I made it in a movie thread, but the "Marvel" analogy about "AAA" movies could easily translate into AAA games.
Lucah Born of a Dream is another one, though it's not exactly all-ages friendly.
As someone who has worn glasses most of her life, I think using glasses as an accessory is a teeny bit annoying but I do not think I would qualify it as faking a disability.
Thought it was notable that Sony kicked off their PS5 showcase with a black lead
Which also confirmed that the PS5 will still have paid online :V
Them M's was too much to refuse. Also the event started with the "everything after this point is on PS5
www.eurogamer.net
Both, actually. Maybe a podcast as well. There just isn't much talking about indigenous people in video games and there aren't many indigenous main characters in video games as well.
What happened to The Sun Also Rises, by Horse Volume? It had a Kickstarter. The game was about the war on terror based on accounts from Afghan citizens and US soldiers. That sounded really interesting.
The dev's aims:
"We want to weave a broad tapestry of the diverse issue of war. These include PTSD and lack of treatment, reintegration of soldiers into everyday life, the interactions between soldiers and civilians, sexual assault in the military, the indoctrination of children into the Taliban, the difficulties of being part of the U.S. Military's chain of command, and many more. As we continue to research and hear peoples' stories, the stories we tell in TSAR will grow and expand.
The main vignettes we plan to focus on right now follow three characters experiencing the war in very different ways."
I guess it's cancelled or vaporware now, although hope it comes back.
I don't know if you listen to Citations Needed, but they're covering this very topic right now in a three-part series, but in movies:
Citations Needed: Episode 113: Hollywood & Anti-Muslim Racism (Part 1) - Action and Adventure Schlock
The United States and its close allies Saudi Arabia and Israel have been bombing and occupying large sections of the so-called “Muslim world” for decades – drastically ramping up after the 9/11 attacks and seemingly with no end in sight. The U.S., like all empires, cannot operate a large...citationsneeded.libsyn.com
[...] Outside of the Reel Bad Arabs documentary I would point to some of the below articles that include some stories and experiences that you may already be aware of.
Arabic actors ‘are generally sought for thug roles’ - Arab America
Casting agents look for Middle-Eastern or Arabic-looking actors for “bad guy” roles on Australian television, an actor has claimed.Budding actor Josh Farah says his Arabic appearance and big build have helped him secure some enviable roles in his short career, but invariably they involve playing...www.arabamerica.com
You May Know These Muslim-American Actors From Such Roles as Terrorist
It's Hollywood's ugliest casting problem: Jon Ronson talks to seven Muslim-American actors, a group earning virtually their entire livings pretending to hijack planes and slaughter infidels. Jon Ronson embarks on a soul-searching odyssey with the bad guys of Homeland, American Sniper, 24, and...www.gq.com
[...]
But can you play a terrorist?
Actors of Arab descent face the dilemma of whether to be typecast. It's often the only work available, but it can leave some feeling guilty.www.latimes.com
State of Decay 3, Everwild, Dusk Falls, & The Gunk respectively
The diversity they showed today should certainly be commended. To Microsoft & all of the developers attached to these games, good shit. Representation matters, & to see them deliver on that is worthy of praise. Granted, State of Decay 3 is probably gonna let you play as any survivor if the first two games are any indication. But to have a black woman as the poster woman for the game still deserves props.
Between Microsoft & Sony having more diverse leads lately, I'm liking where the industry is going with regards to gender & ethnic diversity in games. We still have a ways to go, but progress is progress.
Gotta give a shout-out to Susana Mota for her work on Dusk Falls.
Also, my tweet on the same topic blew up more than I could have imagined. Even Aaron Greenberg retweeted it.
[...] The numbers aren't good: In an IGDA survey from 2017, 1% of participants identified as Black, a figure virtually unchanged from the year prior. UKIE's own 2020 industry census offers higher figures overall, although those only narrowly break into double digits because the census collects different ethnicities under the BAME label. Diversity programs aren't a new invention, and yet the IGDA Developer Satisfaction Survey 2017 found that 28% of studios haven't implemented any such measures at all. [...]
