Way back in July GX Australia was announced — Australia’s first queer gaming festival. Back then there was talk of a Kickstarter to help fund the event. Now that Kickstarter is live.
We’re a little bit late to the party but if you’re still feeling the warm and fuzzies from another great PAX Australia, you might want to consider supporting GX Australia.
The current plan is for the event to take place at the Australian Technology Park on February 26 and 27 in 2016.
Several guests are already confirmed, like Chris Avellone from Obsidian, Australian YouTuber AussieGamerChick and Tim Cain, one of the creators behind the original Fallout. GX Australia has already secured a number of sponsors — high profile indie studios like Defiant Development, League of Geeks and Many Monkeys.
The event is being run by Liam Esler and Joshua Meadows. Liam recently helped put Game Connect Asia Pacific together and Joshua has been one of the main organisers for Sydney Gaymers for years.
When GX Australia was first announced, Joshua Meadows said he hoped it would become an annual event in Sydney, but the team are keen to get the first one up and running first.
You can find out more about the event, or donate to the Kickstarter here.
Comments
27 responses to “Australia’s First Queer Gaming Con Just Launched A Kickstarter”
That’s too funny that “too hard to render”.
I like to read it as the renderers couldn’t contain their hard-ons & kept running off to the loo for a quick diddle. Deadlines were not made.
Can someone explain what the need is for a queer gaming festival. AFAIK Pax is not exclusionary in any way. Or is it just that there are a heap of queer focused games that would get a bad rap at a non queer focused event?
Not trying to be a dick, just trying to understand.
I’m in the same boat, a gamer is a gamer no matter what gender, race or sexual orientation.
Is this just creating more segregation in society? As a whole we are already aware of homosexuality and the majority of us are accepting of other peoples choices so why the need to have events dedicated to it. It’s not like we have white male working class pride day or do we?????
Queer people make up about 10% of the population. Straight working class people are the majority. Sometimes people want to be around people who get them is all. I’m sure you’re welcome to go to it. They won’t be exclusionary, either.
It’s not segregation, it’s just finding a group of people who are similar to you to be around.
I think it’s much lower than that but ok.
96.5% of Australians identify as heterosexual as of 2014.
There are a great number of people who don’t feel comfortable telling people about their sexuality. Generally speaking, in any large population, people who identify as ‘queer’ (ie. homosexual, bisexual, asexual, genderqueer, and any number of other definitions) seems to hover around 10%-ish. But debating 5% or 10% is splitting hairs, really.
Regardless, people who are a part of a small subculture need to make associations with others in their peer group. The smaller the group, the greater the need. That’s why this stuff exists. It’s not for segregation, or pushing agendas. People just want to be around their own kind.
agree, sexual preference isnt a part of normal comic con, theyre just trying to maximize on profits
or maybe they are Queer and want an event that aligns and focuses on things that interest them?
someone should make these idiots write on a chalkboard –
‘your orientation is not your identity’
‘your orientation is not your identity’
‘your orientation is not your identity’
‘your orientation is not your identity’
not only that; by implying unwarranted self-segregation within a relatively tight-knit community, they are just encouraging, and practically welcoming, prejudice due to the exclusion of others and drawing attention to their differences.
So you are saying that unless they hide who they are, there are reasonable grounds for prejudice?
Would you say the same thing about a Playstation gamer convention? That’s unnecessary segregation as well, but nobody is going to be threatened, assaulted, or disowned from their families for it.
not at all. but white people segregating themselves from blacks, and heterosexuals segregating themselves from homosexuals is how we ended up with all the prejudice we have in our society today; by separating people based on their differences rather than working to understand the differences and accept them to become a closer community.
And I am not suggesting that they hide who they are; on the contrary. i think this convention is more likely to make them seem hidden from other groups that they are removing themselves from as it removes some of the opportunities others have to better understand their demographic. i am saying they should be more open about their identities rather than try and shut themselves away.
and no, i would not say the same thing about a play-station convention; for the exact reasons you listed. if these people fear being “threatened, assaulted or disowned” then it makes no sense to draw attention to an event where people who are so inclined can go and ‘Punch some gay dude’ because most people there will be assuredly gay. frankly, i’m not sure what you are trying to argue ere as there is no reason for gay people to be scared of being assaulted at a NORMAL gaming convention unless they scream out their sexuality to the whole crowd and even then they are more likely to be beaten up for creating noise pollution than for being gay; i don’t know a single homophobic gamer. (and before you say: “so you think they should hide their sexuality to protect themselves?” keep in mind that, although that may sometimes be the case, i don’t condone it and frankly there is no reason to openly discuss your sexuality with someone you don’t know. you don’t know MY sexuality; because it is not at all relevant to this conversation.
Perhaps this would make it clear; a homosexual-only (or at least homosexual-oriented) gaming convention is the same as having a black-only gaming convention. you are not standing up for some social injustice; you are only rejecting people and alienating yourself and others PLUS you are basically resurrecting the stupid hierarchy of segregation from the early 1900’s except now we are hating on white (or straight) people as opposed to the other way around.
and to counter the argument you made in reply to the original post: by definition, targeting a demographic IS excluding people outside of that demographic. even if you allow those people to be involved who aren’t a part of that demographic, they will feel excluded rather than welcomed. this isn’t always a bad thing but in this case i believe it is.
