It’s October of 2015, we’re starting to wind down the year (amid pumpkin spice EVERYTHING), and this is something I’ve been contemplating for a couple of months now. It’s something I think has a lot of potential, and it’s something I want to give a good, solid GO. The new year seems like a great time to try, and I’m going to need help doing it.<\/p>\n
This idea is to start a blog, to which many people would contribute, some regularly, some not, focused on the voices in gaming that don’t usually get heard. Queer voices. Women’s voices. Asian voices. Trans voices. Black voices. Bi voices. Latino\/a voices. Gay and lesbian voices. Indigenous voices. Aseuxal voices. African voices. There are a lot of gaming blogs out there – most of them cater to and are written by men (mostly white and straight). There are some great feminist and queer blogs out there – most of them aren’t solely devoted to gaming (I write for one of them! And I want to keep writing for it, because TLF <\/a>is awesome!).<\/p>\n I want to include perspectives of players, critics, developers, boardgamers, videogamers, RPGers, LARPers, and fans. I want to include things that are borderline academic and things that are personal anecdotes and things that are fan-love and fan-hate rants. I want researched things and opinionated gut-feeling things. I want casual contributors, regular contributors, and one-off contributors.<\/p>\n Sadly, as with most blogs which feature marginalized voices, I have no funds to start such a creature. I have blog space. I can give time and some editing love. What I can’t do (even though I really, REALLY want to) is pay people, because I have nothing with which to pay them. I’d be open to using something like Patreon or sell swag or something else in order to get people SOMETHING for their time and love, although that may have to be a thing further down the line. There are a couple models for this – I like the idea of having regulars or even one-off writers sometimes post paywall pieces on Patreon to which the blog would link (money goes straight to them without needing to go through me or some horrible tax-related payroll thing).<\/p>\n What I really want is to make audible the views that people don’t often see, to push the voices and opinions that need pushing, and to provide a place where those voices are free to speak as they are without fear of censure or censorship.<\/p>\n My thought for a title – totally random and off the top of my head – is NPC Gamer: Not Playing on Casual.<\/em>, a reference to the idea that “straight white male” identity is the “casual” setting in life. I’m open to suggestions. And ideas. And thoughts. I know a lot of people who have great ideas I’d like to see gathered together. (And I know that I know a lot of straight white men, too – I love you guys, please give me your thoughts, too… I’m not against including pieces by straight white men that fit within the blog’s paradigm, but I do want to give priority to those whose voices are usually overlooked.)<\/p>\n And if contributing’s not your thing, if this ever gets off the ground, come read and comment!<\/p>\n If you are interested in contributing, please comment and tell me whether you’d like to be an “occasional” or a “regular,” and how best I can contact you. It might take me a few weeks to get things together, so please be patient if you don’t hear right away!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"