Race in the Gaming Industry
Video games seem to be struggling with diversity. Whether it be with females in the industry or having different races in the industry, it lacks with diversity in the games. Reading these assigned articles was eye opening but not necessarily surprising because African Americans tend to be always fighting for equality in which they shouldn’t have to be. I think the article Black Skin is Still a Radical Concept in Video Games by Yussef Cole and Tanya Depass, did a great job with explaining the problem and giving examples of situations.
“I don’t think technology is holding us back at all. We accomplish things with each generation. You can have hair and clothes flapping in the wind if you want. So, if companies wanted to get it right, they prioritize it. Unless they have people on the team willing to call them out on it as well, it won’t change.” (Cole/Depass, PP 14)
This was said by a Youtuber, Shareef Jackson. This really stood out to me because during the last presentation about gender and sexuality, the articles included, made it seem like it was hard for women to get into working in the industry. I kind of relate it back in the same way, nobody is speaking up. In the one article it said 71% of black people play video games. They even created their own gaming area called The Black Simmers because they couldn’t relate to the Sims available to them because they only have 1 shade of black (Blavity Team, PP8). With that being said, the industry in and of itself needs to welcome in diversity. Companies need to listen to the all consumers that are buying the games. They also need to allow others to feel comfortable speaking up and offering opinions.
In the article written by Cole and Depass, it seemed like the reasons the industry doesn’t have people of different shades of color is because it is too expensive to have different kinds of lighting to be in the game including movies.
“When you go into the sewers, the characters are not lit well. In fact they almost all look the same exact color as the background. I been with black people in dark places, and I know that they don’t actually fade away.” (Cole/Depass, PP13)
This was also said by the Youtuber, Shareef Jackson. Cole and Depass talk about the complexity of lighting black and brown skin tones in the 3D games. But Nintendo team has made it clear that diversity was important, and they added different shades of color in their games. To hear lighting is one of the top reasons game creators and movies avoid added people of color because of the expenses of lighting is heartbreaking.
I wish everyone would realize this world is made up of all color shades of people. Everybody usually wants to play a character that they feel some sort of connection with and look similar to. Unfortunately, it is sad to see some black people struggle with acceptance in the industry by creators saving on budgets and avoid adding different skin tones because of lighting costs. Going back to the Sims example in the article by the Blavity Team, they have a tanish skin color and then dark skin without recognizing the other skin tones in between. Even after selecting the darkest skin color, they only have 2 options of natural hair for the black character to select from. This makes it hard for them to feel like there aren’t many options and that they don’t have someone that necessarily looks like them. I hope that the industry changes to help recognize diversity more. People need to speak up more often and make that change.
References
DePass, Y. C. (2017, March 01). Black Skin Is Still A Radical Concept in Video Games. Retrieved November 22, 2017, from https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/78qpxd/black-skin-is-still-a-radical-concept-in-video-games
This Black Woman Gamer Didn’t See Black People In Her Favorite Game, So She Put Them In Herself. (2017, July). Retrieved November 22, 2017, from https://blavity.com/black-simmer-amira-virgil
