Let's Meet the Panelists

  

Tell us about yourself and what topics you would like to share in this discussion. 

Catie: Hello all! Thank you so much for being here! I’m Catie, moderator of the Giigi community and Discord server. I got into gaming at a young age, being attracted to puzzles, adventures and stories, as well as audio and music. I studied Interactive Design and Game Dev at SCAD and started working at EA in 2016. I’m currently at Ubisoft as a Dev Tester on Rocksmith. I founded Giigibyte because as I move up in the world of games, it doesn’t feel right to ignore the issues around us. I try to help people break through the barriers of getting into the gaming industry because I believe that’s how diversity will grow. I also have worked with different ways to bring people together and build a system of mutual support in our community. I am more of an activist than a public relations or business person. So I bring a unique perspective to the gaming industry community. One of the things I’d like to do here is just open up conversation for our audience to have access to. 

Andi: Hello everyone 👋 I am transfemme/non-binary and use they/them pronouns. My deepest roots are in games, music, and the arts. I've been working in various media technology spaces for the past 8 years and am now an indie game designer. I can share a little bit of my recent story, experiences, and how I got here. Up until mid 2021, I was a principal engineer at a large tech company working in video conferencing. It was there that I first witnessed and experienced a severely toxic "men's club" culture simmering in the senior levels of our organization. I saw how difficult it was for my women colleagues, especially junior ones, to earn the respect and opportunities that their men counterparts received. For some other time, I have a lot of stories about how this played out and the people it affected. … Zip forward a year, I came out, returned to my creative roots, and founded an indie game company. We are working on a game called Koda which is a pacifist, story-driven, music-based platformer about a non-binary character's journey through relationships and their identity. Our team is composed of women, trans, non-binary, and queer artists! 

Anna Webster: Hello hello! I'm Anna Webster (she/her), an asexual writer and narrative designer for games with a passion for workers' rights and unionization! Although I've only been in the industry for a little over three years (my background is actually in the performing arts), I've already seen lots of project mismanagement and the structural power imbalances that exist between games workers and publishers/execs. 

In the games that I write, I always want to help folks from all backgrounds feel seen - and in the industry that I work in, I want all workers to feel as though they create meaningful change in the world. I want to help make meaningful, actionable change in this industry for the better (be that in representation, equality in pay/compensation, reduction of crunch and bad practices, discrimination, harassment... you name it). 

Leslee: Hi there! Sorry for the delay. I’m Leslee (she/her) and have been in the games industry for 12 years. I’m currently a producer and have done narrative design and writing in the past as well. Although general working conditions have really improved for me personally the past 2 years, prior to that I witnessed/was exposed to/experienced a wild amount of inequity, mismanagement, and toxic internal politics during my time in the industry. I’ve always been loud about this kind of thing in smaller circles but started making TikToks about these situations last year which has been both cathartic and deeply validating. Turns out a lot of these issues don’t just exist in a handful of studios! 

Somewhat related, I had a baby in May and am curious to see how things will change for me in games as a result. It seems like things are better than ever for working moms in game development, but I know I wouldn’t have felt comfortable planning my family at some of my previous studios… Now that I’m in a better position to recognize when people are being mistreated (and avoid it myself) I’m interested in helping people do the same. Excited to meet and share with all of you! 

Jessica Gonzalez: My name is Jessica Gonzalez, I am a former employee who left [redacted] after they were sued for workplace harassment and discrimination. I've been working on organizing the video game and tech industries to secure better working conditions. I'm now an organizer under CWA (union) and have unionized 2 QA teams. Our Raven Software QA team under the Game Workers Alliance (GWA) and Our Vicarious Visions QA team under GWA-Albany. Thank you for having me here!

Jes Negrón: I'm Jes (they/she) and I've been working in media in various ways for a couple decades, in web, books, politics, and games. As a queer latina, my experiences have been pretty dreadful all around, from carrying the burden of being the only PoC on staff many times, to rampant inequity in pay and position, to racial and gender harassment, and the list goes on.
I decided enough was enough last year and started my own studio with an unapologetically anti-colonial mission, RETCON Games, to develop and publish narrative experiences that better represent marginalized groups. My first game, GOOD BONES, comes out soon and I'm very excited about it.
For the past almost four years, I've been working hard at exposing the toxic culture I and others experienced [redacted] by leading the class action lawsuit against them. 
I'm happy to report that, as of yesterday, our case settlement has been granted preliminary approval -- meaning thousands of women will receive compensation they were robbed of, and the company will have to enact programmatic changes with outside supervision to make a safer, more equitable workplace for all involved. 
I'm really proud of the precedent we've set, and I aim to help women across the industry with my experience in this arena should they wish to do the same.
Looking forward to connecting with everyone here!

J: I am J (She/her) I am an FX artist and I got into the games industry back in 2018.
My working conditions have gotten better after leaving my previous job. I feel like last year was incredibly rough for me and I had no clue how much that previous job was taking a toll on me. I experienced my fair share of situations regarding lack of promotion/compensation and hostile work environment situations within my team. In a way I also felt trapped because I thought I didn't have many opportunities as non us citizen but, once I got out of that situation, I realized that's not true at all. I want more people in a similar situations to be aware of how these things play out and what to look out for before committing to a company for sponsorships. I am looking forward to connecting with people who want to make this industry better! 😄




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