Presented at the 2018 Freeplay Independent Games Festival in Melbourne, Australia.
What We Think Of Diversity Queerly Represent Me Freeplay Independent Games Festival 2018
We think it's great. Fin.
Okay... but what does everyone else think? Annual audience surveys
Queerly Represent Me is currently working on a number of research projects behind the scenes. Many of these are based on the ongoing analysis of survey results from 2016, 2017, and 2018. This presentation will show some of our preliminary 2017 and 2018 findings.
Okay...but what does everyone else think? Additional research. Game database. More than 1080 games that feature queer representation. Ongoing analysis of games in terms of their representation, such as identity, level of significance, as well as genres, game engines and more. Interviews. Queer folks in the games industry. 45 published standardised questionnaires. Questions about importance of diversity, barriers to entry, anad advice to queer and non-queer readers. Interviews. Developers and artistic integrity. 10 semi-structured interviews scheduled with game developers. Based on survey responses. Questions about artistic integrity, responsibility of creators, and who can influence content.
Additional research happening behind the scenes at Queerly Represent Me includes our ongoing additions to our database, and two concurrent interview series. One involves interviewing any queer folks working in games (with a goal of publishing 100 interviews), and the other includes in-depth semi-structured interviews with developers about creative freedom and artistic integrity.
We've discovered a few big truths. Creation, distribution, coverage, accessibility, and archiving of queer games is increasing and improving, with a major spike occurring in 2013. Different Games conference, April 2013, and Queerness in Games conference, October 2013. Hashtag Lost Levels at G D C Gaymer X convention itch dot i o was launched, March 2013 Year after the release of Anna Anthropy's Rise of the Videogame Zinesters Graph showing queer representation per year in standalone game titles. Graph shows a rapid spike after 2013.
In our work so far, we've discovered some truths that can be backed up with data. Firstly, there was a major spike in the creation and distribution of queer games in 2013.
This can be attributed to a number of factors. Firstly, there was a major push in 'gaymer' events and diversity-focused conventions in 2013, including Different Games and Queerness in Games (academic), the #LostLevels diversity stream at the Game Developer's Conference (industry), and the first GaymerX convention (consumer). Secondly, a push towards accessible development tools was starting, exemplified by Anna Anthropy's publication of Rise of the Videogame Zinesters the year before, and increased distribution tools, with the launch of itch.io.
This begins to demonstrate to us the types of factors that can impact our development of games featuring marginalised characters and themes, and we can use this to continue pushing for marginalised games.
We've discovered a few big truths. Most recent representations of queerness are being made in accessible game engines or genres. Between 2013 and 2017, there were 28.57% visual novels, 16.33% interactive narratives, 15.65% role-playing games. Graph showing breakdown by genre of queer games release between 2013 and 2017. Please click here to access a breakdown of each category with percentages.
We've discovered that the most recent releases of queer games are most predominantly featured in visual novels, interactive narratives, and role-playing games (RPGs). This discovery has led to us consider the accessibility of tools; we see more queer games appearing in genres with accessible engines, such as Ren'Py (visual novels), Twine (interactive fiction), and RPG Maker (RPGs). We're currently working on an analysis of how genres of queer games have shifted over time, and whether this can be attributed to the accessibility of game-making tools.
We've discovered a few big truths. Interviewing a cross-section of queer folks in the game industry means, reassuring people that they are queer enough, reassuring people that they are in the games industry enough, reassuring people that others care about what they have to say about their queerness and their experience in the industry
We have also discovered that there are some major hurdles preventing diverse samples for our research. Queer game makers have a double dose of imposter syndrome: am I a game developer, and am I queer enough? Many people who reach out to us sound very uncertain about their eligibility to be involved in our research, which makes us realise that many people are likely discounting themselves without reaching out. Who are we missing out on speaking to, and how do we reassure them that they are enough?
Indie games are queer games. Queer games are indie games.
Many queer games are independently published. There's more to queerness than characters or narratives. Indie games are bending, or queering, the rules of game development. Indie games can offer a proof of concept / feasibility to triple a companies. Unusual game narratives and mechanics create space.
Our research has revealed that the independent game-making space is leading the way in the creation of queer games. Independent games don't have the same expectations as those reliant on the support of major publishers, and have potential for telling small stories made by individuals. They can act as a 'proof of concept' for triple-A companies, proving that diversity can be successful before publishers attempt to take risks.
But queerness isn't just about queer characters or narratives. Non-normative mechanics can also act as 'queer games', and independent games are known for pushing boundaries and breaking rules. Making games that break the rules of commercial success creates space for new, unusual, queer games.
