The smarties over at UCLA have just completed the first-ever “census” of the characters inhabiting video games to determine their race, gender and age composition.
And considering that video games are played predominantly by adult men — the results are not exactly surprising.
Most of the avatars are white, male and adult — with few folks of color, very few kids and very, very few women!
The research was conducted by UCLA Professor Dmitri Williams — along with colleagues from Indiana University, Ohio University and Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
The team analyzed 150 different video games played on nine popular platforms — such as Xbox, Playstation, PS2. They looked at each character who appeared on screen and then factored in the number of copies each game sold. They then compared the data to the most recent US Census form 2000.
The results indicate that 85 percent of all characters are men — and that African Americans were under-represented by 13 per cent and Hispanic/Latino people by 78 per cent.
Interestingly, Asians were over-represented by 25 per cent and white people by 7 per cent.
What’s notable about the results is how closely the correlate with the demographics of characters appearing on TV shows.
Prof. Williams suggests that video game developers begin to include more women and minorities in their future releases if they seek to further expand their market share.
Sadly, no matter how much “flavor” they inject into their new releases — it’s unlikely we’ll become gamers anytime soon.