuality and have some sort of different lives and preferences.
Do they not work, grocery shop, eat, entertain themselves and sleep?
Their sexuality is imo, absolutely unimportant :P

Edit: I noticed the Q added to lgbt, what does it stand for? i imagine queer?

[Deleted]

Premise: I don't know how to answer your question (is such a convention really necessary?)

Also, gay is a sexual preference. Gaming has very little to do with what they do in bed.

On the surface you're right, it's "just" this.
But the thing is that, given the current state of society, being gay cannot be simply described as "who you spend your time with in your bed".
It goes way beyond that and influences a plethora of other small and big aspects in your everyday life.
That includes videogames as well.

- - - Updated - - -

my question is, i hadnt realized lgbtq were different from anyone else aside from their sexuality and have some sort of different lives and preferences.

They aren't different.
Or, more exactely, they are different but they do not present a particular higher degree of "differences" present in every human being (we're all "different" from each other, and at the same time "similar", no?)
In an ideal, utopistic world, this wouldn't be an issue.

But in a world where it's hard to accept who you are, hard to be treated the same, where you feel constantly under pressure, different, "wrong", with less rights... in such a world being gay can very often mean a whole lot more than just having different sexual tastes.


(yes, sometime gay people are too much on the "defensive" side and call for homophoby EVERYWHERE, even when completely out of place... I find this behaviour very very annoying, but at the same time I can understand it and I don't really feel like judging it =/ )

[Bolson13]

On the surface you're right, it's "just" this.
But the thing is that, given the current state of society, being gay cannot be simply described as "who you spend your time with in your bed".
It goes way beyond that and influences a plethora of other small and big aspects in your everyday life.
That includes videogames as well.

Okay, can you elaborate that and specifically with gaming. Outside of those kiddies that scream "that's so gay" there doesn't seem to be so much difference between a gay gamer and a non gay gamer.

Also, current state of society is very much where you live. Most gamers I assume don't live in some backwards country like some of the ones in the middle east. (edit, the middle east is not 1 country )

[LiiLoSNK]

I'd go, but I'm not gay.

[LiiLoSNK]

Same as if the protaganist in a game is gay/straight. I frankly could not care less. Not sure if that makes me the outlier or what!

Probably not. I don't think anybody cares about the sexual orientation of the character they are playing. With the amount of R34 pornography on the web, pretty much every hero is automatically bi.

[Gumboy]

I am 100% certain it is not only for gay people, it is designed to be 100% friendly to people of those orientations.

[Deleted]

Okay, can you elaborate

There are very high level academic discussions on those topics, you can google around. I'm unable to reach those levels of explanation, I apologize.
But to give two very simple examples, there's the empathization.
For some people it's difficult to empathize with character (in situations where developers clearly aim to generate empathization with the players) because of the typical target they address to, and that target is usually non gay.
Gay situations and people in videogames are often represented in very stereotyped or funny ways. Some people may find them simply unrealistic, other may get to the point where they find them offensive.

Then there's the typical offences which you quoted. Personally they do not touch me in any way, but at the same time I can understand people who feel offended by that.

[Deleted]

to be fair, im pretty sure some of the most commonly hurled insults in the gamer community at large include fag homo and gay so maybe a gathering of gamers without the highschool boy mentality might be nice for them or something

And this hurling of insults is rampant at gaming cons? Not in my experience.

[Deleted]

Probably not. I don't think anybody cares about the sexual orientation of the character they are playing. With the amount of R34 pornography on the web, pretty much every hero is automatically bi.

There are games where it has no relevance at all knowing the sexual orientation of a character, I'd dare to say the majority of games honestly.
There are other games based more on narrative aspects, relations between characters, introspections etc...
Think about Adventure games, Role Playing Games etc.
In those games there often is an attempt from developers to estabilish a very close link between the games' characters and the player.
It's harder for that to happen when those character have little to say about your life, less chances to find a "link".

[Bolson13]

There are very high level academic discussions on those topics, you can google around. I'm unable to reach those levels of explanation, I apologize.
But to give two very simple examples, there's the empathization.
For some people it's difficult to empathize with character (in situations where developers clearly aim to generate empathization with the players) because of the typical target they address to, and that target is usually non gay.

I don't quite understand this. How does empathy change for gay or non gay people? Also, how many characters are clearly gay or non gay? Unless you feel that gay = effeminate. For all I know, Marcus Phoenix might be gay. There is not tell tale sign of gay or not unless you have a camera in their bedroom or so. I don't see how your empathy towards a character changes for a gay or a non gay person.

Edit: I am a man, but I also don't have a problem in empathizing with Lara Croft in that last Tomb Raider game for instance. If anything, I could emphatise with her more because she was a more "normal" woman compared to the big tit, kickbutt while shooting 3 guns at the same time, Lara Croft of a few years ago. That stuff was so unrealistic.

Gay situations and people in videogames are often represented in very stereotyped or funny ways. Some people may find them simply unrealistic, other may get to the point where they find them offensive.

I don't know, do you have an example of it?


