The
lack of diversity in video games and in the video game industry has been an
issue for as long as games have been around. This paper aims to ensure that the
issue is communicated to stakeholders and discourse communities that may be
able to make a difference and change this. There are a few main discourse
communities that I will be focusing on. The first group will be video game
developers such as BioWare, Infinity Ward and Bethesda Softworks. Along with
these developers, their corresponding forums will be a target discourse
community as well: The BioWare Forum, Infinity Ward Forum Gamers and Bethesda
Softworks Forums. I will also be using Reddit to speak to users universally.
These forums will not only give me a basic idea of how they feel about
diversity, but it may bring me closer to developers since many of them check
forums quite often to see what fans say.
Stakeholders
and Discourse Communities
Development
teams are composed of a series of job titles, from level designers to software
developers and development directors. They are the ones who make create games,
make worlds come to life, but most importantly they are the ones who create
characters and the stories. This makes them primary stakeholders and the
primary audience of my paper. My paper’s goal is to show these stakeholders
that the lack of diversity in the games that they are creating is in fact
hurting them more than they understand. Gamers are consistently finding issues
in the games that are being pushed out, such as making a game set in an Asian
country have a white protagonist. Gamers are becoming more aware of human
rights, just as our world is today and know when a game design is pushed more
for the creator rather than the gamer. Developers continue to cling to the idea
that most gamers are predominantly heterosexual, white males when in fact, they
are not. Pew Research Center conducted a survey in the past year and found that
50% of the men they surveyed played video games while 48% of the women surveyed
played video games.[1] This is not a very large gap. More women are playing games nowadays but
developers refuse to acknowledge this fact. They are hurting themselves when they
do not create games that can relate to women or minorities. Few women can
relate to male protagonists just as few men can relate to female protagonists.
The same goes for minorities; Latinos cannot relate to a white protagonist in a
game set in a predominantly white suburban environment. Developers must
understand that the gaming community is evolving and thus they must evolve as
well.
The second group of stakeholders for
my paper is the gaming community itself, particularly pertaining to the forums.
Gamers are huge stakeholders in my paper because they are the only voice that
developers can hear. Gamers cannot speak directly to developers because of
career and location gaps, therefore they turn to forums to make their voices
heard. There are many occasions where developers will hold Q&A sessions on
forums and sit down with gamers for a few hours to answer questions or just to
speak to gamers and get a feel of what they like or dislike. These sessions are
key to making gamers opinions and voices heard and if my paper is able to show
them how the lack of diversity is hurting games, they may be able to convey to
developers the same sentiment in a purely academic perspective.
Genre
Sets for Stakeholders and Discourse Communities
Genre sets are especially important
to the gaming community because it allows for developers to gain information on
what their game should eventually become. It also allows for gamers to become
informed on what games they may be interested in or give them an idea as to
what upcoming games there may be.
There
are several genre sets that developers use in order to gain an overall vision
of what their final project or game will become. There are three main genres
that developers go through, including pitch documents game design documents.[2] Each of these give them a clear understanding
of what the team wants to create. Developers do not necessarily do research in
a traditional sense when envisioning a game, instead, they approach their game
in a more creative aspect. This is what the pitch, concept and game design
documents come from. The team envisions a concept then puts together general
ideas and give it to the lead developers to figure out what elements they would
like to add to a game.
Pitch
documents, one of the most important genres for developers is the general idea
of what a game may be, the keyword being “pitch”. These are in essence the
abstract of a game, much like experiments done in the scientific community have
abstracts. Irrational Games released their pitch document to the public in 2010
for their 2007 game, Bioshock. They “initially
[the document was] presented to publishers, selling them on the idea of
supporting our little odyssey beneath the waves.”[3] These were the first
designs and concepts for the game. Both publishers and developers needed this
genre in order to understand the concept of the game and decide if it was a
game that should be given a chance. This document includes every concept the
team wants in the game from how the gameplay will come out to, from manipulating
the game environment to creating a first, second or third person shooter. This
award winning game’s pitch document covers the smallest of details to the
largest of details, which is exactly what developers and publishers are looking
for. “They want the ins and outs of the game before they decide to invest in
the game.”[4] As stated before, there
really is no sources for pitch documents because these documents come from the
team’s mind. It is a document that is designed purely from creativity. The more
creative a game concept is, the more of a chance they have to push publishers
and developers to invest and help bring a game to life.
The
second genre set that developers use are design documents. These are similar to
pitch documents in that they, according to Tim Ryan a veteran video game
designer, “express the vision for the game, describe the contents, and present
a plan for implementation.”[5] The difference between
pitch documents is that the design document comes after a developer or
publisher decides that they want to create the game. The design document is
more solid and is almost a revision of the pitch. They tend to include revised
game concepts, the market analysis, technical analysis, legal analysis, cost
and revenue projections as well as concept art.[6] This gives developers a
better understanding of how the game equates into monetary value because at the
end of the day, the game is not just fun, it is a business. This document helps
developers to have a better understanding of what their investment will become.
