Tag Archives: diversity in video games

Where is my Character?

One of the major problems prevalent to the gaming community as a whole is the image of the gamer, or it’s identity. A lingering question throughout the articles (specifically the article by Adrienne Shaw) is the idea of who the media views as gamers, and who gamers actually are today. Ultimately bringing light to the fact that there is a clear disconnect between the stereotype of a gamer, and who gamers actually are. The distinct lack of representation, as well as the aggressive, cult like following that video games have, leads many fans of the format to be afraid to identify themselves gamers. Video game marketers are distinctly lacking in the racial and sexual diversity in the ‘hardcore’ games that people are really interested in. Compared to the culture that the marketers are presenting to society at large creates a clear disconnect and isolation of a large group of people that are gamers. This problem was something that I noticed in the past and realized, especially during games such as Bioshock Infinite, as much as I love that game. The character of Daisy Fitzroy in the overall plot of the game was hailing her as a woman of color, leading a revolution that would change Columbia for the better. For a while I was hopeful that she would be a fantastic image of a woman character of color becoming an incredible leader in an important revolution. Then the game pulled a complete 180 degrees and painted her as a villain. This is just one example of the exclusion of various races in video games. The problem is so prevalent and current in today’s society. Reading these articles as well as working on my project for diversity in video games has brought to my attention the absurdly large lack of representation of different identities as well as race.

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