Diversity In Video Games, Evolving Downtown Areas, Multi-Racial In Wisconsin

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• Call For More Diversity In Video Games Goes Viral

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  As video games continue to increase in popularity and attract a wider audience in the American public, one thing hasn’t changed: The human characters on the screen seem to predominantly be white men.

  The issue was thrust in the spotlight this fall after avid gamer Tanya DePass tweeted about being tired of not seeing herself in the games she plays, and included the hashtag #INeedDiverseGames in her post:

  #INeedDiverseGames because I am tired of the same variant of scruffy white dude protaganists in every game I buy.

  — Tanya D. (@cypheroftyr) October 7, 2014

  Soon after, the hashtag snowballed and quickly began to trend in social media.

  “It gained traction and I just ran with it,” DePass said. “It must’ve struck a nerve. I was witty and on point at the right time and it’s been going on ever since early October.”

  With the exception of games where a person can create their own character, DePass said most games have cookie-cutter, white male protagonists. In the few games that do involve women characters, DePass said they often play a supportive role to male leads, or are overly-sexualized.

  “Representation matters,” she said. “There’s a lot of empirical data to show that not seeing yourself reflected in your media affects you. And it would be nice to be able to go out and buy a game and see myself reflected in the characters — and not just someone who gets shot or killed, but a protagonist. It would be nice to see myself reflected in a game where I can go save the world.”

  The data shows that women clearly play and buy video games in large numbers. A 2013 report by the Entertainment Software Association found that women and girls make up nearly half of all game players and most frequent purchasers of games.

  However, when looking at the virtual environments that gamers play in, female characters and racial minorities have been underrepresented.

  “If you go into a game store, you’re not going to see just white dudes,” DePass said. “That reality is not reflected in the media.”

  Here are some tweets with the #INeedDiverseGames hashtag.

  #INeedDiverseGames because a lot of people/companies confuse Tokenism with fair representation of women & minorities in video games

  — Charles Tan (@charlesatan) October 27, 2014

  #INeedDiverseGames because playing mostly young-white-male-centric characters in young-white-male-centric games got old a couple decades ago

  — MsBarrows (@Ms_Barrows) October 9, 2014

  Bottom line is that #INeedDiverseGames because I’m tired of having to justify wanting to play video games as anything other than a white man

  — Lindsay (@LeprechaunKoala) October 14, 2014

  #INeedDiverseGames because I want my kids to grow up empathetic and knowing other stories and viewpoints matter.

  — Bunny Hanlon (@wingedlioness) October 8, 2014

  #INeedDiverseGames because I always assumed I was straight. Having non-hetero heroes might have helped me explore myself much earlier.

  — MY NAME IS SHEEEEEEV (@Kafzeil) October 8, 2014

• The Call For More Diversity In Video Games

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  As video games continue to increase in popularity and attract a wider audience, one thing hasn’t changed: the human characters on the screen always seem to be white males…and one gamer has had enough. The creator of the #INeedDiverseGames hashtag talks about why she’s tired of not seeing herself in the games she plays, and how an added focus on diversity could help games grow as a medium.

• As Young People Choose Cities, Wisconsin's Downtowns Revitalize

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  Young people are rejecting suburban and rural areas in favor of more urban ones. In fact, urban living has come to define what we see as the Millennial generation – they’re not buying homes or cars, and they value things like inclusiveness, diversity, and the arts.

  According to a study by think tank CityObservatory, the number of college-educated people age 25 to 34 living within three miles of city centers has surged, up 37 percent since 2000.

  Wisconsin has struggled to provide young professionals with attractive urban areas, and there’s long been a sense that the youth are leaving the state for nearby Chicago, the Twin Cities, or even the coasts. There are, however, cities around the state that are working to revitalize their downtown areas in hopes that will attract young people and economic opportunities. One example is Eau Claire, which began a concerted effort to redevelop in the early 2000s, and has seen some successes.

• A sociology researcher looks at multiracial identity in Wisconsin–and how people deal with the questions “what are you?” and “where are you from?”