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We Need #GamingSoWhite, Too

We Need #GamingSoWhite, Too

So I was playing Dying Light: The Following for review this past weekend, as a TV talk show in the background was discussing the #OscarsSoWhite movement. It only reinforced a strange feeling I’d been having. There I was, playing a game set in a fictionalized version of Turkey, surrounded by Turkish NPCs, but the dude I was controlling was a standard-issue white guy named Kyle Crane.  The protagonist of Dying Light is an operative in an international organization. He could have been from anywhere – but seemingly by default, he’s the hero, so he’s a white guy. Just like Hollywood needs #OscarsSoWhite, our industry needs #GamingSoWhite to remind us that we have other options.

Things seem particularly bad in the action and shooter genres, where nearly every protagonist you can think of is white. Even Hollywood is better with diversity in its action heroes. It’s like our industry lives in a world where Sam Jackson, Bruce Lee, Dwayne Johnson, Jackie Chan, Will Smith, Wesley Snipes, and  Danny Trejo don’t exist – and those are just men that I thought of off the top of my head. I use men as an example on purpose, because when game developers do remember that people of color exist, their non-white heroes are often female, like Faith from Mirror’s Edge or Michonne from The Walking Dead (inspired by TV, of course).

We all know that game developers, particularly in the triple-A sphere, are overwhelmingly white guys, and their heroes tend to be white guys for various reasons. Often it’s just a default, created without a second thought. Sometimes it’s pressure from Marketing, which seems to be stuck in a nonexistant world in which people don’t voraciously consume media with diverse main characters. And I suspect that the dearth of non-white male characters in particular is that sometimes developers hesitate to create heroes of color because they’re worried they won’t handle the character well and he will be seen as too stereotypical. The obnoxious “thug” and “terrorist” stereotypes are omnipresent in Western culture, and it’s good to want to avoid them. Of course, there’s an obvious answer to that problem – hire a damn writer who can handle it – but it’s easiest for people not to leave their comfort zone.

That’s why we as gamers, particularly those of us who are white gamers, need to pick up the thread of #OscarsSoWhite and apply it to gaming as well. We don’t always need to play a hero who looks like us – let’s face it, very few action heroes act like we do, anyway. Do we really need a white face to enjoy an action power fantasy?  I don’t think so – I don’t care what your skin color is, I know you feel cathartic joy when Sam Jackson kicks some ass or Will Smith outsmarts the bad guys. That’s because they’re good actors who play entertaining characters, and we deserve those kinds of characters in games, too.

We Need #GamingSoWhite, Too

Representation is important. I know that as a woman who cheers whenever I get to play as a kickass female game hero. I don’t need every game hero to be a woman, but it sure feels good when I get to play one. At the same time, it’s interesting and thought-provoking to play heroes who are different from me, so heroes of color are good both for people who share their particular ethnicity and for those of us who don’t. We all want some heroes who look like us, who share pieces of our identity and lived experience. It’s time to spread the love around a whole lot more, and maybe learn some things and develop some empathy along the way.

Let’s ask developers to give us more diverse heroes. Let’s get games set all over the world, featuring heroes from those parts of the world instead of imported white Americans. Let’s get games set in North America that look like North America actually looks. Let’s get serious games with heroes of color and silly shoot ’em ups with heroes of color. Most importantly, let’s check our own prejudices and buy games with heroes of color when they come out. We’re better than Marketing thinks we are, so let’s show ’em that with our wallets.

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