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Activision Blizzard creates "Diversity Space Tool" to aid in creating "inclusive" characters.

Wiseblood

Wiseblood

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,526
What better way to create truly diverse characters than to attach scores to each aspect of their identity?


Owp20LB.png


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Kalor

Kalor

Resettlement Advisor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,629


If I increase the gender identity dial then people won't get mad.
 

TronLight

Member
Jun 17, 2018
2,457
All this work when they could have just hit "randomize" on the character creation screen
 
Genesius

Genesius

Member
Nov 2, 2018
15,542
Creating a tool to be able to fathom diverse characters into existence seems excessive
 
Transistor

Transistor

Hollowly Brittle
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
37,167
Washington, D.C.
Inclusivity and diversity are amazing things that more games need but leave it to Activision to do it in the most tone deaf way possible
 
Platy

Platy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
27,703
Brazil
activision blizzard employes created IN THEIR FREE TIME an UNPAID tool to create inclusive characters INSTEAD OF LIKE HIRING DIVERSE PEOPLE AND LET THIS STUFF BE CREATED ORGANICALLY

Also this explains so much why Lucio is a fan of Hockey.
 
MasterOfNone

MasterOfNone

Member
Oct 27, 2017
198
Uhm... Should we hire diverse folks who will in turn naturally diversify our games by creating what they know or use that same money to create a tool to engineer diversity?
 
Smitch

Smitch

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Apr 21, 2022
4,244
If you really want to increase character diversity, you need to increase the diversity employees of your studio .
this is just a stupid way, it's looks like it's just a quota they want to hit
 

Deleted member 93062

Account closed at user request
Banned
Mar 4, 2021
24,767
This kind of just seems like a character organizer that ensures that their characters are different from each other with traits, backstory, etc? Maybe I'm not seeing it.
 
PAFenix

PAFenix

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Nov 21, 2019
14,685
Outside of Age, I don't know how any of those others are supposed to be "measured".

Wtf is this shit.....
 
bananas

bananas

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,857
Platy said:
activision blizzard employes created IN THEIR FREE TIME an UNPAID tool to create inclusive characters INSTEAD OF LIKE HIRING DIVERSE PEOPLE AND LET THIS STUFF BE CREATED ORGANICALLY

Also this explains so much why Lucio is a fan of Hockey.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Lucio is a fan of hockey because he was originally going to be from Canada, until Blizzard realized they had no South American heroes.

I don't know if that's better or worse.
 

slothrop

â–˛ Legend â–˛
Member
Aug 28, 2019
3,877
USA
I like how the old short dwarf with a robot arm ends up coded as highly diverse lol

There's no real way for companies to respond to market demand for their super orchestrated projects to have diversity without some way of measuring it and ending up with reporting metrics. It just the way these things go. If it actually ends up as a KPI, I mean that will actually result in more diverse characters even if it is in a sanitized corporate BS way by definition (I mean, it literally is a sanitized corporate environment)

If you don't have this as a KPI, there is not really any organizational backing or reason to actually do anything at an individual or team level. If you DO have it as a KPI, you ideally need some way to measure it. If you tie people's performance reviews to diversity initiatives, it might actually happen.
 
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L Thammy

L Thammy

Spacenoid
Member
Oct 25, 2017
50,045
I'm not sure it's that bad depending on how it's used? Like if there's a minimum standard for inclusivity and no maximum, then it at least provides some kind of control to keep games from being made lacking diversity without specifically needing someone to champion it. Something like this also probably shouldn't be the be all and end all of inclusion, as it should especially be taken into account in hiring practices, and especially more diverse presence higher up in roles that can actually make substantial decisions.

I don't trust Activision, but I don't feel like this is something to immediately shit on. I don't expect diversity to just magically happen in companies that haven't been prioritizing it before - there have to be active efforts.
 
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IMCaprica

IMCaprica

Member
Aug 1, 2019
9,433
What's the difference between the numbers on each of the categories? Like what separates a 2 ethnicity from a 3 or 4 ethnicity? I ask this as someone who read the whole thing and still have no clue. It sounds unbelievably awful.

Just have more diversity in your company, particularly in leadership positions. Why did this need to be a thing?
 
Platy

Platy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
27,703
Brazil
They either don't know what gender identity is (my vote) or they just announced Zaria is Non Binary

bananas said:
Lucio is a fan of hockey because he was originally going to be from Canada, until Blizzard realized they had no South American heroes.

I don't know if that's better or worse.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

it is the same

they saw diversity as ticks in a spreadsheet and they see it now the same way
 
Sheldon

Sheldon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,337
Ruhrgebiet, Germany
Wiseblood said:
What better way to create truly diverse characters than to attach scores to each aspect of their identity?


Owp20LB.png


www.activisionblizzard.com

Activision Blizzard King | Substack

News, stories, and so much more from Activision Blizzard King. We connect the world through epic entertainment 🎮. Click to read Activision Blizzard King, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.
www.activisionblizzard.com www.activisionblizzard.com
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That's cool. The dwarf archetype gets more points on the diversity chart than the buff woman and the black man. What a useful tool.
 
SpottieO

SpottieO

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,615
I don't necessarily see this a bad thing 🤷🏽‍♂️ It seems like a simple way to assess the diversity of a games character base and to see if there are ways to make the cast more inclusive.

If gaming developers are overwhelmingly male white and cis then maybe they do need a tool to help aid inclusivity. Obviously the solution is to hire more diverse devs to game development but until that happens maybe they do need help. If this could help me to see more characters that look like I do then that isn't bad imo.
 
Dyle

Dyle

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
29,944
Looks like a good tool to have, it's good to have something which can help you step back from a large cast and identify possible oversights. Numeric vales is a little weird but I don't think it's meant to be taken as gospel, just as a bird's eye view for their teams to address forms of unconscious bias
 
Saucycarpdog

Saucycarpdog

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,351
Great job Activision. You created a literal diversity algorithm that conservatives love to whine about.
 
Tbm24

Tbm24

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
16,329
Personally I'm not particularly bothered by this. It's just a means to quantify data that few were bothering to do in the first place. In some ways I'd enjoy seeing a breakdown of this level for other games just to really get an idea what a game is offering on this front.
 
convo

convo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,377


This is like a joke in Sillicon Valley(the show), but i have to concede that tech bros and corporate bullshit are always this dumb for real.
 
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