I’ve identified that illustration in video games mattered ever since that day in 1987 after I completed Metroid and found that intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran was that rarest of issues (for the time): a cool feminine video-game protagonist. I beloved enjoying as Mario, or Link, or any intrepid hero, however I used to be significantly thrilled to see a recreation say that girls may be heroes, too. Now, with video games a extra essential cultural pressure than ever, the influential media advocacy group GLAAD has launched its first-ever in-depth report analyzing how video games are doing when it comes to LGBTQ illustration. The information strongly means that, on one hand, video games play an essential function within the lives of many queer gamers, significantly queer youth, and on the opposite, that video games are falling far quick when it comes to adequately representing and reaching these gamers.
The report, launched as we speak, is full of attention-grabbing and essential statistics, collected in partnership with the media information and analytics agency Nielsen, and you may see it in its entirety right here. Among GLAAD’s most putting findings is that 17 % of lively avid gamers establish as LGBTQ. And but, solely a paltry 2 % of video games on main PC and console storefronts (PSN, Steam, the Nintendo eShop and so forth) are tagged as having LGBTQ content material, suggesting that video games which really function queer characters or storylines stay extraordinarily uncommon. With large, influential video games like The Last of Us Part II and Apex Legends prominently that includes queer and trans characters, it’s maybe straightforward to really feel like LGBTQ illustration in video games is extra widespread than it really is, when the truth could also be that the business remains to be falling nicely in need of adequately reflecting the LGBTQ participant base.
Games are a refuge for a lot of queer gamers
The information reveals that many individuals who play video games are queer, and that video games typically play a very essential function of their lives. For a lot of them, on this interval when lots of of items of anti-LGBTQ laws are being launched, video games could also be one thing of a protected haven. According to GLAAD, 55 % of LGBTQ avid gamers who reside in states the place such laws has been proposed or handed say they really feel extra accepted within the gaming group than they do basically public areas the place they reside. Sixty-five % of gamers in these states say that they rely on video games to get them by powerful instances, and a whopping 75 % say that video games enable them to precise themselves in methods they don’t really feel comfy doing in the actual world.
As a trans one who grew up with video games and who has identified many different queer and trans folks for whom video games have been an important avenue of exploration and expression in a hostile world, I wasn’t precisely shocked by this information, and but seeing numbers asserting simply how widespread such experiences are is highly effective and compelling. On a video name, I requested Blair Durkee, affiliate director of gaming for GLAAD, in regards to the notion that video games are doing higher on the LGBTQ illustration entrance than they really are. “I think so much of our media is dominated by people who live in more progressive areas,” she mentioned, “and they forget that there’s a wide swath of the country that is still deep, deep in this anti-LGBTQ culture. That was one of the things we tried to highlight with our stats looking at LGBTQ gamers who live in more restrictive states, states that have passed or proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation versus LGBTQ gamers in other areas.”
Even as many LGBTQ gamers discover alternatives for group and self-expression in video games, additionally they stay at increased threat for harassment in gaming areas, with 52 % saying they’ve skilled harassment when enjoying on-line, and 61 % expressing discomfort about utilizing voice chat in on-line video games.
The capitalist argument for higher LGBTQ illustration in video games
Of course, GLAAD isn’t simply amassing this information as a result of it’s attention-grabbing. The group hopes to encourage builders and studios to do extra to mirror and signify LGBTQ gamers. A standard argument I’ve heard for why video games haven’t made extra effort to include homosexual and trans characters and storylines is that builders or publishers could also be afraid of alienating or driving away non-LGBTQ gamers. However, the information suggests, that recreation builders are leaving cash on the desk, as LGBTQ gamers gravitate towards video games during which they’ll see themselves mirrored. Meanwhile, 60 % of non-LGBTQ gamers say that enjoying as an LGBTQ character would make no distinction of their determination to purchase a recreation. “The resistance toward LGBTQ content in games is waning,” says the report’s introduction, “as each successive generation of gamers is more diverse and more open to seeing LGBTQ representation in their games.”
When I requested Durkee what she hopes the report may assist to perform, she mentioned that it’s about “changing the way the industry really thinks about our community.” She references feedback made by Dragon Age lead author David Gaider, who mentioned that there’s a proportion of the gaming inhabitants–like queer and trans gamers–which is already enjoying regardless of being primarily uninvited, and the business sees us as “gravy”—a pleasant further however not a gaggle price catering to instantly. “All this work that we’ve been doing over the last several years,” Durkee mentioned, “has been aimed at changing that mentality. Our community is a huge percentage of the overall gaming population, nearly one in five. And if you’re ignoring that community, you’re doing it to your own detriment. There’s much more to gain by being inclusive and by expanding your audience than by catering to the same old demographic over and over.”
You can learn GLAAD’s full, inaugural report on the state of LGBTQ inclusion in video video games now.
I’ve identified that illustration in video games mattered ever since that day in 1987 after I completed Metroid and found that intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran was that rarest of issues (for the time): a cool feminine video-game protagonist. I beloved enjoying as Mario, or Link, or any intrepid hero, however I used to be significantly thrilled to see a recreation say that girls may be heroes, too. Now, with video games a extra essential cultural pressure than ever, the influential media advocacy group GLAAD has launched its first-ever in-depth report analyzing how video games are doing when it comes to LGBTQ illustration. The information strongly means that, on one hand, video games play an essential function within the lives of many queer gamers, significantly queer youth, and on the opposite, that video games are falling far quick when it comes to adequately representing and reaching these gamers.
The report, launched as we speak, is full of attention-grabbing and essential statistics, collected in partnership with the media information and analytics agency Nielsen, and you may see it in its entirety right here. Among GLAAD’s most putting findings is that 17 % of lively avid gamers establish as LGBTQ. And but, solely a paltry 2 % of video games on main PC and console storefronts (PSN, Steam, the Nintendo eShop and so forth) are tagged as having LGBTQ content material, suggesting that video games which really function queer characters or storylines stay extraordinarily uncommon. With large, influential video games like The Last of Us Part II and Apex Legends prominently that includes queer and trans characters, it’s maybe straightforward to really feel like LGBTQ illustration in video games is extra widespread than it really is, when the truth could also be that the business remains to be falling nicely in need of adequately reflecting the LGBTQ participant base.
Games are a refuge for a lot of queer gamers
The information reveals that many individuals who play video games are queer, and that video games typically play a very essential function of their lives. For a lot of them, on this interval when lots of of items of anti-LGBTQ laws are being launched, video games could also be one thing of a protected haven. According to GLAAD, 55 % of LGBTQ avid gamers who reside in states the place such laws has been proposed or handed say they really feel extra accepted within the gaming group than they do basically public areas the place they reside. Sixty-five % of gamers in these states say that they rely on video games to get them by powerful instances, and a whopping 75 % say that video games enable them to precise themselves in methods they don’t really feel comfy doing in the actual world.
As a trans one who grew up with video games and who has identified many different queer and trans folks for whom video games have been an important avenue of exploration and expression in a hostile world, I wasn’t precisely shocked by this information, and but seeing numbers asserting simply how widespread such experiences are is highly effective and compelling. On a video name, I requested Blair Durkee, affiliate director of gaming for GLAAD, in regards to the notion that video games are doing higher on the LGBTQ illustration entrance than they really are. “I think so much of our media is dominated by people who live in more progressive areas,” she mentioned, “and they forget that there’s a wide swath of the country that is still deep, deep in this anti-LGBTQ culture. That was one of the things we tried to highlight with our stats looking at LGBTQ gamers who live in more restrictive states, states that have passed or proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation versus LGBTQ gamers in other areas.”
Even as many LGBTQ gamers discover alternatives for group and self-expression in video games, additionally they stay at increased threat for harassment in gaming areas, with 52 % saying they’ve skilled harassment when enjoying on-line, and 61 % expressing discomfort about utilizing voice chat in on-line video games.
The capitalist argument for higher LGBTQ illustration in video games
Of course, GLAAD isn’t simply amassing this information as a result of it’s attention-grabbing. The group hopes to encourage builders and studios to do extra to mirror and signify LGBTQ gamers. A standard argument I’ve heard for why video games haven’t made extra effort to include homosexual and trans characters and storylines is that builders or publishers could also be afraid of alienating or driving away non-LGBTQ gamers. However, the information suggests, that recreation builders are leaving cash on the desk, as LGBTQ gamers gravitate towards video games during which they’ll see themselves mirrored. Meanwhile, 60 % of non-LGBTQ gamers say that enjoying as an LGBTQ character would make no distinction of their determination to purchase a recreation. “The resistance toward LGBTQ content in games is waning,” says the report’s introduction, “as each successive generation of gamers is more diverse and more open to seeing LGBTQ representation in their games.”
When I requested Durkee what she hopes the report may assist to perform, she mentioned that it’s about “changing the way the industry really thinks about our community.” She references feedback made by Dragon Age lead author David Gaider, who mentioned that there’s a proportion of the gaming inhabitants–like queer and trans gamers–which is already enjoying regardless of being primarily uninvited, and the business sees us as “gravy”—a pleasant further however not a gaggle price catering to instantly. “All this work that we’ve been doing over the last several years,” Durkee mentioned, “has been aimed at changing that mentality. Our community is a huge percentage of the overall gaming population, nearly one in five. And if you’re ignoring that community, you’re doing it to your own detriment. There’s much more to gain by being inclusive and by expanding your audience than by catering to the same old demographic over and over.”
You can learn GLAAD’s full, inaugural report on the state of LGBTQ inclusion in video video games now.
