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Attracting Minorities to Game Development

by Alec Matias, Jun 29, 2005 7:03am PDT

It appears the games industry is the latest industry to come under fire for a lack of racial diversity. Mario Armstrong, host of a NPR tech show, and two black colleagues have started the Urban Video Game Institute, described as "a virtual programming boot camp for minorities."

"It's been said that a bunch of nerdy white guys are creating these games," said Mario Armstrong, host of a weekly National Public Radio program on digital tech. "The problem with a bunch of white guys creating the games is that the story isn't being created with balance." ... To get a feel for the game-making process, Tomlin and other campers will learn the ins-and-outs of game design, including the lighting of a three-dimensional computer-generated landscape and using cutting-edge software to digitally map and texture the alien terrain of some fantasy planet.
Three camps are being held in Baltimore, D.C., and Atlanta and demand is supposedly very high with 200 applicants vying for 20 spots in Atlanta.


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82 Threads* | 416 Comments*
  • #412
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    By: revolver6 x
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    Interesting how most of the people upset and making numerous posts about how stupid this is... are probably white males. I've got to think that a lot of these people who likely spend a *lot* of time on their computer, and live in white neighborhoods tend to live very insular lives. This is just how it seems to me from the sounds of the posts, but who knows.

    And I don't know why you dissenters just have to take an Us vs. Them attitude. This has veritably zero effect on you.

    In my opinion, people who say there is no issue are simply unaware of (or worse, ignoring) the socioeconomic issues at hand. It may seem incredulous to those of you who are white and have never experience any true form of racism or even social stereotyping, many minorities do tend to be at a disadvantage in life. There are even many disadvantages that aren't specifically from racism (though some who look at history would say they are a product of historical racism).

    For the record, I'm not a minority; my family is Irish to be specific, and my we immigrated around that time when it wasn't popular to be such. I'm not claiming to have experienced any specific disadvantages here, but in my job I have a lot of coworkers who are minorities, and so are my boss and his boss. I tell you this because having been around Latino-, Asian- and African-Americans for a while - even practically being a "white minority" - has (in my opinion) given me some insight.

    Statements like "minorities aren't in game develpment because they don't have interest in it", are not specifically racist, but somewhat ignorant and very short sighted. Most developmental psychologists will tell you that "who" you are is developed in youth, and minorities have numerous social contexts influencing their development path to adulthood that differ from what whites experience. Minorities statistically have very little to influence them into developing interests in engineering, mathematics and other technical fields.

    In the case of minorities in America, these social contexts also include a very different cultural consience from a white-dominated infrastructure. These include a propensity of defeatism (leading to borderline hopelessness) and outward defensiveness on any "vs. whites" issue.

    Re: "And that's why I wouldn't design a program that was open only to minority kids."... I don't think anyone said *only* minorities, but rather focused on aiding and helping minorities.

    PS, statements like "Any game-making outfit worth its salt will hire the right person for the job." are way off the issue and regardless are a depiction of an idealized world.


    The issue is ONLY about increasing awareness in minorities in regards to technology fields in general and game development specifically as a career and hobby, because there are MANY issues that many minorities have to face before even submitting a resume.
    Jun 30, 2005 1:40pm PDT
  • #362
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    By: INOALL x
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    Im Black and in the industry (not a programmer) but i know alot of programmers and ive been to the last six E3's. The industry is changing. Six years ago you didn't see any people of color but more a more are becoming artist, designers, producers etc. Enough with the industry is not hiring blacks that is stupid. Truthfully i have no interest in learning programming code. Its just not my thing. Ive made a few levels for CS years ago but that gave me a headache. That being said if any person that has the skills and drive can break into this industy no matter the color.




    PS: I could careless what the programmer is just make a great game with gibs and character damage damn it. :-)
    Jun 29, 2005 2:25pm PDT