WILL YOU SEE A CHARACTER THAT REFLECTS YOU AT E3 2014

By Ryan Michael Williams

Once again e3 is approaching and as a gaming Culture about games we are getting more and more excited about what’s to be unveiled. Then we have the growing groups of gamers that are also sitting and waiting to be disappointed. My group that I am concerned about is the advocates for diversity in lead characters. Yes the video game industry is making baby steps towards opening their color spectrum. Even with that said, for all the investment from gamers over the decades we still are not getting our worth as a whole. This isn't who vs who or us vs them opportunity that I am trying to incite, however it is a point to which our culture can truly gauge some changes made from the generation crossover. With those measures we can see if the video game industry is becoming more in line with its diverse community of cultures.

When viewing a great showcase of P.R. attention to details in the community over at Roberts Industry. I for one was impressed with how a video company handled a situation that usually turns ugly overnight. (OP View Point). This intricate situation brewed up on Star Citizen’s forums, and was resolved very eloquently and within hours. Long story short Star Citizen’s Roberts Industry protected the reputation of their moderator and ensured the community that this mod was righteous in their decision, meanwhile they still reverse the mods decision and reinstated the questionable forum topic. While still following the rules and guidelines of their forum and issuing a punishment to the thread’s OP. The thread was simply about an all-women’s group in the game Star citizen. However it quickly turned into troll bait, with some questionable motives from known goons. In the end the PR team apologized reinstated the thread, and welcomed the all women gaming group.

For them it worked out very well, but sexism is the hot topic with the video game industry heavily due to some recent soul searching from the media heads. However racism in my personal experiences in video games was never handled that quickly and justly. That issue has been pretty much swept under the huge rug of the video game industry lobby and lobby systems. With a big fiasco of racism dominating the news cycle hopefully more media heads start arming up on the never ending war that is racism so we can get some gains on that battlefront for video games. For E3 2014 to come out hitting hard with some new IPs that showcase the diversity in the world we live and game within would be a sweet way to stride into the future of gaming. We are seeing pseudo-documentaries, pretend to know what they are talking about, influential Hollywood figures speaking more and more about the gaming industry, and a multibillion plan from Facebook all less than one lapse of E3. So video gaming as whole is about as mainstream as ever so let’s get some reflections of the world that controls this industry.