When Marvel revealed that Thor was being rewritten as a woman, Keisha Howard wasn't thrilled. Though lauded a progressive move, she still felt like she was seeing the same storylines and characters across gaming and geek culture.
"When things are familiar, when things are comfortable, it's not necessarily progressive," she said. "It's not something that will provide an experience that will make the community grow."
Pushing the geek community to be more inclusive, and creative, has been Howard's goal since 2009 when she launched Sugar Gamers, an organization that advocates for those underrepresented in gaming and geek culture (including women, LGBTQ, and people of color) through stories and events that highlight new and diverse voices.
One of those initiatives is Project Violacea, an open-source webs series in which participants write their own characters into a "cyberpunk dystopia" setting. This has allowed for creativity and characters that might not otherwise be seen in gaming--one participant created a character who's a paraplegic hacker at the helm of control center of a futuristic rebellion.
In this interview for the Chicago Inno podcast, she talks about why consumerism is limiting geek culture, her belief in indie video games, and how diverse gamers can retake the narrative.
