These instructions are for Pidgin, but can probably be adapted to other IM clients (for instance, Andy has managed to get in using Trillian, I believe).

1. Create a Google Talk or other Jabber/XMPP account. The easiest possible way to do this is just to sign up for Gmail. If you already have a Gmail account, congratulations: you’ve already completed step 1. Creating jabber accounts for other services is outside the scope of these instructions, but here’s some instructions from WikiHow.
2. Add your Gmail account or Jabber account to Pidgin. Go to the Accounts menu, then Manage Accounts, then Add – choose Google Talk for a Google Talk/Gmail account, or XMPP for a Jabber account. Sign in and all that jazz.
3. Once you’re signed into your account, from the Buddies menu, click Join a Chat. Choose your Google Talk or Jabber account. The information you need to join is:
   • Server name: conference.thestoppableforce.net
   • Room name: polygamerous
4. Feel free to change your handle. Or don’t. It’s your call, really.
5. Success! (Hopefully.)

I can try to do a limited amount of troubleshooting if people can’t connect. If you can’t use third-party clients at work, I do know you can use Meebo – most of the above instructions apply, with the exception that in addition to being signed into a Google Talk or other Jabber account, you also have to be signed into Meebo – otherwise the option to join a Conference never appears. Not that I would ever suggest you do something like sign into a videogame podcast chatroom from work.

*cough*

Hope to see you join us soon!

BONUS ROUND: Mike’s instructions on connecting via Meebo.

Oh girl gamers, how I wish you were real. Wait, what do you mean they’re real, and make up about 45% of the gaming population? And play all the same games as guys? And I already knew this but wanted to make a Bob Newhart show type of joke with it but I’m now breaking the 4th wall and ruining the joke I just set up? Now that’s just crazy talk. Seriously though I know girl gamers exist, you know they exist(you might be one of them) but why doesn’t the media and the videogame industry know they exist?

Well to put it simply, a lot of the heads of the videogame industry are a bunch of @#$%#& idiots. The big game publishers(I’m talking to you EA and Activision) assume that since their “girl games” are not being bought that girls don’t play games. In reality those games just suck.  Girls are people and people don’t like playing crappy games(that’s right I said it, girls are people). Girls play the exact same games that guys do and just like guys they have their own personal taste for what genres they like best. Just because a game has “Unicorn” or “Princess” in the title doesn’t mean girls are going to buy it(however it does mean that I will…Fat Princess was awesome).

This isn’t to say that everyone in the videogame industry acts this way. In fact many developers(such as Bioware, Bethesda, Game Freak, and Blizzard) know that both men and women play their games and make sure to incorporate that knowledge into their game design(such as romances and clothing).  It isn’t because they want to add certain content to be fair to a specific gender, they do it because they want to deliver the best possible gaming experience to their audience. Thankfully the “girl gamer” stereotype is fading away and is starting to become more of a joke than anything else(much like Lindsey Lohan or Justin Bieber).  Girls are out there and they are pwning and getting pwned just like every gamer. The only difference between guy and girl gamers is that the girl gamer’s avatar’s clothes match.

Any opinions expressed in posts on Polygamerous are not necessarily the opinions of Polygamerous or the other Authors/Editors/Podcasters of Polygamerous.