I’ve identified that illustration in video games mattered ever since that day in 1987 after I completed Metroid and found that intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran was that rarest of issues (for the time): a cool feminine video-game protagonist. I beloved enjoying as Mario, or Link, or any intrepid hero, however I used to be significantly thrilled to see a recreation say that girls may be heroes, too. Now, with video games a extra essential cultural pressure than ever, the influential media advocacy group GLAAD has launched its first-ever in-depth report analyzing how video games are doing when it comes to LGBTQ illustration. The information strongly means that, on one hand, video games play an essential function within the lives of many queer gamers, significantly queer youth, and on the opposite, that video games are falling far quick when it comes to adequately representing and reaching these gamers.
The report, launched as we speak, is full of attention-grabbing and essential statistics, collected in partnership with the media information and analytics agency Nielsen, and you may see it in its entirety right here. Among GLAAD’s most putting findings is that 17 % of lively avid gamers establish as LGBTQ. And but, solely a paltry 2 % of video games on main PC and console storefronts (PSN, Steam, the Nintendo eShop and so forth) are tagged as having LGBTQ content material, suggesting that video games which really function queer characters or storylines stay extraordinarily uncommon. With large, influential video games like The Last of Us Part II and Apex Legends prominently that includes queer and trans characters, it’s maybe straightforward to really feel like LGBTQ illustration in video games is extra widespread than it really is, when the truth could also be that the business remains to be falling nicely in need of adequately reflecting the LGBTQ participant base.
Games are a refuge for a lot of queer gamers
The information reveals that many individuals who play video games are queer, and that video games typically play a very essential function of their lives. For a lot of them, on this interval when lots of of items of anti-LGBTQ laws are being launched, video games could also be one thing of a protected haven. According to GLAAD, 55 % of LGBTQ avid gamers who reside in states the place such laws has been proposed or handed say they really feel extra accepted within the gaming group than they do basically public areas the place they reside. Sixty-five % of gamers in these states say that they rely on video games to get them by powerful instances, and a whopping 75 % say that video games enable them to precise themselves in methods they don’t really feel comfy doing in the actual world.
As a trans one who grew up with video games and who has identified many different queer and trans folks for whom video games have been an important avenue of exploration and expression in a hostile world, I wasn’t precisely shocked by this information, and but seeing numbers asserting simply how widespread such experiences are is highly effective and compelling. On a video name, I requested Blair Durkee, affiliate director of gaming for GLAAD, in regards to the notion that video games are doing higher on the LGBTQ illustration entrance than they really are. “I think so much of our media is dominated by people who live in more progressive areas,” she mentioned, “and they forget that there’s a wide swath of the country that is still deep, deep in this anti-LGBTQ culture. That was one of the things we tried to highlight with our stats looking at LGBTQ gamers who live in more restrictive states, states that have passed or proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation versus LGBTQ gamers in other areas.”
Even as many LGBTQ gamers discover alternatives for group and self-expression in video games, additionally they stay at increased threat for harassment in gaming areas, with 52 % saying they’ve skilled harassment when enjoying on-line, and 61 % expressing discomfort about utilizing voice chat in on-line video games.
The capitalist argument for higher LGBTQ illustration in video games
Of course, GLAAD isn’t simply amassing this information as a result of it’s attention-grabbing. The group hopes to encourage builders and studios to do extra to mirror and signify LGBTQ gamers. A standard argument I’ve heard for why video games haven’t made extra effort to include homosexual and trans characters and storylines is that builders or publishers could also be afraid of alienating or driving away non-LGBTQ gamers. However, the information suggests, that recreation builders are leaving cash on the desk, as LGBTQ gamers gravitate towards video games during which they’ll see themselves mirrored. Meanwhile, 60 % of non-LGBTQ gamers say that enjoying as an LGBTQ character would make no distinction of their determination to purchase a recreation. “The resistance toward LGBTQ content in games is waning,” says the report’s introduction, “as each successive generation of gamers is more diverse and more open to seeing LGBTQ representation in their games.”
When I requested Durkee what she hopes the report may assist to perform, she mentioned that it’s about “changing the way the industry really thinks about our community.” She references feedback made by Dragon Age lead author David Gaider, who mentioned that there’s a proportion of the gaming inhabitants–like queer and trans gamers–which is already enjoying regardless of being primarily uninvited, and the business sees us as “gravy”—a pleasant further however not a gaggle price catering to instantly. “All this work that we’ve been doing over the last several years,” Durkee mentioned, “has been aimed at changing that mentality. Our community is a huge percentage of the overall gaming population, nearly one in five. And if you’re ignoring that community, you’re doing it to your own detriment. There’s much more to gain by being inclusive and by expanding your audience than by catering to the same old demographic over and over.”
You can learn GLAAD’s full, inaugural report on the state of LGBTQ inclusion in video video games now.
I’ve identified that illustration in video games mattered ever since that day in 1987 after I completed Metroid and found that intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran was that rarest of issues (for the time): a cool feminine video-game protagonist. I beloved enjoying as Mario, or Link, or any intrepid hero, however I used to be significantly thrilled to see a recreation say that girls may be heroes, too. Now, with video games a extra essential cultural pressure than ever, the influential media advocacy group GLAAD has launched its first-ever in-depth report analyzing how video games are doing when it comes to LGBTQ illustration. The information strongly means that, on one hand, video games play an essential function within the lives of many queer gamers, significantly queer youth, and on the opposite, that video games are falling far quick when it comes to adequately representing and reaching these gamers.
The report, launched as we speak, is full of attention-grabbing and essential statistics, collected in partnership with the media information and analytics agency Nielsen, and you may see it in its entirety right here. Among GLAAD’s most putting findings is that 17 % of lively avid gamers establish as LGBTQ. And but, solely a paltry 2 % of video games on main PC and console storefronts (PSN, Steam, the Nintendo eShop and so forth) are tagged as having LGBTQ content material, suggesting that video games which really function queer characters or storylines stay extraordinarily uncommon. With large, influential video games like The Last of Us Part II and Apex Legends prominently that includes queer and trans characters, it’s maybe straightforward to really feel like LGBTQ illustration in video games is extra widespread than it really is, when the truth could also be that the business remains to be falling nicely in need of adequately reflecting the LGBTQ participant base.
Games are a refuge for a lot of queer gamers
The information reveals that many individuals who play video games are queer, and that video games typically play a very essential function of their lives. For a lot of them, on this interval when lots of of items of anti-LGBTQ laws are being launched, video games could also be one thing of a protected haven. According to GLAAD, 55 % of LGBTQ avid gamers who reside in states the place such laws has been proposed or handed say they really feel extra accepted within the gaming group than they do basically public areas the place they reside. Sixty-five % of gamers in these states say that they rely on video games to get them by powerful instances, and a whopping 75 % say that video games enable them to precise themselves in methods they don’t really feel comfy doing in the actual world.
As a trans one who grew up with video games and who has identified many different queer and trans folks for whom video games have been an important avenue of exploration and expression in a hostile world, I wasn’t precisely shocked by this information, and but seeing numbers asserting simply how widespread such experiences are is highly effective and compelling. On a video name, I requested Blair Durkee, affiliate director of gaming for GLAAD, in regards to the notion that video games are doing higher on the LGBTQ illustration entrance than they really are. “I think so much of our media is dominated by people who live in more progressive areas,” she mentioned, “and they forget that there’s a wide swath of the country that is still deep, deep in this anti-LGBTQ culture. That was one of the things we tried to highlight with our stats looking at LGBTQ gamers who live in more restrictive states, states that have passed or proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation versus LGBTQ gamers in other areas.”
Even as many LGBTQ gamers discover alternatives for group and self-expression in video games, additionally they stay at increased threat for harassment in gaming areas, with 52 % saying they’ve skilled harassment when enjoying on-line, and 61 % expressing discomfort about utilizing voice chat in on-line video games.
The capitalist argument for higher LGBTQ illustration in video games
Of course, GLAAD isn’t simply amassing this information as a result of it’s attention-grabbing. The group hopes to encourage builders and studios to do extra to mirror and signify LGBTQ gamers. A standard argument I’ve heard for why video games haven’t made extra effort to include homosexual and trans characters and storylines is that builders or publishers could also be afraid of alienating or driving away non-LGBTQ gamers. However, the information suggests, that recreation builders are leaving cash on the desk, as LGBTQ gamers gravitate towards video games during which they’ll see themselves mirrored. Meanwhile, 60 % of non-LGBTQ gamers say that enjoying as an LGBTQ character would make no distinction of their determination to purchase a recreation. “The resistance toward LGBTQ content in games is waning,” says the report’s introduction, “as each successive generation of gamers is more diverse and more open to seeing LGBTQ representation in their games.”
When I requested Durkee what she hopes the report may assist to perform, she mentioned that it’s about “changing the way the industry really thinks about our community.” She references feedback made by Dragon Age lead author David Gaider, who mentioned that there’s a proportion of the gaming inhabitants–like queer and trans gamers–which is already enjoying regardless of being primarily uninvited, and the business sees us as “gravy”—a pleasant further however not a gaggle price catering to instantly. “All this work that we’ve been doing over the last several years,” Durkee mentioned, “has been aimed at changing that mentality. Our community is a huge percentage of the overall gaming population, nearly one in five. And if you’re ignoring that community, you’re doing it to your own detriment. There’s much more to gain by being inclusive and by expanding your audience than by catering to the same old demographic over and over.”
You can learn GLAAD’s full, inaugural report on the state of LGBTQ inclusion in video video games now.
