It can be dangerous to meet the people you internet-admire. There’s the possibility that they’re simply not as cool in real life as they are online. It’s easier to seem successful and put-together when you have time to carefully craft responses on a screen. It’s safer to be a fan when there’s considerable distance involved.
Then there’s another danger: that they are even cooler in real life than their Twitter persona suggests. Such is the case when it comes to Tanya DePass, gaming badass. Tanya, a queer woman gamer of color, is a force within the online gaming community and meeting her made me incredibly nervous.
On October 7th, 2014 Tanya tweeted “#INeedDiverseGames because I am tired of the same variant of scruffy white dude protagonists in every game I buy.”
Soon the internet would rally around this hashtag, each non-white, non-dude gamer aching for the same thing. Tanya had tapped into something the gaming community has been struggling with since its inception.
Al Rosenberg: So, the #INeedDiverseGames tags just turned a year old. Does it feel like it’s been that long?
Tanya Depass: Yes and no. Some days it feels like I’ve been doing this forever and other days I wonder when this happened, and have I been doing this stuff all along but not under the auspices of an organization. Like I blinked and wow, look at all that’s gone on in a year! Last year I had maybe 300 twitter followers, now I’m over 3100, and it’s been a wild ride. Other days I’m like who put me in charge, why, what is going on!? But it’s been amazing and I’m so, so grateful and humbled by the response to this little hashtag I threw out there a little over a year ago.
A: What has been the best thing about #INeedDiverseGames in the last year?
T: The community that has sprung up around the tag, the connections we’ve made with other gamers, critics, streamers etc. We’ve got a good little thing going, and it’s amazing. Also, getting picked for the#IndieCade15 #GamingForEveryone Pavilion is a huge honor and it’s awesome. So we’re very excited and grateful for the chance to show off what we’ve done and where we want to go.
Read the rest over at Autostraddle!
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Published by cypheroftyr
Tanya DePass is the founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a not-for-profit organization based in Chicago, which is dedicated to better diversification of all aspects of gaming. I Need Diverse Games serves the community by supporting marginalized developers, attendance at the Game Developer Conference by participating in the GDC Scholarship program, helps assist attendance at other industry events, and is seeking partnership with organizations and initiatives. Tanya is a lifelong Chicagoan who loves everything about gaming, #INeedDiverseGames spawn point, and wants to make the industry better and more inclusive for everyone. She’s part of the Rivals of Waterdeep actual play stream on twitch.tv/rivalsofwaterdeep, a partnered Twitch variety broadcaster; and often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics online, at conventions and as a public speaker..
She’s also contributed to publications at Green Ronin, Paizo and Monte Cook Games and is the co-developer for the Fifth Season RPG based on N.K. Jemisin’s three time Hugo award winning Broken Earth trilogy. She’s the creator and Creative Director of Into the Mother Lands, a Twitch supported RPG and Actual Play stream, airing weekly on her channel, twitch.tv/cypheroftyr. Additionally, she is a Senior Annenberg labs Civic Media Fellow at USC. She’s also the creator and Creative Director of Into the Mother Lands, a new sci fi afro-futurist RPG developed with a team of all POC and Black creators; live streamed on her twitch channel, /cypheroftyr.
She’s named as one of The Game Awards Future Class 2020, a diverse group of builders, thinkers and dreamers whose voices elevate and diversify our artform. It recognizes individuals around the world who represent the bright, bold and inclusive future for video games. She was also named as one of Gamers of the Year 2020 by Kotaku along with three of her contemporaries. She was also invited to the Xbox MVP program in February 2021.
Her work to make the industry more inclusive has been highlighted in Game Changer, Directed by Tina Charles, WNBA star & olympian as well as filmmaker. The short documentary premiered at Tribeca 2021, as part of the Queen Collective; an initiative started by Queen Latifah, supported by Proctor & Gamble in an effort to get more Black women into film making. Game Changer was also featured as part of BETHer’s 2021 Juneteenth Programming on 19 June 2021.
Tanya is the programming & diversity coordinator for OrcaCon and GaymerX. She also serves on the Board of Directors for OrcaCon and was named the Chair for Take This in January 2023. She often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at conventions. Her writing about games and games critique appears in Uncanny Magazine, Polygon, Wiscon Chronicles, Vice Gaming, Paste Games, Mic, and other publications. She’s the editor of Game Devs and Others: Tales from the Margins (2018, CRC Press) and contributed to The Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox. (2019, CRC Press)
Writer Bio for pubs: Tanya is the Founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a not-for-profit organization based in Chicago. She’s part of Rivals of Waterdeep, an actual play D&D show on twitch.tv/rivalsofwaterdeep; the programming coordinator for OrcaCon & GaymerX; and often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at conventions. She’s on the Board of Take This as well as a Stream Ambassador, and was part of the inaugural cohort of The Game Awards Future Class. Her work to make the industry more inclusive has been highlighted in Game Changer, Directed by Tina Charles, WNBA star & olympian as well as filmmaker. The short documentary premiered at Tribeca 2021, as part of the Queen Collective; an initiative started by Queen Latifah, supported by Proctor & Gamble in an effort to get more Black women into film making. Game Changer was also featured as part of BETHer’s 2021 Juneteenth Programming on 19 June 2021.
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