2016 PAX West Don’t Pick on Loox!: Surviving Conflict & Building Community – We want your input!
My colleagues (Stacey Weber, MA, LMHCA, & Joshua Neal, MA, LMHC) and I are so happy to be returning to PAX, presenting at PAX West Don’t Pick on Loox: Surviving Conflict & Building Community! If you follow Dorkadia, you may notice this is going deeper down the rabbit hole of my 2014 and 2015 panels at PAX Prime. We have been discussing the what and whys of bullying, harassment and misogyny that happens in our gaming communities and hobbies (It’s for all our good, and not just to depress you, I promise!)
Stacey, Josh, and I will be bringing research to the table for a presentation, but also to initiate a conversation around concrete steps that we all can do. Our goal is to give us all tools to help repair some of the individual and communal hurt that has come from the bullying we’ve seen or been a part of. In order to dig deep and really help make this panel about all of us, we would love to hear stories of conflicts – strife and successes! – you’ve encountered in your own gaming communities.
Safe space
Please note, this is a completely safe space. Feel free to comment below with times when you witnessed, experienced, or maybe even instigated harassment online. How were you feeling before, during, and after? How did you handle the situation? How do you wish it could have played out? Maybe the situation is ongoing and you don’t have a resolution to tell, or maybe you know someone you know going through something challenging in their own gaming group? We welcome it all! If you’re not comfortable commenting in this public forum, you can email me privately – Missmae@dorkadia.com. Alternately you can DM me on twitter @MeganIsRad. Lastly, if you are at PAX West, we’d love to hear your stories in person at 11:30 am Sunday the 4th in the Chipmunk theater!
We won’t disclose names or personal information of any person who comments and shares stories with us unless you give us express permission to do so.
Thank you all in advance for being so open, and willing to talk about difficult situations as we try to help heal breaches and make our community a safer space. Cheers!