I’ve identified that illustration in video games mattered ever since that day in 1987 after I completed Metroid and found that intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran was that rarest of issues (for the time): a cool feminine video-game protagonist. I beloved enjoying as Mario, or Link, or any intrepid hero, however I used to be significantly thrilled to see a recreation say that girls may be heroes, too. Now, with video games a extra essential cultural pressure than ever, the influential media advocacy group GLAAD has launched its first-ever in-depth report analyzing how video games are doing when it comes to LGBTQ illustration. The information strongly means that, on one hand, video games play an essential function within the lives of many queer gamers, significantly queer youth, and on the opposite, that video games are falling far quick when it comes to adequately representing and reaching these gamers.
The report, launched as we speak, is full of attention-grabbing and essential statistics, collected in partnership with the media information and analytics agency Nielsen, and you may see it in its entirety right here. Among GLAAD’s most putting findings is that 17 % of lively avid gamers establish as LGBTQ. And but, solely a paltry 2 % of video games on main PC and console storefronts (PSN, Steam, the Nintendo eShop and so forth) are tagged as having LGBTQ content material, suggesting that video games which really function queer characters or storylines stay extraordinarily uncommon. With large, influential video games like The Last of Us Part II and Apex Legends prominently that includes queer and trans characters, it’s maybe straightforward to really feel like LGBTQ illustration in video games is extra widespread than it really is, when the truth could also be that the business remains to be falling nicely in need of adequately reflecting the LGBTQ participant base.
Games are a refuge for a lot of queer gamers
The information reveals that many individuals who play video games are queer, and that video games typically play a very essential function of their lives. For a lot of them, on this interval when lots of of items of anti-LGBTQ laws are being launched, video games could also be one thing of a protected haven. According to GLAAD, 55 % of LGBTQ avid gamers who reside in states the place such laws has been proposed or handed say they really feel extra accepted within the gaming group than they do basically public areas the place they reside. Sixty-five % of gamers in these states say that they rely on video games to get them by powerful instances, and a whopping 75 % say that video games enable them to precise themselves in methods they don’t really feel comfy doing in the actual world.
As a trans one who grew up with video games and who has identified many different queer and trans folks for whom video games have been an important avenue of exploration and expression in a hostile world, I wasn’t precisely shocked by this information, and but seeing numbers asserting simply how widespread such experiences are is highly effective and compelling. On a video name, I requested Blair Durkee, affiliate director of gaming for GLAAD, in regards to the notion that video games are doing higher on the LGBTQ illustration entrance than they really are. “I think so much of our media is dominated by people who live in more progressive areas,” she mentioned, “and they forget that there’s a wide swath of the country that is still deep, deep in this anti-LGBTQ culture. That was one of the things we tried to highlight with our stats looking at LGBTQ gamers who live in more restrictive states, states that have passed or proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation versus LGBTQ gamers in other areas.”
Even as many LGBTQ gamers discover alternatives for group and self-expression in video games, additionally they stay at increased threat for harassment in gaming areas, with 52 % saying they’ve skilled harassment when enjoying on-line, and 61 % expressing discomfort about utilizing voice chat in on-line video games.
The capitalist argument for higher LGBTQ illustration in video games
Of course, GLAAD isn’t simply amassing this information as a result of it’s attention-grabbing. The group hopes to encourage builders and studios to do extra to mirror and signify LGBTQ gamers. A standard argument I’ve heard for why video games haven’t made extra effort to include homosexual and trans characters and storylines is that builders or publishers could also be afraid of alienating or driving away non-LGBTQ gamers. However, the information suggests, that recreation builders are leaving cash on the desk, as LGBTQ gamers gravitate towards video games during which they’ll see themselves mirrored. Meanwhile, 60 % of non-LGBTQ gamers say that enjoying as an LGBTQ character would make no distinction of their determination to purchase a recreation. “The resistance toward LGBTQ content in games is waning,” says the report’s introduction, “as each successive generation of gamers is more diverse and more open to seeing LGBTQ representation in their games.”
When I requested Durkee what she hopes the report may assist to perform, she mentioned that it’s about “changing the way the industry really thinks about our community.” She references feedback made by Dragon Age lead author David Gaider, who mentioned that there’s a proportion of the gaming inhabitants–like queer and trans gamers–which is already enjoying regardless of being primarily uninvited, and the business sees us as “gravy”—a pleasant further however not a gaggle price catering to instantly. “All this work that we’ve been doing over the last several years,” Durkee mentioned, “has been aimed at changing that mentality. Our community is a huge percentage of the overall gaming population, nearly one in five. And if you’re ignoring that community, you’re doing it to your own detriment. There’s much more to gain by being inclusive and by expanding your audience than by catering to the same old demographic over and over.”
You can learn GLAAD’s full, inaugural report on the state of LGBTQ inclusion in video video games now.
I’ve identified that illustration in video games mattered ever since that day in 1987 after I completed Metroid and found that intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran was that rarest of issues (for the time): a cool feminine video-game protagonist. I beloved enjoying as Mario, or Link, or any intrepid hero, however I used to be significantly thrilled to see a recreation say that girls may be heroes, too. Now, with video games a extra essential cultural pressure than ever, the influential media advocacy group GLAAD has launched its first-ever in-depth report analyzing how video games are doing when it comes to LGBTQ illustration. The information strongly means that, on one hand, video games play an essential function within the lives of many queer gamers, significantly queer youth, and on the opposite, that video games are falling far quick when it comes to adequately representing and reaching these gamers.
The report, launched as we speak, is full of attention-grabbing and essential statistics, collected in partnership with the media information and analytics agency Nielsen, and you may see it in its entirety right here. Among GLAAD’s most putting findings is that 17 % of lively avid gamers establish as LGBTQ. And but, solely a paltry 2 % of video games on main PC and console storefronts (PSN, Steam, the Nintendo eShop and so forth) are tagged as having LGBTQ content material, suggesting that video games which really function queer characters or storylines stay extraordinarily uncommon. With large, influential video games like The Last of Us Part II and Apex Legends prominently that includes queer and trans characters, it’s maybe straightforward to really feel like LGBTQ illustration in video games is extra widespread than it really is, when the truth could also be that the business remains to be falling nicely in need of adequately reflecting the LGBTQ participant base.
Games are a refuge for a lot of queer gamers
The information reveals that many individuals who play video games are queer, and that video games typically play a very essential function of their lives. For a lot of them, on this interval when lots of of items of anti-LGBTQ laws are being launched, video games could also be one thing of a protected haven. According to GLAAD, 55 % of LGBTQ avid gamers who reside in states the place such laws has been proposed or handed say they really feel extra accepted within the gaming group than they do basically public areas the place they reside. Sixty-five % of gamers in these states say that they rely on video games to get them by powerful instances, and a whopping 75 % say that video games enable them to precise themselves in methods they don’t really feel comfy doing in the actual world.
As a trans one who grew up with video games and who has identified many different queer and trans folks for whom video games have been an important avenue of exploration and expression in a hostile world, I wasn’t precisely shocked by this information, and but seeing numbers asserting simply how widespread such experiences are is highly effective and compelling. On a video name, I requested Blair Durkee, affiliate director of gaming for GLAAD, in regards to the notion that video games are doing higher on the LGBTQ illustration entrance than they really are. “I think so much of our media is dominated by people who live in more progressive areas,” she mentioned, “and they forget that there’s a wide swath of the country that is still deep, deep in this anti-LGBTQ culture. That was one of the things we tried to highlight with our stats looking at LGBTQ gamers who live in more restrictive states, states that have passed or proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation versus LGBTQ gamers in other areas.”
Even as many LGBTQ gamers discover alternatives for group and self-expression in video games, additionally they stay at increased threat for harassment in gaming areas, with 52 % saying they’ve skilled harassment when enjoying on-line, and 61 % expressing discomfort about utilizing voice chat in on-line video games.
The capitalist argument for higher LGBTQ illustration in video games
Of course, GLAAD isn’t simply amassing this information as a result of it’s attention-grabbing. The group hopes to encourage builders and studios to do extra to mirror and signify LGBTQ gamers. A standard argument I’ve heard for why video games haven’t made extra effort to include homosexual and trans characters and storylines is that builders or publishers could also be afraid of alienating or driving away non-LGBTQ gamers. However, the information suggests, that recreation builders are leaving cash on the desk, as LGBTQ gamers gravitate towards video games during which they’ll see themselves mirrored. Meanwhile, 60 % of non-LGBTQ gamers say that enjoying as an LGBTQ character would make no distinction of their determination to purchase a recreation. “The resistance toward LGBTQ content in games is waning,” says the report’s introduction, “as each successive generation of gamers is more diverse and more open to seeing LGBTQ representation in their games.”
When I requested Durkee what she hopes the report may assist to perform, she mentioned that it’s about “changing the way the industry really thinks about our community.” She references feedback made by Dragon Age lead author David Gaider, who mentioned that there’s a proportion of the gaming inhabitants–like queer and trans gamers–which is already enjoying regardless of being primarily uninvited, and the business sees us as “gravy”—a pleasant further however not a gaggle price catering to instantly. “All this work that we’ve been doing over the last several years,” Durkee mentioned, “has been aimed at changing that mentality. Our community is a huge percentage of the overall gaming population, nearly one in five. And if you’re ignoring that community, you’re doing it to your own detriment. There’s much more to gain by being inclusive and by expanding your audience than by catering to the same old demographic over and over.”
You can learn GLAAD’s full, inaugural report on the state of LGBTQ inclusion in video video games now.
