Race, Ethnicity, and Culture in Games

Games have been making progress as they start to take into consideration other players besides those that are white. There is still a lot of progress to be made, as there still is not enough diversification in characters and people working in the gaming industry. “Only three percent of video game developers are black.”(Blavity Team). It would be beneficial to diversify the workforce more so that there can be different insights from people with different backgrounds and perspectives. This is the same for the indigenous culture. “Indigenous-made games with Indigenous themes are not yet widely mass-market products, but they are gaining attention — and players — as access to technology, including mobile devices, expands”(Lapensee). Games developed by people with indigenous backgrounds can contribute traditional points of view that others cannot. Indigenous games reflect on the meaning of life and also taking care of nature. It also brings a realistic perspective of the effects of genocide. The more diversification in game developers and people working in the industry, the more we will see better representations in games and greater quality.

Characters in games still do not fully represent diverse characteristics. Amira Virgil took it amongst herself to add different skin tones, hairstyles, and features to her Sims game. She was disappointed that there was only one black skin tone and two hairstyles for black characters. “We cannot settle for characters who might vaguely resemble us but who were lazily designed and miss the mark of our intricate and colorful hues, our heavy lips and kinky hair, the celebration of blackness that we deserve but aren’t yet getting.”(Cole, DePass). Darker skin colors are even sometimes miss-shaded and toned in television, which gives a misrepresentation of the character. Although games have started to pay attention to players that are not white, African American game characters are often basic characters that do not show a lot of variety and unique features. As graphics become better, misrepresentation of characters will become nearly nonexistent. As more of this is brought to attention and people like Amira Virgil take matters into their own hands, the more change in character diversification we will see in games.