Geek Girl Con


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The Exchange

Does anybody know if Paizo will have any kind of presence at Geek Girl Con? Is anybody planning on running PFS games or Pathfinder related events? I'm planning on going and it would be cool if I could do some Pathfindering while there.


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Maybe Paizo was planning on being there, but accidentally signed up for a fake Geek Girl Con?


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I know that there were some PFS games last year, and I imagine Adventure Card Game demos might make an appearance there as well.
I'll be there in an unofficial presence in the artist's alley.

Alzrius wrote:
Maybe Paizo was planning on being there, but accidentally signed up for a fake Geek Girl Con?

:| Can we stop with the "fake geek girl" inanity? It's ridiculous, and not even remotely funny.

Project Manager

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^What Liz said.


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Lilith wrote:
Alzrius wrote:
Maybe Paizo was planning on being there, but accidentally signed up for a fake Geek Girl Con?
:| Can we stop with the "fake geek girl" inanity? It's ridiculous, and not even remotely funny.

I disagree; it's funny because it's ridiculous.

(If it wasn't clear, the joke I was making was on the people who put any stock in the whole "fake geek girl" nonsense.)


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

I'm engaged to a geek girl, so...they're real.

Webstore Gninja Minion

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Alzrius wrote:

I disagree; it's funny because it's ridiculous.

(If it wasn't clear, the joke I was making was on the people who put any stock in the whole "fake geek girl" nonsense.)

It's considerably less funny when you've been the target of it.

The Exchange

Alzrius wrote:
(If it wasn't clear, the joke I was making was on the people who put any stock in the whole "fake geek girl" nonsense.)

It was a little unclear in your first post, but I'm still in attack mode following all the recent misogynist garbage in the video gaming community, but you diffused it before I got all defensive, so thanks.

But since we've got Liz and Jessica here, maybe they know if Paizo has plans re: Geek Girl Con?


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Liz Courts wrote:
Alzrius wrote:

I disagree; it's funny because it's ridiculous.

(If it wasn't clear, the joke I was making was on the people who put any stock in the whole "fake geek girl" nonsense.)

It's considerably less funny when you've been the target of it.

No doubt, but that doesn't make the whole idea of "fake geek girls" - or the people who unironically promulgated it - any less worthy of mockery (as Dork Tower has demonstrated).

I respect that some people don't find it funny in any regard, and would prefer that the entire subject be purged from our cultural consciousness. I personally disagree with that stance, as I think the idea is so inane as to be a vending machine of humor.

Project Manager

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Hey, you can find funny whatever you find funny.

For me, after the past couple weeks, it falls pretty firmly under the header of "Too soon."

As to Geek Girl Con, I know we had a PFS presence there last year, but I'm not sure whether that's the case this year. The person to ask would be Mike Brock.


Okay, I'm morbidly curious and, as usual, oblivious. What happened within the past few weeks that would spark bad reactions to a joke like that (even if, admittedly, the joke wasn't very funny IMO)? Or is this not a big internet-blowup thing and just something that happened privately, in which case details not necessary.


I guess I'm out of some loop. Geek Girl vs Fake Geek Girl? If this is a taboo topic just delete my entry here.


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Orthos wrote:
Okay, I'm morbidly curious and, as usual, oblivious. What happened within the past few weeks that would spark bad reactions to a joke like that (even if, admittedly, the joke wasn't very funny IMO)? Or is this not a big internet-blowup thing and just something that happened privately, in which case details not necessary.

There have been attacks on Anita Sarkeesian and game designer Zoe Quinn, as well as other women in the industry and women who play games. Here is one summary of what's been going on. There are many other articles and discussions about it that are worth reading. It's been very ugly.


KSF, your link is bad. It didn't even get close to what you wanted it to.


silverhair2008 wrote:
KSF, your link is bad. It didn't even get close to what you wanted it to.

Forum software censoring the link.

Replace the punctuation with the (hopefully) obvious profanity.


silverhair2008 wrote:
KSF, your link is bad. It didn't even get close to what you wanted it to.

The article has a swear word in the title, as does its link. ("Video Games, Misogyny, And Terrorism: A Guide To ********" by Andrew Todd.) It got hit by the profanity filter. Do a search for articles about Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian.

Edit to add: Here, try this one.

The Exchange

These are the things, yeah. As to the "fake geek girl" thing, it's this ludicrous concept that women are only a part of the geek community to... something. The idea is that women pretend to be geeks so that they can, presumably, prey upon shy geeks with lots of money. The concept itself has never been elaborated well, because it's total nonsense, it's just fear mongering on the part of misogynists. Here's a pretty good article from the Atlantic last year about the phenomenon.

Oh and thanks Jessica for the suggestion, I'll try and email Mike.

Lantern Lodge Customer Service Dire Care Bear Manager

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link in KSF's post fixed.


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Jessica Price wrote:

Hey, you can find funny whatever you find funny.