So, how do we better support indie devs to keep doing what they slash you slash we do best? We are always listening. We are always learning. We are always educating. Interviewing developers to learn about the experiences of working in the games industry. Learning what audiences think about the games they play Educating audiences about the development process, the needs of others, and the games industry more broadly
Knowing that independent games are a vitally important space for the creation of queer games, and given we were speaking at Freeplay Independent Games Festival, we highlighted what we do for independent developers. We prioritise listening, learning, and educating: we listen to developers, learn from audiences, and educate who we can about what we discover. We would like to be able to help audiences and developers bridge the communication gap, and give everyone a voice as part of our support.
31 reflective statements using a Likert scale. Statements inspired by: common misconceptions identified in qualitative responses to the 2017 survey. trends identified while coding the questions of Do you consider it important to represent diverse identities in games and While considering your answer to the previous question, please explain why or why not, in the 2017 survey. Desire to learn more based on this foundational understanding.
As part of our education, we used this opportunity to discuss preliminary results from our 2018 survey. The major component of our 2018 survey was made up of a Likert scale, which included 31 statements based on common trends discovered through our qualitative coding of the 2017 responses. These statements are deliberately divisive, designed to see whether participants have strong opinions on these topics.
List of 31 reflective statements. Please click here to access a list of all the statements.
The statements provided to respondents in 2018 can also be found here.
Woah, that's a lot of statements! For every factor we were trying to measure, we used several statements to collect data. This makes our data more reliable, but it also takes a lot longer to analyse. That means the following results, while interesting, are all still preliminary. We're working on it.
Yep, that's a lot of statements! We use multiple statements to reflect each factor so that we can ensure we have relaible results. This means it takes longer to analyse! That's why this presentation is all about the preliminary results; we're still working on the final findings!
Preliminary Findings. Overall, people seem to most agree that creators should be allowed to make games however they like (mean = 4.17). Overall, people seem to most disagree that casual games, such as mobile games, visual novels, interactive narratives aren't real games (mean = 1.92). People have mixed opinions on whether diversity should never be included in a game at the expense of the game's mechanics. People have conflicting opinions on whether the people I see in videogames should reflect the types of people I see in reality.
That said, here's some of our interesting findings! We found that most people seem to agree that "Creators should be allowed to make games however they like" and most people seem to disagree that "'Casual' games (e.g. mobile games, visual novels, interactive narrative) aren't 'real' games". These are interesting points for an independent developer: respondents are encouraging you to make the games you want, no matter the engine or genre.
People have mixed opinions about whether "Diversity should never be included in a game at the expense of the game's mechanics", with some individuals caring more about diversity and others caring more about mechanics. Players have different priorities.
Lastly, people were particularly torn over whether "The people I see in videogames should reflect the types of people I see in reality". Participants are unsure whether games should act as a reflection of reality, or a fantastical escape, or somewhere inbetween.
Preliminary findings. In our 2018 data, more people agree that Games should be diverse because reality is diverse, which had a mean of 3.50, than people who agreed that Games don't need to be diverse because games are fictional, which had a mean of 2.40. This conflicts with our 2017 data, where 4.4 percent of respondents emphasised that games are fantasy while 2.9 percent of respondents indicated that games should reflect reality. Graph showing the frequency of responses across the Likert scale for the statement. The people I see in videogames should reflect the types of people I see in reality. Please click here for access to a detailed description of each column on the graph.
Preliminary findings. Qualitative statements from 2017. While I don't believe it is important in every game, it is important across games to the extent that games, like movies / TV / etc, should be representative of society. How society is represented through games matters (again, like movies / TV / etc) because that representation influences the way that society is perceived by game players (or movie / TV watchers). Games should mirror the make up of all human society - and should go further, and try and enact positive change by redressing past imbalances. Because video games are for the sole purpose of entertainment. They are fictitious and thus not real. A human being is a real person with an identity history emotions and agency that interact with a society of human beings. A person in a video game does have that thus he could never represent a real human thus it does not matter what color code represent his skin. Games are about getting away from reality. Not shoehorning it in.
Our results regarding reality and fantasy are worth exploring further. A graph of our 2018 results shows just how divisive this statement was for respondents. Similar statements also revealed some interesting results, with more people believing that games should be diverse because reality is diverse than those believing that games do not need to be diverse because they're fictional. This conflicts with our 2017 results, which show people believing games should be a fantasy escape rather than a reflection of the real world; we intend to investigate this further by engaging more deeply in qualitative responses.
Preliminary findings. More people agree than disagree that representation is about increasing diversity across the whole of the games industry, rather than within every individual game, mean = 3.58. This statement was the only one with responses that ascended or descended in a line from strongly disagree to strongly agree. This indicates that the statement is not divisive, and people typically agree that representation is about increasing diversity across the industry. Graph showing the frequency of responses to the statement across a Likert scale. Please click here to access a description of each column on the graph.
