In a bid to further push the entire medium toward its final form as a boring, uninspiring pile of mush, Microsoft has released a new “Product Inclusion Guide” for video game developers. In appeasing the online fringe, it especially suggests that creators refrain from depiction altogether. Any Sexual or “unrealistic” female characters in the work.
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Microsoft's new “Gaming for Every Product Inclusion Framework,” unveiled on March 20 as part of the company's recent attendance at the 2024 Game Developers Conference, provides developers with four guidelines when creating new titles. We are asking you to actively consider specific areas. Framework official website):
- “Friendliness, This allows all players, existing and new, experienced and novice, to feel safe and welcome. ”
- “Expression It's about reflecting the diversity of our community of players and creators and making sure everyone feels like they belong. ”
- “globalization It's important to make players from all over the world feel at home and ensure their experiences are locally relevant and respected. ”
- “accessibility We strive to make our games and experiences playable by people with disabilities, and to make our products accessible by design from the ground up. ”
To promote these values, Microsoft has also released a “Product Inclusion Action” guide for developers to follow to keep their titles sufficiently “progressive” and inoffensive.
“Having your story told is a universal human need, but for many people in marginalized communities and markets outside the United States, it is rarely seen in the media, let alone in games, and as a result, , some may feel like secondary consumers “for our content,'' Xbox's parent company wrote. “Eighty percent of the media consumed around the world is created in the United States, yet most media, including video games, do not include characters or content tailored to that wide range of consumers. ”
To this end, Microsoft asks developers 10 “questions to consider” about their projects to ensure they are appropriately “inclusive.”
- “Are you telling a new story or sharing a new perspective in your product experience?”
- “Do all your character and player depictions look the same?”
- “What steps did you take to ensure the characters were represented respectfully and authentically?”
- “How did you test the assumptions you made about your audience to check for blind spots or unintentional stereotypes?”
- “Are you proud to show members of your community how their culture and character are portrayed in your experience?”
- “How are your broader customers portrayed in your products, content portfolio, and communications?”
- “What process did you use to examine how different people and cultural groups were represented in your experience?”
- “What percentage of screen time (screen presence, lines, heroes) is occupied by different gender/racial identities?”
- “Is there a process for reviewing important decisions in terms of making sure the customer feels seen?”
- “Are we reinforcing negative gender stereotypes?”
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Expanding on this last question, Microsoft posed three additional “sub-questions” for developers to consider, specifically regarding female character design.
- Are you unnecessarily introducing gender and gender barriers into your code and design?
- Are you creating playable female characters who are equal to their male counterparts in skills and abilities? Are your female characters equipped with clothing and armor appropriate for their mission? Do they have exaggerated body proportions?
- Would you portray a male character who exhibits a full range of emotions, including joy, sadness, and vulnerability, if the story allows?
Microsoft cited four studies on representation to support its claim, all of which very Their methodology was flawed.
The Diamond Lobby study claims there is a significant lack of diversity across the gaming spectrum, but its findings superficially reveal the “top 10 best-selling games” between 2017 and 2021. I just saw it.
Furthermore, the report does not reveal the criteria used to determine the “best-selling” games, i.e., the amount of money raised. How many pieces are sold? – but also no name Any Specific title (other than title) apex legendspresented as the “most diverse video game”) was considered.
Then there's Geena Davis' research.
This study, published in 2021, specifically takes issue with the long-disproved idea that video games can directly inspire individuals to engage in real-world violence; very Be dishonest in your discussion.
For example, to support the research's claim that gaming communities are “rife with identity-based bias, harassment, and bullying that are ultimately harmful to boys and young people,” the Geena Davis Institute found that: It lists the facts. One-fifth of gameplay segments use the disabled language 'crazy', and 'nearly one in four male characters (23.7%) express anger'. .
Regarding the two News Zoo studies, the results are called into question by the fact that not only is the information based entirely on self-responses, but the conclusions extrapolated from this data are: . completely At your own expense.
Besides the fact that in a 2022 report prepared in partnership with the Anti-Defamation League, the organization claims that about 12% of respondents reported having received a “swatting” call. There's no need to look.
ADL and NewsZoo claim in their report that their information is based on a “nationally representative sample of nearly 100 million American adult gamers” (and doesn't even count teenage respondents). ing. This means that at least her 19.4 million players in the United States experienced this phenomenon.
However, as they admit at the end of their report, their information actually only represents the “2,134 Americans who play games on PC, console, and mobile platforms” that they sampled.
At the time of writing, it is not yet known which developers will necessarily use Microsoft's guide as their actual reference document.
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