Stephen Carlson University of Oregon MIDBOSS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE MidBoss and Social Justice Stephen Carlson scc@uoregon.edu 6 June, 2016 MidBoss, a company headquartered in San Francisco, California, has been heavily involved in several projects that hope to bring inclusivity to mainstream media. This paper will be comprised of a case study of the company with information taken through publication reviews and first-hand experience, as well as an analysis of general trends towards inclusivity in media and a robust literature review in order to examine exactly how MidBoss’ work aligns with their mission and how they may be affecting the entertainment industry. Additionally, this paper will include several recommendations that other entertainment companies, particularly game companies, might be able to use to increase inclusivity in their products and programming. Inclusivity: an intention or policy of including people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalised. LGBTQ+: the community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer-identifying individuals. Mainstream Media: mass media reflective of prevailing currents of thought, influence, or activity. Social Justice: justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. Introduction As a growing acceptance of LGBTQ+ communities becomes more and more prevalent in the United States, there must also be people to push for greater acceptance and inclusivity in our entertainment industry. This industry has a tremendous amount of control over the general acceptance of a concept. To wit, in an article about the tobacco industry as it relates to mainstream media, it has been stated that “Tobacco is a communicated disease—communicated through various media, but most importantly the entertainment industry” (Yach & Bettcher, 2000). This alludes to how strong the entertainment industry can be. If the industry as a whole decided to cease portraying negative views of the LGBTQ+ community, and instead work to show how all people are members of the same global community, it could advance inclusivity, non-discrimination, and other issues of social justice at an accelerated rate. Quite possibly the first ‘win’ for the LGBTQ+ community in the United States, particularly the transgender community, is actress Laverne Cox, who played in Orange is the New Black and was the first openly transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy award (Gjorgievska, 2014). It is actions similar to this that have created a larger push for equality within non-discrimination ordnances within the United States, but also, unfortunately, for the converse. The United States Supreme Court ruling in the case of James Obergefell, et al. has created a foundation of greater inclusivity for LGBTQ+ communities in the United States, including into the Constitutionally-defined definition of marriage that of same-sex couples, stating “The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific right that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity. The petitioners in these cases seek to find that liberty by marrying someone of the same sex and having their marriages deemed lawful on the same terms and conditions as marriages between persons of the opposite sex” (“Obergefell v. Hodges,” 2015). Again, this has created both a greater support for the larger acceptance of LGBTQ+ communities, and a greater call against it. If we look back at events along the LGBTQ+ civil rights timeline, as interpreted by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), perhaps the inciting incident in the greater push for acceptance of said communities occurred in 1998 when Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called upon civil rights communities to “join the struggle against homophobia” (“American Experience: Stonewall Uprising,” n.d.). Continuing on, according to this same timeline, we see Vermont becoming the first US state to legalise same-sex civil unions in 2000, the Supreme Court ruling sodomy laws unconstitutional in 2003, Massachusetts legalising same-sex marriage in 2004, the expansion of US Federal Hate Crime Law to include crimes “motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability,” also known as the Matthew Shepard Art in 2009, the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy in 2010 by the US Senate, and of course the aforementioned Obergefell v. Hodges decision by the Supreme Court of the United States codifying on a federal level that same-sex couples are free to marry (“American Experience: Stonewall Uprising,” n.d.). On the other side, in 1994 the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was instantiated by the Clinton administration, banning military service by openly LGBT soldiers. Clinton also signed into law the “Defense of Marriage Act” in 1996 explicitly defining marriage as between heterosexual couples only and that “no state is required to recognize a same-sex marriage from out of state” (“American Experience: Stonewall Uprising,” n.d.). In 2008 California approved Proposition 8, making same-sex marriage illegal in that state, and today we are seeing bills like North Carolina’s HB2 designed to strip public accommodations from transgender individuals. So how particularly is the entertainment industry working towards welcoming and accepting these communities? We can see one great example in Laverne Cox, and another in Caitlin Jenner, examples that help speak to one part of the problem. It is within more specifically the game industry that MidBoss is working. They are “staffed by professionals from diverse backgrounds, founded on the belief that fun, interesting media can also create an environment where inclusive characters can be a part of mainstream media and beyond” (“MidBoss,” n.d.). So how exactly, with the projects that they pursue, do they work to accomplish this mission? How do these projects help the population at large come to a greater acceptance of these communities in a way that other companies with other projects do not? Purpose During the course of my study I will be examining projects that MidBoss has undertaken, through articles and first-hand exploration, for the purpose of qualitative analysis of their alignment to the company’s mission. Specifically, I will be making an inventory and analysis of the three major programmes that MidBoss has produced: the GaymerX convention, documentary Gaming in Color, and game Read Only Memories. GaymerX is the first gaming convention with an explicitly LGBTQ+ audience in mind. Other major national gaming conventions (within the United States) include Indiecade (a juried festival of independent games), Gen Con (the largest tabletop game convention in North America), Dragon Con (a multigenre convention founded as a science fiction and gaming group), and the Music and Gaming Festival (MAGFest; a festival celebrating games and game music). Gaming in Color explores issues of the importance of gaming and the issues surrounding LGBTQ+ communities and their visibility and representation in games and the broader gaming community. It features interviews by scholars, game industry professionals, journalists, and other community figures. Read Only Memories is MidBoss pilot game, exploring a sci-fi mystery narrative in a futuristic and diverse setting. It prominently features characters that are gender-nonconforming, sexually diverse, and inclusive of many orientations. Additionally, I will address projects from other game companies such as Bioware and Naughty Dog to see how they compare. During this study I will