Gaming & Representation

ARTICLE OVERVIEW:

• Gaming is a sport; providing a form of escape, lessons for life and demands in skill.

• In terms of representation, progress is being made but there’s still much to do.

• At the core of the problem lies the typical portrayal and narrative around women.

• Old tropes and stereotypes exist within the games, gaming and the players. 

• For the female player, she feels her gender should play no part; she’s a gamer not a girl.

• The gamer believes the responsibility for change lies with developers, media and any brand in the space.

• EA Sports, Riot Noir and developer Naughty Dog are leading the culture of change.

It is perhaps no surprise that gaming provided a form of escape across the world in 2020. While the outside world offered little solace, losing oneself in gaming provided community, support and a form of coping for the 2.81 billion + gamers worldwide. In 2021, the industry itself was valued at around 162.32 billion US dollars, and was forecast to reach a value of 295.63 billion USD over the next five years. For brands worldwide, that's a huge and hugely profitable market to be part of.

Yet the world of gaming, for those that aren't gamers, can seem complex, technical and somewhat similar to a subculture, where codes, signifiers and rules-of-play exist that keep others out while only letting a few permitted people in. But gaming is for everyone, and - especially pertinent to adidas as a sports brand - gaming itself is seen as a sport by the gamer, typically reflecting the same characteristics and traits that we are used to seeing within sports on a daily basis.

For instance, gaming is a form of escapism - a characteristic we are familiar with and understand within sports, whether it’s escaping daily life, modern stress or otherwise. It’s meditative, again a concept we are used to when talking about sport. It teaches the player life lessons, like team-building, patience, strategy and much more, just as we see within soccer, basketball and more. And, ultimately, it’s a sport that demands an increase in skill, let alone time, dedication and energy. As a subject, it need not feel too alien to us; the same emotions, constructs and formulas are all at play; gaming is a sport the brand can play in.

Yet is it an inclusive sport? PSEUDO global research carried out over the years seems to suggest it isn’t fully there yet, although there are signs of progress being made within the sport, particularly post 2020 when everything was called into question. However, let’s start with a quick question: imagine a female character in a game and what springs to mind? If it’s a highly sexualised character, you’re not alone - even the gamers themselves think this and - as a stereotype - it’s one that has been reinforced over and over again by the industry. 

More progress needs to be made in terms of representation:

Typically a white cis-gendered playing field, the very portrayal and narrative around women, let alone representation of others, is often antiquated and out of date. As [ex-Vice Berlin] gaming journalist  Lisa, explains: "The mainstream culture of gaming is dominated by white cis males, but in the last couple of years this has changed slightly, meaning I’ve seen a lot more women and trans gamers or presenters within the community, too, but yes - there’s definitely work to be done still." 

As a culture, it often still reinforces old tropes that we hoped had been thrown out in 2020, for - when it comes to representation - even the way we talk about the female gamer within the sport, let alone the representation of her and others, is still problematic. As a gamer, the female player firmly believes that gender should not play a part in her participation, nor should it decide what game she plays or indeed how she plays it. For her, she’ll play whichever game she wants, whenever she wants, against whomever she wants. For brands wishing to target the gamer market, understanding how women themselves identify and refer to themselves is paramount. Worldwide, she needs you to understand just one key thing: she’s a gamer, not a girl.

 The male gamer himself can also reinforce old tropes, often ‘white-knighting’ the female in game-play [meaning: they believe they need to ‘save’ her, or play softly for her]. Indeed, the outdated movie myth that ‘the guy saves the girl’ still often exists when it comes to the gaming world. Mix this with occasions of unwanted attention from the male gamer [even ‘petting’ the female at times], we find that the female gamer is constantly carried and under-estimated by her male peers when it comes to gaming.

As respondent Austin, CEO and Founder of Players Lounge in the US sees it: “The gaming industry is still sexist. If you’re a woman playing an online game where you’re matched with random people and they realise you’re a woman, it won’t be easy; people will say inappropriate things.”

Due to the misogyny inherent in gaming, some gamers find that concealing their gender is the softer, easier way to play, which clearly isn’t right. So harsh can the reaction be against her from male gamers that the female player would rather not give them the weapons to war with, hiding her identity, gender and ‘silencing’ herself by avoiding games that need a microphone and voice. If we put this same sentence into any other kind of context, it wouldn’t be okay. Yet, in the gaming world, little - until recently - has been done to stop this. As one 21-year-old gamer in Tokyo tells us: "I never say that I’m a female when I game online. It’s because if people know you’re a female, you’ll be underestimated and despised. I don’t want that. So I’ll carefully choose my online name so that no one can tell I’m a female. Always. I do it because I want to be treated equally by others."

