For as long as I can
remember, video games have been an integral part of my life. My brother first
introduced video games to me in 2005 when I was about 11 years old. I remember
sitting down at a friend’s house and my brother placing a Game Boy Color in my
hands and the first game I ever played was Super Mario Bros. Deluxe. I’m not
even a huge Nintendo fan as of now, but I know that I sat there for hours
tapping away at the little buttons, collecting coins and stomping on Goombas.
Nowadays, I play on a
regular basis. It relieves the stress from the day, but it also transports me
to another world where I’m the hero of the story. Where I can solve problems
easily, I can buy whatever I want, I can do whatever I want, I can be whoever
I want.
Well, be whoever I
want as best as I can. Ten years ago, I never even thought about who my
character was. It was simply I’m playing as that character and that’s that. But
today, these ideals have changed drastically. I feel that it’s partially due to
the introduction of character creation games or games where you can choose from
several different protagonists. It makes people think about who they want to be
in the game.
Does this character
represent who I am? Is this character’s personality representative of what my
ideals, morals, characteristics are? Is this character me?
As video games
continue to be produced, more and more people are thinking about representation
in video games. It has been a hot topic in recent years because of events
happening around the world pertaining to race, sexuality, ethnicities, gender
and cultures. People are more aware of representation, especially if that
representation is an accurate portrayal or not.
I used to not care
about the gender, sexuality or race of the character I was playing. But I do
now. Why? As a female, Chinese-American, I’ve faced more prejudice than I care
to admit here in America. When I was 4 I had a chair pulled out from under me
at the local library because I was Chinese. When I was 10 a kid in my class made
fun of me daily because I had squinty eyes and yellow skin. I can still hear
“Ching-chong” in that mocking voice in the back of my mind. When I was 13 a
middle-aged man called me a “chink” at the local supermarket. My older sister
was so angry that she went to the aisle he was in and yelled at him. She was
only 15.
Kids grow up feeling
inadequate and like their lives don’t matter just because they have a different
skin color, they feel differently about boys and girls or because they’re a
girl and are told they can’t do something. And then they see it in the game
they're playing and think, "Well I guess this is the norm. If it's like
this in real life and in video games, I guess I should just accept it and move
on."
And that’s why
representation in video games are so important. Pew Research conducted a study
in 2007 and found that 99% of the boys they surveyed and 94% of the girls they
surveyed played video games on a regular basis. That was in 2007. I can’t even
imagine what the numbers are today with all the modern technology in games like
Virtual Reality and new console releases. Children sit in front of the tv
or monitor and play games for hours and what they play is ingrained in their
minds. The more realistic games are the more it seems like what’s portrayed in
games is what reality is really like.
I can inundate this
post with facts and statistics about how poorly video games show
representation. I can show the statistics on how sex sells in the industry, or
how games op to not represent the LGBTQ+ community because it may take away
from their sales, or how games portray minorities poorly and as stereotypical.
I can show the research done repeatedly proving time and time again how poorly
video games do an awful job at representing everyone but the straight, white,
male gamer.
·
A study was done in
2001 by Christina Glaubke for Children Now, a research center dedicated to
improving children’s health, education and well-being. It found that when they
do show diversity, they often incorporate stereotyped images and roles for
people of color. Rarely ever cast as champions, rescuers or heroes, their
portrayals often amount to nothing more than hyper-muscularized brutes, exotic
fighting machines or athletes displaying near-supernatural ability.
·
Pew Research did a
study in 2015 on minorities in video games. It showed that 100 Hispanics,
whites and blacks were surveyed and asked if video games portrayed minorities
poorly or not. While majority of each group said they were not sure, it’s clear
Hispanics and blacks felt that video games portrayed minorities poorly the most
while whites were unsure. Minorities know their own culture and their own
people. They know what accurate representation is and what isn’t.
·
In 2009, a study was
done by Alexandra Henning that studied what children’s observations were of
hypersexualized females. “Overall, though, all participants viewed the images
in the female-stereotypic games as more negative than in the male-stereotypic
games. This suggests that violent and aggressive images are viewed in more
positive light than are sexually exploitive images by adolescents.” Even
adolescents think that sexual stereotypes of women is negative. Why do developers
continue to do so?
·
Adrienne Shaw wrote
in The International Journal of Communication, “In some games
characters are chastised and called gay if they do not display the proper
interest in the opposite sex or if they hang out with LGBTQ people.” And gives
the example of Dragon Warrior III in which it “features a sexual activity
called puff-puff. In the game a woman NPC offers the male PC a puff-puff. If he
refuses, she replies: “Hmph! What?! Not another homosexual . . .”’
When I first asked
Reddit questions about diversity, someone had replied with they didn't think
that the questions were fair without backup. Well, here it is. I could go on
and on about the countless research, studies and journals that coincide with
the diversity issue in gaming. But this post has gone on for long enough.
Professor Edmond Chang
of the University of Oregon says in relation to sexuality in games: “Why and
who does it hurt if they are in a relationship?” But I think it’s worth noting
that this doesn’t necessarily only pertain to relationships between two men, or
two women. I think the real question is “Why and who does it hurt?” Why does it
hurt to have a female warrior in full armor when she goes into battle? Why does
it hurt to have a Hispanic protagonist in a game set in rural Kansas? Why does
it hurt to have a black protagonist who isn’t part of a gang? Why does it hurt
to have a Chinese character who isn’t good at kung-fu? Why does it hurt to have
a lesbian character who has story arc that doesn’t focus solely on being
alienated from the community because of her sexuality?
Why do stereotypes
exist or even matter? The world is fictional. We can be whatever we want to be.
We can do whatever we want to. More and more gamers look for diversity in
gaming. It’s starting to part from traditional gaming. Why do developers
continue to keep themselves cemented in the idea that only male white
protagonists is the safe way to go?
I interviewed XiaoXu
Yan, a video game character designer for Skill Check Games. He said, “At the
end of the day, it’s a business. It sounds bad, and games should be for fun,
but the gaming industry is a business.” And he’s right, the game industry at
the end of the day is a business.
So how can we have
developers understand that, yes, it’s a business, and you could potentially
make more money if you give gamers what they want? Professor Chang said in his
interview, bring in women, minorities, LGBTQ+ people into the gaming industry.
Writers are the ones who write the stories, whether they are Asian, Hispanic,
gay or black. They have the power to change who the characters are in the game.
If the industry is dominated by straight, white males, that’s generally who the
protagonist will be of the story they write. People will write about what and
who they can relate to. Help people to understand your point of view. How
you’re tired of being sexualized as a woman. How you’re tired of being shown as
a Latino who came to the states illegally. Make your voice heard.
Why does one race or
one gender or one sexuality get singled out as the best or the worst? I think
the simple answer comes from Yan that honestly can cover all
diversity topics:
“I think it’s
interesting when we say race… As American, African, Chinese and so on. But I
think: human race. There’s one race.”
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