Goody Two Shoes Media

Misogyny Racism and Homophobia: Where do Video Games Stand?

My colleague shared this video with me today.  Very interesting points. I’m very curious about what people in industry think about this.  There are difficult tradeoffs that must be made when deciding where to invest time and resources.  Manveer Heir said, “…not so fast….marketing departments have cherry picked data and used a self-fulfilling prophecy to say this is the reason.”  The fact that we produce and promote certain types of games does not mean that they are superior, only that we have produced and promoted said games.  I can personally remember sitting in meetings where the decision was made to save money by relying on stereotypes, and as Heir alludes, the decision is seldom addressed, the stereotypes are just perpetuated.

I can’t agree more with Heir’s claim that “it starts with us.” In a world of democratized media, it is so important that we are aware of the unintended consequences of the choices that are made.  Perhaps we have progressed far enough that we can make games that are fun and still consider the implications the power that we wield.