So given that there are still so many patently horrible people in the world, it continues to be important to emphasize what we all can do to contribute to a civilized, mature and inclusive culture around video games, which often seem to be a little slower to it than other entertainment industries and business segments.
How I feel about women in media — and some of my personal experiences being one — was the focus of the talk I gave last month in Toronto at TIFF Nexus, and the video of my keynote is finally online for you to watch! Bear with me: I was incredibly intimidated by the amazing honor of having been invited to speak, and I don’t speak so fast nor drop so many ‘um’s during the talk as I do in the first ten minutes, ha.
During the talk I namecheck Harmonix’s Matt Boch, since I was so struck by what he said at NYU’s PRACTICE event about gender as performance in Dance Central. Although unfortunately I didn’t get that quote down in my initial coverage of his lecture then, ultimately I followed up with him for a larger interview on what exactly that means, and that’s now up at Gamasutra, too — his perspective is fascinating and I highly urge you to read it.
UPDATE! Kirk Hamilton responds at Kotaku, with ‘On Playing Dance Central 2 while male.’
Those Harmonix folks are seriously cool people, by the way, as I had the fortune to observe when I was invited in to do an in-depth studio profile that ran in OXM back in the summer. Check it out if you missed it the first go ’round.
Also, toward the end of the talk I paraphrase a Seth Killian quote from PRACTICE regarding misogyny in the Street Fighter community, and the actual quote plus context in Stephen Totilo’s coverage over at Kotaku.
On the subject of cool people, my friend Denis Farr writes a follow-up at Kotaku about some of his thoughts since the time he first spoke out on the site as a gay gamer who has experienced homophobia (trigger warnings for such, natch), using this Blizzcon incident as a launching point. He is brave and honest and both of his articles are worth your time.
I have absolutely no time for nor interest in the kind of people to whom these voices and perspectives are somehow unwanted (I mean, I’ll forgive you if you don’t sit through my whole keynote, but you get what I mean). Games are for fun, we can play, etc., but as in all things we should all aim to be the kind of people who care about where one another are coming from and who are willing to listen.
That seems really, really basic to me.
[Today’s Good Song (via thisismyjam.com, use it!): An unexpectedly awesome cover of Neil Young’s ‘Down By The River’ by the Dutch Rhythm & Steel Show Band)]