When it comes to fixing the current problem existing within the industry, the gamer believes it is the responsibility of developers, media and any brand wishing to play in the space. As they see it: everyone has the power to make a difference. For us, if we are playing in this space, we have to ensure that we’re not part of the problem, looking at who and what we’re aligning ourselves with, the narratives we’re playing a part in and whether we’re representing everyone fairly and with compassion when it comes to gaming. As Lisa in Berlin explains: “Change in diverse gamers within gaming culture needs to be fuelled from above, started by brands on order to slowly trickle down to the wider consumer community. The younger generation is a lot more reflected, as they have a lot more access to information, and understand that this type of marketing and sexualisation is deeply wrong.”

Yet there are signs of progress and examples we can look towards within the industry already, ones that align with the insights across the research. For instance, we know that representation has to be ‘an inside job’ and brands like BMW - who have recently set up their own in-house esports team, are ensuring they’re representative from the off, employing a female to head that team up at the brand. EA Sports is another example, employing Gordon Bellamy as their first black and queer employee. As Austin in New York told us: "[Bellamy] brought a lot of change to EA Sports. After he was hired, he highlighted the lack of diversity at the brand and hired far more black people. He really made a change there.” 

Riot Noir is another great example of doing things differently and making a change. An employee research group, their aim is to support Black identities and allies with a mission “to amplify Black voices and increase representation at Riot Games in and outside of their products.” As Dubai respondent Anas [Content Director of Riot Games] told us, “I remember something so beautiful from when I was at Riot Noir HQ, it was mind-blowing and I thought I’m so lucky to be here. There was a group of African Americans who were working on designing this champion who’s a woman with dreads. I could hear them talking about the hair and its length as well as finding the right skin tone and to me it was new. I was shocked at how beautiful it really was.” Similarly, game developer Naughty Dog is looking at how disabilities are represented in gaming, blazing a trail for that representation and how those stories are told within gaming and to gamers.

Customisation, naturally, is another way in which representation can be sought and will probably be a key area for adidas. When a gamer is allowed to customise their characters, the narrative is naturally broken. As Anas explains: “Another thing that is getting better and better is representation in gaming. Before, games were very clear: you had main characters who were big white dudes and skinny white girls, and that’s no longer the case. There’s customisation and representation going on that breaks the old stereotypes in the culture.” Game developer Ubisoft has caught on to this, too, bringing far more diversity and representation to its games. The video game series Mass Effect is another example of representation within the community, allowing its users to choose from a diverse set of characters and relationships. Even events are changing - with more events targeted at the female gamer to create a safe space for them to meet up and celebrate their sport as a community. 

Working with Originals of Culture within gaming clearly matters too; something gaming website Game Pro already insists on doing, ensuring they’re working with diverse creatives and freelancers to promote change from the start while giving them a platform to express themselves and inspire others in the realm.

As developer Lottie in London sees it, “adidas needs to hire from the gaming world - absolutely! How is somebody who doesn’t work in gaming going to have insight compared to somebody who does?”

Finding the right influencers to inspire matters too, and with the rise of YouTube and Twitch, those voices already exist. For instance, streamers like GNU, Ninja, Pokimane, Valkyrae, CouRageJD and Nadeshot are all cited within the research as using their power to make a difference when it comes to representation and bringing those discussions to the fore.

As Samira [Creative Lead of Riot Games] explains, the visibility that the Internet lends to gaming is new, previously behind closed doors and within bedroom walls, we now see the faces and therefore real representation of gamers in the culture. For many, it’s still a revelation: “With the prevalence of influencers and streamers and platforms such as Twitch, you’re starting to see a shift in that sentiment because you’re starting to see that, "Hey, oh my God, there’s all these amazing people who are fit, who are active, who are beautiful, who are women, who are non-binary, whatever they are, and they are gamers.'”

Doing our part to make that representation of global gamers even more visible matters.

The issue of equality in the world has gone through a major reckoning over the last 24 months. At the core of that has been heightened accountability and bravery to call people out when they make the wrong decisions.

There is still a massive gap in where we are and where we should be, but an industry like gaming can further accelerate that change due to the scale and makeup of its user base.

A brand can be a catalyst for this change. In an industry where user anonymity could easily accelerate all that is wrong in the world, a brand could help shift that simply by being a leading platform for change.

You must hire from within this world, but only people that see where it needs to go, not those who fixate on where the industry is now.