Happy Birthday, GameBoy!

Not the handheld gaming system, silly, our writer! Please join me in giving a big ol' GayGamer birthday shout out to GameBoy. He has been with us for quite a while now after his humble beginnings as a forum member who always had something smart to say. From there we steamrollered him into convinced him he should put his unpaid writing skills to good use and put them on the site where he could continue the tradition of not getting paid for it.

We love you GameBoy, especially your thoughtful insight and endless energy for covering events when the rest of us just want to go to bed. We love you! Happy Birthday!

Ad Blockers Hurting The Sites You Like To Visit... Like This One

I recently came across an article on Ars Technica talking about how Ad Blocking can cause the sites you like to visit to take a financial hit. While this is something that I have long recognized, Ken Fisher did such a great job explaining the issue that I decided that it is worth repeating here:

There is an oft-stated misconception that if a user never clicks on ads, then blocking them won't hurt a site financially. This is wrong. Most sites, at least sites the size of ours, are paid on a per view basis. If you have an ad blocker running, and you load 10 pages on the site, you consume resources from us (bandwidth being only one of them), but provide us with no revenue. Because we are a technology site, we have a very large base of ad blockers. Imagine running a restaurant where 40% of the people who came and ate didn't pay. In a way, that's what ad blocking is doing to us. Just like a restaurant, we have to pay to staff, we have to pay for resources, and we have to pay when people consume those resources. The difference, of course, is that our visitors don't pay us directly but indirectly by viewing advertising.

Now GayGamer isn't the size of Ars, but we do have the same kinds of expenses to keep the site running. We have not yet implemented an ad free subscription feature, and we will give it serious consideration for those who wish to support our efforts. However, for the rest of you who do block ads, I'd like to suggest that doing so actually prevents us from being able to bring you more regular unique content. Remember that this site is not a huge money maker, it is a labor of love. We would like to expand our features and even begin video content, but the biggest restraint has been one of capital. So I am appealing to you to consider turning off your ad blockers, at least for GayGamer and any other sites that you love. We welcome your presence, but in order to exist, we require your presents (in the form of viewing ads).

Why Ad Blocking is devastating to the sites you love [ars technica]

U.K. Gay Gamer? BOYZ Wants You!

The folks over at BOYZ, a U.K. publication that focuses on various gay clubs and happenings, contacted me recently looking for some help. It seems they are looking for a local London gay gamer to interview for their "Passions" feature wherein they profile a young gay man with a passionate interest in a particular hobby. They would like to find someone into video games as an upcoming interview and that someone could be you! So, if you are a twenty something gay boy living in the U.K., you can send an initial email of interest to Luke at BOYZ via this email: luke@boyz.co.uk.

Good luck to anyone who goes for this and be sure to let us know if you make it in so we can post a link to your interview and maybe you can give GG a little plug while you're at it! If you'd like to know more about BOYZ, you can check out their website here.

Gay Gamer Of The Week: Marsten E.

Name: Marsten Eccleston

Age: 27

Location: South-east of England

Gay, Straight or Bi: Around 80% Gay

Relationship Status: In a relationship, but still charming

Consoles you own: Not many anymore these days, just my PC and my trusty old DS

Muscle March Wii Skin Contest Winners: Last Call

I am in the process of sending out all the Muscle March skins to the winners but still have not heard from five people. If I don't hear from these five folks by the end of tomorrow, I will give these away to the next five posters from the original contest post.

Here are the five names still needing mailing address confirmation. please send your mailing addresses to info@gaygamer.net with the subject "Muscle march Skin Winner":

• Mad Mage


• Goshadole


• Yamil


• Mrtall


• thepickupbear

Keep checking back as we have another Muscle march giveaway happening this week. In the interest of fairness, please be aware that if you won the first contest, you won't be eligible for the next one.

Thanks!

Happy Birthday, Pixel Poet!

A big GayGamer birthday greeting goes out to our very own bear lovin' Pixel Poet today. He's done some great stuff here at GG including his rampage against the Dante's Inferno "booth babe" PR stunt and setting up panels for GayGamer at PAX last year and this year at PAX East.

