News: Urban Video Game Academy

Got Haggis?
08-15-2005, 09:05 AM
The Washington Post is running an <a href="">article</a> on urban video game camps, which are hoping to get minorities into game development
<blockquote>
To Mario Armstrong, Roderick Woodruff and Joseph Saulter, the three founders of the Urban Video Game Academy, the lack of diversity results in here-we-go-again stereotypical story lines. In some of today's hit games, they point out, black men are either athletes with major bling or ex-cons wielding pistols; Latinos, with heavy accents, are either ballplayers or gangbangers; black women and Latinas, if they're even there, are rarely more than minor characters whose major contributions are mammarian. Armstrong, who lives in Baltimore, hosts a weekly local public radio program on digital technology. Woodruff, of Howard County, runs AAgamer.com, a Columbia-based Web site for African American gamers
</blockquote>
They do have a point, many games that feature minorities feature them in sterotypical roles. How many games feature a minority in a postive role as the main character? Can't think of many.

pyrot3chnic
08-16-2005, 12:02 AM
what about eli vance? and alyx is half black and half asian, if i'm not mistaken.. i think GTA is the only game where the mentioned stereotypes stand out, plus a few of it's knock offs like that true crime game. i'm having trouble remembering any others..

nice effort to diversify the field though.