GaymerX East ’19 Guests of Honor

Today we are thrilled to announce our 2019 guests of honor! We are excited they will be joining us and they are just as excited to meet all of you!

Brandon Stennis

Brandon Stennis is a partnered content creator on Twitch.tv for the last 4 years. He also works as the Influencer Manager of the indie publishing company Versus Evil. Brandon has gathered quite the career in the gaming industry since 2012 and has innovated himself into a self made gaming personality. He continues to try and help other creators find their place within themselves and the gaming/streaming communities. 

Twitter: @iamBrandonTV

Twitch: iamBrandon

Katherine Cross

Katherine Cross is a Ph.D. student in Information Science at the University of Washington, and a contributing columnist to Gamasutra. Her work has focused on a range of topics, including game design, AI ethics, community management, and online harassment. Her cultural criticism has appeared in numerous publications worldwide, including Rolling Stone, Bitch Magazine, The Baffler, Time, The Verge, Polygon, First Person Scholar, and The Daily Beast. She is also a sought-after thinker on technology whose commentary has featured on NPR, ABC Radio National, Le Monde, and Dagens Nyheter among others. Her fiction has appeared in the Lambda Literary Award nominated collection Nerve Endings. Recently, she has begun to enter the world of game design, contributing writing and scenarios to games like the Pathfinder RPG and Eclipse Phase. She yearns for the robot uprising and is currently writing a book on the subject.

Twitter: @Quinnae_Moon

D.J. Kirkland

D.J. Kirkland is a comic book artist from Charlotte, NC. He graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in 2009 with a BFA in Sequential Art, which is just a fancy word for comic books. When he’s not drawing comics, D.J. spends his time doing MORE drawing, playing fighting games, watching anime and talking about all of those things on a podcast with one of his best friends called Magical Boys.

Twitter: @OhHeyDJ

Instagram: @OhHeyDJ

Join us for GaymerX East ’19! Meet our Guests of Honor, explore the Expo Hall, engage in fascinating panels and workshops and MORE. Get your discounted presale passes by supporting the Indiegogo campaign!

Final Bosses of Honor Announced + Backerkit is LIVE!

Hey Gaymers!

Backer surveys were sent out on Monday! Please make sure to check the email account associated with your Kickstarter to get your goodies!

Also, if you missed the campaign, you can still get your stuff now by going to the GaymerX Year Four BackerKit Page!

Now.. Meet our final Bosses of Honor!

Donna Prior

Okay, all, this is super important!
Not only is Donna Prior an awesome RPG Boss from Green Ronin who will be joining us in playing tabletop games throughout the weekend but she is also running Orca Con!

Orca Con is an inclusive tabletop convention in Washington and the KICKSTARTER IS LIVE RIGHT NOW!! So make sure you back them so that you can check out this awesome event!!

David Gaider

Formerly BioWare’s lead Dragon Age writer and currently BeamDog working on Baldur’s Gate franchise. (Yes, the Baldur’s Gate) David now returns to us as our Grand Marshall!

Well, that’s the title we’re currently giving the guy who’s not only responsible for some of the best games writing the world’s ever seen through the Dragon Age series but also
a man who’s been to more GaymerX’s than some of our staff! (Lookin’ at you, Toni!!)

Mark Barlet

We’re extremely excited to be bringing Mark Barlet, founder of the AbleGamers Charity! AbleGamers have done a lot over the years to make gaming more accessible and
we’re super proud to have Mark joining us!

Brandon McGill

Brandon McGill, artist and creator, will be joining us this year offering
his incredible body painting talent to GaymerX fans!
Make sure you stop by to get a little, or a lot, of his surreal and vivid artistry on yourself!

AETHERNAUT

If you went to the first GaymerX you might recall an awesome chiptune artist who whipped out a violin and started playing it during his set. Well that’s the one and only Aethernaut!
One of our long time favorite musicians, Aethernaut’s been so close to the family he’s
debuted songs at GaymerX and even did some tracks for Read Only Memories!

Roll For Initiative: GX3 Announces Tabletop Bosses!

Get your dice out! Sharpen your pencils! Ready your spell components! GaymerX has some awesomesauce to share with you!

