Panel idea - fighting bigotry in online games

Feral

Pax FAQ wrote:

How do I submit a band/panel/programming idea?
The forums make a great sounding board for ideas, and we keep a close eye on them all year round.

Alrighty then.

@Robert Khoo

I'd like to organize a panel for either PAX East or Prime 2013 on fighting bigotry in online games. (I figure the boat on Prime 2012 has already sailed.)

I haven't fully fleshed this idea out in my head yet, but I'm thinking about approaching it from two angles.

1) Positions of authority (GMs, moderators, guild leaders)
2) Peers (you're in Xbox Live and somebody uses the n-word)

I'm also considering addressing things like:

3) making the environment comfortable for women or trans people to use voice chat
4) distinguishing between malicious bigotry and unintended bigotry (eg, using the word 'fag' because you hate gay people vs. using the word 'gay' as a general-purpose epithet)
5) identify actual situations of harassment and real-world threating
6) when it is necessary to escalate the issue to in-game authorities (GMs, Tribunal) or out-of-game authorities (police)

Not only do I personally feel that this is very very important, I think it would also be a good symbolic gesture.

I also think I'm the right person to do it.

So I'm kind of looking for feedback, basically more meaty stuff to include, and I'm also hoping Khoo or somebody else directly involved in PAX can give me feedback over whether they support this idea.

zerzhul

People who are directly involved in running PAX (aside from some Enforcers) do not often post here. It does happen, sometimes, but I wouldn't expect it. I certainly could be wrong, but I think that portion of the paxsite FAQ is out of date (in fact it was removed from the updated East FAQ with the east website redesign, which I would figure will be the case for the prime redesign as well http://east.paxsite.com/faq).

Also, it appears that panel submissions for Prime 2012 don't close until June 29th. http://panels.paxsite.com/

Feral

Thanks, zerzhul.

I'd like to leave the thread open for feedback and criticism, though.

SmallLady

I'm not sure where you found that quote, but that's not in the current FAQ. Just checked.


Wait, we're talking about the actual PAX site FAQ.

yes.. very out of date. Expect a new site soon!

zerzhul

As far as the panel idea itself goes, there have definitely been panels along these lines in the past.

There was this panel at East 2012; maybe you can try to contact some of those panelists for ideas as well?