After one week of this course, I have to say, I found myself looking back at all of the video games that I have played or came across during my lifetime. To be more specific, I tried my best to recall the character representation in these games. I did this because we had some good discussions this week about the lack of representation of women and other groups of people in a substantial amount of games. This then led me to conduct some research on how the gaming world got to this point to even begin with. During my research, I encountered Dennis Scimeca’s article, “The Gender Inequality in Core Gaming is Worse Than You Think”. In his article, Scimeca gives an in-depth analysis of gender representation in various games across the gaming world. One creative point that he mentions deals with the people behind video game development. He states, “The overwhelming number of men in video game development is the ultimate cause of these concerns” (4). After I read this quote, I thought to myself, the title of this article is exactly on point. Let alone gender representation, we have a larger problem in the video gaming world. What I mean by this is, the lack of diversity around the people who create these games. To me, although men are more likely to be credited with game development, this does not mean that they are the only ones that can play the game or even be represented in the game. That being said, we must find a balance. This can even start by allowing everybody to have a say during the development of a game. If the people that feel like they are being left out of the gaming world took part in creating it, chances are they would include themselves, which could be a building block to resolving the issue of underrepresentation. 

On top of this, we can even draw a connection between this article and the Feminist Frequency video we watched on the first day of class. To go more into details, a part of the article mentions how economic success for video games never really strikes as a concern, but rather, the concerns are more on the surface of culture. This is also a point that is brought up in the video. The speaker mentioned a game that was actually rewritten and still succeeded. Even though the video focuses more on women not having the chance to be the “real hero” in most storylines, the main takeaway with my connection is that economic concerns of video games are usually the least of the worries. Games will sell. Games will be played. But the real question is, who are the people that are actually recognized in the game? 

All in all, these issues that we covered in the first week are often overlooked by people in both the real world and the gaming world. I really look forward to understanding the different viewpoints and perspectives that people have to offer about the various games out there. Hopefully, these issues are brought to the attention of the right people, this way, everybody can embrace the real joy that should come along with the idea and act of gaming.

-Andy Kissoon