I’ve identified that illustration in video games mattered ever since that day in 1987 after I completed Metroid and found that intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran was that rarest of issues (for the time): a cool feminine video-game protagonist. I beloved enjoying as Mario, or Link, or any intrepid hero, however I used to be significantly thrilled to see a recreation say that girls may be heroes, too. Now, with video games a extra essential cultural pressure than ever, the influential media advocacy group GLAAD has launched its first-ever in-depth report analyzing how video games are doing when it comes to LGBTQ illustration. The information strongly means that, on one hand, video games play an essential function within the lives of many queer gamers, significantly queer youth, and on the opposite, that video games are falling far quick when it comes to adequately representing and reaching these gamers.
The report, launched as we speak, is full of attention-grabbing and essential statistics, collected in partnership with the media information and analytics agency Nielsen, and you may see it in its entirety right here. Among GLAAD’s most putting findings is that 17 % of lively avid gamers establish as LGBTQ. And but, solely a paltry 2 % of video games on main PC and console storefronts (PSN, Steam, the Nintendo eShop and so forth) are tagged as having LGBTQ content material, suggesting that video games which really function queer characters or storylines stay extraordinarily uncommon. With large, influential video games like The Last of Us Part II and Apex Legends prominently that includes queer and trans characters, it’s maybe straightforward to really feel like LGBTQ illustration in video games is extra widespread than it really is, when the truth could also be that the business remains to be falling nicely in need of adequately reflecting the LGBTQ participant base.
Games are a refuge for a lot of queer gamers
The information reveals that many individuals who play video games are queer, and that video games typically play a very essential function of their lives. For a lot of them, on this interval when lots of of items of anti-LGBTQ laws are being launched, video games could also be one thing of a protected haven. According to GLAAD, 55 % of LGBTQ avid gamers who reside in states the place such laws has been proposed or handed say they really feel extra accepted within the gaming group than they do basically public areas the place they reside. Sixty-five % of gamers in these states say that they rely on video games to get them by powerful instances, and a whopping 75 % say that video games enable them to precise themselves in methods they don’t really feel comfy doing in the actual world.
As a trans one who grew up with video games and who has identified many different queer and trans folks for whom video games have been an important avenue of exploration and expression in a hostile world, I wasn’t precisely shocked by this information, and but seeing numbers asserting simply how widespread such experiences are is highly effective and compelling. On a video name, I requested Blair Durkee, affiliate director of gaming for GLAAD, in regards to the notion that video games are doing higher on the LGBTQ illustration entrance than they really are. “I think so much of our media is dominated by people who live in more progressive areas,” she mentioned, “and they forget that there’s a wide swath of the country that is still deep, deep in this anti-LGBTQ culture. That was one of the things we tried to highlight with our stats looking at LGBTQ gamers who live in more restrictive states, states that have passed or proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation versus LGBTQ gamers in other areas.”
Even as many LGBTQ gamers discover alternatives for group and self-expression in video games, additionally they stay at increased threat for harassment in gaming areas, with 52 % saying they’ve skilled harassment when enjoying on-line, and 61 % expressing discomfort about utilizing voice chat in on-line video games.
The capitalist argument for higher LGBTQ illustration in video games
Of course, GLAAD isn’t simply amassing this information as a result of it’s attention-grabbing. The group hopes to encourage builders and studios to do extra to mirror and signify LGBTQ gamers. A standard argument I’ve heard for why video games haven’t made extra effort to include homosexual and trans characters and storylines is that builders or publishers could also be afraid of alienating or driving away non-LGBTQ gamers. However, the information suggests, that recreation builders are leaving cash on the desk, as LGBTQ gamers gravitate towards video games during which they’ll see themselves mirrored. Meanwhile, 60 % of non-LGBTQ gamers say that enjoying as an LGBTQ character would make no distinction of their determination to purchase a recreation. “The resistance toward LGBTQ content in games is waning,” says the report’s introduction, “as each successive generation of gamers is more diverse and more open to seeing LGBTQ representation in their games.”
When I requested Durkee what she hopes the report may assist to perform, she mentioned that it’s about “changing the way the industry really thinks about our community.” She references feedback made by Dragon Age lead author David Gaider, who mentioned that there’s a proportion of the gaming inhabitants–like queer and trans gamers–which is already enjoying regardless of being primarily uninvited, and the business sees us as “gravy”—a pleasant further however not a gaggle price catering to instantly. “All this work that we’ve been doing over the last several years,” Durkee mentioned, “has been aimed at changing that mentality. Our community is a huge percentage of the overall gaming population, nearly one in five. And if you’re ignoring that community, you’re doing it to your own detriment. There’s much more to gain by being inclusive and by expanding your audience than by catering to the same old demographic over and over.”
You can learn GLAAD’s full, inaugural report on the state of LGBTQ inclusion in video video games now.
I’ve identified that illustration in video games mattered ever since that day in 1987 after I completed Metroid and found that intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran was that rarest of issues (for the time): a cool feminine video-game protagonist. I beloved enjoying as Mario, or Link, or any intrepid hero, however I used to be significantly thrilled to see a recreation say that girls may be heroes, too. Now, with video games a extra essential cultural pressure than ever, the influential media advocacy group GLAAD has launched its first-ever in-depth report analyzing how video games are doing when it comes to LGBTQ illustration. The information strongly means that, on one hand, video games play an essential function within the lives of many queer gamers, significantly queer youth, and on the opposite, that video games are falling far quick when it comes to adequately representing and reaching these gamers.
The report, launched as we speak, is full of attention-grabbing and essential statistics, collected in partnership with the media information and analytics agency Nielsen, and you may see it in its entirety right here. Among GLAAD’s most putting findings is that 17 % of lively avid gamers establish as LGBTQ. And but, solely a paltry 2 % of video games on main PC and console storefronts (PSN, Steam, the Nintendo eShop and so forth) are tagged as having LGBTQ content material, suggesting that video games which really function queer characters or storylines stay extraordinarily uncommon. With large, influential video games like The Last of Us Part II and Apex Legends prominently that includes queer and trans characters, it’s maybe straightforward to really feel like LGBTQ illustration in video games is extra widespread than it really is, when the truth could also be that the business remains to be falling nicely in need of adequately reflecting the LGBTQ participant base.
Games are a refuge for a lot of queer gamers
The information reveals that many individuals who play video games are queer, and that video games typically play a very essential function of their lives. For a lot of them, on this interval when lots of of items of anti-LGBTQ laws are being launched, video games could also be one thing of a protected haven. According to GLAAD, 55 % of LGBTQ avid gamers who reside in states the place such laws has been proposed or handed say they really feel extra accepted within the gaming group than they do basically public areas the place they reside. Sixty-five % of gamers in these states say that they rely on video games to get them by powerful instances, and a whopping 75 % say that video games enable them to precise themselves in methods they don’t really feel comfy doing in the actual world.
As a trans one who grew up with video games and who has identified many different queer and trans folks for whom video games have been an important avenue of exploration and expression in a hostile world, I wasn’t precisely shocked by this information, and but seeing numbers asserting simply how widespread such experiences are is highly effective and compelling. On a video name, I requested Blair Durkee, affiliate director of gaming for GLAAD, in regards to the notion that video games are doing higher on the LGBTQ illustration entrance than they really are. “I think so much of our media is dominated by people who live in more progressive areas,” she mentioned, “and they forget that there’s a wide swath of the country that is still deep, deep in this anti-LGBTQ culture. That was one of the things we tried to highlight with our stats looking at LGBTQ gamers who live in more restrictive states, states that have passed or proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation versus LGBTQ gamers in other areas.”
Even as many LGBTQ gamers discover alternatives for group and self-expression in video games, additionally they stay at increased threat for harassment in gaming areas, with 52 % saying they’ve skilled harassment when enjoying on-line, and 61 % expressing discomfort about utilizing voice chat in on-line video games.
The capitalist argument for higher LGBTQ illustration in video games
Of course, GLAAD isn’t simply amassing this information as a result of it’s attention-grabbing. The group hopes to encourage builders and studios to do extra to mirror and signify LGBTQ gamers. A standard argument I’ve heard for why video games haven’t made extra effort to include homosexual and trans characters and storylines is that builders or publishers could also be afraid of alienating or driving away non-LGBTQ gamers. However, the information suggests, that recreation builders are leaving cash on the desk, as LGBTQ gamers gravitate towards video games during which they’ll see themselves mirrored. Meanwhile, 60 % of non-LGBTQ gamers say that enjoying as an LGBTQ character would make no distinction of their determination to purchase a recreation. “The resistance toward LGBTQ content in games is waning,” says the report’s introduction, “as each successive generation of gamers is more diverse and more open to seeing LGBTQ representation in their games.”
When I requested Durkee what she hopes the report may assist to perform, she mentioned that it’s about “changing the way the industry really thinks about our community.” She references feedback made by Dragon Age lead author David Gaider, who mentioned that there’s a proportion of the gaming inhabitants–like queer and trans gamers–which is already enjoying regardless of being primarily uninvited, and the business sees us as “gravy”—a pleasant further however not a gaggle price catering to instantly. “All this work that we’ve been doing over the last several years,” Durkee mentioned, “has been aimed at changing that mentality. Our community is a huge percentage of the overall gaming population, nearly one in five. And if you’re ignoring that community, you’re doing it to your own detriment. There’s much more to gain by being inclusive and by expanding your audience than by catering to the same old demographic over and over.”
You can learn GLAAD’s full, inaugural report on the state of LGBTQ inclusion in video video games now.