be utilising fragments of both of Satu Eto and Helvi Kyngäs’ methods of qualitative analysis: inductive, which goes from specific fragmented or incomplete knowledge to a more generalised understanding, and deductive, which is based primarily in past research and general knowledge to a specific theory that is being tested. Both methods have three main phases: preparation, organising, and reporting. In preparation, five questions must be considered while immersing yourself in the data: who is doing the telling, where is this happening, when did it happen, what is happening, and why. Inductive content analysis involves open coding (writing notes while reading the text, etc.), categories are then created from this data, and a kind of abstract is distilled from this. Deductive content analysis begins with a categorisation matrix to code existing data which is then reviewed and coded. The analysis process then needs to be discussed in sufficient detail so as readers will have a clear understanding of the content. Clear descriptions of context need to be conveyed, and all proper citations need to be made (Eto & Kyngäs, 2008). The purpose of this paper is to examine how MidBoss is working to create inclusivity in mainstream media for LGBTQ+ communities. At the time of writing this paper, there is a broad gap in the overall ‘gamer’ community. By and large, the community consists of white, straight-identifying males aged 18-35. With the greater pushes for inclusivity of women, people of colour, and other minorities in the entertainment industry at large, I specifically would like to see a large-scale of acceptance and incorporation of LGBTQ+ communities into the broader gaming lexicon. This means that I want to see a greater acceptance not only of LGBTQ+ gamers in the larger community, but also greater representation of LGBTQ+ characters and communities in gaming. This does not mean that I want to see a separate genre of games that cater specifically to LGBTQ+ communities. Gaming is a unique form of interactive expression and we must analyse how communities are being welcomed or shunned. On the note of interactive expression, when has a television programme, film, or song been as interactive as a game? Games are uniquely engaging in that the participant places themselves in the role, systems, and world of the game and must act upon a narrative that is contingent upon their responses. To put it another way, you can’t play a game from beginning to end without touching the controller. It is an intrinsic aspect of games, unlike film, television, or song, that you must engage. While there has been substantial study into racial minorities and women in entertainment, only in recent years have people begun to explore LGBTQ+ communities in gaming specifically. It is to this end that I am writing this paper on company MidBoss, creator of the game Read Only Memories, documentary Gaming in Color, and host of the GaymerX convention, a company “founded on the belief that fun, interesting media can also create an environment where inclusive characters can be a part of mainstream media and beyond.” I hope this paper contributes to the body of knowledge of how this company might be seen as an example of how mainstream media and social justice might be paired. This paper shall serve the following purposes: 1. To take inventory of the methods by which MidBoss actively acts upon its mission statement in the products it produces, 2. To examine each product individually and assess in what ways it is either playing for or against the company’s message, and 3. To be able to use information extracted from this study to create a list of suggestions by which other companies interested in creating a more inclusive media space might use in future projects. I will be operating under the interpretivist paradigm. An interpretivist paradigm assumes that “reality as we know it in constructed intersubjectively through the meanings and understandings developed socially and experimentally” and “that we cannot separate ourselves from what we know” (accessed from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2015). So what will this study do? It is my hope that, through analysis, I can break down a model that this company is creating, either explicitly or as a result of their programming, and generate suggestions and recommendations for how 1. MidBoss might further its mission more effectively, 2. How other companies interested in creating a greater sense of inclusivity might use MidBoss as an example, and 3. How people can act to and help affect the way the entertainment industry portrays communities, not by blind consumption of the products, but with thoughtful reaction and proaction. The primary method for data collection will be an analysis of articles and first-hand study of the three major projects of MidBoss: the GaymerX convention, documentary Gaming in Color, and game Read Only Memories. This study will hopefully bring to light a kind of model that can be applied to other companies who are hoping to incorporate LGBTQ+ communities in their active programming. It is my hope that this will contribute to a model of inclusiveness without ‘singling out’ in the broader multimedia lexicon, but particularly the gaming community. Literature Review There have been several observed ‘mass exoduses’ from the realm of reality to games. One of the earliest recorded was by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. In the opening book of his Histories, he wrote: In the days of Atys the son of Manes, there was a great scarcity through the whole land of Lydia. For some time, the Lydians bore the affliction patiently, but finding that it did not pass away, they set to work to devise remedies for the evil. Various expedients were discovered by various persons; dice, and knuckle-bones, and ball, and all such games were invented, except tables, the invention of which they do not claim as theirs. The plan adopted against the famine was to engage in games one day so entirely as not to feel any craving for food, and the next day to eat and abstain from games. In this way they passed eighteen years (Rawlinson, Henry Rawlinson, & J. G. Wilkinson, 1861, pp. 181-182). Statistics drawn from the Entertainment Software Association’s 2010 annual study of game players:  Sixty-nine percent of all heads of household play computer and video games.  Ninety-seven percent of all youth play computer and video games.  Forty percent of all gamers are women.  One out of four gamers is over the age of 50.  The average game player is 35 years old and has been playing for 12 years.  Most gamers expect to continue playing games for the rest of their lives (Entertainment Software Association, 2010). It is from these passages and statistics that Jane McGonigal (2011), designer of alternate reality games and Director of Games Research & Development at the Institute for the Future, a non-profit research group that works to provide practical foresight, derives the argument for her book Reality is Broken: that people dislike reality to such a degree that they prefer the digital world. I do not necessarily disagree with this sentiment; however, I think another argument can be made from this same data. The argument that, since so many people are choosing to spend so much time in game worlds, that these worlds should be more representative of more people. Joey Stern, founding member of Geeks OUT brings up the subject of visibility in games and its importance: “Visibility is the way which an industry says ‘we recognise you exist.’ When you get acknowledgement that you are the intended audience for something, it makes you feel like you’re a part of it” (Jones, 2014). From the 2016 Entertainment Software Association report we also have these statistics:  Sixty-three percent of U.S. households are home to at least one person who plays video games regularly (three hours or more per week).  Sixty-five percent of U.S. households own a device used to play video games.  The average game player age is 35 years old.  Fifty-nine percent of game players are male.  The most frequent female game player is on average 44 years old and the average male game player is 35 years old (Entertainment Software Association, 2016). From the statistics extrapolated by McGonigal and in the most recent ESA report one can discern a few things. One, that the number of female gamers has remained largely the same over the past five years; two, the average age of gamers is also largely about the same; three, there is a larger population of older female gamers, which becomes interesting when it’s compared to the same report’s top five computer games (based upon units sold). Three of the five top-selling games are of Electronic Arts’ The Sims franchise, a more casual style of game than the other two, those being Fallout 4, a shooter role-playing game, and the Starcraft II expansion Legacy of the Void, a real-time strategy game. An interesting extrapolation can be made from the fact that three of the top five games belong to The Sims franchise: it is built on being able to live an alternate life in a digital playground. Particularly when it comes to sexuality and sexual identity, within The Sims, the player’s character can act almost as freely as real people can: they can essentially dress and act however the player chooses and can romance a potential mate of any gender. Arguments for the necessity of further study of inclusivity and representation of minorities in games, as well as examinations of improper representation of women and people of colour have been made by David Leonard, assistant professor in the Department of Comparative Ethnic Studies at Washington State University, and André Brock, assistant professor in the School of Library and Information Science and the Project on the Rhetoric of Inquiry at the University of Iowa. The former is an analysis on race primarily in the Grand Theft Auto series, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas specifically, and how the cast of characters is comprised, as Leonard writes “Black and Latino men, all with braids, bandanas, and guns. The game allows players to form gangs to rob, commit drive-by shootings, and even rape” (Leonard, 2006). While these more sordid activities are not out of character for the Grand Theft Auto franchise, when they are presented through this racial lens they present a problematic issue: one of racial stereotyping. The game suggests that Latinos by nature are violent and staunchly immersed in illegal activities. A similar issue is broached by Brock in the subject of Resident Evil 5’s Sheva Alomar. Brock even refers to Leonard’s paper in his findings, noting how the issue of race representation in games has, by and large, not changed, relegated to the realm of stereotype (Brock, 2011). Within Resident Evil 5, the character of Sheva is portrayed as a kind of ‘bridge’ to the people of the pseudo-African country in which the game takes place, and incapable without her white, male counterpart whom the game assumes the player will be by nature of the gameplay itself making said character the avatar for the user (the player is not given the option to play as Sheva when playing alone, only as Chris Redfield, a white former United States Air Force marksman). It should be said that Sheva’s character is a standing member of the in-game Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (along with Chris in the same timeline), however the issue that I perceive comes from not only Sheva’s actions and dialogue within the game (which generally allay to the player as Chris), but that the character of Chris Redfield has existed largely unchanged since the first Resident Evil release in America in 1996. In the original Resident Evil, and in fact in every Resident Evil main-franchise game preceding Resident Evil 5, the initial choice of player avatars has been white and usually male. There are additional racial issues carried over from predecessor Resident Evil 4 in which the protagonist was similarly a white male (Leon Kennedy) and all of the antagonising forces were Hispanic or Latino. This issue was exacerbated by initial trailers for Resident Evil 5 in which all of the enemies shown were Black. This same representation issue of LGBTQ+ communities can be seen in games such as Gay Fighter Supreme by Handsome Woman Productions, which relies almost entirely on stereotypes. However one may view them, characters such as the fat leather daddy, effeminate twink with a purse (albeit equipped with a guillotine blade), best as I can describe it ‘drunk white socialite’ as a nod to Paris Hilton, and a bizarre effigy to Sarah Palin, these characters do not afford momentum towards LGBTQ+ acceptance, only reimagining of the ages-gone practise of minstrelsy (the accepted portrayal of blackface in theatre) for LGBTQ+ communities. Additional study on LGBTQ+ representation in games has been examined in a paper by Adrienne Shaw (2009), PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, in such games that offer bi- or homosexual romantic options such as Bully, Fable, and Temple of Elemental Evil. I hope in this study to add to Shaw’s examinations. In regards to Bully: the revelation that the male avatar could “kiss both male and female characters … was both celebrated and decried by critics. Media coverage of this optional homosexuality or bisexuality noted that video games were becoming more inclusive” (Shaw, 2009, p. 228). To compare, this game was released in 2006, just before the inclusion of sexual orientation as a part of the federal hate crimes law based upon the PBS timeline. These arguments demonstrate a need for further study. Both Leonard and Brock both go to great lengths to explain the lack of proper representation of women and people of colour in games and how these are both a problem. It is from their summations regarding women and people of colour’s representations in games that I can extrapolate an argument for other marginalised audiences, specifically LGBTQ+ communities. MidBoss recently released their first game, Read Only Memories, which should help to “create an environment where inclusive characters can be a part of mainstream media and beyond” (“MidBoss,” n.d.). When it comes to the subject of games, several authors have opinions on their benefits. James Gee, a researcher and professor at Arizona State University, specifically discusses how learning might be accomplished through games and shows several examples of how learning through experiences (virtual or otherwise) is a more viable method for learning than traditional rote. He speaks about how players, who merge with their avatars and in doing so acquire certain skillsets and ways of interacting with the world, have to learn the most effective means with interacting with the world in order to achieve their goals. He cites six properties of deep-learning games: Property 1: Does game play allow and encourage the player to “psych out” and take advantage of an underlying rule system to accomplish personally held goals to which the player is emotionally attached? Property 2: Does the game allow the player microcontrol that creates either a sense of embodied