SOLD OUT: VIP Tickets are no more!

Hey there!

Good news: We have had so much demand for VIP tickets that even at the price point of $100+, we have totally and completely sold out of tickets.

The bad news: We have no more VIP tickets and will not be releasing any more for this year.

You may say – WHY MATT? THATS MONEY! GOOD MONEY!

And you’re right! But currently the ratio of VIP to GA tickets is way too high, and I want to make sure that the peeps who help out gaymerX and are spending good money get a really cool, exclusive experience.

I can tell you here and now that no matter what, there will be a GaymerX2 so if there is, and if we do do (doo doo :x) a VIP badge for that (we’ll see how this goes) get em early!

GA badges are still available for sale for $45 at https://gaymerx.org

 

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Political Level Up: March 4 Equality

On March 25, equality-minded citizens across the nation will unite in support of marriage equality, in an event called March 4 Equality.  The movement seeks raise awareness of the pending marriage equality cases in the U.S. Supreme Court, which stand poised to either uphold or strike down both DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) and California’s Proposition 8 (a voter initiative prohibiting same-sex marriage).  If either one of these discriminatory legislations is struck down, it will be a major step forward in the fight for equal rights and marriage equality, and GaymerConnect is going to be a part of it.

In November 2008, voters in California were presented with a bittersweet election day.  America had elected its first African American to the highest office in the land, but California had taken a step backward in civil rights by affirming Proposition 8.  Proposition 8 amended the California Constitution to define “marriage” as between a man and a woman, effectively ending same-sex marriages which had been sanctioned in California since the California Supreme Court’s ruling in June 2008.  In San Francisco, members of the LGBT community and its allies gathered in the streets bearing signs in support of marriage equality and marched from the Castro district to City Hall.  They stood together in protest of the state’s refusal to recognize marriage for same-sex couples as a fundamental and human right, and they held candlelit vigils at City Hall to show their commitment to those principles.

Almost 5 years later, the Supreme Court of the United States is slated to rule on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, and those same individuals have risen again in support of marriage equality and in protest of discrimination and hate.  For Gaymers, as well as any individual who values civil rights, it is a chance to be a part of history by participating in this movement.  Marriage may not be the top priority for all Gaymers, but everyone can agree that all citizens should be allowed the right to marry the person of their choosing, no matter their gender.  Our community is strongest when we can come together to support each other for a common goal, and everyone is elevated when we support equal rights.

If you’re in the Bay Area, especially San Francisco, you should make it a point to join the March 4 Equality on March 25th at 6:30 p.m.  at the intersection of Castro and Market.  March 4 Equality will be marching until 8:30 p.m. and will end the march at San Francisco City Hall in Civic Center.  There will be some pre-made signs available at the beginning of the march, but you are encouraged to be creative and bring your own handmade sign (something Gaymer-related would rock!).  If you’d like to volunteer, email [email protected] or just show up for set-up at 5:30 p.m. on March 25th at Castro and Market.  SF Gaymers and the folks from GaymerConnect will be there, and you can tell them you’re coming on Facebook.

There will also be two vigils held at San Francisco City Hall on March 26th and 27th from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

If you aren’t in the Bay Area or can’t make it, never fear!  You can always help out by spreading the word about the Supreme Court cases or marriage equality in general.  A good place to start is www.lighttojustice.org where you can check the latest developments in marriage equality and protests across the nation, including a fantastic interactive map of local events.

Spread the word and let your voices be heard, Gaymers! By supporting marriage equality we can help our nation level up.

– Brett

 

Brett’s “Gaymer Q&A”: How do I respond to being called “homo” or “fag” online?

**Hello again Gaymers, it’s Brett, your fearless conductor of a fancy blog train barreling headlong toward Issue Town and Frivolity-burg, and you’re here for the third installment this little ongoing series called Gaymer Q&A, which well delve deep into the rich world of Gaymer life and culture.  Also jokes! In short, it will fall somewhere between a TED talk on the existential crisis of our age and a clown who poops rainbows.  Enjoy! Opinions of this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of GaymerConnect and are my own, a cis-gendered gay male who is also a dervish of declension and conjurer of conjugation with a million hit points and maximum charisma.**

Q: How do I respond to being called “homo” or “fag” online? 

