No Time To Play
newsletter archive

Weekly Links #168: diversity edition

Sometimes outages have the worst timing. As of this writing, I've had no Internet for over 24 hours, and it could be another day or more until it's fixed, due to May Day falling on a Monday. But the show must go on.

I'll start with an article that's not about games at all — in fact it's about diversity in superhero comics. But the following quote applies all too well to games, and in fact any other medium:

“Diversity” as a concept is a useful tool, but it can’t be the goal or the final product. It assumes whiteness (and/or maleness and/or heteronormitivity [sic]) as the default and everything else as a deviation from that. This is why diversity initiatives so often end up being quantitative—focused on the number of “diverse” individuals—rather than qualitative, committed to positive representation and active inclusion in all levels of creation and production. This kind of in-name-only diversity thinking is why Mayonnaise McWhitefeminism got cast as Major Motoko Kusanagi while actual Japanese person Rila Fukushima was used as nothing but a face mold for robot geishas.

On a related note, the analysis of visual novels I mentioned two weeks ago continues with a look at VN protagonists, and the conclusion is inescapable: (Note: EVN is short for English-language Visual Novel, as in original as opposed to a translation from Japanese.)

Despite VNs being portrayed as escapist literature with generic self-insert protagonists, our analysis seems to suggest the reverse. Fans far prefer protagonists with strong identities, and EVNs are leading the way in exploring stories with more diverse characters. The videogame industry could learn something from our little medium.

To top it all, Jimmy Maher writing about the history of Wing Commander points out the way a cheesy action game from 1990 did better than many modern titles at diversity and inclusion, despite its reliance on ethnic stereotypes, simply because it tried in earnest.

Moving on, straight from the horse's mouth we get a look at Blizzard's past with the making of Starcraft, and at their future with an interview about how World of Warcraft might evolve. In unrelated news, Warren Spector talks to Gamasutra about doing your own thing as a game designer (and asking bigger questions).

And speaking of game design, as the only piece of news this week that's actually on topic we have Emily Short with a collection of links about spatial storytelling, that as usual apply to much more than just interactive fiction.

Enjoy, and see you next time.