Ada Lovelace Day is a yearly event to celebrate awesome women in IT and tech who inspire. It’s about both celebrating girl geeks and also breaking down stereotypes to encourage more young girls and young people generally into IT.
This year I wanted to do my Ada Lovelace tribute to Stephanie Bendixsen (Hex), the new Good Game presenter and all round awesome gaming geek. You can also follow her on twitter as HexSteph, on Tumblr, on her facebook fan page, she has a couple of amusing vids on Youtube as justsurreal and of course I recommend watching Good Game :).
I first came across her on Good Game – one of my favourite shows to chill and reconnect with my inner gamer 😉 – where she joined as co-host in October 2009. I’ve watched the show for ages, and I think she’s doing an amazing job.
Some people whinge about it not being the same as it was with Junglist (the co-host before her) but I think they both have a different style, and they both are awesome. Personally I find her approach really funny, quirky and excellent for the show. Bajo, the other co-host is – as always – fantastic!
It should be said I usually look at the Good Game Review of a new game I’m considering, those rubber chickens have currency! 🙂
The reason I wanted to write a bit about Hex is because she is an unapologetic and extremely enthusiastic gamer who has inspired me this last year and who I think is a great role model. She loves gaming: she loves playing, talking about and researching games and her commitment and presentation style has been awesome.
I look forward to meeting and gaming with her some time 🙂
She had strict parents who were very anti-gaming, so no consoles or anything that looked like a game in the house. When she discovered the wonderful world of text-based RPGs she found she could play and her parents assumed it was homework or research.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWgcyaX07_I&feature=rec-LGOUT-exp_fresh+div-1r-2-HM[/youtube]
Hex did her time doing tech support while she was at uni, and has possibly one of the world’s coolest jobs – playing and reviewing games. There is a short biography on the Good Game website worth looking through.
I guess another thing about Hex is that she has copped the widest possible range of human emotion online, from vitriol to over the top fanboiz, and has seemingly dealt with it all with good grace – another good lesson to learn from 🙂
I think Hex is doing great work for the industry and for gamers, has inspired me and will be someone to watch as her career progresses.
Great work Hex, and keep on kicking butt, literally 🙂