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Austin Collum
Professor Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
31 March 2015
Video Game Diversity
Video games have seen a massive surge in popularity in the past few decades, rising to
become one of the dominant forms of entertainment on the planet. Culturally, they have become
a significant avenue of expression, and, as an industry continue every year to grow and grow and
grow. According to Statista.com, a website devoted to analyzing a plethora of statistical date,
including video game sales and revenue, in just the year 2013, video games produced over $21
billion in business in the United States, and worldwide in 2015 accounted for over $100 billion
in total revenue. In 2013, Grand Theft Auto V shattered sales records worldwide to become the
biggest entertainment launch in history, beating out popular and lucrative films such as The
Avengers, by earning a whopping $800 million dollars in just its first twenty-four hours on the
market, according to the video games developer and publisher Rockstar Games, itself a
subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive. Similarly, in 2014, the massively popular online video game
shooter series Call of Duty has accrued more than $10 billion in worldwide sales since the
release of the series first game way back in 2003, a number which exceeds the total box office
receipts for movie franchises such as the Hunger Games, Transformers, , Star Wars and
The Avengers film franchise, combined, according to the video games publisher Activision
(Video Games Revenue). These figures are the kind of numbers that most people only dream
about, usually in some kind of drug-induced, manic episode brought on by stress and delirium.
Now getting to the meat of the feast, just what do these numbers mean beyond the simple dollar

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signs and massive quarterly earnings? Considering all the money made by these games, and all
of the people sitting at home and playing these games, and considering all the talent required to
bring these games to the market, I have to wonder:: How diverse are these video games, which
have become increasingly popular and increasingly global in scope?
Diversity represents an increasingly important and hot button issue in the world, not just
in video games. As the United Sates, the worlds primary creator of entertainment content
worldwide, becomes increasingly less white and increasingly more minority, the representation
of different groups within society becomes an ever increasing issue. People are asking for more
from their films, and television, and that demand for the new is spreading into video games.
Long considered merely a past time for young boys, things are beginning to change. According
to the ESRB, Entertainment Software Rating Board, an independent self-regulatory board
created to assign ratings to video games to educate purchasers about the content in said games,
nearly 40% of all gamers were female, a number from 2010 that has most likely risen since.
However, in a study performed in 2009 by Dmitri Williams, Nicolte Martins, Mia Consalvo, and
James D. Ivory, researchers found a noticeable gap between the amount of women playing video
games and the actual representation of females within popular video games. The team of
researchers found that of all the characters seen in video games for the year starting in March
2005 and continuing to February 2006, less than 15% were female while over 85% of those
characters were male. Even more telling, was that nearly 90% of all primary characters, or those
directly controlled by the player, were male. As such, the data shows that females, despite
representing nearly half of all those who play video games, are severely underrepresented when
it comes to who players can play as in video games and even get to see on the sidelines.

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What causes this disparity between the women who play games and the characters they
can play as? Well, the problem starts with the developer. According to a business study
performed by the International Game Developers Association, only about 22% of video game
developers are female (Makuch, 2014). Others, such as Leah Burrows of the Boston Globe, note
the frat boy culture that seems so pervasive within the video game development community. In
her article, Burrows mentions reports of a video games development studio hosting hiring topless
models for nothing more than a networking event. Now, Im sure the straight guys there found
that to be perfectly enjoyable, but the women? And what about gay guys, do they not deserve
some topless male model action as well? It seems to me, that for decades, the male-dominated
video games industry has catered to its own narrower set of standards, without regard to what
other people, in this case women, may want in their video games. As such, we see games created
by male developers in order to fulfill male fantasies, with nothing made for female gamers, who
simply have to hope that their fantasies align with those of the straight, white, male developers
who create these games. As easy fix for this would be to no doubt encourage and enable more
women to get involved in the creative process of making video games, lending to the
conversation the ideas and voice of someone who may loves video games, but has always felt
like a bit of an outsider to the conversation.
This divide exits as well within racial boundaries. In the same study by Williams,
Martins, Consalvo, and Ivory, the team finds that around 80% of all characters in games are
white, which aligns somewhat closely with the 75.1% of people within the United States who
identify as white. But games are not only played in the United States, and surely the millions of
gamers worldwide might find a bit drab to know that four out five games that they pick up will
feature a white dude as the main character. Another often overlooked point of contention arises

