Comments on: Diversity and Inclusivity in SpyParty and the Beta Community

By: checker

checker — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 19:07:58 +0000

But I have such good press karma, they'd never do that to me, right?

By: Jack

Jack — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 13:40:29 +0000

While your intentions seem good, be careful with your soundbites… the media could easily spin this one as, “Sadistic Indie Game Developer wants to make game in which you murder minority groups” :P

By: Scallions

Scallions — Fri, 21 Jun 2013 01:06:11 +0000

It’s always the queer octogenarian of color in a wheelchair.

By: checker

checker — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 21:08:19 +0000

Yeah, I think that’s true. It’s amazing how much influence a single individual has at the start of a community.

By: Calitar

Calitar — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 11:23:24 +0000

It just occurred to me that the underlying theme of Cloud Atlas, of individual actions having ripple effects, is pretty easily applied here. One person uses hateful/hurtful language, another sees it and thinks it’s considered appropriate by the community, rinse, repeat until you have a hateful community. I saw this happen at giantbomb.com. I remember it having a friendly community when it started. Now I just do my best to ignore the comments and forums there.

By: checker

checker — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 11:15:50 +0000

Thanks for posting, and yeah, even as the community grows, I don’t want people to feel like they have to retreat to subgroups or anything like that. The goal is to keep it healthy and inclusive the whole time.

By: Calitar

Calitar — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 10:52:24 +0000

I want to thank you so much for writing this. As a transgender and queer person I often feel I have to join specific LGBT subgroups of gaming communities just to not be verbally assaulted all the time. I really don’t want to do that with SpyParty (especially since the community is currently too small for any subgroups). Even here I’m afraid to post this comment and out myself. However as my favorite line from Cloud Atlas says “If I had remained invisible, the truth would have stayed hidden.”

By: checker

checker — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 06:32:22 +0000

Thanks for the kind words, and I hope it continues on its current healthy course! It’s hard and scary to watch your kids grow up! I keep pushing down on the top of my daughter’s head but she keeps growing for some reason.

By: Jasper

Jasper — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:06:03 +0000

Good job on building such an excellent community. It must be exhausting some days to act as community manager alone, but from this post alone, I can tell you’ve done a good job, and you’re proud of what you’ve built, as you have every right to be.

I don’t really have any real insight, I just want to congratulate you on your accomplishment, because you deserve more compliments for doing such an outstanding job. Hopefully, as SpyParty takes shape, its community grows in the way you want to.