CNN has a great article exploring the drive to encourage more minorities into computer games development. Certainly diversity is a huge issue when it comes to the continuing success of videogaming, and some believe that incorporating a broader demographic into the industry fold will generate interactive experiences that reflect and support the play desires of people of different races, sexualities and (dare I say it) genders.
It's already been seen to work with women; the number two selling-game of all time (deposed after the awesome sales figures of GTA: San Andreas) is The Sims, which not only attracts a larger proportion of female than male gamers, but coincidentally boasted a 40% female creative development team. But what about different ethnicities? Is the multicoloured ethnic rainbow to be catered for with, for example, black characters like CJ and the Wu Tang Clan?
From the article:
"Not everybody goes outside with bling-bling and listens to rap music all day," says Amil Tomlin, a black 15-year-old from Baltimore who plays hours of video games each day.
Among those trying to paint a different racial picture is Mario Armstrong, who hosts a weekly National Public Radio program on technology. He and two fellow black colleagues have started the Urban Video Game Academy, a virtual programming boot camp for minorities.
"It's been said that a bunch of nerdy white guys are creating these games," Armstrong said. "The problem with a bunch of white guys creating the games is that the story isn't being created with balance."