Did you know that GX3 will include dedicated tabletop gaming rooms and programming? Our tabletop games programming this year will include Pathfinder Society, D&D Adventurers League, Dragon Age, Mutants & Masterminds, Blue Rose, and other one-of-a-kind adventures in a variety of systems! For D&D Adventurers’ League, you’ll be excited to hear Associate Community Manager Alan Patrick will be joining us to run some games! We’ll even be having a workshop on LARP!

But what would three days of LGBTQ friendly and inclusive tabletop gaming be without special guests from the industry joining us? We’re thrilled to announce our Tabletop Industry Bosses of Honor!

Read more

New Boss of Honor and Press! :D

Hey everyone!

Announcing our very first Boss of Honor, you may know her voice as Shepard, or from Halo, or God Of War, or Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic or Diablo IIIor Metal Gear Solid or..well..she works really hard to voice some of the most awesome characters in gaming today…

It’s Jennifer Hale!

Hooray! We’re excited to announce some other awesome Bosses of Honor as we get closer to the event next year, but we’re so excited to have our first new Boss of Honor be such an awesome and prominent female voice actor in the video games world. Thank you for joining us Jennifer!!

We also wanted to share some super sweet articles that have been written about the convention/interviews we did. Please read if you’d like more insight into our thinking w/ GX3 or want to share the good news!

THE ADVOCATE – http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/geek/2014/09/11/queer-game-convention-close-funding-goal-third-year

VENTUREBEAT – http://venturebeat.com/2014/09/11/gaymerx-is-dead-long-live-gx3-interview/

DIEHARDGAMEFAN – http://diehardgamefan.com/2014/09/11/interview-with-matt-conn-and-philip-jones-of-gx3/

DOT 429  – http://dot429.com/articles/4965-gx3-because-everyone-games

Some other cool ones at launch:

IGN – http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/08/26/gaymerx-returns-as-gx3-everyone-games

JOYSTIQ – http://www.joystiq.com/2014/08/25/gaymerx-conference-to-return-as-gx3-everyone-games/

Also big thanks to Game Politics, Kotaku & Kotaku Australia, Polygon, Eurogamer, Nerd Reactor and everyone else for helping spread the word. It’s very likely now that GX3 is going to happen (6 1/2% left!) and we wouldn’t be in this spot without YOU helping spread the word and letting these publications that you like a little queer content now and then 🙂

THANK YOU 😀


The Final Boss of Honor is… A POTATO!

We’re pleased to introduce our final Boss of Honor. This Boss of Honor has spent time as an administrator of mass destruction, a robot, and yes, briefly as a potato. She thinks you are fashion-stunted, unlikable, and a horrible person.

You’ll love her.

Ellen1

She’s Ellen McLain, the voice actress from many of Valve’s games, including Half-Life 2 (as the Combine Overwatch) and Team Fortress 2 (as the Administrator). Her most recognizable role is that of the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, also known as the villainous sentient robot GLaDOS. Initially seen as a guide to Chell in Portal, it soon becomes clear that the AI in charge of the Aperture Science Research Facility wants nothing more than to kill her off. Needless to say, when she is reactivated in Portal 2 she is NOT happy to see Chell.

With a snarky, passive-aggressive personality that is sinister to the core (pun intended), GLaDOS was ranked by IGN in 2010 as the number one video game villain of all time. GLaDOS and Ellen have won several other video game awards, and Ellen herself won the Spike VGA for “Best Performance by a Human Female” for GLaDOS in Portal 2 in 2011. Ellen has long been a supporter of GaymerX, including being featured in one of the early advertisements for the convention (formerly GaymerCon):

 

 

When she’s not busy voicing homicidal robots, Ellen is a diva! But not, like, divas you find in the gay bars… she’s an actual diva in the world of opera. Her singing talents can be found at the end of both Portal games, as she sings both “Still Alive” and “Want You Gone” from Portal and Portal 2 respectively. Her operatic talents are also featured in Portal 2 in the track commonly referred to as the Turret Opera, “Cara Mia Addio.”

 

 

Ellen’s work is expanding beyond the video game – her voicework will be featured in the upcoming film Pacific Rim, directed by Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth). Del Toro has confessed to being a huge Valve fan, and insisted on Ellen as the voice of Jaeger AI as a tribute to her work in the Portal series. She will also star in the web series Wish It Inc. as the Fairy Godmother, which recently met its Kickstarter goal.