intimacy or a feeling of reach in power and vision? Property 3: Does the game offer the player experiences that meet the conditions for good learning (discussed above)? Property 4: Does the game allow, encourage, and help players find and use effectivity– affordance matches between smart bodies or tools and worlds? Property 5: Does the game use modelling or models to make learning from experience more general and abstract? Property 6: Does the game allow and encourage the player to enact his or [sic] own unique trajectory through the game, thereby creating his or her own story? (Gee, 2009, pp. 65-77). Properties two and six help to provide an interesting context: the players want to be seen (‘embodied’) and they want to be represented (to ‘enact [a] unique trajectory’). When players see characters that represent them, who they can identify with, it creates a greater sense of immersion. Additionally, George Skleres, an engineer at Riot Games, said that “Becoming immersed in a fantasy world is awesome and it’s so wonderful to live somewhere that is unreal and fantastic, and gaming lets you do that. If I want to fly, I can fly. If I want to cast magic spells, if I want to be a space marine from the future, anything I want to do I can do” (Jones, 2014). These insights from Gee, Stern, and Skleres are important specifically for gaming, which is by and large a much more immersive media than film or television. Within games, much as with film or television there is a certain level of suspension of disbelief, that is to say for example, accepting the concept and practice of magic as widely accepted or that interstellar space travel is commonplace. Within games, this becomes directly related to the player, rather than a disparate being that the consumer is supposed to relate to. Because of this link to the player, the ability to more easily see oneself represented in the characters is crucial. If the character that is supposed to be representing the player is far removed from the player’s identity, he or she may not get as fulfilling an experience. That is not to say that players cannot still enjoy games that do not feature likenesses of themselves as the protagonists. Expanding on this idea of influence with video games, author Ian Bogost (2007), game designer and professor of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, presents his examinations of games through this book under lens of procedural rhetoric, that is that games are uniquely equipped to present rhetoric in a procedurally generated way. He looks at how games can be influential to players, citing examples form across fields of politics, advertising, and education. He examines how games have been used as a political tool, showing how they can be used to get players to engage with dry and esoteric political concepts. In advertising he looks at how games can be used to carry brands through the realm of product placement to full ‘adver-games’ where the game itself serves as an advertisement for a brand. In education he looks at many concepts but one of particular interest is morality, specifically the faulty moral dichotomy within games like Fable and Black & White, as well as the arguable influential power of violence in the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Bogost explicitly examines how games can be used to influence public opinion (effectively or not). Combined with the other projects MidBoss has produced, this can grant a view into how they are affectively acting upon their mission. When it comes to the subject of gender, ethnicity, and LGBT portrayal in film and broadcast media, scholars at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism have generated a report, the Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity in Entertainment. Among their findings:  Out of a total of 11,306 speaking characters, the ratio of male to female is 2:1.  The ratio of male to female directors is 5.6:1 out of a total of 4,284.  The ratio of male to female writers is 2.5:1 out of a total of 6,421.  Out of 414 televised stories evaluated, 28% of speaking characters were of underrepresented races.  Of 11,194 speaking characters only 231 were LGBT characters.  Of the LGBT speaking characters, 72% were male and 79% were white (Smith, Choueiti, & Pieper, 2016). From these statistics we can glean several interesting pieces of information: that there is at least a 2:1 ratio of males to females in substantial positions in broadcast media, that 28% of speaking characters were underrepresented races/ethnicities (based upon US Census data), and only about 2% of characters were LGBT. This does not include representation in games, but it does show a substantial disparity of LGBTQ+ representation in media. Another particularity to this study is the definition of ‘gamer’ itself and how that relates to the populace. Given that MidBoss’ primary product, GaymerX, is billed as ‘by gaymers, for gaymers’ a definition of gamer (and by extension ‘gaymer’, portmanteau of ‘gay’ and ‘gamer’) needs to be established. The Oxford dictionary defines ‘gamer’ as “a person who plays video games or participates in role-playing games” (“Gamer”, 2016). The Oxford dictionary also defines ‘gay’ (or rather ‘homosexual’, the formal form of the word) as “(of a person) sexually attracted to people of one’s own sex” (“Homosexual”, 2016). To combine the two would lead to the definition for ‘gaymer’ as being a person, sexually attracted to people of their own sex, who play video games. For the purposes of this paper this shall be the working definition, however it should be noted that this definition may be too narrow as ‘gamer’ communities often include people interested not only in video games but in other ‘geek’ culture: things such as animated programmes, animé (Japanese animated shows), comic books, graphic novels, and various other board, card, and tabletop role- playing games. Framework There are many game-related conventions and conferences, including the aforementioned Indiecade, Gen Con, Dragon Con, and MAGFest to name a few. While all of these events share a commonality in the geek and gaming communities, they all bring something unique. To wit, Indiecade focuses on independently-developed titles, MAGFest has a focus on games music, and GaymerX has a focus on LGBTQ+ communities. When it comes to documentaries, there have been several on the subject of gaming. Most tend to focus on players of fighting games, or more contemporarily eSports, with the exception of documentaries like King of Kong, about a former world-record score holder for the game Donkey Kong. Read Only Memories is different from those documentaries. Instead it focuses on the core drives of why people, particularly LGBTQ+ people, play games and how games help them. Several games give LGBTQ+ communities options for inclusion. First that comes to my mind is The Sims franchise, in which the player can create a character, or several, and have them interact with each other in a fairly substantive way. Not the least of these interactions is the possibility for bisexual or homosexual relationships, and this is something touched upon by other game franchises like Dragon Age or Fallout, but where Read Only Memories stands out is in its very visible inclusion of characters that span the spectrum of gender identity and display, something that is absent in the other examples barring modification to the games themselves. GaymerX The GaymerX convention, first started in 2012 via Kickstarter (along with MidBoss itself), is focused on creating a safe, friendly, and inclusive space for the LGBTQ+ gaming