Anybody familiar with GenCon, "Gen Con is the original, longest-running, best-attended, gaming convention in the world!"

Vox is predicting the end of it this year, as they've started stacking up industry insiders for the conference and the lineup is now majorly women.

This year’s lineup is 52% female! (13 out of 25)

Just five years ago, the lineup was a meager 6.25% female (1 out of 16)

This wouldn't be a necessarily bad thing per se, except when you realize that this representation is vastly askew from the ratio of women who are actually working in the gaming industry. The list is telling, obviously weighing gender equality quotas over actual value to the community:

  • Emily Care Boss: Well, she's gotten some credits according to RPGgeek, but she also seems to be one of those "indie" designers who advocates the masterless RPG, and "story-driven" RPG, which usually end up with sub par stories. Also, who plays Romance RPGs?

  • Brian Cortijo: Hey look, an RPG designer. You might even have played something he wrote. He's worked on Dungeons and Dragons 3rd, 3.5, 4th, and 5th. Also some Pathfinder and d20 OGL stuff.

  • Katherine Cross: According to GenCon, she's a feminist journalist for Gamasutra who's written for Kotaku, Polygon, Offworld, and other geek hating houses of "journalism". She's a Ph.D student in sociology looking at "antisocial behavior online and identity formation in virtual worlds". Game on, GamerGate.

  • Crystal Frasier: She has a fair number of RPG credits with Pathfinder, and some artist credits as well.

  • Amanda Hamon Kunz: She's done some work on Pathfinder and 13th Age products, including ENie winning Deep Magic.

  • Kenneth Hite: Has far more credibility than anyone so far on the list. His RPGgeek designer credits go through 17 pages, covering GURPS, Gumshoe, Savage Worlds, FATE Core, Pathfinder, and more.

  • Kathryn Hymes: Well neither 'geek has anything. Oh, that's because she doesn't make games. She makes play experiences dealing with language. Like Sign, which is 2 hours long in silence as the "players" recreate a bit of the creation of Nicaraguan sign language. Or Dialect, a story game about a community in isolation losing it's identity through language decline. Interesting ideas, actually, but they AREN'T GAMES, not in the proper sense. "She seeks to actively avoid RPG tropes in order to make the hobby more approachable to new enthusiastic faces." Hmm. Like having actual conflict and rules mechanisms?

  • Renee Knipe: If I have the right one(there's two on RPGgeek), she's got a total of five RPG design credits. Yes, that's more than I have, but that's hardly insider status when nobody plays your stuff. Kagematsu and Charnel Gods may have gotten awards a decade ago, but who knows them now? The stuff of legend, I tell you.

  • Anna Kreider: She's a self described "cranky feminist" with the blog Go Make Me a Sandwich and the standout SexyTime Adventures: the RPG. She's also done a little with Fiasco, and some Vampire. Let's face it, she hates men, Christians, is obsessed with "gender parity", and has no real clue about the men that built the industry.

  • Christopher Lawrence: I'm torn on his credibility. He worked for Avalon Hill on RuneQuest: Slayers, and supposedly helped develop scenarios for the Starship Troopers movie based boardgame. Trouble is, there was no such game. There was a minis game, based on the movie, and Avalon Hill published a game based on the novel. GenCon's at least run by idiots that don't do research, or letting guests write their own without fact checking.

  • Ryan Miller: Another actual insider. He's done work on multiple CCGs, Epic PvP from AEG, and Bolt Action. Perhaps less influential, but he still has cred.

  • Joshua Morris: Not listed on BoardGameGeek, but he supposedly worked for Score on several licensed property games. It's hard to say what his credibility is, he works as a cable content manager now.

  • Harrison Pink: GenCon bio says he's a video game guy who's got some credits, but nothing tabletop.

  • Brian Poel: Largely a video game dev, but he is one of the men behind Golem Arcana. Not much credibility, but some.

  • Marie Poole: CEO of Lone Shark Games. Of course, there's no credits in either 'Geek for her, so how much game stuff she's actually done, who knows?

  • Jessica Price: She has a whopping three Pathfinder credits. Most of the ones I've seen have closer to a dozen, at least six if they're busy with other work. She's also the one who called Mike Mearls and Lewis Pulsipher fake geek boys. Pulsipher might not be that credentialed a designer, but FFG reprinted one of his, and Mike Mearls has worked on D&D since 3rd edition(yes, even the trainwreck 4th.). Historically illiterate Paizo employee.

  • Donna Prior: ONE RPG producer credit. For Fantasy Age. She speaks about community management, diversity, and other special snowflake topics to people that think they matter.

  • Alex Roberts: She has no discernible credits. Supposedly a freelance writer, who likes to talk about sex a lot at convention panels. Why can't she talk about games?

  • Wes Schneider: EIC at Paizo, and co-creator of Pathfinder. Passionate about "GLBTQ" topics in gaming, and author for Tor. Like I needed more reason to not play Pathfinder.

  • Hakan Seyalioglu: The other half of Thorny Games, with Hymes. He's apparently written some tools for Google Play games.

  • Zachary Strebeck: Game lawyer. Represents Stonemaier Games, and a couple of others. Odd interpretation of insider, but runs Game Lawyer blog, and contributes to the Dice Tower Podcast, so whatever.

  • Elisa Teague: Designed Geek Out!, a party game. Works for Lone Shark, worked for Playroom Entertainment. Likes to focus on women's issues and body image in the gaming community.

  • Mark Truman: He has a fair number of small RPG credits, with Cortex and FATE being the main systems involved.

  • Monica Valentinelli: Another somewhat busy small timer, with lots of Firefly credits, with some Vampire and others in the mix as well.

  • Eddy Webb: Another real insider. Lots of World of Darkness credits, but even Chill, Firefly, and Champions are in his work.

Vox writes:

Just wait until the lineup is 75% female! Here is my prediction: GenCon attendance is going to decline over the next ten years, white men are increasingly going to stop attending it, and there will be much wailing over what happened without anyone ever mentioning the giant pink elephant in the room.

Look at the university system. College is increasingly irrelevant to white men. I would much rather hire a young man who had the sense to avoid the waste of time that is college and its related debt than one with a degree.