Celebrating Diversity and Creativity: The 2024 Gayming Awards Highlight

The 2024 Gayming Awards are part of an industry that revels in its creativity and inclusivity. All that will change on 25 June this year at 2pm PT, when the Gayming Awards will be broadcast as part of IGN’s Summer of Gaming. The inaugural show of inclusivity in gaming will celebrate leading lights and rising stars of the LGBTQ+ community, and mark the onset of a new era of inclusivity in games. Not only will there be a set of awards, but there will also be a roster of honourees and sponsors who have made a commitment to diversity with Games Vs Gaymes serving as an anchor event. ‘Gaming is a world that’s used to creativity,’ Smith explains. ‘There are some good and bad creations in the history of gaming, and there are some weird creations. Opening up the industry, it feels like a good thing.’ If you want to catch the 2024 Gayming Awards, tune in to IGN on 25 June this year at 2pm PT.

Highlighting Legends and Emerging Stars

It’s impossible to talk about the Gayming Awards without extolling the greats and the next generation in equal measure but there will be all-important awards: the Gayming Icon Award and the LGBTQ Streamer Rising Star Class of 2024 will recognise queer excellence, with this year’s Icon Award going to Jeremy Crawford, lead rules designer for Dungeons & Dragons.

THE GAYMING ICON: A LEGEND CELEBRATED

The writer Jeremy Crawford encapsulates the effect of this: ‘Working on Wizards of the Coast teams for years now, as well as working on the 2024 [Player’s Handbook], has made it easy to realise that a lot of people in the industry are gay. Being a Gayming Icon at the 50th anniversary of D&D really inspired me to keep doing what I’m doing.’

The Rise of New Stars

Alongside the celebration of such a legend, the LGBTQ Streamer Rising Star Class of 2024 was also announced, featuring creators such as Devoglaer, PearlTeese and Sukar Baba. These rising stars are representative of the ever-growing wealth of LGBTQ+ content creators in gaming, and the Gayming Awards’ dedication to highlighting the next generation of LGBTQ+ voices in gaming was a key focus in 2022.

A Spectacle of Awards and Recognitions

The nominees for the 2024 Gayming Awards reflect a kaleidoscopic spectrum of LGBTQ+ life in the gaming world – from Game of the Year (which includes Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Final Fantasy XVI and more), to Best LGBTQ+ Indie Game Award.

Celebrating Diversity in the Industry

The most meaningful of these are on the ‘Winners and Nominees’ page, where one will see that the organisation gave out awards for not only ‘Best Game’, ‘Best Narrative’, ‘Best Audio’, and the like, but for an Industry Diversity Award to Humble Games and Larian Studios, among others. This is a clear call to the industry, and to the larger world of gaming, that we should be making space at the table, in every aspect of the hobby.

Sponsors and Supporters: The Backbone of The Gayming Awards

It wouldn’t be possible to run the Gayming Awards without support from the likes of TikTok, Devolver Digital and Logitech G, and from organisations such as Out Making Games and NYC Gaymers, all of which sponsor the awards and show that any resistance towards LGBTQ+ inclusivity happening in the commercial games industry is acting out against the tide.

Legends in Gaming: The Heart of The Gayming Awards

At the centre are legends: individuals who have blazed trails within the context of gaming or who look primed to do the same in the future, be they trailblazers that fostered the very possibility of games embracing LGBTQ+ people and perspectives, or those who take their very presence on screen or behind it in the gaming world for granted. The Gayming Awards owe their very existence to the transformative potential of games as a medium for fostering inclusivity, diversity and change; by honouring legends such as Jeremy Crawford and up-and-comers, it’s creating one that is more welcoming and colourful still.

Explaining "Legend" in the Context of The Gayming Awards

The Gayming Awards describes a legend as someone who is both ‘truly world-class in the field, and are inspirational for their game-changing spirit of inclusivity and representation’. In the context of the Gayming Awards at least, legends are groundbreaking figures who’ve used their status, their creativity and their influence to fight for LGBTQ+ representation in games. They’re celebrated and honoured not just for being truly great, but for seeking to foster a games world where players of all sexual orientations and gender identities can feel like they see something of themselves, celebrated in the games they love.

In the lead-up to the 2024 Gayming Awards, not only will it be a rewarding celebration of legends and rising stars, but also an inspirational statement about where we’re headed in gaming: towards a world that welcomes diverse characters, differences and new ideas. It will be a world worth fighting for, as the legends that pioneered the way forward continue to blaze and inspire, while new stars are born. I can hardly wait for Gayming Awards this coming holiday period to see all that is possible when the best and most inspiring be honoured and come together in a dazzling celebration.