What can game developers do to better represent black women in games?

http://boingboing.net/2015/12/23/black-women-are-already-superh.html

What can game developers do to better represent black women in games?

Make games set in black majority countries were black woman are plentiful.

...people actually care what colour/gender/sixual pref/shoe size their characters are?

I recall Resident Evil 5 and Assassin's Creed Liberation have black female protagonists.

hire more black women game programmers.

Honestly, the fact that she begins swearing in the very first sentence quoted immediately makes me question this woman's competency as a speaker. Hardly the role model for what she wants to promote. I can't actually read any of her points now without bias due to that opener, so I won't read any further. What a terrible way to start an article and what a terrible promotion for diversity.

See, if the first thought when making a character is "They have to be black/white/red/yellow/gay so this group isn't pissed" then you tend to get characters that play on certain stereotypes. Which, imo, makes the character boring and shallow.

So what can they do? Make characters the way they want/what fits in the story and go from there. If they happen to be black, red, yellow, green or purple then okay.

Something of an example: I watched the new Star wars movie and didn't notice that Finn (One of the main characters) was black until some dude pointed it out online. Now, does that mean I didn't notice his skin color? No, of course I did, but that didn't matter to me as just "Being black" isn't a character trait. Just like being gay or Asian or white or w/e else there is, is not. A character is not their shoe size or hair color or sixual preference etc. There is so much more behind what makes a character and focusing on the cosmetics is just silly.

On the flip side I can understand that some things like the way a character dresses or does their hair might add to their personalty, but I don't see how making a character black/white/green/purple or w/e has to define them.

I haven't even read the link since I can smell the Tumblr within.

What is this, the hype campaign for TES VI: Hammerfell?

This is kind of a non-issue for me. Mainly for the reasons Personablaze mentioned, http://i0.wp.com/media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/lara_croft_evolution_new.jpg Her belt buckle is more consistent than her skin color.

Well she looks fairly consistent, apart from that one where she appears to have been trapped in a sunbed for a month.

When you suddenly realize that your color/gender/sixual preference/shoe size has almost no representation, yes, you sometimes start wondering why that is. We all like to see characters we can identify with.

Being a brown-haired straight white man, it is nice to know game devs are thinking of me. A lot apparently.

It's not just in games but also in films. Unless it is some pro black films based around Afro-American society which castes both black male and black female actors, there are many blockbuster films with a black male (Will Smith being the biggest) and often they will be dating a white female (presenting equality), but you rarely ever see the reverse (thinking way back to "The Bodyguard" for the last decent example).

The same way any sort of demographic representation changes happen...either by forcing it artificially (quick, but meaningless) or working to change it naturally (slow, but meaningful).

1. Legally-enforced demographic quotas for developers


2. Developer smear campaign accusing them of being bigots...maintain until developers break under the negative press pressure


3. Movement to boycott developers' games until they include a certain number of characters for every demographic...hope they break under sales/shareholder pressure


4. Incite a cultural shift in predominantly white societies, then let the free market handle it

Are there any other ways? The only one that's genuine is #4. The rest are pretty meaningless, IMO.

First off, where is the warning for strong language? Bethesda doesn't like links to advlt content or strong language at least without a warning, or has that changed?

Also what about yellow brown, gay, bi, transgendered or any other kind of non white woman? Why are they left out? Really trying to understand why is it just black? Shouldn't we be not leaving anyone out, other wise we are just going to be in the same boat, instead of white, it will just be black. Shouldn't it be everything not just white?

Really not understanding. Yes I should have read the article more but after reading the F Shot in the second sentence, I stopped reading since not knowing what else it will entail.

Methinks that Lara Croft will magically turn black in the near future like many Marvel characters. (rolleyes seems to have vanished so facepalm is the next best reaction)

Honestly as long as I can identify with the story or the protagonist struggle I'm good.

Why represent anyone? We′re talking games, politics have no place here.

But if so, shouldn′t they figure out a way to better represent eskimoes, hindues and people with an eating disorder? Not to mention people in wheelchairs and those with a bad haircut

Imagine, for a moment, a world in which nearly all video games feature only female protagonists. You can be sure that male gamers would be complaining - loudly - that they aren't being represented. I suspect that some of the very same gamers who say "Who cares?" now would be among the first to complain if the tables were turned.

It's easy to say "Who cares?" about an issue if you are in a privileged position. Too easy.

This. So. much this.

So how, exactly, would you go about implementing #4? Raise awareness? Maybe push developers to include minorities and women somehow?


And don't simply dismiss those other ideas out of hand. They may not be "genuine" (whatever that means) but they do change minds - at the very least the minds of those individual development teams.

Agree!

Or every single game having a gay protagonist! Where the player is constantly forced into same six relationships.

You can bet the people who are saying "Who Cares?" right now will be complaining.

Sure. But why force it like that?

"Ok, for this game we′re gonna have a transgender black Chinese woman who′s gay but also hetero and all this for no particular reason"

But yeah, I wouldn′t play that game. I′d rather play Duke Nukem because his muscular body and toughness sooo much represent me

Yes, they should. We should. Not all the time, not in every single game, but in the medium as a whole there should be a place for all of human diversity and all kinds of stories. Which is why I'm happy to see attempts like Never Alone, a game made by native Alaskans and based on their folklore.


That's usually called bisixual.

I know, but my way was more fun

It's interesting how you highlight an "absurd" position as a way of apparently sidestepping the issue.


And here is one important reason: those people do exist. And if you don't push a little, media producers (this isn't just an issue in videogames) won't likely change on their own. Representation in media is important because it helps to provide self-affirmation to those the media represents (so long as the representation is realistic).


Forcing change (of any kind) is not some evil thing. People would often much rather simply keep with the status quo than make a change, especially when it comes to something like a corporation. But changing with the environment is necessary as a means of constant improvement, otherwise the company ends up in the history books (or, more likely, bought up by an even larger company).

Im all for equality around the board but I look at video games as art and art is made cheap if the artist can't express themselves.