diversity
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Google highlights the lack of diversity in tech by publishing its own stats
While many will tell you that there isn't much diversity among technology workers, it has been tricky to back up that claim with real, hard numbers. Well, Google now has some evidence: it just published diversity figures for its own staff, broken down by ethnicity and gender. And it's not a pretty sight, at least in the company's eyes. About 91 percent of Googlers are either Asian or white, and 70 percent are men. That's not exactly a wide variety of people, and the ratios only get worse when you examine technology-specific jobs.
How to include diversity without making it your focus
Yesterday, Polygon published this editorial, which reacted to Rob Pardo (Chief Creative Officer at Blizzard) and his speech at MIT's media lab. The talk was about gameplay and fun in design vs. narrative, and in it Mr. Pardo mentioned that Blizzard is not a narrative focused company, and that they focused first and foremost on epic entertainment rather than diversity. First up, let me say this - I agree with Rob Pardo that Blizzard should be focusing on epic entertainment experiences, and I have no difficulty with their desire to position themselves as a developer who focuses on gameplay and fun over narrative. And I think it's laudable that Rob himself seems to understand that this can sometimes backfire, as he said in the speech. No, my objection is a purely pragmatic one -- I believe it's actually easier to be diverse in how you populate your game world than to not be, and that the lack of diversity ultimately damages that fun gameplay for a sizable chunk of your player base. To use just one example, we know that women make up almost half of people playing these games. Including characters that are women in positions of prominence (as just one example) invests women more fully in your game experience. It benefits you, because it enlists them as allies towards the ultimate goal of creating those fun, epic experiences - and the respect the article mentions? It cements that respect. If you want to have a reputation, it helps to enlist the players, to make them do the work. Especially if your focus is on fun, rather than narrative, this is a decision that costs you nothing and reaps you rewards. The same fervor that can turn to ire and negative media attention can be made your ally - the inclusion of prominent characters that say that women (for example) are welcome and valued enlists women as participants. You can't have fun gameplay without players, and those players will do the work of promoting and proselytizing your work.
Apple is working on getting more diversity into its emoji characters
Sometimes, the awkward white lady with hand to the side emoji doesn't quite represent, or express, who's using an iPhone -- and it's been that way for quite a while. Good news, then, that Apple is apparently working with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to bring more breadth to the emoji pictures it can offer. Katie Cotton, Apple's VP of Corporate Communications, explains in an email reply to MTV Act's Joey Parker, who raised the issue: "Our emoji characters are based on the Unicode standard, which is necessary for them to be displayed properly across many platforms. There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set, and we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard." There's no firm date for an emoji upgrade until the Unicode issue is sorted, so for now, well, there's stickers elsewhere. (Update: There's also been a recent groundswell for the less important addition of a hot-dog emoji.)
Double Dragon with diversity in 'Beatdown City'
Game developer Shawn Allen grew up as a biracial black kid raised by a white mom in a mostly Latin neighborhood in Manhattan. Now, as an adult, most people assume he's black, Middle Eastern or Hispanic, while others squint and ask, "Where are you from?" Diana, his wife, is Puerto Rican, and their friend, Manny, is Sicilian and chief of his Taino tribe. Together, they're aiming to bust down the barriers to video game diversity with a retro-styled brawler, Treachery in Beatdown City. It features RPG elements and a turn-based combat system, and it features a cast of minority characters. The star of Beatdown City is Lisa, a Puerto Rican woman designed by Diana to counteract the "spicy Latina" stereotype in popular media, Allen tells me. "Lisa was made to be a strong character first, who can also be a positive Latin woman in games," he says. "She is, if not the only, one of the few leading Puerto Rican women in games." Beatdown City isn't an activist game – it spawns from the team's love of brawlers, and they've worked to make it different (turn-based combat will do that) while still recalling classics such as Double Dragon and Streets of Rage. But if Allen and his friends are going to make a game with human characters, they're going to be as diverse as the developers themselves, Allen says: "When Manny and I started making the game, we wanted to make iconic, memorable characters like brawlers of old did. But we infused them with backgrounds based on our culture, the culture around us and of people that we know. The more we thought about it, the details flowed very easily."