community, as well as women and people of colour. The initial Kickstarter ask was $25,000, but by the end of the campaign, GaymerX received more than twice that amount, totalling $91,388 from crowdfunding alone. This shows overwhelmingly that this convention is something that many people, particularly the 1,531 backers, wanted. The convention, now in its fourth year, has relied annually on Kickstarter donations to help cover operational costs, and has received to date $226,703 from 3,229 backers over the four years (although as of the time of this writing the campaign for year four is still underway) (“GaymerX2 #EveryoneGames,” n.d.; “GaymerX #EveryoneGames,” n.d.; “GaymerX • Year Four,” n.d.; “GX3,” n.d.). When convention organisers in 2014 were concerned that they would not be able to raise enough funds for a third year, many game companies stood and helped to ease that burden. “Companies that offered support include Devolver Digital, Dim Bulb Games, Bertil Hörberg, Coffee Stain Studios, Mike Bithell, Tinsley PR, Maxistentialism, Asher Vollmer, Wow, Such Business, Hornet Networks and Blizzard, who donated $10,000 USD” (Pitcher, 2014). Not only do the everyday people want to see this convention continue as evident by the continued successful Kickstarter campaigns, but as the above quote from IGN contributor Jenna Pitcher shows for their third convention in 2015, GaymerX received a massive amount of financial support from game developers and other related technology firms. In fact, many game developers in recent years, not just small independents, but AAA studios (read ‘triple A’, referring to studios that have the largest budgets and greatest promotion), have started exploring sexually complex characters in their games. When asked by Geek & Sundry about addressing misconceptions around GaymerX and the LGBTQ+ community, game designer and advisor for the third GaymerX convention Gordon Bellamy had this to say: From the inside of both of those communities, I think I have learned the most about the diversity of the types of games that LGBT people enjoy, and that games are a specifically powerful axis of identity and that many people identify as powerfully with the games they play and how they play them as they do with their orientation, or gender identity. People on the outside of queer identities sometimes have the same learning curve of valuing someone’s orientation or gender identity as who they are versus something that they do. Perhaps in that way, gaming and LGBT experiences have a strong alignment in that they used to be very powerfully driven by a coming out narrative, but for the younger generation the identities are more mainstream and thus there are fewer misconceptions amongst younger people about GaymerX, gaming, or diverse people (Nugent, 2015). In an effort to create an even more inclusive feel to the convention, founder Matt Conn went so far as to change the projected name of the convention from GaymerX to just GX, in order to not alienate the straight and cis-gendered audience who may want to join in. “Now officially known as GX: Everyone Games—Conn wants to be clear that it’s about inclusiveness, not LGBT issues specifically—the convention is finishing up a successful Kickstarter drive today for its third annual convention. The outpouring of support illustrates that Conn’s show is filling a need felt keenly by many gamers” (Moore, 2014). This demonstrates the knowledge of a perceived issue in the branding of the convention: that by applying the ‘gaymer’ moniker to it that it somehow precluded anyone who did not identify as such. By rebranding the convention simply as GX, it immediately removes the visible stigma of the ‘gaymer’ label without compromising the convention’s integrity or programming. “Gaming culture isn’t terribly inclusive of women in general, which means lesbians are even less likely to be accepted in the gaming community. … Gaymer X … is changing the tone for gaming with a convention that’s inclusive for all gamers” (Harper, 2014). This data points to the conclusion that the GaymerX conventions continue to be something that is wanted, needed perhaps, by the LGBTQ+ and gamer communities. They create a space that is free of harassment, where anyone can come and celebrate the joy of games and gaming with people like them. All of these values are included in the GaymerX mission statement: GaymerX seeks to making [sic] the gaming world safer and more inclusive to marginalized people, especially those in the gender and sexuality spectrum. … When people are genuinely excited and engaged by a concept or a technique they are far more likely to learn it and put it into practice. Gaming, socializing, and partying can be effective avenues to test out social conditions that favor inclusiveness and conflict resolution. … Creating better practices for safety and inclusiveness in physical and online gaming spaces. This can mean rules and enforcement but more-so helpful guidelines and tools for people to interact with one another as well as exposure to rarely discussed social concepts and issues that help people relate and empathize with one another. The GaymerX convention is … a physical space where people can meet and interact in a different way than they would at a mainstream gaming event. When people know that the event’s audience, volunteers, staff, vendors, and guests are all supportive of their identity and open to discuss conflicts, it creates a unique positive atmosphere of comfort and inclusiveness (“About GaymerX,” n.d.). Gaming in Color Gaming in Color is a documentary, directed by Philip Jones, that looks into the issues of LGBTQ+ representation in games, the gaming community at large, and the reasons why games are important. The documentary features interviews with George Skleres, game engineer at Riot Games; Colleen Macklin, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Design and Technology at Parsons The New School for Design, Director at PETLab, and game designer; Matt Conn, founder and CEO of Midboss; Naomi Clark, freelance game designer; Joey Stern, founding member of Geeks OUT; Jessica Vazquez, writer and editor at GameRevolution.com; Shane Cherry, promotor for gaymer events in New York City; and Matthew Michael Brown, activist and reality TV winner on Sony’s The Tester. All quotes in this section are from the documentary Gaming in Color by Jones, 2014, unless cited otherwise. Gorge Skleres’ interview focuses primarily on his work with Riot Games’ League of Legends, a multiplayer online battle arena game in which teams of players’ battle against each other. He discusses a system within League of Legends designed to combat player toxicity, the tribunal system. In this system, panels of other players are tasked with determining punishment for bad in-game behaviour (derogatory language, improper gameplay, etc.). He gives an example that in most cases of someone using the derogatory term ‘fag’, the tribunal rules with an immediate ban on the player. Skleres also discusses the importance of creating safe online spaces that are free from harassment and abuse. He also discusses his personal growth as it pertains to games: Gaming has taught me almost all of my life skills. Gaming taught me how to be social, and I know that sounds ironic because most people think gaming is an antisocial thing but, for instance, Smash Brothers, Mario Kart, Mortal Kombat, all these games were huge in my growing up and they’re social games: you have to do them with other people. So gaming taught me all my social skills, gaming taught me all of my financial skills. Warcraft