6. What is the most amazing thing that you know a game group has done for their community?
I don’t know about the most amazing, since gamers organize lots of beautiful things like fundraisers to help send cash-strapped gamers to conventions, holiday toy collections, food drives, games for enlisted personnel, etc.. But I’m awed at what Big Bad Con has become in just a few years. Right from the beginning (2011) it was always about community, with all proceeds left after paying for hotel,, supplies, etc. going to the Alameda County Food Bank, Doctors Without Borders, and Child’s Play. The goal of the convention itself was to build up the gaming community by offering “great games for awesome gamers.”
By the third or fourth year, you could already feel the event had moved further into community building by focusing on diversity, making gaming more welcoming to everyone, promoting new voices, supporting game designers, inviting game community organizers more than celebs, organizing workshops and demos, and establishing formal community standards. As a result, it has become the safest, most welcoming game convention in the already diversity-friendly San Francisco Bay Area.
The Reef 