Genre sets for forums are quite the
opposite. While forums do generate their own ideas and thoughts on games, they
are not part of the creative process, therefore their genres differ. The
information they gain tends to be from trusted online gaming sources, such as
IGN Entertainment and GameSpot. Gaming magazines such as Game Informer Magazine
and GamePro also tend to be a massive genre set for forums. These genres are
the sources of news in the video game industry. They inform gamers on what new
games may be releasing in the upcoming years and game reviews on what games
have excellent graphics, smooth gameplay, engaging storylines and interesting
characters. Magazines and other online news sources also allow for gamers to
engage with developers and get direct information from them. Often times there
are Q&A sections that allow for gamers to send in questions and ask
developers or designers questions about certain games. In turn, gamers can be
informed this way. The sources that these online news and magazines cite do
come directly from game developers in the form of interviews and information
taken from gaming conferences such as PAX West/East and E3 (Electronic
Entertainment Expo). Gaming conference summaries are an excellent source for
gamers to gain information on upcoming games as the attendance is generally
tightly reserved for industry professionals only.[7] Being able to read about
these conferences is usually the only way for regular gamers to get information
on games announced exclusively at the conferences.
Another genre that gamers tend to
gain their information from are strategy guide books. These books generally
contain gameplay information that may not be detailed in the owner’s manual,
complete maps, puzzle explanations, checklists of collectables or cheats. They
can be in the form of a physical book that gamers can buy from stores, e-books
online,[8] unofficial guides written
by other gamers on sites such GameFAQs,[9] and online videos hosted
on sites such as YouTube. The market of physical copies of strategy guides have
been steadily declining according to many users in online forums. There are
countless threads asking gamers if they still buy strategy guides. The reply to
these threads compose of the same answers, “Not since the Nintendo GameCube.”[10] The GameCube was released
in 2001 and was discontinued in 2007. However, games continue to gain the
information they need on games through free online sources. Most generally do
not buy physical copies of strategy guides unless they are collectors or prefer
to have a copy in their hands. The information gained from official guides come
directly from that particular game’s developers and publisher, therefore gives
credible sources. Other unofficial sources, such as guides from GameFAQs are
written by other gamers and often have discrepancies between guides therefore
gamers look through several guides before settling on one. The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo, 1986) itself has fourteen general
walkthroughs and game guides and over twenty in depth guides for boss fights,
maps, dungeons and individual quests.[11] Despite these
discrepancies, gamers continue to use them because they are free sources and do
not require flipping through a large book to find the information they need.
Reaching
Stakeholders
I
do believe that my main audience will gamers that participate in forums. As
they are the most acquainted with developers through more convenient means
without going directly to the officers or living in the same area, this seems
to be the most logical audience. Although my paper will be submitted for class,
in a form of genre, the best possible way of reaching gamers through forums is
by creating a thread of my own and reiterating facts that I have researched for
my paper. If they are able to become more open minded about listening to the
academic point of view when it comes to video games, they may be open to
bringing up ideas when having Q&A sessions with developers. They may also
bring up topics that will at least have developers aware that gamers see this
as an issue that is affecting gamers of all ages, ethnicities, sexualities, genders
and cultural backgrounds. If we can at least plant the idea, it may be counted
as a small success.
[1] Duggan, Maeve. “1. Who plays video games and identifies as a
“gamer”.” Pew Research Center.
December 16, 2016. Web Access. http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/12/15/who-plays-video-games-and-identifies-as-a-gamer/
[2] Xiaoxu Yan (Video
Game Character Artist) in discussion with the author, November 6, 2016.
[3] Irrational Games
Administrator. “From the Vault – The
BioShock Pitch.” Irrational Games.
May 20, 2010. Web Access. http://irrationalgames.com/insider/from-the-vault-may/
[4] Xiaoxu Yan (Video
Game Character Artist) in discussion with the author, November 6, 2016.
[5] Ryan, Tim. “The Anatomy of a Design Document, Part 1:
Documentation Guidelines for the Game Concept and Proposal.” Gamasutra. October 19, 1999. Web Access.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131791/the_anatomy_of_a_design_document_.php
[6] Ryan, Tim. “The
Anatomy of a Game Design Document.” Gamasutra.
[7] E3 Attendee
Registration Form. 2016. Web Access. https://www.e3expo.com/attendee/2904/attendee-registration/
[8] Prima Games Shop:
Official Guides. Web Access. https://www.primagames.com/shop
[9] GameFAQs
Contributor Central. Web Access. http://www.gamefaqs.com/contribute
[10] Various Forum
Users. “Is it worth getting Strategy Guides?” IGN. August 3, 2013. Web Access. http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/is-it-worth-getting-strategy-guides.453243877/
[11] “The Legend of
Zelda.” GameFAQs. Web Access. http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/563433-the-legend-of-zelda/faqs
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