aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Thursday, April 06, 2006

GLBT gaming developers organize

In Newsweekly’s Alexander Sliwinski says this is going to be a big year for GLBT gaming. It’s gaining momentum:

At the Game Developers Conference held this year in San Jose, Calif., members of the video game industry “came out” professionally as a group for the first time. Over three separate official gatherings during two days members of the GLBT community shared stories about the industry as it is now and discussed tackling issues in the future.

The GLBT sessions were lead by game designer Jeb Havens. A relative newcomer to the industry...he proceeded to talk to members of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and began laying the groundwork for a GLBT community within the industry.[...]

In summarizing the discussions at GDC Havens wrote to In Newsweekly, “As a first-of-its-kind, I think it’s a great start. We identified some important issues and concerns that don’t get discussed anywhere else in the industry, and came up with some tangible steps we can take to start doing something about it. Hopefully, the GDC roundtables will kickstart important discussions and build a stronger sense of community among LGBT workers in the video games industry.”

Alexander’s headed to E3 next month; it will be interesting to see what he brings back.