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's buffet effect
A little under a year ago, I wrote a column about how Final Fantasy XIV needs to generate a wow factor. It needs to surprise people, have something unique and special to offer. There was a lot of stuff that felt distressingly rote, and that wasn't good. So what's changed since then? Well... not a huge amount, honestly. There are several features in the beta that feel like rehashes of things we've seen in other games, like FATEs and quests and instanced dungeons and so forth. Yet the game is clearly generating a wow factor, something that I'm happy about. This week, I want to throw that previous article out completely. Just kick it to the curb. As I've been playing the beta weekends and seeing what the game has to offer, I've realized that there was something I was completely failing to embrace and consider. It's the power of the buffet.
TUG tackles sexiness and diversity
We're not getting into a real talk about diversity in gaming here. We are, however, talking about The Untitled Game's take on that sort of thing. The latest update on the TUG Kickstarter page is all about Seed diversity. The team is promising to do its best to make sure that players don't have to deal with armors that have a "drastically different appearance" based on gender. Female characters won't get overly sexualized animations, and you're just as likely to find a manly NPC in distress as a lady one. The team is working to avoid stereotypical representations of races and cultures, and wants to be sure that white males aren't portrayed as the default for Seeds. Some servers will allow users only basic inputs on their Seed's appearance, like gender and skin color, and will automatically assign the rest. All Seed's appearances, regardless of initial input, will grow and change over time as they age. Players will also be able to directly affect their Seed's look with hairstyle changes, tattoos, and other mysterious alterations.
Visualized: Android's device diversity cut up into 3,997 little pieces
Some call it diversity, some call it fragmentation. However you slice it, there's a lot of Android devices out there. OpenSignalMaps has tracked a staggering 3,997 unique phones, tablets and other Google-powered gadgets, and has put them into a chart weighted by popularity. Not surprisingly, it's powerhouses like Samsung's Galaxy S II and HTC's Desire line that dictate the platform, while that Concorde Tab you bought in Hungary sadly doesn't have much traction. The normally signal mapping-oriented crew is careful to warn that the actual variety might be less: there's 1,363 one-timers in the group, and some of those may be custom ROMs and the endless carrier-specific variants that OEMs are sometimes eager to make. There's even more to look at through the source, including Android 2.3's continuing dominance and the mind-boggling number of Android screen resolutions, so click ahead for an even fuller picture.
AP, Google offer $20,000 scholarships to aspiring tech journalists, we go back to school
Love technology? Love journalism? Well, the AP-Google Journalism and Technology Scholarship program might be right up your alley. The initiative, announced earlier this week, will offer $20,000 scholarships to six graduate or undergraduate students working toward a degree in any field that combines journalism, new media and computer science. Geared toward aspiring journalists pursuing projects that "further the ideals of digital journalism," the program also aims to encompass a broad swath of students from diverse ethnic, gender, and geographic backgrounds. Applications for the 2012-2013 school year are now open for students who are currently enrolled as college sophomores or higher, with at least one year of full-time coursework remaining. Hit up the source link below to apply, or head past the break for more information, in the full presser.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Content needs to meet the versatility of gear-upgrading
Last week I compared looting and class-bending in Runes of Magic with similar features found in RIFT. RoM's system of gear customization was a part of that article. This week, I want to talk business. Don't worry, I'm not a business major about to sling pie charts at you or talk about quarterly earnings. I want to talk a bit about business, specifically about how it might relate to decisions developers make concerning what kind of balance to put into an MMO. RoM's gear system is extremely flexible on the outside, but inside there are some restrictions. Some of these restrictions are imposed by the game, but some are imposed by players. In this week's Lost Pages of Taborea, let's take a look at how the flexibility and choice of RoM's gear system -- and other systems -- are in opposition to the game's content and some desires players have.
Ask Massively: Can't talk, slaying darkspawn edition
If it wasn't obvious through previous posts, I'm rather keen on the whole Dragon Age franchise. Which means that yes, I've been playing the stupid Facebook game that has just gone into open beta. The next revolution in gaming it is not, but it's got just enough of the setting to tide me over for the moment. Plus, it has player housing, which is conspicuously absent from most of the more modern MMOs out there. Seriously, guys -- if it's able to fit into a Flash game on Facebook, you can fit it into your umpteen-millionth triple-A title. Get on that. But I'll put aside the slaying of darkspawn and associated questions about how they're this far north, because it's time for another edition of Ask Massively. This round, we're talking about reviewing new MMOs, the conceptual space of games, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. As always, you can feel free to leave your questions in the comment field or send them along to ask@massively.com.