II and the Warcraft series and Starcraft, all of the simulation games: SimCity and Roller Coaster Tycoon and all of these games they taught me how to manage things and multitask. Colleen Macklin’s interview focuses on why people play games and why gaming is important. “I’m increasingly of the belief that learning to play games is learning to be a more active participant in society. The world is a set of systems that aren’t set in stone, that you can make a change and a small change can actually set off larger repercussions. So a game can contain within it so many possibilities and I think that gamers experience that, they internalise it, and they start to look at the world in a new way”. Games are different because games ask us to engage in them and create our own stories. If I’m reading a book or I’m going to see a play or going to the movies and I walk out, if we were together at the movies, and you might say ‘oh wow, what about that part where…’ but in a game I might experience something very differently from the way that you do just based on the choices that we make. And so for me that’s one of the exciting things about games: that we can share certain aspects of our experiences in a game but they’re always going to be slightly different. Macklin, along with PETLab, have developed many provocative games over the course of the past few years. Among these are RE: Activism, an augmented reality game in which players take to the streets to map out and re-enact historical activism events in their proper locations. RE: Activism has been played in New York City, Beijing, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Philadelphia. There is also Budgetball, a game incorporating sports skills (primarily skills similar to basketball as the game is designed to be played on a standard basketball court and with a basketball) in order to raise awareness over the budget deficit via careful move planning and collaboration on ‘powerup’ usage. Another is Games for a New Climate, a series of games about preparedness for various climate change issues such as floods or drought. This latter example has been utilised by Red Cross staff and volunteers as a means of creative problem-solving (“Projects - Colleen Macklin,” n.d.). Additionally, Macklin says “I think that . . . games, they ask us as players to try new things. The best games are the games where you have to change the way you do something and that is what I think is interesting about games: I think that games teach us to look at ourselves in a new way and of course look at the world in a new way too.” This is resonant with her stance on the importance of games. She continues to discuss how indie, that is independently-developed games, have been influential in forwarding the cause of inclusion. What’s good about the industry today as opposed to five or ten years ago is that small independent teams can make games and those games can be very successful. It’s still hard to do that and not everyone is successful, but I think that enables different kinds of games to be developed. The indie game community is absolutely incredible because it’s risen up through people who are interested in saying new things with games and trying new things, and these are people who have been raised playing games, so they’re gamers too. Games like Papers, Please or Cart Life or Gone Home, Dys4ia: all of these games are exploring new topics or subjects and they’re out there. Many of them are out there for free so people of all kinds of backgrounds and means can actually play them, so I think there’s a really exciting movement in the indie game scene. While none of these games are specific to MidBoss, they demonstrate a growing shift towards new ideas in gaming. Papers, Please seats the player as a border guard to the fictitious east-European country of Arstotzka. Cart Life puts the player in charge of a food cart vendor, in charge of not only the cart’s profits but the vendor and their family health as well. Dys4ia hits a bit closer to home with the subject of inclusion given its subject matter: examining a self-referential period of sexual transition by the designer. Dys4ia is a game about LGBTQ+, specifically transgender, issues. It also is a statement upon what Macklin was discussing, the power of independent developers. Gone Home I will discuss further in the later Read Only Memories section. Matt Conn discusses his upbringing, coming out as both a geek and as gay, and how he had difficulty finding a space that could bridge the two. He mentions how he eventually discovered the SubReddit r/gaymer (an online bulletin board for gay gamers) and discovering these friends, but only online. It was from the desire to bring this connection offline that the GaymerX convention was born. And from that success he has ingratiated himself with the larger industry. I would say that I’m disappointed with the progress that companies have made up to this point. I think that from the dialogues I’ve had with a lot of companies it seems like they are ready to move but they’re scared. I don’t think that anyone really wants to be the first one to dive in because I think that gaming is something that, there’s a lot of people who can be very vocal on the internet and nobody wants to be the person that draws the ire first, that ‘that’s the company that’s doing all the gay stuff,’ and I think that on top of that games that are AAA titles are so expensive that game companies don’t want to take that risk of being the company that’s ‘oh, we’re going to make a gay character in this game and we’re risking this $10 million franchise’. However, as the founder of MidBoss, it is his view on visibility that sets the stage for the mission of the company as a whole: “I think [having gay characters] validates who you are as a person. I think that as someone like me as a kid, that I feel if there were video games that had a gay character that I could relate to, a gay character that I could feel affection for or my character felt affection for, I think it would have made me feel so much more validated as a person”. So many people are afraid of gays and lesbians and queer people because of ignorance, because they’ve never met a gay person, or they never actually had a friend who’s gay, so they don’t have any reason to care about them; and if you play games and there’s someone on your squad who’s helping you out who’s gay or you have, let’s just say that were the case, having someone who’s helping out the entire time, throwing you ammo, being a part of that, then you actually can form a bond with someone and be ‘oh, I’m forming a bond with someone who’s lesbian,’ they’re actually not some mythical thing, they’re just normal people. Naomi Clark discusses virulent online behaviour in games, particularly in massively-multiplayer online games. She specifically mentions how the anonymity of being online makes hateful and derogatory speech so easy, because oftentimes there are no consequences to those actions and the victim is largely faceless. “Diversity in games is a huge, obvious problem that the games industry knows about and is going to have to do something about. Games are embarrassing themselves and have been for a long time. A lot of leaders in the games industry, even in this very large end of AAA game industry are aware of how embarrassing this is when they look at their peers in other forms of entertainment”. Clark also discusses the antisocial axiom of the ‘gamer’ label. Her topics are not all negative, however, as she mentions lines upon which the industry has grown. “There are a lot of gamers and game