I’ve identified that illustration in video games mattered ever since that day in 1987 after I completed Metroid and found that intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran was that rarest of issues (for the time): a cool feminine video-game protagonist. I beloved enjoying as Mario, or Link, or any intrepid hero, however I used to be significantly thrilled to see a recreation say that girls may be heroes, too. Now, with video games a extra essential cultural pressure than ever, the influential media advocacy group GLAAD has launched its first-ever in-depth report analyzing how video games are doing when it comes to LGBTQ illustration. The information strongly means that, on one hand, video games play an essential function within the lives of many queer gamers, significantly queer youth, and on the opposite, that video games are falling far quick when it comes to adequately representing and reaching these gamers.
The report, launched as we speak, is full of attention-grabbing and essential statistics, collected in partnership with the media information and analytics agency Nielsen, and you may see it in its entirety right here. Among GLAAD’s most putting findings is that 17 % of lively avid gamers establish as LGBTQ. And but, solely a paltry 2 % of video games on main PC and console storefronts (PSN, Steam, the Nintendo eShop and so forth) are tagged as having LGBTQ content material, suggesting that video games which really function queer characters or storylines stay extraordinarily uncommon. With large, influential video games like The Last of Us Part II and Apex Legends prominently that includes queer and trans characters, it’s maybe straightforward to really feel like LGBTQ illustration in video games is extra widespread than it really is, when the truth could also be that the business remains to be falling nicely in need of adequately reflecting the LGBTQ participant base.
Games are a refuge for a lot of queer gamers
The information reveals that many individuals who play video games are queer, and that video games typically play a very essential function of their lives. For a lot of them, on this interval when lots of of items of anti-LGBTQ laws are being launched, video games could also be one thing of a protected haven. According to GLAAD, 55 % of LGBTQ avid gamers who reside in states the place such laws has been proposed or handed say they really feel extra accepted within the gaming group than they do basically public areas the place they reside. Sixty-five % of gamers in these states say that they rely on video games to get them by powerful instances, and a whopping 75 % say that video games enable them to precise themselves in methods they don’t really feel comfy doing in the actual world.
As a trans one who grew up with video games and who has identified many different queer and trans folks for whom video games have been an important avenue of exploration and expression in a hostile world, I wasn’t precisely shocked by this information, and but seeing numbers asserting simply how widespread such experiences are is highly effective and compelling. On a video name, I requested Blair Durkee, affiliate director of gaming for GLAAD, in regards to the notion that video games are doing higher on the LGBTQ illustration entrance than they really are. “I think so much of our media is dominated by people who live in more progressive areas,” she mentioned, “and they forget that there’s a wide swath of the country that is still deep, deep in this anti-LGBTQ culture. That was one of the things we tried to highlight with our stats looking at LGBTQ gamers who live in more restrictive states, states that have passed or proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation versus LGBTQ gamers in other areas.”
Even as many LGBTQ gamers discover alternatives for group and self-expression in video games, additionally they stay at increased threat for harassment in gaming areas, with 52 % saying they’ve skilled harassment when enjoying on-line, and 61 % expressing discomfort about utilizing voice chat in on-line video games.
The capitalist argument for higher LGBTQ illustration in video games
Of course, GLAAD isn’t simply amassing this information as a result of it’s attention-grabbing. The group hopes to encourage builders and studios to do extra to mirror and signify LGBTQ gamers. A standard argument I’ve heard for why video games haven’t made extra effort to include homosexual and trans characters and storylines is that builders or publishers could also be afraid of alienating or driving away non-LGBTQ gamers. However, the information suggests, that recreation builders are leaving cash on the desk, as LGBTQ gamers gravitate towards video games during which they’ll see themselves mirrored. Meanwhile, 60 % of non-LGBTQ gamers say that enjoying as an LGBTQ character would make no distinction of their determination to purchase a recreation. “The resistance toward LGBTQ content in games is waning,” says the report’s introduction, “as each successive generation of gamers is more diverse and more open to seeing LGBTQ representation in their games.”
When I requested Durkee what she hopes the report may assist to perform, she mentioned that it’s about “changing the way the industry really thinks about our community.” She references feedback made by Dragon Age lead author David Gaider, who mentioned that there’s a proportion of the gaming inhabitants–like queer and trans gamers–which is already enjoying regardless of being primarily uninvited, and the business sees us as “gravy”—a pleasant further however not a gaggle price catering to instantly. “All this work that we’ve been doing over the last several years,” Durkee mentioned, “has been aimed at changing that mentality. Our community is a huge percentage of the overall gaming population, nearly one in five. And if you’re ignoring that community, you’re doing it to your own detriment. There’s much more to gain by being inclusive and by expanding your audience than by catering to the same old demographic over and over.”
You can learn GLAAD’s full, inaugural report on the state of LGBTQ inclusion in video video games now.
I’ve identified that illustration in video games mattered ever since that day in 1987 after I completed Metroid and found that intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran was that rarest of issues (for the time): a cool feminine video-game protagonist. I beloved enjoying as Mario, or Link, or any intrepid hero, however I used to be significantly thrilled to see a recreation say that girls may be heroes, too. Now, with video games a extra essential cultural pressure than ever, the influential media advocacy group GLAAD has launched its first-ever in-depth report analyzing how video games are doing when it comes to LGBTQ illustration. The information strongly means that, on one hand, video games play an essential function within the lives of many queer gamers, significantly queer youth, and on the opposite, that video games are falling far quick when it comes to adequately representing and reaching these gamers.
The report, launched as we speak, is full of attention-grabbing and essential statistics, collected in partnership with the media information and analytics agency Nielsen, and you may see it in its entirety right here. Among GLAAD’s most putting findings is that 17 % of lively avid gamers establish as LGBTQ. And but, solely a paltry 2 % of video games on main PC and console storefronts (PSN, Steam, the Nintendo eShop and so forth) are tagged as having LGBTQ content material, suggesting that video games which really function queer characters or storylines stay extraordinarily uncommon. With large, influential video games like The Last of Us Part II and Apex Legends prominently that includes queer and trans characters, it’s maybe straightforward to really feel like LGBTQ illustration in video games is extra widespread than it really is, when the truth could also be that the business remains to be falling nicely in need of adequately reflecting the LGBTQ participant base.
Games are a refuge for a lot of queer gamers
The information reveals that many individuals who play video games are queer, and that video games typically play a very essential function of their lives. For a lot of them, on this interval when lots of of items of anti-LGBTQ laws are being launched, video games could also be one thing of a protected haven. According to GLAAD, 55 % of LGBTQ avid gamers who reside in states the place such laws has been proposed or handed say they really feel extra accepted within the gaming group than they do basically public areas the place they reside. Sixty-five % of gamers in these states say that they rely on video games to get them by powerful instances, and a whopping 75 % say that video games enable them to precise themselves in methods they don’t really feel comfy doing in the actual world.
As a trans one who grew up with video games and who has identified many different queer and trans folks for whom video games have been an important avenue of exploration and expression in a hostile world, I wasn’t precisely shocked by this information, and but seeing numbers asserting simply how widespread such experiences are is highly effective and compelling. On a video name, I requested Blair Durkee, affiliate director of gaming for GLAAD, in regards to the notion that video games are doing higher on the LGBTQ illustration entrance than they really are. “I think so much of our media is dominated by people who live in more progressive areas,” she mentioned, “and they forget that there’s a wide swath of the country that is still deep, deep in this anti-LGBTQ culture. That was one of the things we tried to highlight with our stats looking at LGBTQ gamers who live in more restrictive states, states that have passed or proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation versus LGBTQ gamers in other areas.”
Even as many LGBTQ gamers discover alternatives for group and self-expression in video games, additionally they stay at increased threat for harassment in gaming areas, with 52 % saying they’ve skilled harassment when enjoying on-line, and 61 % expressing discomfort about utilizing voice chat in on-line video games.
The capitalist argument for higher LGBTQ illustration in video games
Of course, GLAAD isn’t simply amassing this information as a result of it’s attention-grabbing. The group hopes to encourage builders and studios to do extra to mirror and signify LGBTQ gamers. A standard argument I’ve heard for why video games haven’t made extra effort to include homosexual and trans characters and storylines is that builders or publishers could also be afraid of alienating or driving away non-LGBTQ gamers. However, the information suggests, that recreation builders are leaving cash on the desk, as LGBTQ gamers gravitate towards video games during which they’ll see themselves mirrored. Meanwhile, 60 % of non-LGBTQ gamers say that enjoying as an LGBTQ character would make no distinction of their determination to purchase a recreation. “The resistance toward LGBTQ content in games is waning,” says the report’s introduction, “as each successive generation of gamers is more diverse and more open to seeing LGBTQ representation in their games.”
When I requested Durkee what she hopes the report may assist to perform, she mentioned that it’s about “changing the way the industry really thinks about our community.” She references feedback made by Dragon Age lead author David Gaider, who mentioned that there’s a proportion of the gaming inhabitants–like queer and trans gamers–which is already enjoying regardless of being primarily uninvited, and the business sees us as “gravy”—a pleasant further however not a gaggle price catering to instantly. “All this work that we’ve been doing over the last several years,” Durkee mentioned, “has been aimed at changing that mentality. Our community is a huge percentage of the overall gaming population, nearly one in five. And if you’re ignoring that community, you’re doing it to your own detriment. There’s much more to gain by being inclusive and by expanding your audience than by catering to the same old demographic over and over.”
You can learn GLAAD’s full, inaugural report on the state of LGBTQ inclusion in video video games now.
