Diversity in Video Games

These days, video games are extremely popular in all ages beginning from children who are 6 years old way into their 20s. These video games definitely have a very strong impact on the youth of this generation and influence their beliefs and ideals. This is why it is extremely important to have racial and gender diversity in video games to banish stereotypes and promote equality. Although commonly thought otherwise, women comprise 45% of the entire game playing population and also take up 46% of the most frequent buyers of video games (according to this article). The question remains then, why are women rarely, if ever, featured as main characters in video games. If women give video game companies almost half of their business then they should have equal representation in these games and should not be stereotyped sex symbols or helpless princesses in need of saving. As for racial diversity, video games lack it just as much. In this article, they state that African Americans between the ages of 8 and 18 play video games 30 minutes more per day than white youth, and Hispanics between these ages play 10 minutes more per day than their white counterparts. However they still only take up a small minority of characters in video games. Professor Dimitri Williams at the University of Southern California conducted a study and found that less than 3% of characters in video games were distinctly hispanic, all of which were unplayable. Meanwhile, Native Americans and biracial characters were not featured at all, and African Americans took up 10.74% of characters, all of whom were portrayed as athletes or gangsters, the common African American stereotype. The diversity in video games is extremely low considering minorities make up more than half of the video game audience. This is unfair because it only continues to perpetuate stereotypes and keep minorities out of media, therefore promoting bigotry and close-mindedness within our youth.