The Valley of the Misfit Tech Workers
A role-playing, print & play zine for tech worker reflection and solidarity by Yindi Pei
For Yindi’s full zine, visit: https://misfits.neocities.org
Having spent nearly two decades living in the Bay Area, I’ve seen a complete transformation of place and persons that can only be described as depressing. Sure, having to watch bros get promoted for being “good at capitalism” sucks, but I’m talking about the sadness that radiates within the misfits; workers who realized that our good intentions weren’t going to get us very far, that our principles for a more just and ethical world sometimes hurt us more than they help, that the harder we tirelessly pushed, the less we got.
I created this game because I wanted to experience joy through shared cynicism; I wanted a tool for reflection, a way for us to process and make sense of our journeys; I wanted something that can be used to honor and share our experiences with fellow misfits. Even while playing on your own, you will see familiar stories written into the instructions. I hope that, through this game, folks who identify as a misfit in tech will find validation, comradery, and ultimately, hope for a collectively realized pluralversal future.
From their home on stolen Huichin Ohlone land, Yindi Pei (they/them) spends their paid time designing websites for SF housing and their unpaid time thinking deeply about cultivating caring communities on rematriated land and “rest as resistance”.
Find Yindi at www.twitter.com/yindithey