I’ve identified that illustration in video games mattered ever since that day in 1987 after I completed Metroid and found that intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran was that rarest of issues (for the time): a cool feminine video-game protagonist. I beloved enjoying as Mario, or Link, or any intrepid hero, however I used to be significantly thrilled to see a recreation say that girls may be heroes, too. Now, with video games a extra essential cultural pressure than ever, the influential media advocacy group GLAAD has launched its first-ever in-depth report analyzing how video games are doing when it comes to LGBTQ illustration. The information strongly means that, on one hand, video games play an essential function within the lives of many queer gamers, significantly queer youth, and on the opposite, that video games are falling far quick when it comes to adequately representing and reaching these gamers.
The report, launched as we speak, is full of attention-grabbing and essential statistics, collected in partnership with the media information and analytics agency Nielsen, and you may see it in its entirety right here. Among GLAAD’s most putting findings is that 17 % of lively avid gamers establish as LGBTQ. And but, solely a paltry 2 % of video games on main PC and console storefronts (PSN, Steam, the Nintendo eShop and so forth) are tagged as having LGBTQ content material, suggesting that video games which really function queer characters or storylines stay extraordinarily uncommon. With large, influential video games like The Last of Us Part II and Apex Legends prominently that includes queer and trans characters, it’s maybe straightforward to really feel like LGBTQ illustration in video games is extra widespread than it really is, when the truth could also be that the business remains to be falling nicely in need of adequately reflecting the LGBTQ participant base.
Games are a refuge for a lot of queer gamers
The information reveals that many individuals who play video games are queer, and that video games typically play a very essential function of their lives. For a lot of them, on this interval when lots of of items of anti-LGBTQ laws are being launched, video games could also be one thing of a protected haven. According to GLAAD, 55 % of LGBTQ avid gamers who reside in states the place such laws has been proposed or handed say they really feel extra accepted within the gaming group than they do basically public areas the place they reside. Sixty-five % of gamers in these states say that they rely on video games to get them by powerful instances, and a whopping 75 % say that video games enable them to precise themselves in methods they don’t really feel comfy doing in the actual world.
As a trans one who grew up with video games and who has identified many different queer and trans folks for whom video games have been an important avenue of exploration and expression in a hostile world, I wasn’t precisely shocked by this information, and but seeing numbers asserting simply how widespread such experiences are is highly effective and compelling. On a video name, I requested Blair Durkee, affiliate director of gaming for GLAAD, in regards to the notion that video games are doing higher on the LGBTQ illustration entrance than they really are. “I think so much of our media is dominated by people who live in more progressive areas,” she mentioned, “and they forget that there’s a wide swath of the country that is still deep, deep in this anti-LGBTQ culture. That was one of the things we tried to highlight with our stats looking at LGBTQ gamers who live in more restrictive states, states that have passed or proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation versus LGBTQ gamers in other areas.”
Even as many LGBTQ gamers discover alternatives for group and self-expression in video games, additionally they stay at increased threat for harassment in gaming areas, with 52 % saying they’ve skilled harassment when enjoying on-line, and 61 % expressing discomfort about utilizing voice chat in on-line video games.
The capitalist argument for higher LGBTQ illustration in video games
Of course, GLAAD isn’t simply amassing this information as a result of it’s attention-grabbing. The group hopes to encourage builders and studios to do extra to mirror and signify LGBTQ gamers. A standard argument I’ve heard for why video games haven’t made extra effort to include homosexual and trans characters and storylines is that builders or publishers could also be afraid of alienating or driving away non-LGBTQ gamers. However, the information suggests, that recreation builders are leaving cash on the desk, as LGBTQ gamers gravitate towards video games during which they’ll see themselves mirrored. Meanwhile, 60 % of non-LGBTQ gamers say that enjoying as an LGBTQ character would make no distinction of their determination to purchase a recreation. “The resistance toward LGBTQ content in games is waning,” says the report’s introduction, “as each successive generation of gamers is more diverse and more open to seeing LGBTQ representation in their games.”
When I requested Durkee what she hopes the report may assist to perform, she mentioned that it’s about “changing the way the industry really thinks about our community.” She references feedback made by Dragon Age lead author David Gaider, who mentioned that there’s a proportion of the gaming inhabitants–like queer and trans gamers–which is already enjoying regardless of being primarily uninvited, and the business sees us as “gravy”—a pleasant further however not a gaggle price catering to instantly. “All this work that we’ve been doing over the last several years,” Durkee mentioned, “has been aimed at changing that mentality. Our community is a huge percentage of the overall gaming population, nearly one in five. And if you’re ignoring that community, you’re doing it to your own detriment. There’s much more to gain by being inclusive and by expanding your audience than by catering to the same old demographic over and over.”
You can learn GLAAD’s full, inaugural report on the state of LGBTQ inclusion in video video games now.
I’ve identified that illustration in video games mattered ever since that day in 1987 after I completed Metroid and found that intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran was that rarest of issues (for the time): a cool feminine video-game protagonist. I beloved enjoying as Mario, or Link, or any intrepid hero, however I used to be significantly thrilled to see a recreation say that girls may be heroes, too. Now, with video games a extra essential cultural pressure than ever, the influential media advocacy group GLAAD has launched its first-ever in-depth report analyzing how video games are doing when it comes to LGBTQ illustration. The information strongly means that, on one hand, video games play an essential function within the lives of many queer gamers, significantly queer youth, and on the opposite, that video games are falling far quick when it comes to adequately representing and reaching these gamers.
The report, launched as we speak, is full of attention-grabbing and essential statistics, collected in partnership with the media information and analytics agency Nielsen, and you may see it in its entirety right here. Among GLAAD’s most putting findings is that 17 % of lively avid gamers establish as LGBTQ. And but, solely a paltry 2 % of video games on main PC and console storefronts (PSN, Steam, the Nintendo eShop and so forth) are tagged as having LGBTQ content material, suggesting that video games which really function queer characters or storylines stay extraordinarily uncommon. With large, influential video games like The Last of Us Part II and Apex Legends prominently that includes queer and trans characters, it’s maybe straightforward to really feel like LGBTQ illustration in video games is extra widespread than it really is, when the truth could also be that the business remains to be falling nicely in need of adequately reflecting the LGBTQ participant base.
Games are a refuge for a lot of queer gamers
The information reveals that many individuals who play video games are queer, and that video games typically play a very essential function of their lives. For a lot of them, on this interval when lots of of items of anti-LGBTQ laws are being launched, video games could also be one thing of a protected haven. According to GLAAD, 55 % of LGBTQ avid gamers who reside in states the place such laws has been proposed or handed say they really feel extra accepted within the gaming group than they do basically public areas the place they reside. Sixty-five % of gamers in these states say that they rely on video games to get them by powerful instances, and a whopping 75 % say that video games enable them to precise themselves in methods they don’t really feel comfy doing in the actual world.
As a trans one who grew up with video games and who has identified many different queer and trans folks for whom video games have been an important avenue of exploration and expression in a hostile world, I wasn’t precisely shocked by this information, and but seeing numbers asserting simply how widespread such experiences are is highly effective and compelling. On a video name, I requested Blair Durkee, affiliate director of gaming for GLAAD, in regards to the notion that video games are doing higher on the LGBTQ illustration entrance than they really are. “I think so much of our media is dominated by people who live in more progressive areas,” she mentioned, “and they forget that there’s a wide swath of the country that is still deep, deep in this anti-LGBTQ culture. That was one of the things we tried to highlight with our stats looking at LGBTQ gamers who live in more restrictive states, states that have passed or proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation versus LGBTQ gamers in other areas.”
Even as many LGBTQ gamers discover alternatives for group and self-expression in video games, additionally they stay at increased threat for harassment in gaming areas, with 52 % saying they’ve skilled harassment when enjoying on-line, and 61 % expressing discomfort about utilizing voice chat in on-line video games.
The capitalist argument for higher LGBTQ illustration in video games
Of course, GLAAD isn’t simply amassing this information as a result of it’s attention-grabbing. The group hopes to encourage builders and studios to do extra to mirror and signify LGBTQ gamers. A standard argument I’ve heard for why video games haven’t made extra effort to include homosexual and trans characters and storylines is that builders or publishers could also be afraid of alienating or driving away non-LGBTQ gamers. However, the information suggests, that recreation builders are leaving cash on the desk, as LGBTQ gamers gravitate towards video games during which they’ll see themselves mirrored. Meanwhile, 60 % of non-LGBTQ gamers say that enjoying as an LGBTQ character would make no distinction of their determination to purchase a recreation. “The resistance toward LGBTQ content in games is waning,” says the report’s introduction, “as each successive generation of gamers is more diverse and more open to seeing LGBTQ representation in their games.”
When I requested Durkee what she hopes the report may assist to perform, she mentioned that it’s about “changing the way the industry really thinks about our community.” She references feedback made by Dragon Age lead author David Gaider, who mentioned that there’s a proportion of the gaming inhabitants–like queer and trans gamers–which is already enjoying regardless of being primarily uninvited, and the business sees us as “gravy”—a pleasant further however not a gaggle price catering to instantly. “All this work that we’ve been doing over the last several years,” Durkee mentioned, “has been aimed at changing that mentality. Our community is a huge percentage of the overall gaming population, nearly one in five. And if you’re ignoring that community, you’re doing it to your own detriment. There’s much more to gain by being inclusive and by expanding your audience than by catering to the same old demographic over and over.”
You can learn GLAAD’s full, inaugural report on the state of LGBTQ inclusion in video video games now.
