Desirée Rincón is a woman of many talents: leader, military veteran, video game program manager, social media manager, graphic designer – but at her core, always a gamer and community organizer. Her resilience has also been tested in a way few people ever face, and she continues to choose community and hope even in the face of repeated adversity. As we explore her story, you see how she repeatedly uses video gaming to connect communities – military units, orphaned military children, disabled gamers, and out of work game developers. And that’s not getting into the magic of her service dog Sydney, who wields a lightsaber proudly. This is a deeply human episode: you will explore how this generation of kids uses Minecraft in the grieving process; how service dogs bring us together; how hope springs even in the adversity of gaming layoffs, and how Reddit comes together to help disabled gamers (yes, THAT Reddit.) You’ll also hear some unvarnished stories from Desirée’s time as third party operations coordinator for Xbox – a rare insight into the mix of publisher and platform considerations seen at the big platforms (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Google, Apple, and increasingly Valve) – and in particular, the heightened risks around physical manufacturing of games.
Listen now: Season 2 Episode 10
Key Quotes
I spent 12 years in the US Army: three combat tours. There were two things that have stayed with me throughout my entire military career. One is resilience, because there is no room for failure. No room for mistakes. Because you’re talking about in certain instances, life and death situations, and you have to ensure that that you can pick up that ball, you can carry it the whole way, and you can pass it forward to the next person without dropping it, because so many other people depend on that ball.
Adaptability: our running motto in my unit was “Semper Gumby”, which was “always flexible”. We had to remain very flexible because things could change at any moment and all of a sudden, there would be a lot of ambiguity that would just get dropped in your lap. You’d have, like, “you gotta accomplish a certain mission. This is the deadline, and this is what you’ve got to work with.” And you’re handed a Styrofoam cup and a paperclip and a rubber band and you have to MacGyver, you know, a jet engine out of it somehow but you work with what you have. So you have to be super flexible about it, because things will change every freaking minute. You end up, you know, having to drop everything to pick up this other task that you have that has to be done, because that’s way more important.
We primarily use video gaming in Gold Star Gamers because video games, as anybody in our industry can tell you, they obviously speak to us. Video games are something everyone can relate to. So we basically kind of come to their level and reach kids in a medium that they understand fully. They play video games, and in doing so, they play with each other. They oftentimes will talk to each other. We have a Discord by the by that fully monitored. Every adult that is in this Discord has been background checked and vetted. We we make sure these kids remain fully secure. We play video games together as a community. We have a dedicated Minecraft server. The kids will go into this Minecraft server and build monuments to their parents.
And mind you, we had a few instances where we had games that the devs were trying to to enable cross platform play trying to get it to work with Xbox and it wasn’t all working all fine and dandy. And that led to a few botches that we were trying to put band aids on behind the scenes. So I always made it a point to stay on top of devs and be like, “is there anything you need? Is there anything that we can help you with? Is there anybody I can connect you with to get you any resources that we have in order to make it easier for you to get your game on our platform?” Yeah, it led to a few of those emergency meetings, where we had to try to, like finagle stuff behind the scenes, but at the end of the day, you know what? That’s why Xbox paid me.
When accessibility is missing people, you’re not just inconveniencing people. You are literally shutting them out. And that’s not just in theory. That’s an actual reality. We had an event up here that came under heat because the way that they navigated ADA access was basically non existent and caused a massive uproar in the community. If I can’t safely navigate a space with my service dog, I can’t be there period. This isn’t just abstract for me. I also have a lot of friends who are gamers that are literally missing limbs. I have deaf friends, blind friends, friends with cognitive disabilities, and all of them game. And all of them figure out how they’re going to make it work. They all game. They all find connection through gaming. So when accessibility isn’t considered, it’s not minor. It’s a real decision about who gets to be included. You start to see just how many people we’re pushing out of our community every day.
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