The pixilated elephant in the room of the multi-billion dollar gaming industry: African Americans and Hispanics play and purchase video games more than any other ethnic group in the U.S., yet the overwhelming majority of characters in games are young white males.
According to the video game industry, we don’t need another hero?
A recent study by University of Southern California Professor Dmitri Williams found an overwhelming lack of diversity in video game characters. Williams, a social psychologist by training, compared the ethnic diversity found in his survey of 150 games across nine platforms and all ratings to categories contained in the American census. He found that fewer than 3 percent of video game characters were recognizably Hispanic and none were playable. Native Americans and biracial characters were non-existent. African Americans enjoyed a rate of 10.74 percent, with a big caveat; they were mostly athletes and gangsters.
What’s the big deal, right? So what if people are unequally represented in video games? As impressive as the study by Williams is, it seems like a topic best suited for water cooler conversation, and not discussions over coffee and bagels in the boardroom.
As columnist Owen Good opined in Kotaku, a popular video game blog, “In an American games industry dominated, marketed to and consumed mostly by white males, discussions of race and class can quickly hit a wall, blocked by insistence that the subject is inappropriate for a pursuit that should be colorblind in basis.”
Good’s assertion that people in the gaming community are disinterested in talking about race in games is correct. Take, for example, what followed the sharp critique by then-Newsweek blogger N’Gai Croal in 2008 of a Resident Evil 5 trailer that featured images of a white protagonist killing African zombies. "Wow, clearly no one black worked on this game," was re-quoted in every popular video game news publication. It was honestly like pouring honey on the poor man and sitting him beneath a beehive.
“But it wouldn't be racist if it was a black guy shooting a lot of white people right? This is dumb, people just look for things to bitch about,” was one reader's reaction to Goods’ commentary found on the game site Destructoid.
Who Are the Gamers?
Good’s assertion, however, that whites constitute the majority of consumers in the gaming industry is inaccurate. According to The Kaiser Family Foundation, African American youth between the ages of 8 and 18 play games 30 minutes more per day than white youth, while Hispanics play an average of 10 minutes more.
Nielsen studied the same cultural groups, with ages ranging from 18 to 49, and also found that African Americans consistently spent more time playing video games than whites. Hispanics, on the other hand, dipped slightly below whites, while Asians -- who make up the second most recognizable ethnicity as video game characters -- showed up fourth.
And while both studies examined home console trends, another report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project showed that even in the area of portable gaming, which given the ubiquity of smart phones and tablets has become the most lucrative arm of the industry, African Americans and Hispanics still outranked whites.
One of the arguments used to justify the lack of diversity across the video game eco-sphere -- its media, marketing efforts and characters – is that gaming is, like lacrosse or tennis, a pastime of the privileged. On the contrary, Reuters reported that low-income families who make less than $35,000 play more games than families who make over $74,000 in a study that also found little difference in their purchasing habits.
The overwhelming evidence vs. the underwhelming effort
Each year the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences puts on a video game conference in Las Vegas called the DICE Summit. Last year’s event featured a panel discussion on diversity in games featuring Williams of USC and a host of other industry insiders. “What population do [the video game characters] reflect,” Williams queried. “The shocking result’s of our survey…is you make games that look like you. So, it’s really just a reflection of the industry.”
Another panelist, Navid Heirs of Raven Software, offered his own view, insisting the problem has more to do with risk management. “No real data exist that... shows that this works or doesn't work. We just don't know because no one's really tried.” Publishers and developers, in other words, are not willing to take the creative risks of depicting unfamiliar characters with explicit cultural differences.
Navid Khonsari of New York-based Ink Stories, however, blamed industry ineptitude. Currently working on a game centered around the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Khonsari insisted during the panel discussion that developers are perfectly capable of bringing in cultural consultants, citing the example of the classic PlayStation 2 title Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. For that game, developer house Rockstar Games reached out to DJ Pooh – who wrote the movie Friday -- to help them with the rags-to-riches story of the gangster character CJ in 1990’s Los Angeles.
Until research is done on the motivation of video game developers and the publishers they work for, we can only make educated guesses as to the overwhelming lack of diversity within the industry. We can be certain about one thing, however. From the press to the games they cover, the absence of black or Hispanic characters is limiting its fan base, its narrative potential, and its creative ideas.
Damon Packwood is an educator. visual media enthusiast and blogger @ www.dangerbrain.wordpress.com
Hispanics and Blacks Missing in Gaming Industry
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Anonymous
Posted Sep 13 2011
This article about racism is racist within itself!!! You mention Hispanics and African Americans but why didn't you mention any Asians? Are they not people as well?
Anonymous
Posted Sep 13 2011
"Native Americans and biracial characters were non-existent." Turok...
Anonymous
Posted Sep 13 2011
while Asians -- who make up the second most recognizable ethnicity as video game characters
Anonymous
Posted Sep 13 2011
From the article
"...while Asians -- who make up the second most recognizable ethnicity as video game characters -- showed up fourth."
In the end of the day, it IS the elephant in the room, and people will gladly choose to ignore it or even at times get defensive to protect video games, who have always been under attack by conservative groups due to perceived violence and lewdness.
Anonymous
Posted Sep 13 2011
Asians are mentioned under the heading: Who are the Gamers?