I’ve identified that illustration in video games mattered ever since that day in 1987 after I completed Metroid and found that intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran was that rarest of issues (for the time): a cool feminine video-game protagonist. I beloved enjoying as Mario, or Link, or any intrepid hero, however I used to be significantly thrilled to see a recreation say that girls may be heroes, too. Now, with video games a extra essential cultural pressure than ever, the influential media advocacy group GLAAD has launched its first-ever in-depth report analyzing how video games are doing when it comes to LGBTQ illustration. The information strongly means that, on one hand, video games play an essential function within the lives of many queer gamers, significantly queer youth, and on the opposite, that video games are falling far quick when it comes to adequately representing and reaching these gamers.
The report, launched as we speak, is full of attention-grabbing and essential statistics, collected in partnership with the media information and analytics agency Nielsen, and you may see it in its entirety right here. Among GLAAD’s most putting findings is that 17 % of lively avid gamers establish as LGBTQ. And but, solely a paltry 2 % of video games on main PC and console storefronts (PSN, Steam, the Nintendo eShop and so forth) are tagged as having LGBTQ content material, suggesting that video games which really function queer characters or storylines stay extraordinarily uncommon. With large, influential video games like The Last of Us Part II and Apex Legends prominently that includes queer and trans characters, it’s maybe straightforward to really feel like LGBTQ illustration in video games is extra widespread than it really is, when the truth could also be that the business remains to be falling nicely in need of adequately reflecting the LGBTQ participant base.
Games are a refuge for a lot of queer gamers
The information reveals that many individuals who play video games are queer, and that video games typically play a very essential function of their lives. For a lot of them, on this interval when lots of of items of anti-LGBTQ laws are being launched, video games could also be one thing of a protected haven. According to GLAAD, 55 % of LGBTQ avid gamers who reside in states the place such laws has been proposed or handed say they really feel extra accepted within the gaming group than they do basically public areas the place they reside. Sixty-five % of gamers in these states say that they rely on video games to get them by powerful instances, and a whopping 75 % say that video games enable them to precise themselves in methods they don’t really feel comfy doing in the actual world.
As a trans one who grew up with video games and who has identified many different queer and trans folks for whom video games have been an important avenue of exploration and expression in a hostile world, I wasn’t precisely shocked by this information, and but seeing numbers asserting simply how widespread such experiences are is highly effective and compelling. On a video name, I requested Blair Durkee, affiliate director of gaming for GLAAD, in regards to the notion that video games are doing higher on the LGBTQ illustration entrance than they really are. “I think so much of our media is dominated by people who live in more progressive areas,” she mentioned, “and they forget that there’s a wide swath of the country that is still deep, deep in this anti-LGBTQ culture. That was one of the things we tried to highlight with our stats looking at LGBTQ gamers who live in more restrictive states, states that have passed or proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation versus LGBTQ gamers in other areas.”
Even as many LGBTQ gamers discover alternatives for group and self-expression in video games, additionally they stay at increased threat for harassment in gaming areas, with 52 % saying they’ve skilled harassment when enjoying on-line, and 61 % expressing discomfort about utilizing voice chat in on-line video games.
The capitalist argument for higher LGBTQ illustration in video games
Of course, GLAAD isn’t simply amassing this information as a result of it’s attention-grabbing. The group hopes to encourage builders and studios to do extra to mirror and signify LGBTQ gamers. A standard argument I’ve heard for why video games haven’t made extra effort to include homosexual and trans characters and storylines is that builders or publishers could also be afraid of alienating or driving away non-LGBTQ gamers. However, the information suggests, that recreation builders are leaving cash on the desk, as LGBTQ gamers gravitate towards video games during which they’ll see themselves mirrored. Meanwhile, 60 % of non-LGBTQ gamers say that enjoying as an LGBTQ character would make no distinction of their determination to purchase a recreation. “The resistance toward LGBTQ content in games is waning,” says the report’s introduction, “as each successive generation of gamers is more diverse and more open to seeing LGBTQ representation in their games.”
When I requested Durkee what she hopes the report may assist to perform, she mentioned that it’s about “changing the way the industry really thinks about our community.” She references feedback made by Dragon Age lead author David Gaider, who mentioned that there’s a proportion of the gaming inhabitants–like queer and trans gamers–which is already enjoying regardless of being primarily uninvited, and the business sees us as “gravy”—a pleasant further however not a gaggle price catering to instantly. “All this work that we’ve been doing over the last several years,” Durkee mentioned, “has been aimed at changing that mentality. Our community is a huge percentage of the overall gaming population, nearly one in five. And if you’re ignoring that community, you’re doing it to your own detriment. There’s much more to gain by being inclusive and by expanding your audience than by catering to the same old demographic over and over.”
You can learn GLAAD’s full, inaugural report on the state of LGBTQ inclusion in video video games now.
I’ve identified that illustration in video games mattered ever since that day in 1987 after I completed Metroid and found that intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran was that rarest of issues (for the time): a cool feminine video-game protagonist. I beloved enjoying as Mario, or Link, or any intrepid hero, however I used to be significantly thrilled to see a recreation say that girls may be heroes, too. Now, with video games a extra essential cultural pressure than ever, the influential media advocacy group GLAAD has launched its first-ever in-depth report analyzing how video games are doing when it comes to LGBTQ illustration. The information strongly means that, on one hand, video games play an essential function within the lives of many queer gamers, significantly queer youth, and on the opposite, that video games are falling far quick when it comes to adequately representing and reaching these gamers.
The report, launched as we speak, is full of attention-grabbing and essential statistics, collected in partnership with the media information and analytics agency Nielsen, and you may see it in its entirety right here. Among GLAAD’s most putting findings is that 17 % of lively avid gamers establish as LGBTQ. And but, solely a paltry 2 % of video games on main PC and console storefronts (PSN, Steam, the Nintendo eShop and so forth) are tagged as having LGBTQ content material, suggesting that video games which really function queer characters or storylines stay extraordinarily uncommon. With large, influential video games like The Last of Us Part II and Apex Legends prominently that includes queer and trans characters, it’s maybe straightforward to really feel like LGBTQ illustration in video games is extra widespread than it really is, when the truth could also be that the business remains to be falling nicely in need of adequately reflecting the LGBTQ participant base.
Games are a refuge for a lot of queer gamers
The information reveals that many individuals who play video games are queer, and that video games typically play a very essential function of their lives. For a lot of them, on this interval when lots of of items of anti-LGBTQ laws are being launched, video games could also be one thing of a protected haven. According to GLAAD, 55 % of LGBTQ avid gamers who reside in states the place such laws has been proposed or handed say they really feel extra accepted within the gaming group than they do basically public areas the place they reside. Sixty-five % of gamers in these states say that they rely on video games to get them by powerful instances, and a whopping 75 % say that video games enable them to precise themselves in methods they don’t really feel comfy doing in the actual world.
As a trans one who grew up with video games and who has identified many different queer and trans folks for whom video games have been an important avenue of exploration and expression in a hostile world, I wasn’t precisely shocked by this information, and but seeing numbers asserting simply how widespread such experiences are is highly effective and compelling. On a video name, I requested Blair Durkee, affiliate director of gaming for GLAAD, in regards to the notion that video games are doing higher on the LGBTQ illustration entrance than they really are. “I think so much of our media is dominated by people who live in more progressive areas,” she mentioned, “and they forget that there’s a wide swath of the country that is still deep, deep in this anti-LGBTQ culture. That was one of the things we tried to highlight with our stats looking at LGBTQ gamers who live in more restrictive states, states that have passed or proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation versus LGBTQ gamers in other areas.”
Even as many LGBTQ gamers discover alternatives for group and self-expression in video games, additionally they stay at increased threat for harassment in gaming areas, with 52 % saying they’ve skilled harassment when enjoying on-line, and 61 % expressing discomfort about utilizing voice chat in on-line video games.
The capitalist argument for higher LGBTQ illustration in video games
Of course, GLAAD isn’t simply amassing this information as a result of it’s attention-grabbing. The group hopes to encourage builders and studios to do extra to mirror and signify LGBTQ gamers. A standard argument I’ve heard for why video games haven’t made extra effort to include homosexual and trans characters and storylines is that builders or publishers could also be afraid of alienating or driving away non-LGBTQ gamers. However, the information suggests, that recreation builders are leaving cash on the desk, as LGBTQ gamers gravitate towards video games during which they’ll see themselves mirrored. Meanwhile, 60 % of non-LGBTQ gamers say that enjoying as an LGBTQ character would make no distinction of their determination to purchase a recreation. “The resistance toward LGBTQ content in games is waning,” says the report’s introduction, “as each successive generation of gamers is more diverse and more open to seeing LGBTQ representation in their games.”
When I requested Durkee what she hopes the report may assist to perform, she mentioned that it’s about “changing the way the industry really thinks about our community.” She references feedback made by Dragon Age lead author David Gaider, who mentioned that there’s a proportion of the gaming inhabitants–like queer and trans gamers–which is already enjoying regardless of being primarily uninvited, and the business sees us as “gravy”—a pleasant further however not a gaggle price catering to instantly. “All this work that we’ve been doing over the last several years,” Durkee mentioned, “has been aimed at changing that mentality. Our community is a huge percentage of the overall gaming population, nearly one in five. And if you’re ignoring that community, you’re doing it to your own detriment. There’s much more to gain by being inclusive and by expanding your audience than by catering to the same old demographic over and over.”
You can learn GLAAD’s full, inaugural report on the state of LGBTQ inclusion in video video games now.
