IGDA Sees Shakeup After Raucus GDC Party

After a raucus GDC party that apparently featured scantily clad women dancing around, the IGDA saw a couple of its most visible members resign their posts. The shakeup is a blow to an industry and an organization that had been trying to show they actually cared about how women were seen in the video game industry.

The General Developers Conference (GDC) certainly serves quite the purpose when it comes to giving out the skinny about games that are going to be coming to the market but there can be some pretty ridiculous parties as well. This particular party apparently was a bit over the top and caused quite a few people to become offended.

Long time IGDA member Brenda Romero resigned her position after learning of the party, which apparently took place after the GDC awards ceremony. The party was particularly galling to Romero because it came just hours after she had given a talk at the conference about the rampant sexism that still runs through the gaming community.

Earlier in the day, Romero had given a presentation about her #1reasonwhy tweets. Those tweets and the talk, were an attempt to figure out why sexism and mysogny are still so rampant in the gaming industry.

One example is the “booth babes” which have been a part of most conferences for many years.

Among the people who attended the infamous party was a student developer named Alicia Avril. Avril gave an interview where she described “at least three girls in white outfits—one was in a skimpy t-shirt one was in this weird furry get-up—dancing.”

I resign as co-chair of the IGDA Women in Games SIG effective immediately. #1ReasonWhy.

— Brenda Romero (@br) March 28, 2013

While I only had 3 days left in my term as an IGDA Board member, I formally resigned from my position with the organization as of 2 mins ago

— Darius Kazemi (@tinysubversions) March 28, 2013

Avril said she walked into the party not expecting that sort of display at all. She added “you’d think that the IGDA would be more thoughtful in their own party and how they’re portraying themselves.”

Brenda Romero, who is a game developer and co-chair of the IGDA Women in Games special interest group resigned the following morning. Darius Kazemi, an IGDA board member did so as well.

Both IGDA members made their resignations extremely public with a couple of tweets that were pretty clearly aimed at calling the organization out for its behavior.