Diversity in Games

Over the past several weeks the United States has been having some extremely important conversations about race. I am reading, listening, asking myself tough questions. I encourage you to take time to listen to the voices of the Black Lives Matter movement. We must urgently and actively take steps to end the racism that affects black and brown people in almost every corner of our society.

One corner of our society that I care deeply about is games. Games aren’t as important as other things. But games are special to me. And they represent one of the countless corners sorely needing more diversity and inclusion. When I reflect on some of the reasons games are special to me some of the things that come to mind are:

1. Games allow me to inhabit stories, worlds, and perspectives that I could never dream of in my normal life.
2. Games teach me how to solve problems creatively by immersing me in new and exciting situations.
3. Games move me with art about the human experience.
4. Games provide me a worldwide community of enthusiastic gamers and game developers who all push each other to have fun and grow together.

The list goes on. But for each of the points above I am struck by how diversity lies at the heart. And that diversity is the core to the path forward where games grow and evolve. There are so many rad games out there but on today, June 14, 2020, I can’t help but feel games are letting us down and need to become more inclusive in order to break barriers.

So many games are made and marketed to the lowest common denominator. It reminds me of Hollywood’s bias against non-white stars because they aren’t “bankable”. And I gotta say it fucking sucks. It feels like every dang game across every dang genre uses violence as the driver behind it’s core game mechanic. I play genres spanning FPS, action, strategy, deck building, narrative, etc. Lot’s of guns, slashing, and death. I love battle royales and dungeon crawlers but what if there was more? Where are the first kisses or surfing with turtles? I don’t even know what there could be because I am limited by my own perspective! That is the point! The homogeneity of the industry is clipping our wings.

I’m not trying to say games aren’t good right now. Or there aren’t tons of games that subvert genre tropes or are the opposite of what I’m rambling about. I just know games and the community around games could be in a better place. And when I try to see how we can get to that place the problem staring me in the face is the overwhelming male whiteness of the industry. Diversity and inclusion is the answer for a more just and fun tomorrow.

I don’t know. I wish I had the answers. I just desperately want people to be treated better. And less importantly yah I want games to grow and get better and better. I won’t stop trying to empower with my words, my game purchases, my life choices. Everyone deserves to be represented. Everyone deserves to partake and frolic and invest in this magical medium.