Hot Pink Freak

It’s been a crazy week for me and I’ve not been able to pay attention to blogging or communicating with a good many people. With convention planning craziness and the death of a friend, I’ve not been motivated to talk about gaming much. I’m absolutely committed to my community and my game at work, but I’ve let the other stuff fall aside. Thankfully, my friends and family grok.

A positive note, however. I’ve been hosting the Geek Girls of Austin board/card game & beers meetup on Monday nights. With the amount of gamers on this community, I figured I’d find scads of gals to show up. We’ve had a good crowd, but most haven’t actually played a lot of games. The folks who consider themselves gamers are already into game groups, so they’re not as likely to show up for my game night.

This is a good thing. Why? Because I get to introduce the games I love, to people..to WOMEN who have always wanted to learn how to play games. It is hard to believe that even in these times, women and girls are discouraged from playign board/card games. Women & girls get more acceptance in video games (and a whole slew of issues, which I’ll discuss some day)  but it’s tough to break into board/card games. And it’s even harder to find people to teach you how to play tabletop RPGs and miniatures games.

It’s easy if you’re comfortable heading to Origins, Gen Con or PAX. It’s easy to find people who make games to teach people about games. In the day to day life, it’s not so easy.

When I was in high school, I wanted to play Dungeons & Dragons. That was in 1979 in Grand Prairie, Texas. The boys I went to school with said “girls don’t play these games”. That was something I heard over and over until I found my first game group (AD&D 1st Ed) in 1989. Luckily, I joined a group that had two women and the BEST DM EVER. Seriously, Ted, you brought those Forgotten Realms TO LIFE for me. I never imagined back then, that I’d be lucky to meet so many of the people who created the worlds I fell in love with. My core group with Ted, Amy, James, Sonia, Rolly…I thank you.

Anyway, I’m off topic. But not really, I suppose. I wanted to talk about the games I’ve been playing and showing people. So here’s the list:

• Poo, the card game
• Tsuro
• Monty Python Fluxx
• Dixit
• Cthulhu Dice

With the game group becoming comfortable with each other, we’re gonna start moving them to some other games like Carcassone, Small World & Dominion. One of the women in the group is interested in some hard core strategy games, so my husband is going to start setting up some Axis & Allies and other games. Me? I have to admit. I have a very short attention span. I don’t concentrate well if there’s not a lot of constant chatter & action.

Which leads me to a whole rant/frustration post about role-playing games. But I will save that for another day.

Go forth and play games today!

Yeehaww, I’ll be hopping a plane and heading to Boston for the PAX (Penny Arcade Expo)! I hadn’t planned on attending, but now I’ll be doing < redacted > with < redacted > for work so I booked my trip! I’ve got some private party invites and will be handing out beta keys like a crazy person. I don’t think we’ll have time to get some swag out, but I might have very stupid pictures of myself doing weird things.

I know. It sounds way more interesting than it probably is. I KNOW HOW TO SOUND FUN. My Twitter posts confirm it, yo. Still, I’m excited to go, even with the controversy happening around PA. I’m not going to get into it here. That being said, I do want to make a post that covers how PAX East went in regards to the whole issue. If you have NO idea what I’m talking about, it’s probably for the best. I am not normally pulling the cryptic card when posting places; I just don’t want the grief here, ya know? That being said, I’m happy to take it offline (well, off blog) with anyone.

Back to the fun! I’ll be Tweeting my experiences at PAX and telling folks where I’ll be stationed. I hope to bring some nifty things to some of the parties and talk about our game. I also hope to play a lot of games, being that I’m a nerd of all kinds. I want to see what’s going on in the table top, miniatures & board/card game worlds. Since I’m flying out Jet Blue, I can bring a bigger suitcase so I can bring home SWAG and also take some games. Really though, it will be my DS, Cthulhu Dice, Poo and Fluxx. Maybe my M:tG cards. Shit. Now I need to make a list. Should I bring game books? I know this is so anti-game industry employee, but I’d rather hook up for some D&D than go to a lame party. That being said, I am hitting up the “Gamers Gone Wild” party with a VIP invite. I’ll get to meet some great folks and play some games. That is really why I do this, you know. Good people; good games.

I haven’t done a lot of blogging in years. The more I get involved with hosting events, running games, speaking about games at conventions, writing about games and working in the games industry, the more I realize that I need one home to get my thoughts organized.

I’ll be blogging about the games industry (Sorry, no gossipy ranty bits. Mostly), games I am running and talks I’ll be giving or which to give. I’m certainly not going to be the most well-read blogger; I might not get anything out of this for anyone but myself. And that’s okay. I almost finished that up with “eh?”, but I realized that mixing my Texas accent and Seattle accent probably hurts some brains.

Also, the opinions I post in my blog are mine. They do not represent the game I’m working on, nor do they represent my company. If you take issue with my opinions, please take it to me privately. If I talk about game features, it does not mean my company is including them in our games. The only way you can say “ZOMG UR GAME” is when I’m actually talking about my game.

Note #2…there might be swearing.