Season V, Episode 11: Bechdel Designers

“Diversity” has become one of those words so overused in such inappropriate ways that it’s almost lost all meaning. But it does mean something. What is it? And how does it apply to narrative gaming? We invited Jess Haskins along to find out. There is so much nonsense talked about diversity, and we were determined

Continue reading Season V, Episode 11: Bechdel Designers

“Diversity” has become one of those words so overused in such inappropriate ways that it’s almost lost all meaning. But it does mean something. What is it? And how does it apply to narrative gaming? We invited Jess Haskins along to find out.

There is so much nonsense talked about diversity, and we were determined this week to have a serious – well, as serious as we can ever muster – discussion about it. Diversity is about more than form filling and tokenism. Of course it is. Simply throwing in “the black girl” into a story doesn’t make a game diverse. Similarly, the existence of characters from non-traditional backgrounds isn’t some form of “reverse racism”.

We met Jess at AdventureX 2017 where she gave one of the standout talks of the weekend.

Jess is all about building believable and representative worlds, and you can find her work at Paperback Studio’s website. If you have a game and need editorial assistance, writing guidance, or just want a specialist to give your stuff a quick look over – hit her up.

We’ve never tried on this podcast to tick boxes. A quick run down of our guests – and a look at the main hosts – will show we are far from achieving any sort of gender parity. In the main, we talk to people we find interesting. Who are we kidding. In the main, we talk to people who are stupid enough to give up their time to us.

But if you want to learn about how to do this whole writing computer games business, you want to get as many perspectives as possible. And that means talking to people who aren’t exactly like you. By doing that, we’ve made contact with people we otherwise wouldn’t have met, had great conversations and – I hope – made a load of new friends.

So. Enjoy a conversation about diversity. Not a diverse podcast.