Online gaming is an emerging industry that gives its participants access to different worlds and perspectives through engaging, immersive gameplay.
Gaming culture has long been linked to mainstream cultures of systematic exploitation and oppression, from 2014’s Gamergate to everyday acts of racism or sexism reified through gaming culture sbobet.
Representation
When discussing representation in video games, identity and gender often come up. Players create avatars for all gameplay they experience and this has an immediate effect on how these characters are received by other gamers within the gaming community as a whole. Because of this impactful dynamic, game companies have released social justice statements which address topics such as character gendering, how sexism and racism are addressed within games as well as whether certain video games pkv cause violence.
However, while the video game industry has made some efforts in the past to address these issues, it remains predominantly white and male with a culture which can be toxic towards women and minorities. Thus, continuing its efforts on these initiatives, including reducing toxic gaming communities online as well as developing improved moderation tools to prevent abuse of players is important. Civil society plays a vital role in this regard by supporting scholars and practitioners working to counter hate, bias and harassment within video games.
Video games can also be utilized in a more positive light by teaching social justice concepts through them. Some teachers have used cartLife (a retail simulator); Overwatch (a competitive first-person shooter); and Apex Legends (a battle royale game) as ways of introducing students to diversity and inclusion concepts within both gaming world and society.
Accessibility
Game design as a form of social justice practice can be understood in multiple ways. It expands upon an established history of art-making as social activism and can be utilized to address various social justice topics or movements – thus qualifying as social impact art (SIA). [3].
SIA is an approach that utilizes arts education and games to address real world issues and social injustices in an engaging, entertaining way. Community organizations, schools and youth-serving organizations have used SIA successfully to foster civic engagement, raise awareness, and support change [4].
With COVID-19’s surge of new gamers entering the gaming community, video games must do more to account for accessibility than ever. Gaming also provides an effective means of addressing inclusion and diversity issues.
Many games are designed to appeal to an overwhelmingly white male heterosexual cisgender audience, reinforcing unequal power relations and contributing to toxic gaming culture.
Game developers are using their power to change this dynamic and create more equitable games, whether through efforts such as hiring more diverse employees and encouraging inclusion at work or including race, ethnic and gender diversity in their games.
Community
Gaming communities online can have an immense positive impact on gamers’ lives. Our research found that for young people who primarily used social media during the COVID-19 pandemic, gaming-related social media platforms provided solace and solidarity – many even reported feeling as though their VG community was their one safe space where they could express themselves freely without pressure from real life social expectations and norms.
However, for others – particularly marginalized or vulnerable individuals – the gaming community can be toxic and oppressive. This is evidenced by the term “SJW”, an abbreviation for Social Justice Warrior; individuals or groups who advocate for inclusive diversity within gaming industry often get labeled SJWs (an acronym that stands for Social Justice Warrior) to describe them. SJWs in gaming may face harassment due to hate speech, racism or bias against them – many times going unreported by peers in terms of gaming world hate speech against them which goes unreported by those around them in gaming world.
The games industry should work collaboratively with civil society to implement more effective content moderation practices to counter hate, bias and harassment online gaming. They should collaborate with nonprofits that have emerged to combat these issues as well. It is also crucial that they publicly support LGBTQ+ gamers as well as those marginalized within gaming so their voices are heard; doing this will demonstrate to future talent that its values align with theirs – creating an ideal work environment.
Ethics
From video game development that reinforces masculinity, to games depicting women in demeaning ways and online gaming communities plagued by racism, sexism and homophobia – many aspects of gaming culture have an adverse impact on its users and companies have failed to address this problem adequately.
As Woke Gaming: Digital Challenges to Oppression and Social Justice illustrates, gamers have been finding creative ways to bring about positive changes within their community. From raising awareness of violence in games to using gaming as a form of activism or taking on roles such as community organizers to promote gaming for social change – gamers have been hard at work making our world better place.
To do so, they have had to overcome some arduous hurdles. One such difficulty lies in addressing the impact of gaming on players’ mental and financial well-being – this means implementing age restrictions and providing transparency around chances of gaining valuable items through loot boxes or microtransactions.
As well, the games industry has struggled with how best to promote inclusion while combatting toxicity in multiplayer gaming communities. This requires increasing real-time moderation capabilities of online game chats and implementing policies against hate speech while creating norms of responsible gaming practices and cultivating an ethos of civic-mindedness among game developers.