A: For those of you who have been sealed away in some sort of mystical tomb for 1000 years or have never broken your internet-gaming hymen by straying from single player, the words “fag,” “homo,” and “gay” are used about as often by online gamers as by the Westboro Baptist Church.  And like many of the members of the “God Hates Fags” Church, many of the players who sling slurs are innocent, obnoxious children.

Do you remember being a child?  (For those of you under the age of 18, pretend that you remember and play Angry Birds on your new iPad mini)  Childhood is full of misinformation yet has a punishingly steep social learning curve.  Don’t know what some kid at school or at a party is talking about?  Better pretend you do (or figure out the reference fast) or it’s curtains for you!

Social dynamics are basically the same today, even with vastly more knowledge available a Google-beat away.  I think if I somehow traveled back in time to relive most of my adolescence with a combination of Wikipedia, Urban Dictionary, and IMDB, I would have been a golden god.  Regardless, things haven’t changed that much, and the fact is that most children still learn things ye olde fashioned way: either from their family or their peers.

It stands to reason that kids are learning to spout “fag” and “homo” from either their parents, siblings, and/or other kids.  And whoever taught them how to use those slurs has inspired them to use it like a Klansman with Tourette’s.  And although I’m pretty sure I don’t know how I’m playing MTG Online “like a homo,” many other players are quick to remind me of very constructive criticism.  As I’ve learned, there are a couple of ways to deal with situations like this:

1) Ignore it

This was everyone’s mom’s cure-all.  It may not be terribly satisfying, but it does make some sense.  You’re an adult (mostly), and you don’t have to rise to the challenge of some 14-year-old who still spends most of his free time masturbating furiously in a room down the hall from his parents.  Take a page from one of my current favorites on Ru Paul’s Drag Race, and let it slide off you like water off a duck’s back.

2) Screw that, fight back!

F that high road S, this is the internet, time to street fight, muthafugga!  You can certainly be more clever than a 5th grader, so try to get creative on them.  I prefer to bust out with “asshat” or “dicksneeze,” and calling someone a “pathetic turd” always brings me great satisfaction.  Remember, avoid cursing, as your adolescent attackers will likely already be letting loose a flurry of f*cks and sh*ts, and by staying classy, you’ll not only be setting yourself apart but also setting a good example.  If all else fails, go for their gonads with a close-to-home line like “how’s high school algebra, you gonna graduate on time?” or “still worried about getting boners in gym class?”

3) Express your feelings in an earnest and constructive manner

Children respond well to pedantic adult speeches given over the internet from thousands of miles away, right?  Hella wrong.  But, you wanted to take the high road, so this is what you’re up against.  At the very least, be brief and not incredibly tedious.  Something like “don’t call me a faggot again or I will report/ban you.”  Don’t like the idea of reporting someone?  Even if this is the high road, you should be comfortable dispatching these brats by identifying them to someone with virtual power.

4) Embrace it and make your attacker uncomfortable

This is my personal favorite.  If a player tells you that you’re playing Halo/WoW/Tetris like a homo, tell them thanks and that you’re doing your best to play while wrangling a whole gang of big black schlongs.  You only have so many orifices and hands.  If they invite you to suck their dick, ask them if they’re cut or uncut, and impress them with your knowledge of all things phallus.  No teenager is confident enough with their sexuality to have a detailed conversation about actual man sex.  If you are more knowledgeable about bio lady-parts, I wouldn’t exactly start down this road, as adolescent boys would love to engage you in talk about possible lesbian encounters and how they would “help out.”

5) Quit online games forever!

Game over man! Time to go back to playing SimCity2000, Outpost, or Civilization in your underwear until 5 a.m., deriving pure joy from amazing and disappointing only yourself.

 

In space…no one can call you faggot.

– Brett

 

 

Brett’s “Gaymer Q&A”: I’m tired of seeing boobs, where are the man bits?