Lenovo setting up a specialist unit for tablets and smartphones
How far we've come. It was only a couple of years ago that Lenovo was closing a deal to sell its mobile phone business, but a quick re-acquisition in late 2009 and some recent heavy flirtation with the tablet form factor have led to the creation of a whole new unit in the company's hierarchy, one dedicated to the development of smartphones, tablets, TVs, and other internet-connected devices. Headed up by Liu Jun and working out of Beijing, this squad of designers and engineers will focus on harnessing the "tremendous growth potential of the mobile internet." Cloud computing will be a major feature of Lenovo's plans moving forward, which places its goals for the future right in line with just about everyone else's. Still, it's good to see one of the big desktop computing players diversifying its portfolio with gusto.
Visualized: the real Android fragmentation
It's been staring you in the face all this time. The Android fragmentation that not only threatens, but dooms Google's mobile OS: the buttons are always in different places. How will we ever cope? [Thanks, Drummertist]
The Tattered Notebook: F2P bombs and views from the fallout shelter
Well, this week takes the proverbial cake when it comes to the least amount of time spent head-scratching over a column topic. Thanks to Dave Georgeson and the executives at Sony Online Entertainment, I pretty much had this little opus sketched out by dinner-time last Tuesday. Anywho... a week ago tomorrow the bomb dropped. It wasn't a stink bomb, a 50-yard bomb, or even an F-bomb (though there were no doubt plenty of those uttered in some circles), but rather a Hiroshima/Nagasaki type of bomb that changed the world and effectively ended the war between P2P and F2P, at least as far as Norrath is concerned. Or did it? Turn the page to find out.
The Daily Grind: How important are options?
Saying that a game is linear is almost a dirty word in the field of games, at least when it comes to RPGs and their close genre relatives. The advent of games that allow you to decide whether to trek through the Desert of Certain Doom or the Forest of Inevitable Demise has spoiled us a bit -- we expect to have a choice. MMOs are hardly exempt, and in some ways even worse off, with players who want to choose which quests they do, which abilities they learn, and what their character likes in a pie. Of course, by the same token, it's better to have one path that's fleshed-out and interesting than a half-dozen with hardly any expansion to them, whether it's a path to the level cap or just a chain of learning abilities. So the question is, how important is the power of choice? When leveling, would you prefer variety of zones without as much quality to each area, or a full dint of quality in far fewer different places? Do you want your characters to learn anything even if there's not much to learn, or do you prefer a single path that has been expertly balanced?
Anti-Aliased: Virtual worlds as the great equalizer
So apparently it's gay pride week. I, pretty literally, had absolutely no clue that gay pride week was this week, even though I was lucky enough to speak at Metaplace's Metapride diversity event. Yes, I'm just that oblivious to my surroundings, even when I'm directly participating in them.I know I don't hide the fact that I'm transgender, but I'm certain that not many people click on my author link here at Massively or really ponder the significance of my @sera_brennan Twitter username. That last sentence is probably the first time many of you long term readers even heard that I was transgender. (Although I remember someone wrote the site once and told them to correct all of the times in my author profile that I was referred to as "she" because it was obviously a typo.)I owe much to my online escapes, as they aid me in more ways than just providing a fun distraction. They give me the opportunity to appear as I truly feel inside, and let me interact with others without the stigma of being or appearing to be transgendered attached. Beyond just me, however, are hundreds of thousands, or perhaps even millions of individuals who have gained an advantage or some sort of insight thanks to virtual worlds.
