and you wonder why you don't see much diversity in video games..

In the Huntemann article we get a look into the lessor known realities of the game developers. One would think that with the laid back corporate structure of wear anything to work and having air-hockey tables that there wouldn't be many complaints but you would be wrong. Apparently they suffer from long hours, unpaid overtime, and not getting standard pay increases( not to mention the mental and physical toles put onto their bodies and to their families). I do believe that all these complaints are fair workplace grievances and are things that would surprise people to know that they still happen in modern America. But what really got me thinking was some of the statistics that the article gave out. Huntemann said that "The “typical” game developer is white, male and heterosexual.⁶ Furthermore, the survey revealed the workforce is younger and more likely to be single or childless than the average population. Men dominate the creative roles of game production such as programming,art, audio and design by at least 88%".


This made me think that maybe this is the main reason we don't see alot of diversity in video games today. To tie this reading in with the Everett and Watkins reading about race we can see that maybe we don't get authentic portrayals of women and other races than white because these aren't the people making the games. Games like Def Jam Vendetta and Saints Row are made by 20something white guys. what do they know of black culture? nothing thats what. All they go on is stereotypes that are portrayed in older forms of media like tv and movies and then try to bring in some outside people to help make it feel more authentically "Urban". I mean without having a diverse staff how should we expect these games to turn out? 

Think about it. If the game development staff for Tomb Raider was comprised of more women do you think Laura Craft's breasts would be so outrageously huge and that female avatars in general wouldn't be so overly sexualized? I really doubt they would be. You might also be able to attract females to more games as well if you had games made by more women instead of men making games that they think women would like. 


Do you think that by having more diverse game development staffs that we would see people of different races, genders and identities represented in games better or more often? How can companies attract women and minorities into the industry?