VCON 41: Toxic Hostility Versus Women in Gaming

Welcome to the VCON 41 Online Schedule!

VCON is the oldest general-interest science fiction, fantasy, and games convention in Canada and the Pacific Northwest. This 100% volunteer fan-organized convention has promoted the interests of science fiction and fantasy culture in Vancouver BC and its environs since 1971, offering events and exhibits focused on a variety of Science Fiction and Fantasy fandom interest areas such as literature, art, media, music, costumes, comics, tabletop games, electronic games, etc. For more detailed information visit our website: www.vcon.ca.

VCON 41 will be held Sep 30 - Oct 2, 2016, at the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford hotel. The convention’s main theme is "Muppets, Puppets & Marionettes" with a secondary theme of "The Small Press Cabal".

Please take a moment to check out the "Sponsor" tab to see who has helped support this year’s event.
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SESSIONS ARE ALWAYS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

SEPTEMBER 17, 2016: The schedule is now as "final" as it ever gets! Which means that, yes, there will probably still be changes here and there, but generally only to resolve when we’ve accidentally placed one panelist on two panels at the same time, or if a panelist has to cancel.)

-Jenni Merrifield, VCON 41 Programming Coordinator
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Toxic Hostility Versus Women in Gaming

What is the cause of the hostility of the, mainly male, vocal minority in the gaming community towards the women in their midst? Why are so many women game designers, game reviewers, and game players regularly harassed - both online and in real life - sometimes in the vilest and most disturbing ways? What can be done by everyone, especially by other male gamers, to flush this toxicity out of the system?

Moderators

Claire McCague

Simon Fraser University

Claire McCague is a research scientist, musician and writer. She performs regularly with the Sybaritic String Band and her other worldly plays have been featured in festivals across Canada. Her humorous first contact novel, The Rosetta Man, published by EDGE, is her first novel.

Panelists

James Berg

Games User Researcher, Electronic Arts

I'm a Games User Researcher at Electronic Arts Vancouver, providing player research to our game development teams. My role is to help developers ensure their design implementation meets their design goals, and to identify things like usability issues, difficulty/progression blockers... Read More →

Rob Boffard

Rob Boffard is a South African author, journalist and rapper. His Outer Earth scifi trilogy is published worldwide by Orbit Books, and he writes about music and tech for The Guardian, Wired Magazine and more.

Joe Fulgham

Host/Producer, Mote of Dust / The Dreaming / Caustic Soda

Joe makes podcasts about things he loves. For six years he hosted, produced, and edited "Caustic Soda", the podcast of the weird, gross, and disturbing. His latest project is "The Dreaming", a Read-Along podcast for Neil Gaiman's comic book treasure "The Sandman", hosted by the Mote... Read More →

Judy McCrosky

I'm the author of several books, with two new ones due out this year. I'm an experienced speaker and teacher of writing in a variety of genres. I love to talk to people about any and all aspects of writing and the writing life.

Marcie Tentchoff

Marcie Lynn Tentchoff is an Aurora award winning writer/poet/editor from Gibsons, BC. Her work has appeared in such publications as Weird Tales, Strange Horizons, and On Spec.

Saturday October 1, 2016 16:00 - 16:50
02 - Large Programming 2 Tynehead 2 (2nd Floor)

Games & Game Design Media & Popular Culture

Session Type Moderated Discussion

VCON 41