WoW is the new "third place"
This is interesting -- a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (just up the road from me here in Chicago) says that World of Warcraft is an emerging new "third place." That is, it's a place in between your work and home where you make friends and otherwise interact with new people. Starbucks has even used the term in their actual marketing (to try to make their coffee shops a hangout more than just a place that you stop by and grab a cuppa joe), and WoW isn't even the first videogame to fit the critera -- Sony advertised the Playstation 2 as a "third place" in Europe.But even though Blizzard has never actually marketed the game as a "third place," it almost fits the definition most. Sure, it's not actually a different place -- most people do play at home, I'd imagine -- but in terms of having a different crowd of people that you interact with outside your home or work, that is often exactly what WoW is for us. As Professor Constance Steinkuehler (who has a pretty wild website for a college professor) says, "most people go for the game and stay for the people."
Do WoW players make better citizens?
With all the negativity that mainstream media (sometimes) dishes out on video games, we always like to see when the positive stories get picked up. That's the case with today's article at The Capital Times that focuses on MMOs and their impact on society. Reporting for The Capital Times, Jeff Richgels asks, "Can massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft produce better citizens?" His article covers the work of Constance Steinkuehler, a University of Wisconsin-Madison education professor who's been studying the social dynamics inherent to MMOs, namely World of Warcraft. Her work focuses on how massively multiplayer online games expose players to a wide range of diversity. Steinkuehler's recent presentation at the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences was ultimately about how navigating that diversity makes players into better citizens, and more open to discussion with their peers.
DS Daily: Ha, what a noob
We know Nintendo is about bringing people of all ages, shapes and sizes together to enjoy a quick round of screen-touching. Everyone feels great, Nintendo rakes in the cash and hardcore gamers are getting plenty of recognition. Embrace diversity with Nintendo.And yet ... it's still pretty funny watching non-gamers try their hand at even the simplest casual games and screw up royally. Sure, kindly old Grandpa and naive little sister are exactly the kind of people the DS attracts, but do you still feel slight twinges of amusement when they have trouble completing the most basic of tasks? We love the whole worldwide DS craze and all, but are the hardcore among us (that is, the hardcore that got so upset over a two-hour presentation) chortling silently, basking in gaming omnipotence when it comes to touchscreen prowess? Share your amusing anecdotes with the rest of us!
NY Times examines changes in the gamer market
The New York Times has taken a look at the NPD's list of top ten selling games in 2007, which shows mass-market games mixed in with games designed for the "young-male audience." As the industry matures and becomes more popular, the "hard-core gamers" and "old-school critics" are becoming just one small part of a very large $18 billion pie.The NY Times makes its case by observing the absence of critically hailed single-player experiences (like BioShock or Mass Effect) from the top ten, now filled with accessible multiplayer games like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4. In fact, nine out of the top ten games actually have a multiplayer component (Assassin's Creed is the black sheep). The NYT concludes that people want "human contact in their entertainment" and gaming's mass acceptance comes from being able to have others join in the fun.A reasonable conclusion, albeit one that oversimplifies matters. While the social elements of most of these games certainly form part of the appeal, the top-selling games also offered compelling solo components. Why choose between single and social gaming when you can have both?[Thanks, Farseer]
Azerothians vs. Earthlings: Oh the Humanity!
Newcomers to Azeroth are met with a choice as to which race they should choose. Undoubtedly, the most immediately recognizable and familiar choice is that of the humans. But are the humans of Azeroth really just Azerothian versions of us Earthlings, or are they better understood as a distinct species of their own?The most obvious difference at first glance is that in Azeroth, all men are blocky and all women are curvy. Aside from various facial traits, hair and skin color, humans don't vary from this standard mold. Even in advanced age, Azerothian women's breasts do not sag, nor do men's muscles lose their beefy bulkiness. Some Earthlings have disparagingly compared Azerothian men to gorillas for their tree-trunk arms and their "smashed-with-a-shovel" faces, but others point out that Azerothian humans have been hardened through great suffering. Wars with orcs, demons and undead have reduced their population from millions to mere hundreds of thousands, and so the weak humans of Azeroth have possibly been weeded out. So, while many Earthling humans may enjoy the comforts of working at a desk all day, then coming home to play at a desk too (i.e. via computer game), Azerothians, even old ones, have to keep themselves fit to fight off the various enemies encroaching on their lands, such as murloc flesheaters and forsaken undead. While this may explain the over-muscled arms of Azerothian males, it leaves the question of youthfully curved elderly women quite unanswered.
