A study, conducted by EA's Global Consumer Insights team, was published recently that aimed to analyze what inclusion means to players. It is a great study, with a lot of interesting takeaways, but I suspect for many the conclusions are confirmations of what they already knew. And that is: diversity and inclusion in videogames matters. And it matters to the large part of the gaming base.
The study can be found here: https://medium.com/@Electronic_Arts/what-inclusion-means-to-players-db4522bdd8a0
To surmise some of the big takeaways: the vast majority of gamers are completely fine with a push for more diversity and inclusion in gaming, and a large portion of the gaming audience is more likely to play games that have inclusive content and/or features. On the other hand, a minority of gamers finds diversity and inclusion in games unimportant, and an even smaller minority indicates that they are less likely to play games featuring inclusive content and/or features.
Also included were some examples of inclusion that some gamers found notable and important:
I found these examples to be quite heartwarming. Some of the examples are things I might go by in a game without even giving them a second thought, and yet are quite important for other gamers. And thinking about it now, it is very clear why. And these gamers are not alone. There are so many moments, features or things relating to games being more inclusive that have a positive impact on players but simply aren't discussed enough and so, are in a way lost to those that didn't have a similar experience or relate in a similar fashion. My hope is that by sharing examples in this thread, we can highlight the importance of diversity and inclusion, both to each other and the industry at large.
Purpose:
While this thread is largely geared towards personal stories and experiences, sharing stories of the experiences of others, either through personal knowledge or just something that caught your eye on the internet, is encouraged as well. The purpose of the thread is to show just how important diversity and inclusion can be to gamers, to show how things that might seem small or insignificant to one gamer might have such a huge impact on another, and to make a continuing case for more and further diversity and inclusion in videogames. Whether it is something you consider big or small, I hope you share and talk about it. Because that personal impact matters. In fact, many of the examples I can think of personally are things that might very well be considered "small" to others, and yet their importance is not diluted, and their impact not lessened on me.
Another goal of this thread is to serve as a general topic for discussing issues relating to diversity and inclusion, especially concerning issues and topics that might not be discussed in other threads or have threads be made about them. We want to highlight and put an emphasis on the positive examples but also talk about the negative ones and everything in between. This can range from things that maybe bugged you but that you don't really see anybody talking about to questions you might have about certain issues.
Examples:
And so, I would like to start off the thread by highlighting two personal examples of my own. These may or may not be shared by others, but they are incredibly important to me and are the examples that immediately spring to mind when I think about inclusion in gaming.
The first relates to Prince of Persia (1989). As a Pakistani, most of my gaming experiences were years delayed compared to a lot of other countries as we got consoles significantly late. I recall having originally gotten a SNES long after the PS1 had launched in the majority of the world, but it still formed a massive part of my childhood. And yet, despite the SNES taking most of my gaming time as a child in Pakistan, my most memorable gaming memories stem from Prince of Persia, which I had played on a PC via some floppy disks at the time (or maybe it was preinstalled, I can't remember). While the SNES featured titles I enjoyed greatly and which I look back on fondly, Prince of Persia was the title I associated with so much more deeply. Here came a game whose title immediately stood out to me and my family. We knew Iranians, people who considered themselves Persians, and that immediately made it a far more relatable game. But even more than that, it featured characters that I associated and likened myself to far more than any other game at the time. I understood, even as a child, that while the characters were not Pakistani, they were far more similar to me than most I found in gaming. And to this day, the original Prince of Persia, its sequels and the 3D successor are the only games me, my brother, dad and mom have played together. And I think it honestly came down to the name. In the sea of titles back in those generations, having Persia in the name immediately stood out and piqued our curiosity.
Another example I have relates to Dota 2, but not something in the game, but rather relating to its eports scene. I've played Dota 2 for a bit, a tough game that I stopped playing after a while but enjoyed enough to check out its competitive scene. While I don't watch most of the tournaments that take place, I do tune into the International every year (the biggest tournament for Dota 2) and while I've always had multiple favorites as far as teams go, the most I have ever been excited for has been when Evil Geniuses, a top Dota 2 team, featured both Sumail and Universe on its roster, players of Pakistani and Indian origin respectively. Having two players, playing a game at a top level, for millions of dollars, who looked like me? How could I not tune in and root for them and their team? Those tournaments have probably been the most I've been invested in any esport, and having them win the International 2015 was an incredible highlight for me.
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I hope I made this extensive enough to warrant good discussion without steering the conversation in any particular way. If there is something you would like to see added or corrected in the OP, please let me know.
Without further ado, please share and discuss away.
[I want to emphasize that this thread is geared towards everyone regardless of sex, gender identity, ethnicity, race, religion, disability or sexual orientation. I encourage everyone to share examples and experiences. If not yours, maybe someone's you know, or a story you are familiar with. Or maybe you simply want to discuss the issues, and that is fine too.]
