Racial diversity in Indie games: patterns, challenges, and opportunities

Cale J. Passmore; Rowan Yates; Max V. Birk; Regan L. Mandryk

doi:10.1145/3130859.3131438

Racial diversity in Indie games: patterns, challenges, and opportunities

Cale J. Passmore, Rowan Yates, Max V. Birk, Regan L. Mandryk

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

29 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Although gamers of color constitute a large part of the digital gaming player base in the US, they are systematically and enormously underrepresented by in-game characters in AAA titles. To extend these findings to indie games, we examine 80 titles and show that the pattern of lack of racial diversity holds. We discuss implications for the industry and players, and present challenges that must be addressed to increase diversity in racial representations of characters in games.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Extended Abstracts Publication of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages	137-151
Number of pages	15
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-4503-5111-9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3130859.3131438
Publication status	Published - 2017
Externally published	Yes
Event	4th ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2017 - Pakhuis de Zwijger (main conference) ; Marineterrein (workshops and courses), Amsterdam, Netherlands Duration: 15 Oct 2017 → 18 Oct 2017 Conference number: 4 https://chiplay.acm.org/2017

Conference

Conference	4th ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2017
Abbreviated title	CHI PlAY 2017
Country/Territory	Netherlands
City	Amsterdam
Period	15/10/17 → 18/10/17
Internet address	https://chiplay.acm.org/2017

Keywords

Diversity
Games
Indie, AAA
People of color
Race

Access to Document

10.1145/3130859.3131438

https://dblp.org/db/conf/chiplay/chiplay2017c.html#PassmoreYBM17

Cite this

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title = "Racial diversity in Indie games: patterns, challenges, and opportunities",

abstract = "Although gamers of color constitute a large part of the digital gaming player base in the US, they are systematically and enormously underrepresented by in-game characters in AAA titles. To extend these findings to indie games, we examine 80 titles and show that the pattern of lack of racial diversity holds. We discuss implications for the industry and players, and present challenges that must be addressed to increase diversity in racial representations of characters in games.",

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booktitle = "Extended Abstracts Publication of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery, Inc",

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note = "4th ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2017, CHI PlAY 2017 ; Conference date: 15-10-2017 Through 18-10-2017",

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Passmore, CJ, Yates, R, Birk, MV & Mandryk, RL 2017, Racial diversity in Indie games: patterns, challenges, and opportunities. in Extended Abstracts Publication of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, New York, pp. 137-151, 4th ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2017, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 15/10/17. https://doi.org/10.1145/3130859.3131438

Racial diversity in Indie games: patterns, challenges, and opportunities. / Passmore, Cale J.; Yates, Rowan; Birk, Max V. et al.
Extended Abstracts Publication of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2017. p. 137-151.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

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T1 - Racial diversity in Indie games

T2 - 4th ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2017

AU - Passmore, Cale J.

AU - Yates, Rowan

AU - Birk, Max V.

AU - Mandryk, Regan L.

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AB - Although gamers of color constitute a large part of the digital gaming player base in the US, they are systematically and enormously underrepresented by in-game characters in AAA titles. To extend these findings to indie games, we examine 80 titles and show that the pattern of lack of racial diversity holds. We discuss implications for the industry and players, and present challenges that must be addressed to increase diversity in racial representations of characters in games.

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KW - Games

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KW - People of color

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DO - 10.1145/3130859.3131438

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BT - Extended Abstracts Publication of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play

PB - Association for Computing Machinery, Inc

CY - New York

Y2 - 15 October 2017 through 18 October 2017

ER -

Racial diversity in Indie games: patterns, challenges, and opportunities

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

Access to Document

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