Collum 1

Austin Collum
Professor Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
31 March 2015
Video Game Diversity
In the past twenty years, video games have seen a massive surge in popularity, rising to
become one of the dominant forms of entertainment on the planet. According to Statista.com, a
website devoted to analyzing various statistics, in 2013 alone 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 became 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 shooting game series Call of Duty has accrued
more than $10 billion in worldwide sales since the first series first game released way back in
2003, a number which exceeds the total box office receipts for movie franchises such as

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 10:58 PM

Comment [1]: Sounds awkward with the double
first

the Hunger Games, Transformers, Iron Man, and Avengers, combined, according to the video
games publisher Activision. 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.
These numbers represent a fantastic segue into a rarely asked question: How diverse are these
video games, which have become increasingly popular and increasingly global in scope?
According to the ESRB, or the Entertain Software Rating Board, an independent selfregulatory board that assigns ratings to video games in order to educate purchasers about the

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 10:59 PM

Comment [2]: Kinda just jumps into the
question. Youre talking about the dollars and
revenue created by the games then suddenly ask
about its diversity.

Collum 2

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

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 11:00 PM

Comment [3]: Who are they?

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

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 11:01 PM

Comment [4]: In how many could you choose
your sex?

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. 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

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 11:02 PM

Comment [5]: Did you mean Exists?

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 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.

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 11:03 PM

Comment [6]: Is this because the elderly dont
play games? Elaborate.

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 11:05 PM

Comment [7]: This doesnt matter if they dont
play. Try making the connection between the
people who play the games not people who exist.

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 11:07 PM

Comment [8]: African Americans? Asians?
Middle Easterns?

Collum 3

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
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

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 11:06 PM

Comment [9]: They mention a study. Not
important. Go straight to that study instead of
linking the two.

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. 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 selfworth, letting that person know that they carry some weight within society. On the flip side,
when a group I not portrayed within a game, it may lead persons within that group to feel

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 11:08 PM

unimportant and powerless in the greater world. Such issues highlight the need for greater

Comment [10]: Is?

diversity within the gaming community.

Comment [11]: People.

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

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 11:08 PM

Collum 4

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
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 enterntainment,
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

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 11:10 PM

Comment [12]: Keep correct pronouns.

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 11:10 PM

Comment [13]: Too much tab.

Collum 5

internet video series which aims to discuss and criticize the portrayal of women in many video
games, similar to the object of this paper. Some of these gamers, so upset that someone would

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 11:12 PM

have the audacity, nay the balls, to point out that even video games are no above sexist

Comment [14]: Remove. This is unneeded and

deters from the point by making the point seem
more biased.

representations of women, have decided that the only possible recourse for such a dastardly deed

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 11:13 PM

Comment [15]: Keep it formal.

is to issue death threats against Sarkeesian in response to the videos. Obviously, this represents

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 11:13 PM

Comment [16]: Really?

an extreme example of the response to the growing diversity movement, I wish I could say it has
been the only such instance. Many video game developers, journalists, and others within the

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 11:13 PM

Comment [17]: On whose side?

industry have reported similar threats, and for many it has seemingly become the norm. This
possibly explains why the gaming community at large has been rather tepid on 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. 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.
To me, this issue of certain people being targeted for wanting a more inclusive video
game market only further highlights the need for a more inclusive video game market. Nobody
wants to feel like they are underrepresented or being excluded from something based on their
race, gender, religion, orientation, or anything else, and those people certainly dont want to have
to deal with death threats from voicing an opinion. Not every medium is perfect, and there will
invariably always exist a disparity between those who game and the characters they play as, but
this does not mean that we just drop everything and assume it will all work out. Video game
inclusiveness, like any other aspect of life, is a goal worth fighting for, and perhaps one day even
achieving on some level

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 11:15 PM

Comment [18]: Add a period. Grammar.

Collum 6

Citations
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. <https://www.esrb.org/about/video-gameindustry-statistics.jsp>.
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.
<http://www.statista.com/statistics/278181/video-games-revenue-worldwide-from-2012to-2015-by-source/>.
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

Collum 7

General Comments:
In how many games are you able to choose these things about your character? What is
the relationship between the amount of different races playing video games. Do certain races,
genders, orientations gravitate towards games that mirror their own self? EXAMPLES. Show
more examples and more evenly throughout the paper. Examples from both sides. What type of
games do women gravitate towards? What type of games do African Americans gravitate
towards? What type of games do LBST people gravitate towards? You clearly state why these
games are not inclusive but at the end you kind of lose your question of why does it matter. Why
would society be better if the games were more inclusive?

Amy Hewitt 4/23/2015 11:16 PM

Formatted: Font:Italic, Font color: Accent
2