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with the representation of age within video games. In video games, elderly characters represent
only a paltry 1.75% of all characters found in video games, despite 12.43% of Americans being
considered elderly, while adults represent a generous 86.88% of characters in video games
despite only making up close to 59% of the general United States population. These and other
groups from Hispanics to Native Americans to children and non-heterosexuals tend to be
criminally underrepresented across the spectrum of video games.
A recent industry study done the International Game Developers Association found that
only 2.5% of all video game developers are black, which is an appallingly insignificant number
(Kollar 2015). Derek Manns, a professor and video game developer, said that "Blacks in gaming
should not just be about developing positive characters, but also about what can be created by
diversity in development." Manns goes on to discuss the prevelance of black sterotypes within
video games, and that these stereotypes are perpetuated as result of calculated business decisions
by developers and publishers as to what people will buy. Mann also says People don't know
what they don't know, making it difficult at times for many of these developers to realize that
they are in fact perpetuating these stereotypes in their video games. It seems to me, that the best
way to end stereotypical representations of African-Americans and other minorities in video
games, is to encourage these groups to work in the field and become a part of the conversation,
to lend their voice to the issue and to create games that better reflect who they are, and not they
way that some people, who likely have no idea their struggles, may think of them.
The underrepresentation of minority groups in video games is tragic, but does it really
matter all that much? I mean, cant these people who so love video games get over themselves
and focus on the story and the game play, the things that really matter, rather than tiny issues like
what the race or gender of the main character is? Well, Im here to say, with a little help from

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data and science, that it does matter. In the same study by Williams, Martins, Consalvo, and
Ivory, the team mentions a number of studies which detail the importance of exactly why
representation within video games matter. In a study done in 2002, two authors, Harwood and
Anderson, suggest that representations presented on television serve as a proxy for other social
forces, arguing that groups who are more greatly represented in media are seen as more vital,
thus enjoying more power and status in the real world. The authors argue that measuring the
imbalances presented on screen can tell us about the imbalances that may exist outside of
television and in everyday real life. Moreover, another idea, Cultivation theory argues that the
media exerts a broad gravitational pull on the viewer, and shapes the worldview of the viewer
in order to match the one they are watching on television (Willaims 2009). Others have
suggested, such as in Tajfels social identity theory, that different groups look for representations
of themselves within the entertainment and media they consume, and subsequently compare
themselves to that representation. When a group is thus represented within a video game, it
creates a sense of self-worth, letting that person know that they carry some weight within society.
On the flip side, when a group fails to be portrayed within a game, it may lead individuals within
that group to develop feelings of unimportance and powerlessness in the greater world. Such
issues highlight the need for greater diversity within the gaming community.
Moving beyond the science of the issue, it just makes sense for companies to pursue
greater diversity in video games. Diversity is hot right now. As America becomes a more
multicultural nation and the world becomes increasingly connected, there has been a push from
multiple industries, from technology firms such as Google to comic book publishers such as
Marvel, to throw out the old and boring white sheets and bring in something fresh and new,
something decidedly less monochromatic. Recently, there has been a huge push from those

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within the video game industry and those who play games to feature greater diversity in the cast
of video games. I happen to agree with this push. I feel that, any story or form of entertainment,
is only enhanced when it has a multifaceted cast of diverse characters coming from different
backgrounds, each one bringing to the table a completely different view of a given situation than
another character. I like for my characters to be different and varied, and I think it is boring when
we get a film of a game where everyone is basically a carbon copy cutout of the joker standing
right beside him. Theres no tension, no butting of heads in these kinds of stories, no internal
conflict, a large part of what makes any story great. Diversity can bring so much to the table of
video games, and can allow others to experience the world in new and exciting ways, not just
through the eyes of a dragon hunter or a starship captain, but as an actual flesh and blood
woman, a down on his luck Nigerian working in a diamond mine, or a homosexual male
struggling to come out to his family.
However, despite the empathetic benefits one might receive from video game
diversity, recent efforts by those wishing increase the amount of diversity within video games has
been met with intense hostility from a vocal minority of gamers who seem to think that video
games are being overtaken by politically-correct liberal fascists who intend to censor and morph
their beloved past time into something which suits their interests. Particular hostility has been
levied against figures such as Anita Sarkeesian, along with her supporters or anyone remotely
agreeing with her, for her Kickstarter funded series Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, an
internet video series which aims to discuss and criticize the portrayal of women in many video
games. Some of these gamers, so upset that someone would have the audacity, nay the balls, to
point out that even video games are not above sexist representations of women, have decided that

