Ever wondered why protagonists in video games primarily are white? Well, no wonder, since 83.3% of all people working in the industry are white. I wonder if these statistics could be applied to the buyers as well today…? Here’s a quick overview (source):

• Male = 88.5%, Female = 11.5%
• White = 83.3%, Black = 2.0%, Hispanic/Latino = 2.5%, Asian = 7.5%, Other = 4.7%
• Heterosexual = 92%, Lesbian/Gay = 2.7%, Bisexual = 2.7%
• Average age = 31 years
• Average years in the industry = 5.4 years
• Percentage of people with disabilities = 13% (e.g., cognitive, mobility, sight, etc)
• More than 80% have a university level education or greater
• More than 60% of studios claim that obtaining diverse applicants is challenging

But if we look a bit close at the medium, we can see that:

1. It’s fairly new
2. It has been developed & pushed forward by the same demographic as seen above because generally, these people have been the only ones that have had the access to and interest in computers, during the birth and infancy of computer games
3. It has primarily been used by approximately the same people throughout the years because of the same reasons as above. Only in the recent 10-15 years or so, the medium has gotten a more widespread audience mainly through the introduction of console games

Looking at it from that perspective, it is understandable that the majority of the developers are WASPs. But the medium surely needs to evolve. One way to push it forward is to give aspiring directors the option of learning how to direct computer games, as the National Film School of Denmark does. Perhaps this could also lead to more interesting & experimental games in the future… Nevertheless the articles linked to above are exciting to read.

On this day...

... in 2006: Production photos
... in 2004: Fantasy
... in 2002: More words