This is a huge rabbit hole of human psychology, economics, and about a thousand other things. It’s not worth getting into that heavily. But I will say that your last point kind of proves mine.
These are people in a niche subculture. The main targeted demographic for gaming doesn’t include these people, so even though they aren’t actively excluded, they don’t feel catered to. So there’s now a thing that caters to them. I don’t see how this is in any way negative. Nobody is being actively excluded and the only people being passively excluded already have 90% of the marketplace specifically delivering to them already. There’s an underserved market that is being served to no detriment of the majority.
that’s a fair point. I have not been aware of homosexuals feeling unwelcome at mainstream conventions, but perhaps a better, if not cheaper, alternative would be to work to fix the issues in the old system rather than create a completely new one. I just feel like there would be other ways to deal with this issue.
you have convinced me that this convention would not be a totally bad thing though, thanks for having a good discussion with me! 😀
I’m almost totally sure everyone involved think so, too. Everybody wants the stuff they like to be famous and easily accessible. It’s just one of those things. People in small subcultures are always going to feel like they need something that recognises them a bit more than the mainstream.
One could ask why we need PAX just for games when there are general pop-culture events that welcome games and gamers. From what I gather this isn’t a response to PAX, ComicCon, etc it’s just an event the organisers feel the community would like to attend. Same as pretty much any other convention. Just because it’s about queer gaming doesn’t automatically make it a statement or a call to action against something.
I don’t really get it either but I don’t really have to. Queer gaming/enthusiast cons have been successful overseas, though and pretty well-received. People like to be supported and empowered, whoever they are – despite it being momentously self-indulgent at times, there’s nothing wrong with it. Good for them, I guess.
Edit: It invites everyone regardless of gender or orientation on the Kickstarter page, seems like just a normal con. Possibly less sexualised or subject to male gaze.
Not being exclusionary isn’t really the same thing as something made for you specifically.
It’s like asking why fetish clubs exist. Everyone likes sex and everyone understands that we all have our own sex type stuff. So you can have singles nights where you can meet people, but maybe you are part of the 5% of the population who likes a very specific thing. Where do you go to meet like-minded people? You find a group or event that understands you.
So we’ve got gamer people who want to be around other gamer people. They also want to be able to game with people from similar life experience and social circles.
Good question! There is, in my opinion, a difference between being non-exclusionary (I.e. Not a negative/neutral) and being pro-queer (I.e positive).
That’s not to say places like pax aren’t positive spaces for individuals, but they aren’t necessarily going to devote much time if any to queer/gender/etc issues. Having a space that is definitively, positively focused on queer issues and is proactively an inclusive space regarding gender/sexuality opens up areas that would otherwise not have much focus or might (in their broadness) not offer an environment where queer individuals can fully express themselves to the full extent.
Just because something is neutral doesn’t mean it offers a good space for everything and every topic. Personally, I think this would be a pretty awesome addition to the scene!
Cool. Hope they’re successful.
The difference is that there geared towards things that EVERYONE likes. This is just a showboat that only wants gay and lesbian people to come. Given that the Queer community want to be accepted and all that, I find it VERY VERY hypocritical to have a convention JUST for queer people. If an expo said that they only wanted straight people, Kotaku would be saying that its bullshit, and a lot of other crap, putting the people down. BUT, because this is exuding straight people, its ok to do. WITCH IS FUCKING WRONG
They specifically say that everyone is welcome.
Hey, so I can understand that people with not a great deal of exposure to people that this event is catering to may find it difficult to understand. That’s ok, but it really doesn’t take too much effort to see why this event is not only necessary, but a great thing.
Firstly, this event is OPEN to all people. It isn’t excluding anyone and myself as a straight male can’t wait to head up there in February and support the LGBT community. I certainly don’t feel excluded and I can’t wait to be surrounded by a bunch of awesome inclusive people.
This event exists because the content is catered to people who live an existence that straight people are not often exposed to. The panels, the games, the rest of the audience. All of these elements will be somewhat tailored for LGBT participants, creating a positive, safe and welcoming environment that minority groups don’t always have access to.
Besides, if you really feel so excluded, almost every other event out there will gladly have you.
Real time strategy game about trying to turn a drab world fabulous!
Command and Conqueer.
Nice, I like you.
Why cant we have our own con? Not like straights or anyone isnt welcome. What you need to understand is that geek and gaming culture is far from queer friendly particularly in the west. I have never played an online game where “faggot” wasnt in regular use. Queer women especially find it difficult to find a niche where they arnt treated like dirt and heaven forbid youre trans. Iv watched friends getting harrassed openly at cons over the years for holding thier partners hand or for being enthusiastic about sailor moon. Gaming is still a straight boys thing, its getting better for sure but dont kid yourself by saying geek culture is an open community.
We want inclusion! Let’s segregate ourselves!
It’s frustrating that halfwits like you still exist.