Anonymous
Posted Sep 13 2011
They should have mentioned Asians, I agree, but there are plenty of Asians in these games.
Anonymous
Posted Sep 14 2011
I have to say, I fail to see how your conclusions are supported by the data you cite earlier. If african americans and hispanics play 30 minutes a day more than white or asian counterparts, and families making less than 35k per year play more than families making 74k or more (family income typically highly correlated with ethnic identity as well), then it would appear that the absence of black or hispanic characters is not limiting the fan base. Given that blacks and hispanics make up about 10% apiece of the American ethnic landscape, I don't think it's shocking that there aren't a huge number of video games featuring them. That being said, the representation relative to player base appears badly skewed, but since it appears that blacks and hispanics buy these games anyway, your conclusion, however much we may agree with the sentiment behind it, appears completely at odds with the data.
I also want to point out that anecdotally, at least, the idea that there are *no* such characters appears inaccurate as well. As an earlier poster pointed out, "Turok" features a Native American lead, as does "Prey." "GTA III" features an African American lead, as does "Men of Valor" and "Saint's Row," by default. Furthermore, many modern games allow players to select a number of ethnic looks and types for the lead character. Virtually all modern western RPGs allow the user to create characters of most major ethnicities, either explicitly (Fallout 3's "race" tab) or implicitly (Mass Effect's custom character creator). JRPGs remain a major offender on issues of diversity, but these are largely products made by Japanese teams in a social environment where there is not only almost zero cultural or ethnic diversity, but also where explicit racism is still widespread and societally condoned. Even Black NPCs regularly get shameful treatment in Japanese games (Barret, anyone?).
Might I suggest that a more productive approach to this is asking why there are so few black game developers in the first place? The 2005 IGDA game developer diversity survey found around 90% of game developers were white. Until the industry becomes more diverse, I think it's unlikely that we're going to see a lot of explicitly positive lead characters of color.
Anonymous
Posted Sep 15 2011
Who cares.
Anonymous
Posted Sep 15 2011
hispanics arent missing you just cant see them because they are in the back of the house cleaning toilets as they should be
Anonymous
Posted Sep 22 2011
The writer here. It is challenging to convey the importance of a topic such as this in 1200 words but we writers try. This data was gathered from PEW, Reuters, Nielsen and a pretty good USC professor. I implore you to read what they had to say and the dialogue surrounding their data. Most of them seem to agree that this is a potential problem or a potential opportunity (however you want to look at it). Basically, there's money on the table for the industry to gain or lose to a competitor that focuses on these demographics.
As a person who just likes to play good games, I think diversity (any kind for that matter) can only benefit the industry as it has historically benefited Cinema, Baseball, Football, Basketball, Music, Dance, Literature and pretty much every other entertainment medium.
Considering the overwhelming history of diversity and how beneficial it is, I find pushback comments on these clear cut subjects...interesting.
Anonymous
Posted Sep 22 2011
The writer here. It is challenging to convey the importance of a topic such as this in 1200 words but we writers try. This data was gathered from PEW, Reuters, Nielsen and a pretty good USC professor. I implore you to read what they had to say and the dialogue surrounding their data. Most of them seem to agree that this is a potential problem or a potential opportunity (however you want to look at it). Basically, there's money on the table for the industry to gain or lose to a competitor that focuses on these demographics.
As a person who just likes to play good games, I think diversity (any kind for that matter) can only benefit the industry as it has historically benefited Cinema, Baseball, Football, Basketball, Music, Dance, Literature and pretty much every other entertainment medium.
Considering the overwhelming history of diversity and how beneficial it is, I find pushback comments on these clear cut subjects...interesting.
Anonymous
Posted Nov 7 2011
Grand Theft Auto? SAN ANDREAS
Anonymous
Posted Apr 24
AS A HISPANIC...I really don't give a damn. I mean, don't get me wrong, I groan when I see a hispanic character and he's some Colombian cartel king or something, but I don't play video games to get my racial unity message. Speaking of which, hispanic isn't a race to begin with and I don't know why Americans like to associate colors with people, but let's leave that for now. Back to the issue at hand: the reason most characters are white or asian is because the developers are mostly white or asian. That's really all there is to it. Gamers in general tend to be white or asian. SNK actually has a very sizable Latin American following (their KOF series is very popular in Mexico), and it shows in their games. Some areas in their games take palce in Latin America, and some of their characters are Latin Americans as well. Simple as that. It isn't that complicated to figure out.
Anonymous
Posted Apr 24
AS A HISPANIC...I really don't give a damn. I mean, don't get me wrong, I groan when I see a hispanic character and he's some Colombian cartel king or something, but I don't play video games to get my racial unity message. Speaking of which, hispanic isn't a race to begin with and I don't know why Americans like to associate colors with people, but let's leave that for now. Back to the issue at hand: the reason most characters are white or asian is because the developers are mostly white or asian. That's really all there is to it. Gamers in general tend to be white or asian. SNK actually has a very sizable Latin American following (their KOF series is very popular in Mexico), and it shows in their games. Some areas in their games take palce in Latin America, and some of their characters are Latin Americans as well. Simple as that. It isn't that complicated to figure out.
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