Right, this is basically a rant against the "witty" observation made in this demotivational image:
Frankly, I'm sick of seeing this whenever a thread about diversity or representation in games crops up. Firstly because despite being a gamer for the past 20 years I can't name half of the characters in it, and secondly because I strongly suspect it's a cherry-picked selection of protagonists which doesn't particularly reflect the most popular games or characters.
So, I went on a quick and dirty reconnaissance mission to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games[footnote]In descending order - Mario Bros.: 40 million sold, Pokemon Red/Blue: 24 million, Sonic the Hedgehog: 15 million, etc.[/footnote]) to get a more accurate idea of the most popular characters (as defined by sales of the games they star in[footnote]Possibly I should have done this by franchise rather than peak sales for individual games, but the result is very similar - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises[/footnote]).
Here's the revised image:
Suddenly, the state of gaming doesn't look quite so gloomy and homogenised, does it? Yes, the "brown-haired, 30-something male" is still represented, but to imply that this archetype is a requirement to sell a game, or that "gamers won't buy a game whose protagonist isn't a male power fantasy!", is bunk.
As an aside, what about the wimminz? Yeah, I'm not going to pretend there's anything approaching an even split here. There are plenty of female characters in gaming, but typically they're support characters - like most if the females in Final Fantasy - or else user-created avatars, as in The Sims and Wii Sports (two absolutely huge franchises that I didn't include in my revised image, as they can't be said to have a real protagonist).
So in closing, the "brown-haired 30-something male" protagonist exists, but it's just a trope. A lazy one and not even a particularly successful one, it mostly a hallmark of an averagely successful, "safe", not particularly loved or memorable franchise. Gamers are already voting with their wallets. So what's the problem?
Frankly, I'm sick of seeing this whenever a thread about diversity or representation in games crops up. Firstly because despite being a gamer for the past 20 years I can't name half of the characters in it, and secondly because I strongly suspect it's a cherry-picked selection of protagonists which doesn't particularly reflect the most popular games or characters.
So, I went on a quick and dirty reconnaissance mission to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games[footnote]In descending order - Mario Bros.: 40 million sold, Pokemon Red/Blue: 24 million, Sonic the Hedgehog: 15 million, etc.[/footnote]) to get a more accurate idea of the most popular characters (as defined by sales of the games they star in[footnote]Possibly I should have done this by franchise rather than peak sales for individual games, but the result is very similar - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises[/footnote]).
Here's the revised image:
Suddenly, the state of gaming doesn't look quite so gloomy and homogenised, does it? Yes, the "brown-haired, 30-something male" is still represented, but to imply that this archetype is a requirement to sell a game, or that "gamers won't buy a game whose protagonist isn't a male power fantasy!", is bunk.
As an aside, what about the wimminz? Yeah, I'm not going to pretend there's anything approaching an even split here. There are plenty of female characters in gaming, but typically they're support characters - like most if the females in Final Fantasy - or else user-created avatars, as in The Sims and Wii Sports (two absolutely huge franchises that I didn't include in my revised image, as they can't be said to have a real protagonist).
So in closing, the "brown-haired 30-something male" protagonist exists, but it's just a trope. A lazy one and not even a particularly successful one, it mostly a hallmark of an averagely successful, "safe", not particularly loved or memorable franchise. Gamers are already voting with their wallets. So what's the problem?