[...] Currently, the Canadian studio Capy provides a great example of an inclusive job advert with its new mentorship scheme. Racial diversity initiatives around the world, such as POC in Play in the UK, can also help connect people and projects quickly and provide a social space for people of colour besides. [...]
[...] The case of Riot Games, and the lack of similar scrutiny around the allegations of a toxic studio culture at Quantic Dream, show studios do need to be held accountable on many issues, including diversity. Releasing low figures for Black game developers in a census isn't enough. Companies need to be open to feedback and more transparent about their culture, and industry bodies and journalists alike need to check in to see if measures for more diversity are actually being taken. [...]
[...] Many Black creatives become independent from AAA companies because those companies at large are still failing them. It's evident in all manner of things, such as the pay disparity evident in the #GameDevPaidMe hashtag on Twitter, big companies like Valve not releasing statements in solidarity with Black people to little backlash, no Black CEOs in the AAA space, and the lack of Black designers showcasing games at presentations, as the recent PC Gaming Show demonstrated. [...]
How the games industry can put its diversity pledges into action | Opinion
Like many people, I've been heartened to see the steadily growing list of video game publishers and developers donating…www.gamesindustry.biz
Over one-fourth of developers (28%) say that their studio hasn't focused at all on diversity and inclusion initiatives in the past year. That's from the GDC's annual State of the Industry survey of 4,000 developers, 18% of whom said their studio had focused "a great deal" on such initiatives. 14% said their studio had focused on diversity and inclusion "a lot," 24% said "a moderate amount," and 16% said "a little." But of those who said their studios did make those efforts, 96% reported that those efforts were at least slightly successful. 30% said they were extremely successful.
"The staff who aren't cis white males seem to be disproportionately a) contract employees and/or b) affected by layoffs," said one respondant. "On paper our numbers are better now than a few years ago, but I'm not sure if retention is going well." wrote in one respondent.
[...]
The GDC survey also asked about another inclusion-related topic: accessibility. When looking at the number of developers who had implemented accessibility features, the numbers were identical to last year's, indicating that while the conversation surrounding the topic is growing, movement over the last year hasn't happened. 28% said they had included such features, 48% had not, and 25% either didn't know or said the question was not applicable.
Another topic returning from last year were issues of crunch and unionization. This year, 4% of developers reported working, on average, over 60 hours per week, and 44% reported working 40 or more. But while average hours didn't err on the extreme, developers were also asked the maximum amount of hours they worked in a single week over the last 12 months. 26% gave amounts over 60 hours; 4% said they had worked between 86 and 90 hours in a single week.
[...]
Interest in unionization increased slightly over the last 12 months. While 47% of developers agreed the industry should unionize last year, 54% said the same this year. Only 16% said the industry should not unionize. But when asked whether they thought the industry would unionize, only 23% said it would -- slightly up from last year (21%). [...]
Over one-fourth of developers say their studio has no diversity or inclusion initiatives
GDC State of the Industry: Over half of developers are in favor of unionization; meanwhile, needle hasn't moved on accessibilitywww.gamesindustry.biz
A friend suggested that I play this rather beautiful and poignant game/interactive art piece, and I'm rather glad I did. The two person development team, Studio Oleomingus, have put out three of these art pieces already on Steam, with another one coming soon, all surreal explorations of post-colonial themes in a slightly alternate and fictional India. This particular one, The Indifferent Wonder of an Edible Place, sees you take the role of a 'building eater', tasked with eating an old tower in a forcibly abandoned town, interspersed with written pieces contemplating the violence and cost of such historical erasures. With impressive music, surreal visuals and moving writing, I recommend it, especially as it's short and it's free.
So I played a Museum of Dubious Splendors, some more post-colonial surrealist magical realism exploration from Studio Oleomingus, this time of an exploration of a museum devoted to the works of the totally real Gujarati poet Mir UmarHassan.
