We put up a help needed post on Medium today (1 June, 2016) and have gotten a great response. Thank you all so, so much!

We’ve gotten some offers of moderating help, as well as donations and new Patreon subscribers. Thank you so much, it’s heartening to have the help when things seemed to be at such a low point.

Speaking of low points, once again someone crawled out of the dankest parts of the internet to call us scammers. Oh boy, that’s so far from anyone’s truth it’s shameful. Our founder had some rather… colourful responses to that accusation, which you can read starting with this tweet.

Under the cut is what we need, and if you can be of any help drop us a note at whyineeddiversegames@gmail.com

  1. ) Active moderators for Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Steam, Google + and Imzy communities. I (cypheroftyr) cannot manage all of it and do it well. I need folks who will find things to reblog, do original content, and/or keep up with all that’s going on. One person cannot do it all and I’m burning out hard and fast. Knowing social media trends and following all the news and whatnot is time consuming and a skill I have but it can’t be the only thing I do.
  2. Someone who can attend conventions and panel for INDG on my behalf. This is tricky because it means being a public face for the work we do, not being an asshole and also being able to field questions that could be disingenuous, malicious or clueless in public with a chance for fuckery. It also opens up people representing us to harassment and being a possible target. But we’re getting invited to more things, but I cannot be in several places in once, nor do we have the resources or energy to go to that many conventions without a physical and emotional drain. If you are interested, and a POC, LGBTQIA person or want to recommend someone, let me know by email whyineeddiversegames@gmail.com since that vetting process will be a bit more strenuous than what we’ll ask of community managers.
  3. Streamers, we need some folks to help with that. We’ve put out a call for folks to stream on our Twitch channel, and that’s still something we’d like to have help from. Again, that vetting process would be a bit more stringent since you would be out there as us on Twitch and we need people who can provide that commentary and critique while playing something like Witcher 3, Uncharted 4, Undertale, Read Only Memories, etc. email whyineeddiversegames@gmail.com
  4. Money, it’s coming down to filthy money. We got a boost in the arm from Fund Club in January. However without a regular income to back up some of our expenses, it’s all coming from Patreon and the rapidly dwindling cushion we started 2016 with. The fundraiser I put up for our one year anniversary helped a bit but we didn’t do so hot. So a lot of the funds that came in have gone back out to keeping things like the podcast running, the website domains paid for, swag (mostly buttons) for conventions, business cards, etc. But it comes down to money in the end. With only our Patreon as support, we can do very little to help the community and keep the lights on as it were.

So if you have the means here’s how you can help:

a) Paypal for a one time donation: paypal.me/INDG in case you have a bit of spare change and don’t want to commit to recurring support.

b) Patreon support: patreon.com/INeedDivGms

Why INDG is on Patreon:

We are dedicated to helping those that want to bring more diversity to the art of gaming. We will do this by sponsoring attendance at diverse gaming conventions, promoting those that are making diverse games, indie projects and presenting on the topics of diversity in gaming at conventions.

So please support our work on Patreon, even $1 per month will help. One perk is getting our podcast, Fresh Out of Tokens early, no matter what level you are supporting at. One of our goals is to have more articles, to pay people for their contributions, and to do more tangible things for the community.

We also want to help others get to conventions, share their work if funding is an issue. We would love your support to send aspiring game devs to conventions like GDC, IGDA events in their city, GeekGirlCon, HavenCon, GaymerX, and other places where gaming and diversity are parts of the conversation.

We want to do this by highlighting work by marginalized, underrepresented people in the industry, getting their voices heard and their work seen be it a game, articles, etc. But that takes resources and time. Our founder #INeedDiverseGames does this full time, others give what time they can to moderate our spaces, and dedicate our time to better diversifying the games space.

So in the meantime, we humbly ask for your support to do the work we can and to bring change to the art form we love and want to make better!

Thank you so much for whatever support you can give towards our work.

Cheers,
Tanya D. aka cypheroftyr
@cypheroftyr // @INeedDivGms
whyineeddiversegames@gmail.com

5. Game Review and Critique: If you are a game dev, and want us to review your game, send us a code. New games cost $30, $40, $60 and up. Part of what we want to do is critique games from a diversity perspective, but keeping up with trends is hard to do when you don’t have much money to buy new games. (Also if anyone has contacts on how to get on a journo/review directory to request early access let us know).

6. Writers, folks who don’t mind sharing their content or thoughts with us. We can only pay a token amount but we want to pay you something for your work. If you have something we can repost, link to or are interested in writing something for us, again email whyineeddiversegames@gmail.com

So that’s it, all of it for now. We need help to keep this going. Please boost, retweet, link to, etc.

Published by cypheroftyr

Tanya DePass is the founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a non-profit organization based in Chicago, which is dedicated to better diversification of all aspects of gaming. I Need Diverse Games serves the community by supporting marginalized developers attend the Game Developer Conference by participating in the GDC Scholarship program, helps assist attendance at other industry events, and is seeking partnership with organizations and initiatives. Tanya is a lifelong Chicagoan who loves everything about gaming, #INeedDiverseGames spawn point, and wants to make it better and more inclusive for everyone. She founded and was the EIC of Fresh Out of Tokens podcast where games culture was discussed and viewed through a lense of feminism, intersectionality and diversity. Now she’s a co-host on Spawn on Me Podcast. Along with all of that, she’s the Programming Coordinator for OrcaCon, she often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at multiple conventions throughout the year. Her writing about games and games critique appears in Uncanny Magazine, Polygon, Wiscon Chronicles, Vice Gaming, Paste Games, Mic, and other publications.