Essay On Gender Diversity In Video Games

For over 20 years, video games have been a popular form of entertainment for all people. From “Call of Duty” to “Madden” to “Pokemon” or “Mario”, there are games to suit many different interests and people. Young people play video games and older people might too. People of all different races and ethnicities also play video games. In the early days of video games, most players were male, but as time has gone on, more and more females have started to play games. However, even though people of all races play video games, the gaming industry might not be as diverse as one may have thought. Still today, the majority of video game players are Caucasians. This lack of diversity lies not only in players however. Many protagonists of early games were male, and nowadays the gender balance of these characters has gotten much better. This has not been as prevalent in the racial aspect of game characters, who remain predominantly white. As video games have evolved, the gender diversity of players and characters have strengthened, but the racial diversity of players and characters is still lacking.

The diversity in …show more content…
According to ZDNet.com, the percentage of white people in the US who play video games is fifty one, which is the same percentage as African Americans. This may look equal, but when the total populations are taken into account, the equality changes greatly. In the 2010 US census, which is the most accurate representation of US population, 42,020,743 people identify as African American.(census.gov) Fifty-one percent of that number is 21,430,578 African Americans who play video games. In the same census data for Whites, the total population is 231,040,398 people. Fifty-one percent of that data is 117,830,603 people. This is an 11:2 ratio of white players to black players, which is a huge difference in people, and not very