Happy Birthday, Pixel Poet. My your day be filled with bears, beards, rainbows and lollipops.

Happy Birthday, ROCsteady!

Please join me in giving a big GayGamer birthday shout out to our own ROCsteady who, under the watchful eye of Dawdle makes things happen here at GG every weekend. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to read your birthday greetings as soon as he gets back from his magical unicorn ride through the enchanted forest behind GayGamer castle. Happy Birthday, ROCsteady, you are truly one of a kind!

Gay Gamer of The Week: Mio

Name: Mio

Forum Name: TwenFM

Age: 29

Location: Berlin | Germany | Europe

Gay, Straight or Bi: Gay

Relationship Status: Single, but I got my eye on someone special and we´re already dating :)))

Consoles you own: Xbox360, PSP, Nintendo DS

Muscle March Wii Skins: The Winners!

IMPORTANT! Please read the list of winners below. Some of you that thought you didn't make it in in time actually did!

Yesterday's comment contest for the Muscle March Wii skins was a resounding success! Big thanks to everyone who participated. Here is the list of everyone who will be receiving one:

• Josh
• xeneon-chan
• Nate
• Dixieland61
• Chris
• SomeasianDude
• Signal 717
• Ommin
• prequevu
• WolfGalt
• Mrtall
• thepickupbear
• Remann
• Nick
• Mad Mage
• Kenny
• terrencelee
• Goshadole
• Yamil
• Kevinicus

I was quite please to see how polite everyone was in their requests. Such delightful manners! A special gold star goes to Nick for his imaginative and hilarious (to me) post. Very Dickensian!

Mayeth I please have one too, kind sirs. I live in the bottom of someone's closet, in a shoebox, and haveth nothing to eat. My legs are crippled and alls I got for walkings are these here hobblesticks. Please sirs, with some muscles, I mights be able to carry on wiv my day, and make it to the fishhead store...

All the winners will please remit an email to info@gaygamer.net with the subject line: Muscle March Skin Winner. Please include the name you posted under as well as your mailing address. Congratulations!

Win A Muscle March Wii Skin!

The folks over at Namco have sent a little care package to the GayGamer castle containing twenty (20) Muscle March Wii skins to celebrate the launch of the game this past Monday on WiiWare. You can see what it looks like above and it's every bit as wacky as the game itself! Although honestly, I can't imagine what made Namco think we would be interested in shirtless muscle men...

So, in order to share the love I'm going to offer these to the first twenty (20) people to respond with a polite request in the comments. One word or "Gimme, gimme" requests will be ignored. Good luck and fast typing to you!

PLEASE NOTE: This contest is only available to US RESIDENTS. Sorry to our foreign readers on this one!

Gay Gamer of The Week: Luca

Name: Luca

Forum Name: Geek Queer

Age: 31

Location: Italy

Gay, Straight or Bi: Gay

Relationship Status: Fallen in love

Consoles you own: Nintendo Ds, Playstation 2, Xbox, Playstation 3, Nes, Snes, Genesis

Homophobia and Harassment in Online Gaming Article Up On IGN

A few months ago, a fellow by the name of Nathan Meunier contacted me regarding an article he was writing regarding homophobia in online gaming. I of course agreed to giving him some quotes seeing as this is one of my biggest pet peeves with the industry right now and have spoken about it on numerous occasions including sitting on a panel put on by GLAAD last year.

Much to my surprise, Nathan's well put together article appeared on IGN and of course caused quite a stir and garnering over 1100 comments. As can be expected, the comments range from supportive to vicious, so unless you want to upset yourself, I wouldn't bother reading the comments. However Nathan's article is nicely done and deserves a look-see even if, for our readers, it's preaching to the choir. I applaud Nathan for keeping the subject in the forefront of people's minds and to IGN for deciding to publish it. The more visibility on these subjects, the better chance we have of actually being heard and taken seriously.

Homophobia and Harassment in the Online Gaming Age [IGN]