designers who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer, or genderqueer who are really seeking to reinvent games in a new and different way that’s very outside of traditional notions. And that’s often called ‘queer games’ and that community I think is really distinct. For some people, they’re just gamers who happen to be gay; for others, there are a lot of people who are really interested, as people with LGBT experience, at seeing games represent them more”. It is sort of essential in games, in a different way than it is for other forms of culture, to be able to experience yourself as part of the system, and if there’s a failure of that, then the player either has to experience this kind of alienation and distance that I think really is a drawback for investing in the game and really playing it with all of your heart, and this is something that I think a lot of average guy stereotypical gamers aren’t aware of because they have so many choices available to them; and it’s not like you have to be able to see yourself in every single game, but if you have this experience over and over again, that takes a toll and it means that you can’t invest as fully in a game, you can’t play a game with all your heart. And again, sure, you can do this sometimes, but it uses up a little bit of your willpower and your investment in a different way. Joey Stern, founder of Geeks OUT, discusses interests of visibility and immersion in the gaming community. Gaming and games are one of those things that you start doing when you’re little. It’s one of the first ways you learn how to socialise, it’s how you learn to interact with other people, and it’s a huge facet of what you do in your spare time. Videogames want to be really important to people because you get to be part of the story: you get to interact, you get to tell a different view of things. It gets to be your view. When you talk about wanting to see yourself represented in those games, it’s about wanting to see yourself represented in your stories. Wanting to be included in the Mass Effect game and see myself there is a lot about ‘I want to play as someone I’d want to be. I don’t want to play as the he-man macho guy because that’s not me.’ You know they’re not going to give Shepard a lisp any time soon but it’s nice that he can kiss guys at least. He talks about the differences between gay characters and characters who are gay, saying that while it might not be necessary to have a gay protagonist in every game, but by not having gay characters at all, the industry is saying ‘we don’t believe you exist.’ Visibility is the way which an industry says ‘we recognise you exist.’ When you get acknowledgement that you are the intended audience for something, it makes you feel like you’re a part of it. Like in Mass Effect when you’re able to choose to be with guys that you want to be with, it makes that gameplay more immersive for you as a person, but it also lets me know that people like me exist and that’s comforting and helpful. Even just gay side characters let me know that you’re expecting me to be there, that you’re anticipating that I’m going to play this, that you’re expecting me to be a part of it. For example, Grand Theft Auto V has huge problems but mostly it feels like, just a bleak outlook on everything, and it’s hard to play that game and not feel like it’s not for you, that game’s blaringly in your face: ‘it’s not about you, it’s not for you, we don’t think you’re deserving of our time or energy enough to give you a voice here, you don’t exist in this city,’ and that’s hard. He also discusses what he calls ‘micro-aggressions.’ In his example, he talks about how sometimes people might say ‘that’s gay’ to mean that something is stupid, possibly without realising that by using the word is such a way, it’s building a well of animosity. He wants to see a great wave of change over this specific issue. Jessica Vazquez, as a games journalist, discusses the role of women in games. She examines how primary protagonists tend to be men, which lessens the emotional accessibility of games. She discusses reactions to a blog posting of hers about adding more female characters to games and how one commenter stated that if a certain game had a female main character, that would make him not want to play it. One of our male freelancers did this article about ‘why can’t there be a female character in the new Grand Theft Auto game?’ because they have three characters but they’re all very macho male stereotypes. You could just as easily work in a female character; I don’t think it would have been that hard to mix in but, in response to that article we did see a lot of feedback where people were, like, ‘well if you had anything but a white guy in this game I wouldn’t play it,’ and there were several people who said that and I was, like, well with that logic, if I had that kind of logic in approaching games where I never played a game unless it had a strictly female protagonist then I would never have played games like Red Dead Redemption or Bioshock or Uncharted or all of these amazing games simply because I can’t get past the fact that I have to play as a dude, and thankfully I’m not in that position; the fact that we’re still encountering that is a little discouraging, but I kind of wish that gaming companies would just bite the bullet and take the plunge and take the risk that the indie developers are doing”. Shane Cherry shares similar stories to Conn, discussing growing up as a geek and as gay. He says that, while he doesn’t like labels, ‘gaymer’ gives a banner under which the community can rally. “While I don’t particularly like the idea of people labelling themselves, we need a flag to bare once in a while. We need a term to bring ourselves together. ‘Gaymer’ with a Y is also an issue of branding, it gives us a common flag. I think it’s more about being part of a community than simply saying ‘I am a gay man and I play video games”. Matthew Michael Brown also discusses the issue of visibility in games, and why games are so powerful. “I definitely came out as a ‘gamer’ first because I think being a gamer was so much a part of my closeted identity: it was something safe I could do and love at home, away from people who might make fun of me”. “Being queer is just one facet of someone’s identity. I think it’s not something that needs to be included but by adding it here and there you’re making a more real world, and any time you’re writing a more real world, that’s going to pull a player in much more deeply so I don’t see how that could not benefit the developer.” Read Only Memories Read Only Memories is an adventure game set in Neo-San Francisco in the year 2064. The player takes on the role of a struggling journalist who is visited by the world’s first sapient artificial intelligence by the name of Turing (a nod to famous cryptologist and computer scientist Alan Turing, who helped break German code during World War II, developing the Turing Test, which tests if an artificial intelligence possesses sapience, and for being convicted of being a homosexual in 1952. He died two years later from cyanide poisoning, and was pardoned posthumously in 2013). Turing (the character) asks the player to help find his ‘father,’ an old friend of the main character. Several reviews and examinations of the game by journalists help sum up the plot and possible intention of the game based upon MidBoss’ mission of creating more inclusivity in media: “Touted as a queer cyberpunk point-and-click adventure taking inspiration from Snatcher … The idea was pitched as a way to introduce