Credits:
Biestmann for helping me out!
rras1994 for linking to the study.
Why Women Criticize Sexualized Designs for being a great thread, faciliating excellent discussion on a variety of issues.
The study can be found here: https://medium.com/@Electronic_Arts/what-inclusion-means-to-players-db4522bdd8a0
To surmise some of the big takeaways: the vast majority of gamers are completely fine with a push for more diversity and inclusion in gaming, and a large portion of the gaming audience is more likely to play games that have inclusive content and/or features. On the other hand, a minority of gamers finds diversity and inclusion in games unimportant, and an even smaller minority indicates that they are less likely to play games featuring inclusive content and/or features.
Also included were some examples of inclusion that some gamers found notable and important:
I found these examples to be quite heartwarming. Some of the examples are things I might go by in a game without even giving them a second thought, and yet are quite important for other gamers. And thinking about it now, it is very clear why. And these gamers are not alone. There are so many moments, features or things relating to games being more inclusive that have a positive impact on players but simply aren't discussed enough and so, are in a way lost to those that didn't have a similar experience or relate in a similar fashion. My hope is that by sharing examples in this thread, we can highlight the importance of diversity and inclusion, both to each other and the industry at large.
Purpose:
While this thread is largely geared towards personal stories and experiences, sharing stories of the experiences of others, either through personal knowledge or just something that caught your eye on the internet, is encouraged as well. The purpose of the thread is to show just how important diversity and inclusion can be to gamers, to show how things that might seem small or insignificant to one gamer might have such a huge impact on another, and to make a continuing case for more and further diversity and inclusion in videogames. Whether it is something you consider big or small, I hope you share and talk about it. Because that personal impact matters. In fact, many of the examples I can think of personally are things that might very well be considered "small" to others, and yet their importance is not diluted, and their impact not lessened on me.
Another goal of this thread is to serve as a general topic for discussing issues relating to diversity and inclusion, especially concerning issues and topics that might not be discussed in other threads or have threads be made about them. We want to highlight and put an emphasis on the positive examples but also talk about the negative ones and everything in between. This can range from things that maybe bugged you but that you don't really see anybody talking about to questions you might have about certain issues.
Examples:
And so, I would like to start off the thread by highlighting two personal examples of my own. These may or may not be shared by others, but they are incredibly important to me and are the examples that immediately spring to mind when I think about inclusion in gaming.
The first relates to Prince of Persia (1989). As a Pakistani, most of my gaming experiences were years delayed compared to a lot of other countries as we got consoles significantly late. I recall having originally gotten a SNES long after the PS1 had launched in the majority of the world, but it still formed a massive part of my childhood. And yet, despite the SNES taking most of my gaming time as a child in Pakistan, my most memorable gaming memories stem from Prince of Persia, which I had played on a PC via some floppy disks at the time (or maybe it was preinstalled, I can't remember). While the SNES featured titles I enjoyed greatly and which I look back on fondly, Prince of Persia was the title I associated with so much more deeply. Here came a game whose title immediately stood out to me and my family. We knew Iranians, people who considered themselves Persians, and that immediately made it a far more relatable game. But even more than that, it featured characters that I associated and likened myself to far more than any other game at the time. I understood, even as a child, that while the characters were not Pakistani, they were far more similar to me than most I found in gaming. And to this day, the original Prince of Persia, its sequels and the 3D successor are the only games me, my brother, dad and mom have played together. And I think it honestly came down to the name. In the sea of titles back in those generations, having Persia in the name immediately stood out and piqued our curiosity.
Another example I have relates to Dota 2, but not something in the game, but rather relating to its eports scene. I've played Dota 2 for a bit, a tough game that I stopped playing after a while but enjoyed enough to check out its competitive scene. While I don't watch most of the tournaments that take place, I do tune into the International every year (the biggest tournament for Dota 2) and while I've always had multiple favorites as far as teams go, the most I have ever been excited for has been when Evil Geniuses, a top Dota 2 team, featured both Sumail and Universe on its roster, players of Pakistani and Indian origin respectively. Having two players, playing a game at a top level, for millions of dollars, who looked like me? How could I not tune in and root for them and their team? Those tournaments have probably been the most I've been invested in any esport, and having them win the International 2015 was an incredible highlight for me.
--
I hope I made this extensive enough to warrant good discussion without steering the conversation in any particular way. If there is something you would like to see added or corrected in the OP, please let me know.
Without further ado, please share and discuss away.
[I want to emphasize that this thread is geared towards everyone regardless of sex, gender identity, ethnicity, race, religion, disability or sexual orientation. I encourage everyone to share examples and experiences. If not yours, maybe someone's you know, or a story you are familiar with. Or maybe you simply want to discuss the issues, and that is fine too.]
Credits:
Biestmann for helping me out!
rras1994 for linking to the study.
Why Women Criticize Sexualized Designs for being a great thread, faciliating excellent discussion on a variety of issues.
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