I’ve identified that illustration in video games mattered ever since that day in 1987 after I completed Metroid and found that intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran was that rarest of issues (for the time): a cool feminine video-game protagonist. I beloved enjoying as Mario, or Link, or any intrepid hero, however I used to be significantly thrilled to see a recreation say that girls may be heroes, too. Now, with video games a extra essential cultural pressure than ever, the influential media advocacy group GLAAD has launched its first-ever in-depth report analyzing how video games are doing when it comes to LGBTQ illustration. The information strongly means that, on one hand, video games play an essential function within the lives of many queer gamers, significantly queer youth, and on the opposite, that video games are falling far quick when it comes to adequately representing and reaching these gamers.
The report, launched as we speak, is full of attention-grabbing and essential statistics, collected in partnership with the media information and analytics agency Nielsen, and you may see it in its entirety right here. Among GLAAD’s most putting findings is that 17 % of lively avid gamers establish as LGBTQ. And but, solely a paltry 2 % of video games on main PC and console storefronts (PSN, Steam, the Nintendo eShop and so forth) are tagged as having LGBTQ content material, suggesting that video games which really function queer characters or storylines stay extraordinarily uncommon. With large, influential video games like The Last of Us Part II and Apex Legends prominently that includes queer and trans characters, it’s maybe straightforward to really feel like LGBTQ illustration in video games is extra widespread than it really is, when the truth could also be that the business remains to be falling nicely in need of adequately reflecting the LGBTQ participant base.
Games are a refuge for a lot of queer gamers
The information reveals that many individuals who play video games are queer, and that video games typically play a very essential function of their lives. For a lot of them, on this interval when lots of of items of anti-LGBTQ laws are being launched, video games could also be one thing of a protected haven. According to GLAAD, 55 % of LGBTQ avid gamers who reside in states the place such laws has been proposed or handed say they really feel extra accepted within the gaming group than they do basically public areas the place they reside. Sixty-five % of gamers in these states say that they rely on video games to get them by powerful instances, and a whopping 75 % say that video games enable them to precise themselves in methods they don’t really feel comfy doing in the actual world.
As a trans one who grew up with video games and who has identified many different queer and trans folks for whom video games have been an important avenue of exploration and expression in a hostile world, I wasn’t precisely shocked by this information, and but seeing numbers asserting simply how widespread such experiences are is highly effective and compelling. On a video name, I requested Blair Durkee, affiliate director of gaming for GLAAD, in regards to the notion that video games are doing higher on the LGBTQ illustration entrance than they really are. “I think so much of our media is dominated by people who live in more progressive areas,” she mentioned, “and they forget that there’s a wide swath of the country that is still deep, deep in this anti-LGBTQ culture. That was one of the things we tried to highlight with our stats looking at LGBTQ gamers who live in more restrictive states, states that have passed or proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation versus LGBTQ gamers in other areas.”
Even as many LGBTQ gamers discover alternatives for group and self-expression in video games, additionally they stay at increased threat for harassment in gaming areas, with 52 % saying they’ve skilled harassment when enjoying on-line, and 61 % expressing discomfort about utilizing voice chat in on-line video games.
The capitalist argument for higher LGBTQ illustration in video games
Of course, GLAAD isn’t simply amassing this information as a result of it’s attention-grabbing. The group hopes to encourage builders and studios to do extra to mirror and signify LGBTQ gamers. A standard argument I’ve heard for why video games haven’t made extra effort to include homosexual and trans characters and storylines is that builders or publishers could also be afraid of alienating or driving away non-LGBTQ gamers. However, the information suggests, that recreation builders are leaving cash on the desk, as LGBTQ gamers gravitate towards video games during which they’ll see themselves mirrored. Meanwhile, 60 % of non-LGBTQ gamers say that enjoying as an LGBTQ character would make no distinction of their determination to purchase a recreation. “The resistance toward LGBTQ content in games is waning,” says the report’s introduction, “as each successive generation of gamers is more diverse and more open to seeing LGBTQ representation in their games.”
When I requested Durkee what she hopes the report may assist to perform, she mentioned that it’s about “changing the way the industry really thinks about our community.” She references feedback made by Dragon Age lead author David Gaider, who mentioned that there’s a proportion of the gaming inhabitants–like queer and trans gamers–which is already enjoying regardless of being primarily uninvited, and the business sees us as “gravy”—a pleasant further however not a gaggle price catering to instantly. “All this work that we’ve been doing over the last several years,” Durkee mentioned, “has been aimed at changing that mentality. Our community is a huge percentage of the overall gaming population, nearly one in five. And if you’re ignoring that community, you’re doing it to your own detriment. There’s much more to gain by being inclusive and by expanding your audience than by catering to the same old demographic over and over.”
You can learn GLAAD’s full, inaugural report on the state of LGBTQ inclusion in video video games now.
I’ve identified that illustration in video games mattered ever since that day in 1987 after I completed Metroid and found that intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran was that rarest of issues (for the time): a cool feminine video-game protagonist. I beloved enjoying as Mario, or Link, or any intrepid hero, however I used to be significantly thrilled to see a recreation say that girls may be heroes, too. Now, with video games a extra essential cultural pressure than ever, the influential media advocacy group GLAAD has launched its first-ever in-depth report analyzing how video games are doing when it comes to LGBTQ illustration. The information strongly means that, on one hand, video games play an essential function within the lives of many queer gamers, significantly queer youth, and on the opposite, that video games are falling far quick when it comes to adequately representing and reaching these gamers.
The report, launched as we speak, is full of attention-grabbing and essential statistics, collected in partnership with the media information and analytics agency Nielsen, and you may see it in its entirety right here. Among GLAAD’s most putting findings is that 17 % of lively avid gamers establish as LGBTQ. And but, solely a paltry 2 % of video games on main PC and console storefronts (PSN, Steam, the Nintendo eShop and so forth) are tagged as having LGBTQ content material, suggesting that video games which really function queer characters or storylines stay extraordinarily uncommon. With large, influential video games like The Last of Us Part II and Apex Legends prominently that includes queer and trans characters, it’s maybe straightforward to really feel like LGBTQ illustration in video games is extra widespread than it really is, when the truth could also be that the business remains to be falling nicely in need of adequately reflecting the LGBTQ participant base.
Games are a refuge for a lot of queer gamers
The information reveals that many individuals who play video games are queer, and that video games typically play a very essential function of their lives. For a lot of them, on this interval when lots of of items of anti-LGBTQ laws are being launched, video games could also be one thing of a protected haven. According to GLAAD, 55 % of LGBTQ avid gamers who reside in states the place such laws has been proposed or handed say they really feel extra accepted within the gaming group than they do basically public areas the place they reside. Sixty-five % of gamers in these states say that they rely on video games to get them by powerful instances, and a whopping 75 % say that video games enable them to precise themselves in methods they don’t really feel comfy doing in the actual world.
As a trans one who grew up with video games and who has identified many different queer and trans folks for whom video games have been an important avenue of exploration and expression in a hostile world, I wasn’t precisely shocked by this information, and but seeing numbers asserting simply how widespread such experiences are is highly effective and compelling. On a video name, I requested Blair Durkee, affiliate director of gaming for GLAAD, in regards to the notion that video games are doing higher on the LGBTQ illustration entrance than they really are. “I think so much of our media is dominated by people who live in more progressive areas,” she mentioned, “and they forget that there’s a wide swath of the country that is still deep, deep in this anti-LGBTQ culture. That was one of the things we tried to highlight with our stats looking at LGBTQ gamers who live in more restrictive states, states that have passed or proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation versus LGBTQ gamers in other areas.”
Even as many LGBTQ gamers discover alternatives for group and self-expression in video games, additionally they stay at increased threat for harassment in gaming areas, with 52 % saying they’ve skilled harassment when enjoying on-line, and 61 % expressing discomfort about utilizing voice chat in on-line video games.
The capitalist argument for higher LGBTQ illustration in video games
Of course, GLAAD isn’t simply amassing this information as a result of it’s attention-grabbing. The group hopes to encourage builders and studios to do extra to mirror and signify LGBTQ gamers. A standard argument I’ve heard for why video games haven’t made extra effort to include homosexual and trans characters and storylines is that builders or publishers could also be afraid of alienating or driving away non-LGBTQ gamers. However, the information suggests, that recreation builders are leaving cash on the desk, as LGBTQ gamers gravitate towards video games during which they’ll see themselves mirrored. Meanwhile, 60 % of non-LGBTQ gamers say that enjoying as an LGBTQ character would make no distinction of their determination to purchase a recreation. “The resistance toward LGBTQ content in games is waning,” says the report’s introduction, “as each successive generation of gamers is more diverse and more open to seeing LGBTQ representation in their games.”
When I requested Durkee what she hopes the report may assist to perform, she mentioned that it’s about “changing the way the industry really thinks about our community.” She references feedback made by Dragon Age lead author David Gaider, who mentioned that there’s a proportion of the gaming inhabitants–like queer and trans gamers–which is already enjoying regardless of being primarily uninvited, and the business sees us as “gravy”—a pleasant further however not a gaggle price catering to instantly. “All this work that we’ve been doing over the last several years,” Durkee mentioned, “has been aimed at changing that mentality. Our community is a huge percentage of the overall gaming population, nearly one in five. And if you’re ignoring that community, you’re doing it to your own detriment. There’s much more to gain by being inclusive and by expanding your audience than by catering to the same old demographic over and over.”
You can learn GLAAD’s full, inaugural report on the state of LGBTQ inclusion in video video games now.
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