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the only possible recourse for such a dastardly deed is to issue death threats against Sarkeesian in
response to the videos.
There's a toxicity within gaming culture, and also in tech culture,
that drives this misogynist hatred, this reactionary backlash against
women who have anything to say, especially those who have
critiques or who are feminists. There's this huge drive to silence us,
and if they can't silence us, they try to discredit us in an effort to
push us out. Anita Sarkessian speaking to Rolling Stones

Despite this being an obviously extreme response to the issue, I really wish that I could
say that is was an outlier. Another woman, named Jennifer Helper, who worked for video game
developer Bioware, and was inundated with death threats and hateful comments for saying that
she did not enjoy actually playing video games, as in the combat, puzzle, inventory management
bits, saying that while she enjoyed the interactive aspects of gaming, if a game doesnt have a
good story, its very hard for me to get interested in playing it, which doesnt seem like that is
all that crazy a thing to believe. Many other video game developers, journalists, and others
within the industry have reported similar threats, and for many this has seemingly become the
new normal within the industry. This possibly explains why the gaming community at large has
been rather tepid regarding the whole situation, seemingly preferring to not wade into the debate
as long as they are given competent control schemes and a fresh horde of zombies to slaughter,
while others simply bemoan that the story should be what matters most, not the characters in the
video games themselves or whether or not the prostitutes you can murder are realistic or not.
This really translates to It doesnt matter that all the characters are white and male and straight,
it just matters how many zombies I get to kill and how many hot chicks I can sleep with, but I
digress.

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In my opinion, the fact that these men and women, but mostly women it seems, are the
target of death threats for simply voicing an opinion, shows that the video games industry and
those who exist within it are need of some serious soul searching. Regardless of the opinions, no
matter how distasteful that may be, there is really no excuse to justify sending death threats to a
person. No one wants to feel like they are excluded from something based on factors beyond
their control, like their skin color or the which bathroom they use, and those individuals certainly
do not want, nor deserve, to have threats of violence levied against them for expressing an
opinion or for wanting a more inclusive industry. Nothing is perfect, and nothing ever will be
(except for Thin Mints of course, Thin Mints are perfect), but the pursuit of perfection, despite
how impossible it is to achieve, is not something to shirk off and to give up on. It is worth going
after. There may forever exist a disparity between the people who play games, and the people
they can play as. Film has been around for a century and it still cant quite get this one right, and
the same goes for television, and even literature. To fight for video game inclusiveness is a
worthy goal, and it is worth fighting for, and we should always look to the future and hope that
one day, we can achieve even the smallest of incremental successes in this endeavor.

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Works Cited
Burrows, Leah. "Women Remain Outsiders in Video Game Industry." The Boston Globe.
BOSTON GLOBE MEDIA PARTNERS, LLC, 27 Jan. 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.
Collins, Sean T. "Anita Sarkeesian on GamerGate: 'We Have a Problem and We're Going to Fix
This'" Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone, 17 Oct. 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.
Grant, Christopher. "On GamerGate: A Letter from the Editor." Polygon. 17 Oct. 2014. Web. 1
Mar. 2015.
"How Much Do You Know About Video Games?" Entertainment Software Rating Board.
ESRB, 1 Jan. 2011. Web. 28 Mar. 2015.
Kollar, Phillip. "Black Developers Speak out on Stereotypes in Gaming." Polygon. 5 Mar. 2015.
Web. 10 Apr. 2015.
Makuch, Eddie. "Percentage of Female Developers Has More Than Doubled Since
2009."Gamespot. CBS Interactive Inc, 14 June 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.
Rott, Nate. "#Gamergate Controversy Fuels Debate On Women And Video Games." NPR. NPR,
24 Sept. 2014. Web. 2 Mar. 2015.
Sydell, Laura. "Critics Renew Calls For More Diverse Video Game Characters." NPR. 13 June
2014. Web. 3 Mar. 2015.
"Video Games Revenue Worldwide from 2012 to 2015, by Source (in Billion U.S.
Dollars."Statista. Statista. Web. 27 Mar. 2015.
Williams, Dmitri, Nicole Martins, Mia Consalvo, and James Ivory. "The Virtual Census:
Representations of Gender, Race and Age in Video Games." New Media and Society 11.5
(2009): 815-34. Web. 7 March 2015