The game industry has been rocked in the past few months by the turmoil of politics, the Black Lives Matter movement and the #MeToo outbreak on social media. These events have awakened people to issues of racial and gender justice, and they have created a unique opportunity for us to pay attention and learn.
We recognize that everybody has to be a part of this change, and we want to keep the conversation that started in the streets and on the forums going. Indeed, one day we’ll look back on this time and see that we did the right thing. And it shouldn’t be this hard. Diversity is a long game, but it doesn’t have to be. We can agree that a diversity of perspectives and experiences will help make any product better. We see that when we diversify our workforces that we’ll see a better representation of all people in our games. If we look back at the games that predated GamerGate and look now at the diverse cast of games like The Last of Us Part II, we can see how much has changed. We can celebrate progress, but we still have far to go to reach justice, equity, fairness, and decency. We can agree that giving everybody a chance to make a contribution and express themselves — that will set us all free to do our best work. At this moment in time, we’ve been given a chance to change things. Let’s do something.
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A Note From VentureBeat
VentureBeat seeks to create virtual and physical spaces and platforms in which and upon which diversity, equity, and inclusion can flourish. VentureBeat recognizes that all people have implicit biases that affect our views of and interactions with people of other affinity groups, and that both individuals and institutions have a responsibility to consciously and aggressively ameliorate those biases through thought, policy, and action.
Read VB’s full DE&I Statement