Korpscon is a weekend-long, adults-only streaming event in late August, hosted by Kraken and Distressed Egg and inspired by Kraken's Korps story setting. It includes a variety of art streams, game streams and discussion panels that relate to the Korps universe, furries, supervillains, sensuality, and/or LGBTQ2S topics. It's also a weekend-long fundraiser to raise money for The 519, a non-profit LGBTQ2S community center that serves the Toronto queer community. 2022 will mark its fourth year of operation; KORPSCON 3, in 2021, raised over $21,000 CAD for The 519, with hopes to top that amount this year.
We'll be multistreaming Korpscon events through Kraken's Picarto channel. Watch this website and keep an eye on our Twitter account for future announcements regarding event scheduling.
The Korps is a fictional story setting created by Kraken. It's primarily centered around an diverse organization of queer furry supervillains, identifiable by their AR-enhanced pink eyewear (or "Rose Colored Glasses"), attempting to push back against an oppressive and unjust society. First introduced over ten years ago through character art Kraken posted online, the Korps has since gained a growing and passionate community of fans, many of whom create new characters (or versions of existing characters) to exist in, and interact with, the world of the Korps. Ultimately, while Kraken is still regarded as a foremost authority on prime canon, the Korps has become a collaborative storytelling space for a wide range of creators, including artists, writers, cartoonists, musicians and costume makers, as well as a community for queer furries of all kinds to express themselves.
Nope, it's just stylish geeky fun. Like cosplay, or renaissance faires, or drag. It's a sex thing for more than a few of our members, too-- capes and tights can be just as kinky as leather or latex.
There isn't really a sign-up list or anything-- all that's required is that you openly communicate an interest and participate in the community. If you've got a character you want to use in a Korps setting, it's as easy as popping a pair of pink glasses on them and thinking about what role you want them to play. Would they be out in the field, robbing banks, TF'ing bystanders and doing highly visible sexy evil things? Would they be mad scientists, researching new and sinister tools to achieve world domination? Would they be part of the Korps' sprawling support team, quietly kicking ass behind the scenes to keep the whole organization rolling along? Ultimately, it's up to you.
The 519 is a registered non-profit charity with the City of Toronto that aims to serve the Toronto LGBTQ2S community through various queer support programs, educational workshops, and dedicated space for community groups to organize. You can learn more about them on their website, and read their write up on Korpscon 2019 here.
We're running our on-stream donations through popular donation service Tiltify this year, which means that attendees will be able to send their donations directly to The 519 via card or Paypal without their money having to go through KORPSCON staff first. It's less of a headache for everyone involved, and Tiltify's zero-fee policy means that The 519 will receive 100% of the money you send them. If you decide to donate through other means during the event, feel free to send the receipt to overlord@korpscon.com, and we'll add your donation to our grand total.
You know what? Okay. Let's get real for a moment.
Think about all the people in the world who put a lot of effort into convincing you they're "good" people. Politicians, religious leaders, celebrities, cops. How many of them really care, and how many of them are just covering their asses while reinforcing our society's deeply screwed up status quo? Meanwhile, queers have existed since our ancestors climbed down from the trees, and yet somehow in 2021 we still have to fight for the barest scraps of human dignity from the powers that be. We're encouraged to assimilate, to conform to what popular culture defines as "safe" representation, and to keep any deviance hidden from sight. Those of us without the luxury of passing as "normal" are treated as freaks and pariahs by our governments, our workplaces and our peers. How is any of this good? How is any of this worth fighting for?
Is it any wonder that, in the midst of unprecedented global chaos, hundreds of queer people have found catharsis and community in imagining what it'd be like if they had the power to push back and build something better? Or that, given the chance to actually make a real, tangible difference for an otherwise painfully underserved LGBTQ2S community, they'd take it in a heartbeat?
It's all just for fun, though. Just a little bit of kinky, campy Saturday morning cartoon fun. Right?
Picarto is an artist-focused livestreaming service with easy-to-use multistreaming abilities and a permissive attitude towards erotica, making it perfect for our purposes.
Korpscon makes use of Picarto's multistream feature- this allows up to four channels to be playing on the same page at once! As long as each channel is in the official Korpscon multistream, you'll be able to see it playing by visiting http://picarto.tv/kraken.
NOTE: Multistream events are best viewed on desktop.
Lots of reasons! Twitch itself does not allow discussion or visual depictions of erotic subjects, has done little to help its minority creators who suffer from frequent hate raids, and has implemented some very controversial and draconian DMCA rules. It's also owned by Amazon, a craven and morally bankrupt corporation. Hosting Korpscon on Twitch (though we tried the very first year!) would run counter to everything we're about. Youtube is similar, if not even more strict about their content than Twitch is.
As for Piczel and other, newer streaming alternatives- while we appreciate that they exist, they're often much less streamlined and more tech-knowledge intensive than Picarto is. The convention's organizing staff is already very familiar with Picarto and its quirks, and many of our guests are first time streamers. The less friction, the better!
If you're someone who's very passionate about streaming alternatives, we're always looking for more minions to help with organizing the convention each year! Keep an eye on our Twitter and reach out when next year's minion applications are live.
Yes! Similar to last year, there will be a VODs page available a week or so after the convention is over.
Have you checked the Picarto help center? This contains a lot of answers to common tech issues- streams not loading, buffering frequently, etc. If your question is more specific, check our handy dandy chart!:
| QUERY | SOLUTION |
|---|---|
| I can't hear any of the streams! | If you've loaded up the page and no audio is playing, you may need to click the speaker on the stream itself on and off to forcefully unmute it. If that doesn't work, try clicking on the audio bar itself:
|
| I can't send messages in chat! | There is no guest chat, and accounts must be registered for at least 14 days to participate in the Picarto chat. If you're having issues, join the Discord instead to chat with other Korpscon attendees. |
| When trying to view a stream, I get a "this content probably doesn’t match your preferences" message! | Enable mature content in your settings. iOS app users will sometimes continue to have issues- we recommend viewing the streams on desktop anyway to get the full experience! |
| How do I view just one stream? | Pop the chat out (the double squares above the chat window) and fullscreen the stream you'd like to view. |
| What if two streams I want to watch are at the same time? | All streams are being recorded and will be viewable on the convention website after the con is over! |
| Do subscriptions/tips/kudos go to The 519? | No- those only go to the channel creator. If you'd like to donate to The 519, please do so through the donation link! |
| I have a question/complaint that isn't addressed here! | Please email us, message a mod on the convention-weekend-only Discord server, or send a DM over on Twitter! We'll do our best to get back to you in a timely manner. |