For me, after the past couple weeks, it falls pretty firmly under the header of "Too soon."

I respectfully disagree - I don't think it's ever too soon to laugh at those who promote ignorance and close-mindedness. Why pass up such self-declared golden targets for humorous mockery?

The Exchange

Alzrius wrote:
I respectfully disagree - I don't think it's ever too soon to laugh at those who promote ignorance and close-mindedness. Why pass up such self-declared golden targets for humorous mockery?

Jessica isn't telling you what you are or are not allowed to think is too soon to be funny, but what she thinks is too soon to be funny. It's not about your sense of humor as it is about her experience, which we need to respect.

Humor can be a useful tool for criticism, but it's also completely subjective, and the effects of humor, its success, failure, or appropriateness, is dependent upon the audience. This is why comedy is hard. This is also why comedy on an Internet forum is hard, because the audience doesn't have inflection or body language to tell that it was a joke. I read it as a joke now, because of the expanded context, but upon first reading it I have to admit that it didn't come off as a joke. Perhaps if my own personal experience had been different, I would have read it as such, but that doesn't change the experiences of the other posters.


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We're currently talking with Geek Girl Con about running some demos, possibly the Silverhex Chronicles. (We don't have enough people there to run actual scenarios, and most of the attendees don't want to sit in one place for 5 hours anyway.)

We'll post more information on NWPFS.org (the local events board for Washington & Oregon) as we have it.


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owenstreetpress wrote:
Jessica isn't telling you what you are or are not allowed to think is too soon to be funny, but what she thinks is too soon to be funny.

Actually, her first sentence in the post I quoted above could very well be read that way. Saying "you can think what you want" can be read as carrying a tone of "I'm giving you permission to think what you want."

To be clear, I don't think that's what she intended to communicate when she said that. However, as you noted below, the lack of context clues was such that that's how it initially appeared to me, before I went back and gave her the benefit of the doubt.

owenstreetpress wrote:
It's not about your sense of humor as it is about her experience, which we need to respect.

I disagree to the extent that it is, in fact, as much about my sense of humor as it is about her experience. That's what I read as being the actual intent of her previous post, in fact - she's saying that I have my opinion, and she has hers, and they're different; neither is more valid, or less valid, than the other.

I should also note that I did mention that my disagreement with her was respectful - so the need to respect that was met before you reiterated it. ;)

owenstreetpress wrote:
Humor can be a useful tool for criticism, but it's also completely subjective, and the effects of humor, its success, failure, or appropriateness, is dependent upon the audience. This is why comedy is hard. This is also why comedy on an Internet forum is hard, because the audience doesn't have inflection or body language to tell that it was a joke. I read it as a joke now, because of the expanded context, but upon first reading it I have to admit that it didn't come off as a joke. Perhaps if my own personal experience had been different, I would have read it as such, but that doesn't change the experiences of the other posters.

I find this to be heartening, because it acknowledges that there has been an expanded context that allows the original joke to be read in the manner in which it was intended.


DungeonmasterCal wrote:
I guess I'm out of some loop. Geek Girl vs Fake Geek Girl? If this is a taboo topic just delete my entry here.

I'm in the same boat. My first thought was that there was some spam or phishing scam pretending to be Geek Girl Con but sucked all the passwords out of your computer when you went to sign up...

I assumed it was the convention that was "fake"...because that other stuff makes no sense at all.


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Gwen Smith wrote:
I assumed it was the convention that was "fake"...because that other stuff makes no sense at all.

That was the crux of the joke I made in the second post.

To reiterate, I was comparing the idea that there are "fake" geek girls with the idea that there could be an entire fake convention - it makes an analogy between the ludicrousness of the latter idea with that of the former, thus satirizing the fact that some people thought that "fake geek girls" were actually a thing (and a thing worth being very upset over, at that).

Paizo Employee Developer

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The joke and discussions of it are detracting from the information sought in the original post. Can we please drop it?

Silver Crusade

deleted tangent

So about Geek Girl Con!

Gwen Smith wrote:

We're currently talking with Geek Girl Con about running some demos, possibly the Silverhex Chronicles. (We don't have enough people there to run actual scenarios, and most of the attendees don't want to sit in one place for 5 hours anyway.)

We'll post more information on NWPFS.org (the local events board for Washington & Oregon) as we have it.

! Are the Silverhex Chronicles like shorter PFS scenarios? Probably going to have to look into that for the future. It seems like it might hit a "time required" sweet spot for convention time. :)

Contributor

Mikaze wrote:

deleted tangent

! Are the Silverhex Chronicles like shorter PFS scenarios? Probably going to have to look into that for the future. It seems like it might hit a "time required" sweet spot for convention time. :)

Yes. I did them at GenCon. They were one hour long one shots. There were five of them that were all part of a larger story arc. Like the APs, but short one hour scenarios instead of 55 page adventures. They were a lot of fun and I had a really neat GM for them so I did all five back to back at his table.