**Hello again Gaymers, Brett here and you’re here for the second installment this little ongoing series called Gaymer Q&A, which well delve deep into the rich world of Gaymer life and culture.  Also jokes! In short, it will fall somewhere between an argument between Ayn Rand and Noam Chomsky and an animated gif of a puppy falling into a tub of frosting.  Enjoy! Opinions of this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of GaymerConnect and are my own, a cis-gendered gay male who is also a dervish of declension and conjurer of conjugation with a million hit points and maximum charisma.**

Q: What if I’m tired of seeing boobs, where are the man bits?

A: Ah boobs, thank God for making women have them on their bodies and having straight men, lesbians, transmen, and pretty much the whole gaming world want to see them in motion so friggin’ much.  Because of this whole “boob” phenomenon, we have a whole host of games which are premised on the protagonist (or even antagonist) having a quite ample bosom.

(I understand many Gaymers aren’t tired of boobs at all, so this is my love letter to you)

 

Lara Croft

 

Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball series (now with enhanced boob physics)

Valentina from Mario RPG (when you hit her, her bazooms actually jiggle)

Morrigan (basically Elvira with her own game franchise/anime/etc, way to go Japan)

Ivy (Dominatrix template + whip + gazongas)

Also, if you think I’m being too much with those photo choices, try Google Image searching any of these characters and see what comes up.  A giant wall of boobs.  Many from deviantart.  Shocking.  So aside from our lesbian and transmale Gaymers who have a virtual bevy of boobies to ogle in their favorite games, what about those of us who want a little sausage in our game gumbo.

There actually is plenty of man meat for Gaymers to enjoy, you just have to be looking in the right places.

Fighting games

Yep.  Almost every fighting game has some muscley dude with his shirt off and anatomically impossible muscles.  Ever watch Dragonball Z? That’s the amount of crazy big muscles you can see in fighting games.  Zangief is a particular favorite amongst the bear crowd.

SquareEnix games

If you like guys who will ignore the hell out of you and brood while you consistently help them out, you’ll love any SquareEnix RPG.  The most popular mopey hunks are Squall and Cloud, and boy do they love to be indifferent and quiet about their lives/feelings/killing dudes.  If this sort of co-dependency with soft featured boys gives you a raging emo-boner, here’s a bit of Squall giving a 1000-yard stare to some ocean.

 

God of War games

If you’re looking to be “inspired” by someone who has a little more of an assertive approach, look no further than Kratos.  He’s super muscley, definitely a top, and would fulfill all of your domination fantasies.  Plus, you don’t have to worry about his ex-wife or kids showing up and ruining things because he already killed them that one time (and many times over in flashbacks).  He’s like that angry looking Latino guy who sits in the back of the club with his back to the wall, maybe you can tame his wild ways.  Oh Kratos, I wouldn’t dare defy the God of War…

 

Uncharted games

Although I couldn’t play Multiplayer in Uncharted to save my life (See: a decade worth of being terrible at shooting games that aren’t Goldeneye64), its protagonist, Nathan Drake, is quite a looker.  He’s basically young Indiana Jones in a slightly updated wardrobe.  He’s the kind of rugged explorer who shaves just enough to keep a finely manicured level of scruffiness and probably reads Details for tips on what dudely wax will most volumize his hair.  Also he travels alot and is potentially rich.  Check please!

 

 

Yaoi/Bara Games

This one is definitely the easiest, as yaoi and bara games are, like their straight counterparts, very loosely games and most certainly porn.  If you want to see cartoon peckeroos that are mind (and ass)-boggingly, as well as galloons of simulated ejaculate, this is where you park your mouse hand.  The one problem with either yaoi or bara games is that most of them are only in Japanese and largely story based.  Many of them are relationship-building games in which you make certain dialog choices to certain characters which affect the story.  The ultimate goal in these types of games is to have graphic virtual sex with your favorite character in the game cast.  You accomplish this by saying nice things, giving them stuff that they clumsily mention that they’re interested in, and doing chores with them.  Sound familiar?  Anyway, this is probably the least pornographic image I could find from a bara game called Ie Tatemasu (“Let’s Build a House!”)

