One day in 2014, Tanya DePass was feeling the rage. She had been playing games for most of her life, since the time of Pong, ColecoVision, and the glory days of the arcade. And yet she still saw very few people like her in the games she played. A queer black woman...
Oh, I know, sweetie! It's terrible! Like you, I stuggle to find a game with a playable character that's a 50+ white middle-class training professional from London!
But...you know what? That's not stopped me from having such great fun in gaming at all! I've been an elven druid, a Yankee redneck stalking the wood with trusty 30.06 and dog, a pilot in another galaxy, a detective in New Orleans, and a monster hunter in Eastern Europe.
I've run a hospital, planned a city, am currently running a zoo and a dinosaur park, all without need of 'representation' of any kind. And I've had a blast.
Maybe that's because I see gaming for what it is, and not simply as an extension of a lifetime of grift:
...when she lost her day job, in higher education, Tanya decided she’d give it six months and see if she could make it work. It’s fair to say that she succeeded. Now 49, Tanya still runs I Need Diverse Games; she streams and plays Dungeons and Dragons on Twitch, going by CypherofTyr; in the summer of 2020 she raised nearly $200,000 for charity The Bail Project. She has spoken on diversity, feminism and intersectionality at video game events around the world; a short film, Game Changer, has been made about her life and work, and she is working on her own afrofuturist roleplaying game, Into the Mother Lands. Later this month she will receive the Gayming Icon award at the Gayming Awards in London, an LGBTQ+ video game awards show that’s now in its second year, for her efforts towards better representation in video games.
Now, they say you should find a job that matches your interests and then you'll never 'work' a day in your life. But does it really sound to you, Reader, as if she had fun...?
7 comments:
"Gayming Icon award"
I think there's an "er" missing here
Well at least she's no longer a teacher.
I am old enough to remember the diverse form of Pong. It used pale balls and dark balls.
It failed because the dark balls could not be discerned on the dark background.
They tried a pale background but still a flop.
The Chinese as usual did not complain.
It sounds like she's grifting pretty well for herself without the need for 'They / Them Pacman of Colour'
Shirley, the use of video games involved people sat in different places, playing against each other? I'm such a case, it could be a hairy added biker using the video moniker of Queen Black Bitch, so how does this female numpty (numptette?) know the gender, colour, or sexuality of her opponent is?
If she has raised funds for her charity, I trust none of the money goes missing, like that raised by the black women, now with many houses, who formed BLM?
Just another tunnel-visioned, single-issue, rant by someone lacking a life.
I suspect "Hairy Blacked Lesbian Queens" would attract a somewhat different clientele from that which they are targeting. And everyone would end up disappointed.
"I think there's an "er" missing here"
😂
"Well at least she's no longer a teacher."
We can at least be thankful for that small mercy...
"It sounds like she's grifting pretty well for herself ..."
It does, doesn't it?
"...so how does this female numpty (numptette?) know the gender, colour, or sexuality of her opponent is?"
She just knows, of course! I mean, the alternative explanation is that she cares not for objective truth at all, and that cannot be. Can it?
"And everyone would end up disappointed."
Heh!
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