As far as I can tell, it's all about defamiliarization, basically presenting common objects in unfamiliar ways to enhance your perception of the former. This is done through short stories, snippets of written text presented for you to read, before transitioning into a new room showing an object. So you'll get read a story about a giants wedding being thrown into turmoil because the human musicians they bring to play end up eating the giants food and falling exhausted, so they get thrown into the only box the giants have that is small enough to hold them, which is...
It's a beautiful little art piece, with well written short stories and lovely music, accompanying you throughout your exploration of the rooms on offer. You can even save your game by taking out your camera and taking a photo, which I thought was a delightful touch. It's only 20 minutes long, or thereabouts, and is more of an interactive art piece than a game, but still utterly lovely and well worth your time visiting.
What happened to The Sun Also Rises, by Horse Volume? It had a Kickstarter. The game was about the war on terror based on accounts from Afghan citizens and US soldiers. That sounded really interesting.
The dev's aims:
"We want to weave a broad tapestry of the diverse issue of war. These include PTSD and lack of treatment, reintegration of soldiers into everyday life, the interactions between soldiers and civilians, sexual assault in the military, the indoctrination of children into the Taliban, the difficulties of being part of the U.S. Military's chain of command, and many more. As we continue to research and hear peoples' stories, the stories we tell in TSAR will grow and expand.
The main vignettes we plan to focus on right now follow three characters experiencing the war in very different ways."
I guess it's cancelled or vaporware now, although hope it comes back.
-----------------------And some console manufacturers are already using slave labor according to a report from 5 months ago.
Apple, Samsung and Sony among 83 global brands using Uighur Muslim 'forced labour' in factories, report finds
At least 80,000 Uighurs working across 27 Chinese factories that supply some of biggest brand names in the worldwww.google.com
More than 1,200 Google employees and more than 1,500 academic researchers are speaking out in protest after a prominent Black scientist studying the ethics of artificial intelligence said she was fired by Google after the company attempted to suppress her research and she criticized its diversity efforts. Timnit Gebru, who was the technical co-lead of Google's Ethical AI team, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that she had been fired after sending an email to an internal group for women and allies working in the company's AI unit.
More than 1,200 Google workers condemn firing of AI scientist Timnit Gebru
More than 1,000 researchers also sign letter after Black expert on ethics says Google tried to suppress her research on biaswww.theguardian.com
The technology industry — and the field of artificial intelligence in particular — has long been known for being dominated by white men. A 2019 study by the AI Now Institute at New York University found that only 10 percent of AI researchers at Google were women. At Facebook, only 15 percent of AI researchers were women. At Google, Black women represent only 0.7 percent of its technical workforce, according to the company's 2020 diversity report. Gebru publicly shared her frustrations with the company with regards to diversity. In the email, sent last week to an internal employee group called Google Brain Women and Allies, she noted that Google's research division was only 14 percent female in 2020.
Google workers mobilize against firing of top Black female executive
The firing follows a series of internal battles about how the tech company handles diversity and inclusion.www.nbcnews.com
[...] The furor gave the paper that catalyzed Gebru's sudden exit an aura of unusual power. It circulated in AI circles like samizdat. But the most remarkable thing about the 12-page document, seen by WIRED, is how uncontroversial it is. The paper does not attack Google or its technology and seems unlikely to have hurt the company's reputation if Gebru had been allowed to publish it with her Google affiliation. [...] In a blog post Monday, members of Google's AI ethics research team suggested managers had turned Google's internal research review process against Gebru. Gebru said last week that she may have been removed for criticizing Google's diversity programs, and suggesting in a recent group email that coworkers stop participating in them. [...]
