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Black characters comprised 10.7% of characters, roughly on parity with the then-most recent census data that 12.3% of Americans are Black, and only 2.7% of characters were Latinx (relative to 12.5% representation in the U.S. One of the most extensive studies of racial representation in games was a 2009 study that analyzed 150 of the most popular titles. “I think the presence of more video game characters who are women of color is good … These should not be controversial statements - I’m simply stating something I appreciate, something that’s relevant to me,” she wrote last year, “and yet some readers responded as if I’d suggested that all gamers should amputate their pinky toes.” Character representation Games industry journalist Gita Jackson, for example, has described the criticism she gets anytime she mentions the race of characters within a game. Raising this simple critique isn’t always welcome. The consistent view among gaming executives and researchers I interviewed for this article is that the lack of diversity among employees at leading gaming companies results in leadership remaining largely oblivious to this.
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Look at Black Panther,” says Rashad Redic, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Brass Lion Entertainment, “The content is defined by whether it’s entertaining, period.”īeyond characters’ skin color, there are subtle aspects of game development that contribute to underrepresentation or misrepresentation. “Telling these stories isn’t as niche as people think it is. That is also a missed business opportunity. For hundreds of millions of gamers globally - particularly in demographics driving the industry’s rapid growth - there are very few games whose stories center on characters like them.
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between the ages of 6 and 29 will be people of color in less than 10 years.” Black and Latinx youth in the US spend more time per day, on average, on both mobile games and console games than white youth. Quartz has noted that “57% of video game players in the U.S. There are 2.5 billion gamers in the world, a group that includes consumers across every ethnicity and age (especially in mobile gaming, the largest market segment). This creates a recurring pattern of Black and Latinx characters being stereotyped or completely absent in games, which is invalidating and demeaning. Racial bias is baked, usually unintentionally, into games by those who develop them. These are positive actions, but the most impactful thing game companies can do is take action internally. over police violence and systemic racism against Black Americans have sparked gaming companies like Electronic Arts, Epic Games and Sony Interactive Entertainment/PlayStation to publish statements of their support and make donations to relevant advocacy organizations.