Diversity and Inclusion in Gaming Industry
Diversity and Inclusion in gaming industry is a big factor among players. Let’s be real about this, majority of gaming industry are whites. They control 100% of the gaming industry because system was made for them. As person of color, there is not a lot of black developers that’s well-known in the gaming industry. Mostly, you seen them as indie game developers in a small space on social media. While, I was growing up, I wanted to be a video game developer but let me tell you its tough as African American male. There is a lot of things that game developer should be known about such as coding and math. I was not good at ever of them sadly, so fast forward to today. I enjoy writing blogs and producing videos on them.
Maybe, I might get around it, but I lose interest in it. Anyways, back to diversity and inclusion in video games. In gaming, most protagonist are non-black but nowadays, there are different characters from race, gender and orientation. Now just characters but game developers ranging from LBTQ community and more. Different people who involved in the gaming industry are writers, artists, musicians and many more. But woke culture is an obstacle between them because a certain protagonist was change to a male intro a woman. The game I am talking about Ghost of Yotei, which is the sequel to Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima. Another one is Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which features black protagonist name Yasuke (which is based on real life African samurai).
LGBTQ and More
A lot of people had problem with Yasuke because he is black. In my opinion, you don’t see a lot of black heroes in video games. I am still going to buy the game regardless on what people thing. There is another incident about Dragon Age: The Veilguard of a non-binary character named Rook and writing. Just like any Bioware game like Mass Effect, you can date anyone from different genders. Nevertheless, Veilguard was nominated for a lot of rewards, despite getting review bombed from Metacritic. There is a video from a content creator that shows Veilguard is essential on PlayStation Monthly Games. I don’t know if it’s free or not, one day I will get my hands on it. Speaking of LGTQ characters, I have to mention some such as Poison (Final Fight), Chole Price (Life is Strange) and VI (League of Legends).
Also, I will throw in some black characters like Barret Wallace (Final Fantasy VII), Jax (Mortal Kombat) and Elena (Street Fighter). Latino characters like King (Tekken) Sombra (Overwatch) and Angel (The King of Fighters) are in video games. There are mixed race characters like Niln (Remember Me) and Clementine (The Walking Dead’s Telltale Games). Many characters from different nationalities are available to research on your own. I am welcome representations in video games because I seen a streamer tearing up while playing Spider Man Miles Morales PS5 game. He stated that “representations matters”, I 100& agree with that statement. Sometimes folks don’t want to see race, gender and orientation on small screen went booting up video game.
Why the Hate
Well, I am that expert on this, but people might feel inferior that woman is stronger than a male. There is a lot of misogyny along male thinking they’re not equal to woman. Other have racist tendencies stating they do not want all characters to be non-black and don’t like change. There is racism in the gaming industry, and they want to see it taken away from them like Basketball. Don’t get me start in online gaming community. There is a lot of hate for non-black and woman gamers in online gaming space. When playing games like Valorant, you hear comments like “go back to the kitchen” or “you are a girl, why you are playing boys game”. These types of banter get on my last nerves. There is zero tolerance for this behavior, and I bet they won’t say it in a woman face.
I deal with racism and vulgar chat in gaming, but what we act like this. Is it gaming for everyone to enjoy? Some people don’t know how to act and take their frustration about on people. Tell you can’t change how people act. My advice to anyone who experience hate in gaming space. Ignore them and pretend to a celebrity. Don’t like negativity bring you down and keep on gaming. I want to close with this, don’t worry what people say about you and video game characters. They have their own views and beliefs along opinions. If they don’t like diversity and inclusion in gaming, that’s their problem.
Closing
Everyone wants to be represented in video games because that’s the core audience. Gaming industry is a very innovative space for all races and genres. All are welcome to this space but if you don’t like it. Just like Superboy from Young Justice “ever get on board or get out the way”. Tell me what you think of diversity and inclusion in video games. Let me know down below in the comments and thank you for reading this blog post. More will come from your truly.