 

 

There are probably more examples but my hand [ed: Hey! NSFW!] hands are tired.  Til next time Gaymers!

 

– Brett

 

 

Brett’s “Gaymer Q&A”: Why Does My Roommate Hate Me?

**Hello fellow Gaymers, my name is Brett and I would like to present you the first installment of a potentially ongoing series called Gaymer Q&A, which we’ll delve deep into the rich world of Gaymer life and culture.  Also jokes! In short, it will fall somewhere between a college paper about heteronormativity in Anglocentric gender roles and a knock-knock joke that ends in a fart noise. Opinions of this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of GaymerConnect and are my own. Enjoy!**

 

 

Q: Why does my roommate hate me? >_<

A: To start off, my roommate and I live in a small apartment in the upper part of Noe Valley in San Francisco.  We are both gay.  Gayer than a box of birds on Christmas morning being opened by Elton John’s gayest nephew, Tristan.  However, there is a critical difference between my roommate and I, gaming.

If you asked my roommate, who for the purposes of this story I will call Ricky, whether he played video games, he would screw up his face and give a condescending “No…ugh.”  When asked the same question, I might launch into a long fanboy rant about Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, why the newest offerings in the Marvel versus series have fallen short, or about how I would drink Psychonauts creator Tim Schafer’s bathwater if I got the chance (he always manages to see me somehow!).  The critical difference is that my roommate and I do not share the opinion that gaming is an acceptable thing to do as an everyday activity or even a normal thing to do on a weekend.  It’s not because Gaymers are anti-social, as I tend to go out a bit more than my roommate, but it reflects in general how average gay men view gaming culture.

When I say “average gay men,” I must stop myself because, in our current age, no one individual is average.  Lady GaGa told me herself.  So among the range of individual,  fiercely fabulous, and unique queers that I have encountered in my life, about 5 – 10% of them would offer up that they like video games.  That’s roughly the percentage of gay men or women in any American population.  So Gaymers are the “gays” of the gays.  Let that one soak in!  It makes sense then that there would be a bit of a gap culturally between that 5 -10% and our gay and lesbian friends and relations who don’t know the difference between Pokemon and OgreBattle.

How that plays out between Ricky and I is that I play video games regularly on our shared TV, and he sometimes watches but mostly says “This game is really dumb, I always see you doing the same thing.”  And the funny part is that he actually likes a lot of video games.  He and I had a whole conversation about the joys of Donkey Kong Country, Mario Kart, and the Megaman series.  The main problem is, while I love those games and would love to play them, I don’t have the original systems they were played on.  And those classic games, the ones that my roommate and many other non-Gaymers love, are often slow to be recreated or emulated on the newer-gen systems.  Our apartment has my PS3 Slim, but it is incapable of playing my roommate’s one PS2 game, Megaman Anniversary Collection.

So thanks to Sony’s lack of interest in/commitment to any sort of backwards compatibility, my roommate cannot play the one game he actually owns and has any interest in playing.  He blames me, as I haven’t petitioned Sony recently to put the game up on the Playstation Network for purchase, and even then he wouldn’t purchase it out of principle.  Whereas I might go so far as to try to emulate the game collection some other way, my roommate simply won’t invest any more time or money into the pursuit.  For him and many non-Gaymers, the whole video game thing is a relic of an earlier era, and is best remembered in a time where they actually owned and operated the systems that played those games of yesteryear.

I understand the frustration, but for some reason I continue to try to carve some enjoyment out of contemporary gaming, even as it slowly chips away at or has totally abandoned genres which I grew up with (see 2D fighters and point-and-click adventure games, respectively).  I continue to keep tabs on the new consoles and game franchises while browsing Grindr.  And I still enjoy playing a good JRPG early on a Saturday morning instead of sleeping in after a night out in the Castro.

I guess that’s what makes me a Gaymer, and that’s why my roommate hates me.

 

– Brett