And regarding the community, the fighting game community had that whole uproar when they dissed that girl on stream around the release of SFxT. Even though she had it comming a bit in my book, this community does not beat around the bush. Probably one of the more macho, masculine parts of the general gaming community. But when Kayopolice came to Evo, nobody made fun of her. Of course she turned some heads because a transgender in such a community does that. However, she is a good player and not the type to be easily offended about a joke so it was all good. Trying to point out a little that the general gaming community doesn't stop at 16 year old CoD kiddies.

[glo]

I guess I'll throw my two cents in here.

First, I'm all for equality. I think the advances in acceptance and rights, at least here in the US with the LGBTTQQIIAA community (the official initials now, this actually drives me nuts, it seriously needs to be condensed into a single word) have happened in large part because of the current generation of 30 somethings and under. Clearly the population is more open minded now that the baby boomer generation and those before them are slowly going to pasture with their ultra conservative views.

However, I don't exactly feel as if creating a gaming event for the LGBTTQQIIAA community is the right way celebrate and represent. Segregating into an event is polarizing to the entire movement's goal of acceptance and equality. Why not celebrate the fact that the community could easily attend -any- con event and be right at home with the generation of people that show the most acceptance towards them? Isn't that the point, we're all equal? I'll fall back to a relatively similar example. Would a Jewish gaming event take off or achieve anything? No, not really, the people that have negative viewpoints to them are largely old and irrelevant, and anyone attending a gaming convention wouldn't care one way or another. This is likely why the "GaymerX Convention" is losing funding and won't happen again, not because people refuse to go because of prejudice, but because people simply don't see a need for it.

On the topic of representation in actual games, I likely an unpopular viewpoint. I think the industry is being pressured to cross the line of artistic freedom into a political correctness agenda by a small, vocal minority. We're starting to see mish mashes of nearly every race and orientation with equal amounts of women and men in prominent roles. It's somewhat immersion breaking when you realize why this happening while you play. No longer can a AAA game have a primarily white, male or straight cast, regardless if it fits the story. Otherwise, they'll be crucified by feminist gamers, the LGBT community and others for not promoting equality in video games. If your female characters are too attractive or sexy, again, you'll face a PR shitstorm. It's gotten to the point that Ubisoft straight up had to come out and say "Far Cry 4 will have many women as prominent characters", just to qualm the outrage from feminists over Assassin’s Creed: Unity not having a female playable main character. Games are quickly steering away from fantasy and towards ultra realism, forced average / overweight body types regardless of the game setting and forced representation of every race, sexual orientation and sex. It's no longer just art, it's "hopefully this title is PC enough and doesn't create any bad PR over our character models and selection".

[Deleted]

I don't quite understand this. How does empathy change for gay or non gay people?

When it's a kind of empathy based on the link that will build over time with the similarities between the player and the character (it's not the only kind, but sometimes this is the model used) it's harder for that to happen for a gay person.
It would likely be hard for that to happen for a woman too, for instance.

For all I know, Marcus Phoenix might be gay.

Yeah he might as well.
But I think that's one of the games I mentioned where I feel that sexual orientation of characters (wether one way, the other or both) is completely irrelevant or not necessary.

Edit: I am a man, but I also don't have a problem in empathizing with Lara Croft in that last Tomb Raider game for instance.

Yes, it's the same for me.
Given that it's easier for some people to empathize with virtual characters whereas it's harder for others, I think it depends on the type of empathy link developers/writers are trying to build in that specific situation.
The Lara Croft one is not completely build on his female charateristics, on the fact that she's a woman, on the unique things that only a woman has.
Well... to a certain degree maybe, but it's more built on her as a human being.
So, if you like the story and the characters, you are able to feel and build empathy with the link between being both (you as a player and her as a character) human beings.
Some other characters (not just videogames... we could widen our range to books, movies etc) are different and require a stricter link, more specific things.
In these situations it's harder (altough never impossible of course) to build empathy when you're not part of the target the writer aimed to when creating those characters/situations.

I don't know, do you have an example of it?

I'm not an expert. I'm sure I could find some better examples if I were to think closely about this.
Right now I can think of one of the main characters of an RPG game for X360 and PS3 by From Software called "Enchanted Arms".
This may not be the best example but it's the only one I can think of atm.
Why not the best? Because on one side this was a fantastic character.
He was very original, it's rare to see a gay character (openly gay, not "hinted") in an RPG, especially if among the main characters.
He also had some very interesting narrative moments.
But on the other hand he was also a very stereotyped (feminine, make up, bizarre attacks, likes clothes, style etc... because all gays are experts of that right?) and basically he was meant to be a "funny" trick to make him an interesting character for everybody.

Trying to point out a little that the general gaming community doesn't stop at 16 year old CoD kiddies.

I agree, and personally I never found the "that's gay" jokes offensive in any way.
I just said that, while not being one of those people, I can *understand* why some people find them offensive and out of place.

At the end of the day words are just... word.
What's really important is not the word itself, but the meaning behind it.
I could say the same about using the word "jap" or the "n" word.
I've had plenty of discussions about these words in the past, and my opinion is the same. A "good" word used, with a bit of hypocrisy, in the wrong way, can be way more offensive than a "wrong" word used in a nice way, maybe to just set up an innocent joke.
Some people just can't get this and get offended by certain words no matter the context... It's absurd for me, but then again I try to respect this point of view.