'Gayming' Confab Reaches Trans Players Too

Greta Gustava Martela knew her name 15 years before she transitioned. It was the namesake of one of her characters in Icewind Dale, a Dungeons and Dragons-based role-playing game.

"This is true for a lot of trans women: that character allowed me to explore my preferred gender in a no-risk way. ... Seeing myself allows me to immerse myself in the game," she said.

Martela was just one of many who attended GX3: Everyone Games, the queer gaming convention started in 2013, which took place at the San Jose Convention Center last weekend. Organizers said that 2,250 people registered for the third version of the convention, which was the biggest yet.

"Gaymer" is a deeply-held identity: People romantically represent themselves as gaymers on their OkCupid and Grindr profiles. Shy Den, a cosplayer dressed as Mettaton from the game Undertale, introduced herself at the convention's drag show as such: "My gaming identity is stronger than any other identity I have."

Martela was at GX3 to promote Trans Lifeline, a crisis hotline for trans women staffed by trans women. She said the gaming community has a high representation of trans people because players can customize their characters and choose who they are, a boon for trying out an identity the player may one day inhabit.

Since its debut in 2013, the convention has expanded in a number of ways. For one, the organizers are renting bigger spaces. GX3 sprawled out over the whole second floor of the San Jose Convention Center. Shivaun Robinson, who has attended all three of the event's iterations, said 2015's version had taken on "the format of a much larger gaming convention." Trixie Mattel of RuPaul's Drag Race fame made an appearance.

GX3 also amped up its anti-harassment efforts and officially changed its name from GaymerX to GX3: Everyone Games in a bid to widen its audience beyond gay men.

Robbyn Blumenschein, who won best in show at the convention's concluding cosplay pageant, identifies as a white straight female veteran with a disability. She dressed as Carl Fredricksen from Up with her service dog, Jax, playing the talking dog, Dug. Being heterosexual, Blumenschein thinks she's not GX3's expected demographic, but she still felt welcome.

"I'm HIV-positive. That's why this community is so important to me," she said. "I came to last year's con, and I got my service dog in between then and now. I've been planning my costume since I got him."

The convention now works with corporate sponsors as well, balancing the former do-it-yourself spirit - it still relied on $97,917 of Kickstarter funding - with a growing audience. Intel was this year's biggest sponsor, and the company created a lounge in the middle of the exposition hall for attendees to express their "gaymer pride" by writing their hopes on large pieces of poster board. The boards encouraged attendees to fill in their own blanks after sentiments like "When I look into the future of gaming, I see ..." and "My dream game would include ..."

Gaymers' desires on the boards ranged from weird to witty to critical. One writer wanted to be "Able to change gender and species at will." (There were a few Furries roaming the floor.) Some demands were broad: "Queer main characters." And there were specific demands that met, improbably, answers: "My dream game would include ... trans wizards," which elicited, "We do that! Check out wizards vs. scientists at silvermaiden.itch.io."

Wanting wider representation in games was a theme throughout the convention, but what exactly that meant could encompass many differences: disability, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, and class. The gaymers wanted intersections. Perhaps the best summation was the simple request: "My dream game would include ... myself," someone wrote. Indeed the convention emphasized self-determination: attendees could pick their pronouns and their preferred names. The security adviser went by "Potato."

Intel may have sponsored the boards, but the company doesn't make games. Billy Oh, who works in developer relations for Intel, attended to encourage independent game developers to use Intel products.

Kelly Postman, who works for Zebra Partners as a marketing contractor with Intel, was there to "support the community." She called the boards "just fun and interaction."

Martela is skeptical whether the sponsors will listen to the requests and criticisms of the gaymer community.

"Generally, we've been ignored," she said, "and I don't know why they've been so reluctant to broaden the market of who's playing their games. We know it's not just white men in their 20s who are playing games any more, but that's who's making games."

Intel's presence may be more than a marketing ploy, though. In its print ad in GXE's program, the company aimed to recruit more diverse applicants of all stripes. After she made light of the boards, Postman reiterated the company's desire to include the community in the engineering and creation processes.

GrindrLabs, the development arm of the online hookup site Grindr, sponsored the convention. The representatives were recruiting engineers. The convention advocates for queer producers with panels like "How to Be a Producer" and the release of its own game, Read Only Memories.

Companies are starting to take notice of the eager demographic: Atari marketed its "Pridefest" game at the convention, in which players live the life of a deputy mayor hell-bent on fabulizing a city and organizing a parade. Gaymers want to be marketed to; many say so in GX3's documentary, Gaming in Color. It remains to be seen if all the sponsors will listen. Blizzard recruiters attended, but on the first day, an attendee confronted them about never seeing queer characters in the company's games. She wanted to know why they had come.