Bonus Video! Highlights from the never-aired Real World pilot

Huge thanks to Patron Kimberly, who pointed me in the right direction to find the never-aired pilot of The Real World! In this week's bonus video, I want to share a bunch of fascinating moments from this experimental not-for-broadcast artifact, from the awkward meetings to a loft party to a fake romance staged for the cameras.

Plus: You might've heard that the publisher EA fired a lot of folks who worked on the Dragon Age series of games, which have long been hailed for their queer inclusivity. As it happens, I interviewed some of the folks who wrote and edited those games back in 2016 for a project about LGBTQ+ gaming called Playing With Pride. I thought you might be interested in the stories that these folks had to share, so I went into the video archives and uploaded the full interviews for you to see.

• A conversation with Karin Weekes: https://youtu.be/QI8THyxllVI

• A conversation David Gaider: https://youtu.be/-L8b2SGIgrY

• A conversation with Trick Weekes, Karin Weekes, Ritzy, and Justin Saint: https://youtu.be/Jhy27dG_z2A

And let me know if these conversations & videos about queer gaming is of interest, because I have well over a hundred hours of conversations from this project -- interviews with folks working in the industry, with community leaders, and with individual gamers around the country. They share stories of fighting for queer inclusion, about meeting and falling in love with partners through gaming, about better understanding themselves, and much more. If that's something that piques your interest, say the word and I can bring you lots more!

• To watch the entire The Real World pilot, join me for the livestream today: https://twitch.tv/mattbaume

• And here's the clip of Bea Arthur and Perry Como that I mention in the bonus video (jump to around 6 minutes in): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2CF5QoHspw

And if you're like to see more videos about games, here are a few that I did about a decade ago:

• Gone Home: https://youtu.be/sWTQjJO87wk

• Cobra Club: https://youtu.be/r_WrZnCbYYA

• Tusks: https://youtu.be/yZW0VxHCBQI

• Trans gamers: https://youtu.be/v1YnaB30fbo