When Take This was founded, our focus was on serving people who make and play games. Over the last few years, we’ve turned our focus strongly towards working inside the game industry. Spurred by COVID closures, Take This responded to a huge uptick in demand for our work in the game industry with new workshops, research, and attendance at industry events. It’s been transformational, allowing us to identify, become influential voices about, and take action on the systemic factors that create player experiences. However, as a small organization with very real limits, this progress came at the expense of our more grassroots community programming and resources. This year we’d like to recognize the strength and commitment of our community, and reconnect with the awesome community that contributes to and supports Take This.
So, with 2024 rapidly picking up steam, here’s what you can expect from Take This in the next twelve months:
- The AFK Room was Take This’ first major program. This year, in March at PAX East, we are extraordinarily excited and humbled to celebrate 10 years of the AFK Program. We will kick off a year of special programming at each PAX, including celebrations of our dedicated and caring volunteers, without whom this program could not continue. We are also dedicated to more consistently recognizing our volunteers’ time and vital role in our work in the AFK Program and Take This more generally. More of that programming will be announced as each event approaches, starting with PAX East.
- Community is one of the most important protective factors against mental distress. So, we’re re-distributing our time and efforts to ensure that we are reciprocating the energy and resources our community gives us to help keep Take This alive. This means that we will be re-building our relationship with our current ambassadors, increasing our streaming to be a more consistent presence and resource, and working on building new and expanded community programs. We will be providing regular updates and information in our discord, on stream and through social media.
- We know that people from targeted and marginalized communities and identities experience the most distress in games communities, and that tailored resources and knowledge are needed to get and create effective support. We’ve started working with partners like The Black in Gaming Foundation and a skilled research team at USC, headed by Dr. TreaAndrea Russworm. We are committed to providing regular updates as they are available and involving our community as the research progresses.
- Our research on extremism and toxicity has taught us that gamers (and the parents of young gamers) want and need help navigating a challenging online world in and around games, and that we can help them. Our partnership with Games for Change, called Raising Good Gamers, will be the focus of this research in 2024 and beyond. We’re applying to some exciting grant opportunities early this year to get this up and running, and we have initial funding from Modulate for community resources in the form of two videos for parents and kids which we are aiming to have ready for release by mid-year.
Of course, this rebalancing of our work does not mean that our work with studios and larger industry and government entities is ending. We are committed to continuing our advocacy, research, education, and support. We want to help create a games industry and games communities which are healthy for everyone – and we recognize that that means reconnecting with and expanding our community in 2024. Through connecting our research, community engagement, and advocacy efforts, we believe that we can bridge our separate efforts to truly support both game players and developers in improving their mental wellness. After all, it is dangerous to go alone and we hope that Take This can provide resources, knowledge and community that helps us all.