Brace Yourselves: Researchers Find Game Characters Lack Ethnic & Gender Diversity
White kids play fewer games than Latino children, but it will come as no surprise that the games they're playing are peopled with far more white characters - white male characters - than one might hope.
According to the collaborative research from the University of Southern California, Indiana University, Ohio University, and Virginia Polytechnic:
Latino children play more video games than white children. And they're really not able to play themselves. For identity formation, that's a problem. And for generating interest in technology, it may place underrepresented groups behind the curve.Ironically, they may even be less likely to become game makers themselves, helping to perpetuate the cycle. Many have suggested that games function as crucial gatekeepers for interest in science, technology, engineering and math.
I know I'm supposed to keep my gaming activism focused on the homogay gamers, but only 3% of game characters are Hispanic and they're all NPCs. (According to the research, which may have missed a game or two, but still.) Women characters only account for 10%.
Black characters were represented more proportionately, although the fact that they crop up mainly in sports games or 50 Cent Bulletproof won't exactly encourage anyone interested in breeding racial stereotypes out of our culture.
Research: Video Game Characters Lack Ethnic & Gender Diversity [GamePolitics]
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Posted to Miscellany on 31 July 2009
· Comments (9)
Other stuff like this: diversity, ethnic diversity, gender diversity
Identity formation while playing videogames? That explains a lot of things... namely the fact that I view myself as a purty, purty princess.
Thats why I liked Fallout 3 so much, I got to be an awesome Mexican lady. I don't remember actually playing any games were I wasn't a white/asian/non-human person before XBox 360 games.
Wasn't the main character from Just Cause latino?
Either way, this is hardly a blight on videogames alone. This has been said about TV programmes for ages. Why would they think videogames would be any diferent?
I guess that's probably why I enjoy Saint's Row so much, if only I could the sex games with dudes instead of gas-station slut chicks.
I agree with Frankie.
Saints Row's character customization is unmatched in other platformers. I was a 50 yr-old badass latino/black mixed-race woman with grey hair. How's that for your demographics
In Grand Theft Auto IV, my online character was a fun native american hipster granola chick with a bunch of guns. That was awesome.
Well duh! Hasn't this always been the case?
I think open world/sandbox games work a lot better to provide a unique experience regardless of one's ethnicity or gender, but the majority of video games I've ever played are essentially generic archetypal tropes that seem to perpetuate themselves ad naseum. That said, I think the world needs more native american hipster granola chicks with a bunch of guns.
You can look at a lot of pop culture trends as an example of gradual awareness. Comic books boast more gay characters in the past few years than ever. The more writers and creators that see the world as a diverse place, and their characters as individuals not stereotypes, the more we'll see this trend change.
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