Ellen is married to fellow Boss of Honor John Patrick Lowrie and lives in Nashville, Tennessee. She’ll be featured in the opening ceremonies as well as panels and two autograph sessions! You can follow her on Twitter at @EllenMcLain.

And now, Ellen doing what she does best… voicing a murderous piece of machinery:

 

 

Boss of Honor #4! Musician of… uh… Music #4!

More Bosses of Honor! More GaymerX musicians! More more more! (The Andrea True Connection.) Gimme gimme gimme! (ABBA.) I want, I want, I want, me, me, me, me, mine, mine, mine, mine, now, now, now, now! (Dustin Hoffman in Hook.)

JafarAndIago

Calm yourself, Iago. I have more for you.

JPLThe fourth Boss of Honor at Gaymer X this August is none other than video game voiceover artist legend John Patrick Lowrie. Don’t recognize the name? You’ve probably heard his voice though, if you’ve played games like Half-Life 2 (Odessa Cubbage), The Operative: No One Lives Forever and No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way (Bruno Lawrie), and Team Fortress 2 (The Sniper).

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Lowrie lived the hippie life until picked up by the draft. He bravely served America in the United States Navy. That’s right: he was a seaman.

Lowrie graduated with highest distinction from the Indiana University School of Music and began composing and touring with his acoustic fusion duo, The Kiethe Lowrie Duet. He took to acting for better pay and steadier work, making him the reverse of pretty much every other actor ever. 2013 will see Lowrie in his latest role as the narrator of Uber Entertainment’s Planetary Annihilation. Lowrie published his first sci-fi novel, Dancing With Eternity, in 2011.

 

Aethernaut

Aethernaut is our musician du jour, and I’m completely in love with his music already. He’s a classical musician who’s gone electro, taking chiptune/8-bit music and remixing it with everything from house to rock to hip hop and even electric violin. A violin that’s electric, people! Is your mind blown yet?

Aethernaut has released three works: 2011-2003=8, Super Mega Ultra, and Steam Fist Island II. Check out this remix of one of my ABSOLUTE favorite NES tracks, the music from The Moon from Capcom’s Ducktales.

 

 

 

 

The big Boss of Honor comes tomorrow!

Who’s Got Two Thumbs and Will Be Totally Awesome at GaymerX? These People! (Though I suppose between them that’s 10 thumbs.)

Who wants more GaymerX news, raise your hand?

RaiseYourPaw

Oh, good. I have more and I really wanted to tell someone. Introducing Boss of Honor Anna Anthropy and GaymerX rockin’ musicians Crashfaster. Anna and Crashfaster kick all sorts of butt from all angles of the spectrum. GET IT? LIKE THE GAMING SPECTRUM AND THE RAINBOW??? FREEEEEEEE COMEDY, RIGHT OVER HERE!

 

 

773529129First, we start with Anna Anthropy. Anna Anthropy is an important person. You know why? She has her own Wikipedia page. I’m impressed already. Billed as the “90th Hottest Queer Woman in the Galaxy,” Anna is more than just hot, she’s a talented artist and game creatrix too. Her first book, Rise of the Videogame Zinesters, champions the idea of “small, interesting, personal experiences by hobbyist authors,” much like she did with dys4ia, a largely-autobiographical game about her experiences with hormone replacement therapy. Her work explores the interplay with video game dynamics and the world of kink, as well as promoting queer visibility in gaming.

 

Indie Games Searchlight did a whole episode on her awesome game that was picked up by Adult Swim Games with an incredibly fun title to say, Lesbian Spider Queens of Mars:

Crashfaster is not just one awesome musician, it’s FOUR awesome musicians for the price of one! Crashfaster combines chiptune/8-bit music with rock and synth to make some seriously bangin’ music. I’m actually downloading this track below as we speak, from BUTCHERED: Splatterhouse Remixes:

CrashfasterCrashfaster also created the soundtrack to the throwback RPG series “Dragon Fantasy,” and has contributed to Caustic’s 12 Remixes and C418’s One.

 

Crashfaster features Morgan Tucker (programming, vocals), Devin Nixon (drums), Ryan Case (guitar), and Keiko Takamura (vocals).