This document summarizes a presentation about improving diversity and inclusion in the game industry. It discusses issues like the #MeToo and #GamerGate movements, common stereotypes around gender and race in games, and best practices for making games more representative. Examples are given of early games that included LGBTQ characters and content. The presentation emphasizes iterative design with user feedback, diverse development teams, and ensuring accessibility, as ways for game companies to create more inclusive content. A list of selected sources on related topics is also included.

1. Ms. PacMac & Lara Croft: Getting
Beyond #GamerGate and #MeToo
Serious Play
July 19, 2018

2. Agenda
• #MeToo #Gamer Gate
• What do we know about the “Game” Industry?
• What lessons can Serious Game Companies
share to make the whole industry better?
Example from the Entertainment Industry

3. Martha

4. Game World Development…
• Bench Marked Current Games
• Developed A Creative Brief
• Art Slam with input from 4 Artists
• Focus groups with kids from urban,
suburban and rural areas
• And by default, their moms

5. Martha Gets Pants

6. Design Considerations for Serious Games
K12
Learning Objective
Age
Reading Level
Socio-Economic status
Accessibility factors
Mechanics
Primary Language
Motivational Schema
Accuracy of Content
Higher Ed and Adult
Learning Objective
Major/Non major
Mechanics
Primary Language
Motivational Schema
Accuracy of Content

7. Accuracy of Content
What do we mean by content?
• Anything that a player will see, hear or read within
context or cultural environment of a game
• Academic or Factual Content (Serious Games)
• Cultural Content (All Games)
Cultural Categories
• History
• Religion
• Intercultural Conflict (e.g., Pocket God)
• Geopolitical friction (Maps and disputed territories)
Kate Edwards, Culturalization of Game Content

8. What isn’t there?
• Gender
• Race and Ethnicity
• Sexual Orientation
• Physical Abilities
• Class

9. Why?!
Courtesy of The Strong, Rochester, New York
1980…

10. Courtesy of The Strong, Rochester, New York

11. Women in Games
• Damsel In Distress
• Victim
• Slut
• How do we get beyond being
sexy side kicks?
Courtesy of The Strong, Rochester, New York

12. Lara Gets Pants
Courtesy of The Strong, Rochester, New York

13. Race

14. Race
“Of course Grand
Theft Auto is violent,
misogynistic and
racist. It is a
ganster fantasy.
How could it be
otherwise? (Shaw)

15. Sexual Orientation
Courtesy of The Strong, Rochester, New York
Courtesy of The Strong, Rochester, New York

16. Not Totally Invisible
Literature here is new
• Earliest Games was
Caper in the Castro
(1988)
• Few Lead Characters
• NPCs (sex workers)
• Will Wright: The Sims
Courtesy of The Strong, Rochester, New York

17. Best Practices
• Iterative Design with end-user and purchaser
feedback
• Patterns of Play
• Cooperative versus Competitive
• Diversity on the team
• Accessibility (Audio/Visual/Motor)

18. Selected Sources
Chess, S., and Shaw, A., (2015) A Conspiracy of Fishes or How We Learned to Stop Worrying
About #GamerGate and Embrace Hegemonic Masculinity, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic
Media 59(1).
Edwards, Kate, (2011) Culturalization of Game Content.
Friesen, E. (2017) Developing Media and Gender Literacy in the High School Classroom, Journal
of Literacy and Technology 18(2).
Gabbiadini, A., Riva, P., Andrighetto, L., Volpato, C., Bushman, BJ (2016) Acting Like a Tough Guy:
Violent-Sexist Video Games, Identification with Game Characters, PLoS ONE 11(4).
Garrelts, Nate, (2006) The Meaning and Nature of Grand Theft auto: critical essays, Jefferson,
NC: McFarland and Company.
Google, (2018) Change the Game: The World of Women and Mobile Gaming.
Juul, Jesper, (2010) A Casual Revolution: reinventing video games and their players, Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press.
Kafai, Y. B., Heeter, C., Denner, J., & Sun, J. (Eds.) (2008). Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New
perspectives on gender and gaming. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

19. Selected Sources
Lynch, T., Tompkins, J., van Dreil, I. and Fritz, N., (2016) Sexy, Strong and Secondary: A Content
Analysis of Female Characters in Video Games across 31 years, Journal of Communications 66.
Murray, S., (2018) On Video Games: The Visual Politics of Race, Gender and Space New York,
NY: I. B. Tauris.
Porter, Justin, (February 25, 2017) A Fresh Narrative in Gaming, New York, NY: The New York
Times.
Ray, S.G., (2004) Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market, Hingham , MA: Charles
River Media, Inc.
Shaw, A., On Not Becoming Gamers: Moving Beyond the Constructed Audience.
Shaw A., and Ruberg, B. eds., Queer Game Studies, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press.
Shaw, A. (2014) Gaming at the edge, sexuality and gender at the margins of gamer culture,
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Shaw, A., Friesem, E., (2016) Where is the Queerness in Games? Types of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender and Queer Content in Digital Games, International Journal of Communication 10
(2016).
Spector, B., Truell, M., (2017) The Design and Implementation of Modern Online Programming
Competitions.
Todd, Cherie, (2015) Commentary: GamerGate and resistance to the diversification of gaming
culture, Women’s Studies Journal, 29(1).

20. Thank you!