Preliminary findings. Qualitative statements from 2017. I think that it may be important socially, but it has absolutely no bearing on the quality of the game in itself unless it's actually a central theme. Representation, regardless of media, is extremely important and must be fair and accurate. Including racial, sexual and gender diversity isn't pandering - a cast of entirely white, male, cisgender heterosexuals is pandering. That simply isn't the world we live in. Media and representation matter when it comes to both public perception and personal self-image. Games, including board games, console games, p c games, inform and reflect culture and the formation of dominant paradigms therein, which in turn influences default subconscious assumptions about gender, amongst other human characteristics, by individuals. And fuck heteronormativity.
Another interesting set of results come from the statement "Representation is about increasing diversity across the whole of the games industry, rather than within every individual game". The statement wasn't divisive, and the majority of respondents agreed with it. It encourages us—as proponents of diversity—to continue our work in improving representation in our industry.
Preliminary findings. Rather than asking a series of quantitative demographic questions, we opted to ask individuals to tell us whether they considered themselves privileged, and in what ways, and whether they considered themselves marginalised, and in what ways. Table showing breakdown of results for this question. Please click here to access full details of the table in text form.
In addition to our exploration of these statements, we ask participants some broad demographic questions. Firstly, this was a simple indication of whether people saw themselves as privileged and/or marginalised (which most did). However, in addition to this (and where we will be establishing most of our demographic information) we asked a qualitative textbox question to determine in what ways participants considered themselves marginalised or privileged. This is an alternative way to establish demographic data; it allows for more detailed, interesting response gathering than a series of checkboxes can, but it also takes much longer to analyse for identifying intersections. We're working on it!
A collection of words of varying sizes, titled Privileged Groups. Larger words include, cis, white, class, male, country, able bodied, able, straight, white passing. A collection of words of varying sizes, titled Marginalised Groups. Broken into seven smaller groups. Group 1: larger words include, non-binary, marginalised. Group 2: larger words include, pansexual, nonbinary, disabled. Group 3: larger words include, anxiety, mental, ill, disorder. Group 4: larger words include, woman, trans. Group 5: larger words include, autistic, gender, woman, illness, LGBT. Group 6: larger words include, bisexual, lesbian, physically, health, chronic. Group 7: larger words include, queer, disability, transgender, genderqueer, neuroatypical. Content warning, various slurs. If you would like to access a full list of all the words within this word pictures, please click here to access a full list of the words used in both word pictures.
So far, we have put these responses into simple word clouds to see what sorts of privileged and marginalised responses we receieved. We're looking forward to examining this data further.
Preliminary findings. There was a statistically significant difference in the responses of marginalised and non-marginalised respondents to all but one of our reflective statements. That statement was Players should be able to empathise with a character no matter their identity. This indicates that experiences of marginalisation and privilege can alter an individual's view of diversity and representation in most cases.
Preliminary findings. Using quantitative data from 2017, we determined that: individuals who identified as having a sexuality other than heterosexual were more interested in seeing diverse sexuality options in games than heterosexual respondents. Individuals who identified as having a gender other than cisgender were more interested in seeing multiple gender options and gender pronoun options in games than cisgender respondents. Users enjoy being able to create representations of themselves, or to see the potential for creating these representations.
So far, in examining in this data, we've discovered that only one statement has a statistically significant difference in the responses of marginalised and non-marginalised individuals. We have discovered from this that respondents have different views on an audience's ability to empathise with characters based on their own experiences with marginalisation.
Preliminary findings. There was a statistically significant difference in the responses of marginalised and non-marginalised respondents to all but one of our reflective statements. That statement was Players should be able to empathise with a character no matter their identity. This also indicates that respondents feel that identity should be irrelevant to a person's ability to empathise with a character. Therefore. There is no reason not to include greater diversity across the games industry.
Preliminary findings. This aligns with qualitative data from 2017 which revealed that the greater number of respondents felt that, overall, representation or diversity was irrelevant to their ability to engage with a game. Second most common focus was gameplay and third most common was story. Table showing categories of responses to why or why not participants felt representation or diversity was important or not important to their ability to engage with a game. To access a breakdown of each category, please click here for a version of the table in text form.
One major discovery from our 2018 responses—which aligns with our 2017 findings—is that diversity is largely 'irrelevant' to a player's ability to empathise with a character. As such, a marginalised person should be able to empathise with factors of a non-marginalised character's experience beyond their identity, just as a privileged audience member should be able to empathise with a diverse character.
If diversity within an individual game is largely irrelevant to a player's ability to empathise, but statistics show that diversity across the games industry is important, than there is no reason not to deviate from the current over-emphasis on homogenous, white male cis straight ablebodied neurotypical characters.
Takeaways. There is no reason not to make diverse games. Players can empathise with individual characters regardless of their identities. Diverse games improve the games industry overall. Indie games are hugely important in the diversification of the games industry. You are valid.
Our talk had three major takeaways. Firstly, our research shows that there is no reason not to create diverse games. Secondly, independent games are hugely important to the diversification of the games industry overall. And lastly, you—yes, you—are valid.
Questions. Twitter, at queerly rep me. Website, queerly represent dot me.