So, what did you think of the first Mario Kart 7 gaymer night?

Now that the inaugural "Mario Kart 7 Gaymer Night" is over, I'd like to ask all of you who participated what you thought of it.

I'm especially eager to hear what you thought of:

* the day (Monday) that was chosen,
* the time (7 pm PST/10 pm EST) that was chosen, and
* the, er, "venue" (150cc, all items, etc.) that was chosen for this event.

Also, if you wanted to join in on the fun but didn't due to any of the aforementioned particulars, let me know that, too.



I'd really like to plan another one of these shindigs--and for sooner rather than later--but I'm not exactly sure how to go about it. Should it be scheduled it for the same day and same time as the first one, or should it be scheduled for a different day and time? Should we continue to use the 150cc community I set up a while ago, or would you prefer to use a 100cc or 50cc community instead?

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Finally, I'd like to thank everyone who popped in for even a few races last night. (I was only able to partake in three "cups" myself, due to a rather hungry husband. Next time I'll feed him first, I swear!)

Also, I'd like to thank, many times over, the mysterious man behind the Video Games Made Me Gay tumblog for suggesting this little meetup in the first place.

See also: 'Who's up for a Mario Kart 7 gaymer night?'

Calling all LGBT gamers

Mathieu Dehlinger, a journalism student at Paris' SciencesPo, recently approached me and asked if I would be willing to answer a few questions for an article he's writing about LGBT gamers. (The resulting article will appear on Ludique Ta Mère, a game-focused blog started by some of the school's students.)

Anyway, Dehlinger wrote me earlier today and asked if I knew any "average" LGBT gamers who might also be willing to respond to his questions. My first thought, of course, was to see if any of you (yes, you) would be up for it.

Dehlinger's questions are pretty straightforward. What do you think about the term gaymer? Why are sites like gaymer.org and gaygamer.net needed in this day and age? How do you feel about games with gay characters and storylines? Why are games still behind the curve when it comes to representing the LGBT community? That sort of thing.

If you consider yourself to be a member of the LGBT community and you'd like to be included in this article, send me an e-mail (bochalla at yahoo dot com) with "calling all LGBT gamers" in the subject line and I'll forward it to Dehlinger so he can contact you.

Note: The design above was created by Andrew Kovacs (aka hige91 on deviantart.com).

You say gamer, I say gaymer

If you’re gay and you’ve been surfing the Web for any amount of time, you’ve likely come across “gaymer” once or twice. The increasingly common portmanteau—a word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings—refers to gay (as well as lesbian, bisexual and transgender) folk who are fond of video games.

Gaymer is hardly the only gay portmanteau around. Everyone’s heard and used “gaydar,” of course, and “gayborhood” is making its way into more and more headlines--not to mention water-cooler conversations--every day. Go to UrbanDictionary.com and you’ll find even more examples of this typographic trend, including “gayngsta,” “gaythiest” and even “gayby boom,” which refers to the present-day increase in gay and lesbian parents.

Just because a few Net denizens glom onto a new word doesn’t mean it’s going to be accepted by the masses—or that it will be admired or adored by the few. Take gaymer: Although the neologism has only been around for a few years, it has been both championed and reviled in that short span of time. Atlanta’s Chris Vizzini liked the word so much he built a website, Gaymer.org, around it. Head over to GayGamer.net, though, and you’ll find a slew of people who are far from fans of the term.

David Edison, the site’s associate editor, counts himself among that crowd. “I’m not crazy about cutesy slang that incorporates the word gay into any rhyming syllable,” he says. A recent poll on the year-old site found that 34 percent of visitors agree with him (they’d like to stick with the old standby, gamer), while 27 percent prefer to call themselves gay gamers and 39 percent go with gaymer.