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Tanya DePass

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Tanya Colleen DePass
Born1973 (age 50–51)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Years active2014-Present

Tanya DePass, also known by her username Cypheroftyr, is an American journalist, activist, and streamer. She is the founder of the non-profit organisation I Need Diverse Games, which she established in 2016.

Biography

DePass was a fan of tabletop and video games from her early childhood.[1] She has written articles on topics of diversity, feminism, and race, for publications including Polygon and Vice,[1] and provides diversity consultation services to game development studios and organisations.[1] She is the programming & diversity coordinator for OrcaCon and GaymerX.[2] DePass is the editor of Game Devs & Others: Tales from the Margins (2018), an anthology of essays from games industry professionals and players who felt marginalized by the industry.[1][3] Additionally, she is a 2020 Annenberg Innovation Lab Civic Media Fellow at USC.[4]

DePass is the co-developer for the Fifth Season RPG, based on N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy (2020).[5] Her work has been featured in the Victoria and Albert Museum's Design/Play/Disrupt exhibit.[1]

Online, DePass goes by the username Cypheroftyr.[6] She is a streamer on Twitch, where she has faced harassment.[7] In 2020, during the George Floyd protests, DePass ran a charity stream to raise funds for The Bail Project—the stream raised over $140,000 USD in a single day.[8]

She also plays Dungeons & Dragons in the Rivals of Waterdeep actual play livestream, which features a cast of people of color.[9][10] The show began in 2018 in Chicago as an official Wizards of the Coast production, broadcast on the official Dungeons & Dragons Twitch channel.[11]

I Need Diverse Games

In 2014, DePass used the hashtag #INeedDiverseGames while responding to a statement from Ubisoft claiming that it would not be feasible to animate female characters for the upcoming Assassin's Creed game.[1][12] DePass has said she is "sick of games where I don't get to be the hero".[13] Despite pre-dating the controversy, the hashtag became particularly popular during the Gamergate harassment campaign, when it was one of several used in anti-Gamergate tweets. Tweets using the hashtag were primarily those sharing positive messages about a desire for increased diversity and broader representation in video games.[14]

DePass founded a non-profit using the name I Need Diverse Games in August 2016.[1][12][15] The organisation, based in Chicago,[12] aims to support visibility and access for underrepresented people within the video games industry, and is funded through Patreon and fundraising campaigns.[12] One of the organisation's initiatives is to provide financial support and passes to video game conferences such as the Game Developers Conference.[12] As of 2020, I Need Diverse Games was sending about two dozen people to the Game Developers Conference each year.[16] The organisation also runs seminars on diversity at other games industry events, and highlights the work of underrepresented people.[1][16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Marie, Meagan (2018). Women in Gaming: 100 Professionals of Play. DK Publishing. pp. 336–337. ISBN 0744019931.
  2. ^ "Tanya DePass's schedule for OrcaCon2020". OrcaCon 2020. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  3. ^ DePass, Tanya (2018). Game Devs & Others: Tales from the Margins. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. ISBN 9781138559042.
  4. ^ "2020 Cohort". Annenberg Innovation Lab. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  5. ^ Patterson, Adreon (5 August 2019). "N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth Trilogy Receiving Fantasy RPG Adaptation". CBR.com. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  6. ^ Romano, Aja (26 August 2019). "The frustrating, enduring debate over video games, violence, and guns". Vox. Retrieved 6 June 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ^ Grayson, Nathan (29 January 2019). "For Streamers Dealing With Stalkers, Twitch's Solutions Fall Short". Kotaku. Retrieved 6 June 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ Grayson, Nathan (4 June 2020). "Black Streamers Are Grateful For New Twitch Viewers, But Heartbroken It Took Police Violence To Make It Happen". Kotaku. Retrieved 6 June 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ Stuart, Keith (29 November 2019). "'It's cool now': why Dungeons & Dragons is casting its spell again". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 June 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ Farough, Amanda (17 March 2020). "How tabletop RPG actual play shows are inspiring a new generation of fans — and products". VentureBeat. Retrieved 6 June 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ Hoffer, Christian (21 June 2020). "Rivals of Waterdeep is Dungeons & Dragons' Flagship Show". Comicbook.com. Retrieved 22 June 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ a b c d e Elahi, Amina (30 March 2017). "I Need Diverse Games works to give minorities and women a louder voice in gaming". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 6 June 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ^ Porter, Justin (25 February 2017). "A Fresh Narrative in Gaming". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 June 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. ^ Evans, Sarah Beth; Janish, Elyse (2015). "#INeedDiverseGames: How the Queer Backlash to GamerGate Enables Nonbinary Coalition". QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking. 2: 125–150 – via JSTOR.
  15. ^ Spiegelman, Karen (2 March 2020). "20 women in gaming you should know". VentureBeat. Retrieved 6 June 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ^ a b Notis, Ari (2 June 2020). "How You Can Support Black Gamers". Kotaku. Retrieved 6 June 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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