ETHNIC MINORITIES AND GAMING

Gaming is another area where ethnic minorities are underrepresented. In 2016 a game called Mafia 3 would be released. While others praised it for it's intelligent storytelling, detailed scenes and open game play, others praised the game for another reason. The protagonist, Lincoln Clay; who was African American.

Lincoln Clay, rarity to see an African American protagonist

https://www.newsweek.com/2016/10/21/video-games-race-black-protagonists-509328.html

"Black leading characters like Clay are rare in the gaming world. And when they do show up, they often appear as sidekicks, overly muscular antagonists or comic relief. Or they're narrowly typecast as athletes, rappers and gangsters. "Like she's from this broken home. Or he's a rapper guy. Or he's poor, and his mom is on drugs, and his daddy's gone." (Manns, 2016)

This quote made me think back to when I would play games as a child and I can't easily think of one main character that was black or of an ethnic minority. Those of ethnic minorities were mainly the bad guys or seen in a bad light, it was mostly a white male protagonist that was the hero. That is why I think it is an important issue that needs to be tackled because young people of ethnic minorities grow up without any positive role models in the media and white people start to believe that ethnic minorities are the bad guys.

This article also talks about how only 3% of game developers are African American, and there has only been a 0.5% increase in the past decade. In comparison to 76% of game developers are white.

"The industry has an even bigger problem with race than it does with gender,"(Wing, 2016)

Having more diverse teams could lead to more diverse story lines and more people being represented in their ethnic background. Assassin's Creed III: Liberation is a good example of where a team on non-black writers were praised for creating a half French, half Haitian protagonist, living in 18th century New Orleans. What I like is that fact that they are choosing to create a more diverse cast in their game, however many choose not to.

Black, Female Protagonist, Aveline, in the game Assassin's Creed

"While the cliché that African-American males enjoy sports games like NBA 2K (basketball) and FIFA (soccer) may be true, says Manns, "there are a lot of black nerds out there who like playing sci-fi and fantasy games as well." And that's a clue to what might be needed to boost African-Americans' presence in video games. Game design needs more of those black gamers." (Ong, 2016)

Reference:

Ong, S., 2016. The Video Game Industry's Problem With Racial Diversity. [online] Available at <https://www.newsweek.com/2016/10/21/video-games-race-black-protagonists-509328.html> [Accessed 18 March 2020]