The Exchange

Gwen Smith wrote:

We're currently talking with Geek Girl Con about running some demos, possibly the Silverhex Chronicles. (We don't have enough people there to run actual scenarios, and most of the attendees don't want to sit in one place for 5 hours anyway.)

We'll post more information on NWPFS.org (the local events board for Washington & Oregon) as we have it.

Sounds cool, the one hour timeline leaves more room open for panels which are usually my first target when planning con... plans. I didn't get to play at PaizoCon (because of all the panels) so playing at GGC would be cool. Can you update us when you have more information on the NWPFS site?


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We are confirmed for two tables at Geek Girl Con. We'll have one table running SilverHex Chronicles, and the other table will be introductory demonstrations of the game, Q&A, character building, etc. (We tried out the Game Intros/Build Your Characters table at Dragonflight, and it was packed almost all weekend.)

We should be in the gaming area, where we were last year. We'll try to have some posters up, or you can just look for the people in the purple Goblin t-shirts.

See you there!

The Exchange

Good to hear Gwen. They have a schedule up on the con site now too. Looks like a lot of good stuff!

Scarab Sages

I am so out of the loop regarding conventions! Wish I had known about this one sooner to request time off. =( Next year!!!!!


Never really gone to a Con.

I see it's in Seattle, probably can't make it this year, maybe next?

If a woman was an artist for an RPG, and was also working on trying to figure out how to program games and such for tablets and phones, would that fall under the purview of the convention, and would their be workshops there to give helpful hints or instructions on the best way for women to go about such things?

Me and my significant other both are interested in these things, and though hopefully the RPG will be out before next year, the game apps for tablets and things (which if we ever can figure how to be successful, would hopefully become the main job eventually) probably would not be.

It looks like there may be things for that at the con this year (looked at the schedule), but unsure if it's more an RPG type con, or if electronic gaming types are equally discussed.

Thanks

The Exchange

GreyWolfLord,

Geek Girl Con seems to be pretty open to geeky things of all stripes, with the focus being more on supporting women in geek spaces and making the culture more inclusive. I saw some panel titles that sounded like they might be useful (I haven't fully read the schedule yet). My experience with cons has generally been one of professional development, I went to PaizoCon this year and spent the entire time in panels (except for two delves).

Seattle is a pretty con friendly city (part of why I moved here) so I'd suggest keeping an eye out. PaizoCon, PAX, Geek Girl Con, even Emerald City ComicCon probably all have things to offer. I saw some great panels at the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) in 2013 and a really great panel at GrandCon (a little gaming convention in Grand Rapids, Michigan) last September. It seems that professional development stuff is pretty popular. In fact, the first things I look at on a schedule are panels (which is why I skipped on Motor City ComicCon in Detroit last year, I couldn't find any panels). I come from academia though, so I tend to treat cons like conferences with cool stuff to buy.

I don't know from programming, but I think there's at least one con or the like devoted to indie developers here (since there are so many video game developers in the Seattle area), and it would certainly be worth looking into. There's also at least one group on Meet Up devoted to game design in the area, though the one I know about seems pretty focused on video games.


Thank you very much. It sounds like it could be interesting and useful perhaps.


I went to my first GeekGirlCon last year, and I was very happy with the experience (from behind the artist alley table).

GreyWolfLord wrote:
If a woman was an artist for an RPG, and was also working on trying to figure out how to program games and such for tablets and phones, would that fall under the purview of the convention, and would their be workshops there to give helpful hints or instructions on the best way for women to go about such things?

I'm fairly certain that there was a lot of panels devoted to industry topics, so you might want to check the schedule regarding it.


GreyWolfLord wrote:

Never really gone to a Con.

I see it's in Seattle, probably can't make it this year, maybe next?

If a woman was an artist for an RPG, and was also working on trying to figure out how to program games and such for tablets and phones, would that fall under the purview of the convention, and would their be workshops there to give helpful hints or instructions on the best way for women to go about such things?

Me and my significant other both are interested in these things, and though hopefully the RPG will be out before next year, the game apps for tablets and things (which if we ever can figure how to be successful, would hopefully become the main job eventually) probably would not be.

It looks like there may be things for that at the con this year (looked at the schedule), but unsure if it's more an RPG type con, or if electronic gaming types are equally discussed.

Thanks

Looking at the schedule for Geek Girl Con, I see at least four panels that you would probably find interesting. If you can't make it to the con, one thing you could do is look up the people who are on the interesting panels and see if they have any blogs/books/workshops/advice/etc.

Of the Seattle-area conventions, PAX is probably the most focused on electronic gaming. On the flip side, Dragonflight is probably the most tabletop and RPG focused.

Now, there are also Seattle-area meet-ups, coding clubs, hackathons, and such, so you might start by looking at the sponsors and exhibitors for both Geek Girl Con and PAX and see if there are any interesting clubs or groups you could hook up with.

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