After some thought, and a lot of stress I decided to cancel attending PAX East this year. Trying to do both PAX and C2E2 in addition to that other opportunity (that didn’t come through) was stressing me out. Self care is the mood for 2020 y’all, so I’m just doing C2E2 this year. See y’all in Chicago in a few weeks! <3

Never fear, I Need Diverse Games will still be in the Diversity Lounge, helmed by our own WingedLioness. If you missed buying a D20 pin at PAX Unplugged or PAX South, we’ll have more for sale there!

You all should still check out the listed panels!

Renegade vs Paragon: Morality Lessons from a Terrible Goose

Thursday 6:30 – 7:30 pm Cuttlefish Theatre

Being bad is good, at least when it comes to being a horrible goose, yet the majority of gamers choose to Always Play Nice. Our panel revisits some classic gaming moral dilemmas, and some new ones invented by your chaotic neutral host, and the audience. From slapping a reporter in Mass Effect to harvesting little sisters for Adam, via the trolley problem, geese, and Vault 34. Will the renegades see the light and go good? How virtuous can you be when you’ve been bitten by a zombie? Battling for the souls of the audience, and indeed all of PAX East, our panellists debate the merits of being evil, being a goody-two-shoes, and where the shades of grey lie. Between each debate the goose’s bell shall toll – which side will you choose, Renegade, or Paragon? And can you shift the panel’s alignment with your own gaming moral dilemmas? It’s morality meets gaming, via a horrible goose!

PANELISTS

Robin Bates [Overlord & Founder, Coaching for Geeks], Anya Combs [Director of Games Outreach, Kickstarter], Tim Ludy [Podcast Host and Cosplayer, Under the Capes], Kyle-Steven Porter [Board Member, PAX Diversity Lounge Manager, Geeks OUT], Victoria Tran [Communications Director, Kitfox Games]

 

Make it Queer You Cowards!

Thursday 8:30 – 10:00 pm BumbleBee Theatre

Join GaymerX and friends for “Make It Queer, You Cowards!”, a game show where contestants are challenged to add queer content to games, with adorable, heartwarming, and/or hilarious results. Our host will randomly select famous video games (with or without already existing LGBTQIA+ story lines) and challenge the contestants to queer it up in the most entertaining ways possible. Each round, we’ll throw in a special twist to keep our panel of contestants on their toes. It all culminates in a super secret lightning round! Who will get the most points? Do the points even matter? What does that rainbow narwhal have to do with all of this?! You’ll have to join us to find out!

PANELISTS

Katie Kaitchuck [Executive Director, GaymerX], Chris Lam [Host/Contributor, Nerdist], Kyle-Steven Porter [Board Member, GeeksOUT], Anya Combs [Director of Games, Kickstarter]

Don’t Yuck My Yum – A Debate on the Value of Evil Alignments 

Friday 11:30am – 12:30 pm BumbleBee Theatre

Do you allow evil characters at your table? Should you? Join our panel of professional, therapeutic, and amateur Dungeon Masters for a discussion of this controversial topic. We’ll be debating the pros and cons of allowing evil characters in each context and provide tips for setting ground rules to keep your table happy.

PANELISTS

Jared N. Kilmer, PhD [Psychologist, Game to Grow], Adam Davis [Executive Director / Therapeutic GM, Game to Grow], Elizabeth D. Kilmer, MS, LPA [Doctoral Candidate, Game to Grow, University of North Texas], Shawna Spain [Accessibility Consultant, The Spoon Conservatory]