Topic: (i cant put this word in my post) survey

[Ian Sane]

"That's easy for you to say! You're a white, heterosexual male, and most games are targeted directly to your tastes."

Bullsh!t.  Very little of any form of popular entertainment is targetted towards my tastes.  Just knowing my skin colour, gender, and sexuality isn't enough to determine what I like.

[wandering]

I always make an ass of myself in these sorts of discussions.

What I should have said is that, as a white, heterosexual, male, it's easy for Ian to say that people shouldn't look for representations of their own race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and whatever. It's easy for him to say that they should just have fun... because he is fairly well represented in video games.

...It's not that a white person couldn't enjoy a game starring a black person, or vice versa. It's just that when you are never represented, I imagine you would tend to want to be. If you're gay, that's a pretty signifigant part of your life. And then to go and play games where you do nothing but save your in-game girlfriend, where all the npcs are straight, etc...you'd have to want some sort of at least respectful acknoledgement of homosexuality, in videogames, once in a while.

[Ian Sane]

"What I should have said is that, as a white, heterosexual, male, it's easy for Ian to say that people shouldn't look for representations of their own race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and whatever. It's easy for him to say that they should just have fun... because he is fairly well represented in video games."

Okay.  That makes a lot more sense.  Maybe that sort of thing just isn't so noticable to me.  I will say that if I watch a show like the Cosby Show or Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (old examples I know, but I don't watch much TV anymore) I don't think "man there aren't many white people on this show."

Of course gender and skin colour are easy things to spot.  Those are physical characteristics so you can assume that a character that looks like a woman is a woman 99% of the time or an Asian person is Asian.  You can't say that for sure with sexual orientation.  Yeah if a guy is talking about a girl he's interested in or he has a girlfriend or wife or children in the game you can assume he's hetrosexual (though he could be bi or in the closet).  If not though you don't know really.  As Deguello mentioned how do you establish someone as a minority when it's not something that can be recognized instantly at first sight?

I think if any group is being underrepresented then ideally people that fit in that group should take the initiative.  A good game designer makes a game that he likes and thinks others would have fun with.  A lot of himself is going into it.  Games are considered very male oriented because men make most games.  Once someone stops and consciously thinks about what demographics he has to include then I think he's going to lose track of making a great game based on what he wants to play.  It also seems forced.  If you think "well I've got to include this group" then you're acknowledging that that group is somehow different or exceptional.  That's what I've always disliked about things like that.  If something truly doesn't matter then you shouldn't even notice if it's there or not.

The survery suggest that there's some significant difference between "gaymers" and everyone else.  Is there?  Should there be?  If a game's fun it's fun.

[wandering]

Quote
I think if any group is being underrepresented then ideally people that fit in that group should take the initiative. A good game designer makes a game that he likes and thinks others would have fun with. A lot of himself is going into it. Games are considered very male oriented because men make most games. Once someone stops and consciously thinks about what demographics he has to include then I think he's going to lose track of making a great game based on what he wants to play. It also seems forced. If you think "well I've got to include this group" then you're acknowledging that that group is somehow different or exceptional. That's what I've always disliked about things like that. If something truly doesn't matter then you shouldn't even notice if it's there or not.

I agree. The trouble is, the people with the money make all of the decisions, and those decisions are based around what sells. If a game designer wants to make a game with a gay main character, he could very well be told that he couldn't do that. Are things like this survey the best way to solve this? I have no idea.