Behind the Paper That Led to a Google Researcher’s Firing
Timnit Gebru was one of seven authors on a study that examined prior research on training artificial intelligence models to understand language.www.wired.com
Another obvious area for improvement is the persistent imbalance in the number (and pay) of women compared to men in the games industry. In the IGDA's 2019 developer satisfaction survey, the global ratio sits at 71 per cent male to 24 per cent female, with three per cent non-binary and two per cent preferring to self-describe (and four per cent identifying as transgender in a seperate question). Last year's UK gender pay gap report found the median wage gap had reached 18.8 per cent in the 19 largest games-related companies. These problems aren't just limited to games development, too, as Eurogamer itself has previously been criticised for gender imbalance, and across games media very few women hold leadership positions. [...] An example of this appeared in the Team Fortress 2 community in 2018, where community members who had experienced online abuse said Valve had failed to properly moderate the community for years, thus creating an environment where online harassment was normalised (and likely helped set the tone for harassment at real-world events). Revealing the scale of the problem, surveys in both 2018 and 2019 revealed one in three female gamers has experienced abuse from male counterparts, with 14 per cent receiving rape threats. [...]
Sexism and harassment in the games industry isn't just about big names: the entire culture must change
Content warning: This story contains upsetting content. Reader discretion advised.For the second time in less than a ye…
[...] The numbers aren't good: In an IGDA survey from 2017, 1% of participants identified as Black, a figure virtually unchanged from the year prior. UKIE's own 2020 industry census offers higher figures overall, although those only narrowly break into double digits because the census collects different ethnicities under the BAME label. [...]
[...] The case of Riot Games, and the lack of similar scrutiny around the allegations of a toxic studio culture at Quantic Dream, show studios do need to be held accountable on many issues, including diversity. Releasing low figures for Black game developers in a census isn't enough. Companies need to be open to feedback and more transparent about their culture, and industry bodies and journalists alike need to check in to see if measures for more diversity are actually being taken. [...]
[...] Many Black creatives become independent from AAA companies because those companies at large are still failing them. It's evident in all manner of things, such as the pay disparity evident in the #GameDevPaidMe hashtag on Twitter, big companies like Valve not releasing statements in solidarity with Black people to little backlash, no Black CEOs in the AAA space, and the lack of Black designers showcasing games at presentations, as the recent PC Gaming Show demonstrated. [...]
How the games industry can put its diversity pledges into action | Opinion
Like many people, I've been heartened to see the steadily growing list of video game publishers and developers donating…
Can anyone share some reviews by transgender game critics? So far I've read 3 pieces.
Cyberpunk 2077 is dad rock, not new wave
CD Projekt Red’s open-world game does not exactly have a futuristic worldviewwww.polygon.com
30 hour impressions
Cyberpunk 2077
CD Projekt Red has created a triumphant RPG experience with Cyberpunk 2077, yet it often falls under the weight of its own ambition.www.trustedreviews.com
I also thought this was interesting article and might be of some interest here too, it's about the character creator from a POV of a black woman.
30 Hours With Cyberpunk 2077 Brings Mixed Feelings
Cyberpunk 2077, the most recent game from Witcher developer CD Projekt Red, was first announced in 2012. In the last couple years, it’s had an onslaught of hype and dripfed information, most of which I’ve ignored. The developers have promised unlimited freedom, unparalleled graphics, and cameos...kotaku.com
Cyberpunk 2077’s Character Creator: The Kotaku Review
The thing that interested me the most about Cyberpunk 2077 was its character creator. I’m someone who’s spent a lot of her time thinking about character creators and how they work for people who are not cis, white, able bodied, or male. I had hope that Cyberpunk’s creator would meaningfully...
I enjoyed this piece. Love that they brought up Mirror's Edge as a cyberpunk game, it's a cyberpunk classic.
A brief history of cyberpunk games
The long-awaited release of Cyberpunk 2077 brings to an end years of feverish anticipation for those who have been itch…
Anyone give this a shot yet?
Cloudpunk on Steam
A neon-noir story in a rain-drenched cyberpunk metropolis. It’s your first night on the job working for the Cloudpunk delivery service. Two rules: Don’t miss a delivery and don’t ask what’s in the package.store.steampowered.com