more queer and diverse characters into the gaming landscape, and while the game does indeed contain a fair amount of diversity, the story tends to revolve more around general themes of crime and technology, making it inclusive and accessible to just about everyone” (Davis, 2015). In a review by a contributor to DarkZero gaming, a UK games e-publication, the subject of the setting and mind-set of the characters involved within the game, and how they may mirror current events: During this time, there is a conflict of beliefs between two groups of people over the integration of technology in the human biology. There are hybrids, people who utilize technological upgrades to bypass their human limitations, and then there is a movement called #stayhuman who believes that the augmentation of humanity is wrong, and that is corrupts the purity of being a human. Today we have conflicts that parallel this dispute, such as the acceptance of gay, queer and transgender identification, like there is an idea that someone’s choice may create an “adulterated” human race because it doesn’t align with their religion or their personal beliefs. Because of these conflicts, it honestly is not too difficult to think that approximately 40 years from now there will still be problems with accepting different and new changes in society and that it will still hurt people. The thought is incredibly disheartening, that someone in time is always going to be oppressed because they feel and think different than another human being (Wilson, 2015). In another review by a contributor for GameSpot, another games e-publication, the subject of gender (non)conformity, body modification, and representation are discussed: As your investigation progresses, you’ll see more and more folks that defy gender and identity norms. Some are women with a moustache and a goatee, others are ambiguous, and some are literally human-animal hybrids. That may well be a weird concept to us, especially when ROM discusses the mass discrimination against these hybrids, but it’s a clear metaphor for anyone who modifies their body in the real world. ROM, in not-so-subtle terms, suggests that some people need to alter their appearance to feel comfortable in their own skin. It also teaches you that looks alone can't tell you everything there is to know about a person; a snapshot of a person doesn't reveal the extent of their thoughts and experiences (Starkey, 2015). These themes suggest a direction and statement: quite possibly a reflection upon current issues dealing with matters of diversity, oppression, and inclusivity. MidBoss, with this game, is holding a kind of neon-soaked mirror up to modern society, trying to show the parallels in the issues, and work towards a more inclusive world. Other gaming companies have, to a lesser extent, also put their toes in the water of greater visibility for LGBTQ+ communities in games. AAA developer BioWare in both their Mass Effect and Dragon’s Age series have non-player characters that are possible romantic options for the player’s character that are gay, bisexual, and straight. Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us has a male and female protagonist both who happen to be gay. It doesn’t define them, it’s just a part of them. That is to say, that while being gay is core to who these characters are in that it helps to explain their histories, their motivations, their interactions with other characters, they are not two-dimensional stereotypes. They are fully fleshed-out characters. That said, there have been some media outlets wondering if the revelation that the female lead being a lesbian wasn’t something added on later after people had already grown to love the character (the revelation occurs in a downloadable content campaign released after the main game). Conclusions First and foremost, of any recommendation I could give to any other entertainment industry company looking towards greater inclusion is the issue of visibility. To reiterate Joey Stern, founding member of Geeks OUT, “Even just gay side characters let me know that you’re expecting me to be there, that you’re anticipating that I’m going to play this, that you’re expecting me to be a part of it” (Jones, 2014). And Matthew Michael Brown, winner of Sony’s The Tester, season two: “Being queer is just one facet of someone’s identity. I think it’s not something that needs to be included but by adding it here and there you’re making a more real world” (Jones, 2014). When any writer of a fantasy world is looking to create greater depth and greater connection, they should look towards the real world as a template; to include the many classes and creeds of people that they want to reach and to let them know that this product is for them. As Stern said, even if the characters are just on the side-lines, by including them in the narrative the project lets those people know that they are expected. The second recommendation I would give is to avoid stereotypes. As irreverent their usage was in Gay Fighter Supreme or as unintentionally damaging they may have been in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, relying on stereotypes shows an unwillingness to advance beyond a certain perception of a community, and many such perceptions are not conducive to inclusivity. The third recommendation I would give: if you are a company that is truly interested in creating inclusivity in your products and programming, be sure that you have a team to match. Unless you have people on your team that are of the communities you are trying to reach, to include, and are consulting with them about the issues that might pertain to that specific community, then you cannot be sure that the ‘inclusive’ nature of the final product or program, well-intentioned though it may be, will accurately portray said community and therefore create that avenue of inclusion. The fourth recommendation I would give is to avoid ret-conning. Ret-conning, or retroactive continuation, is the practise of redefining something substantive later in a work’s life. For example, in Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us, the revelation that protagonist Ellie is a lesbian could be perceived as a ret-con by the developers after they were sure that people were already comfortable with the character and the concept of a homosexual protagonist. It is always better to carefully and intentionally create your characters to represent the values you want them to from the beginning, rather than to arbitrarily assign them to the characters later. Doing the latter demonstrates a sense of pandering and is not meaningful. It is my belief that, should any company, but particularly a game company, wish to further the dialogue of inclusivity in their products, these recommendations provide a strong foundation. There is one last thing I can say on the matter, and as Colleen Macklin and Matt Conn both noted as something much easier for independent teams, you cannot be afraid to take risks. It is harder to do when dealing with a multi-million-dollar franchise, but if you have the platform and the intention to broaden your audience, why would you not take that chance? We as future arts managers must be vigilant in our pursuit of inclusivity. The chance to broaden our audiences should never be overlooked. Inclusivity breeds accessibility, as the ability to see oneself as the intended audience for a programme increases the likelihood of said person becoming a participant. Regardless of where this programming might take place, or in what form, it is upon producers, curators, and managers to examine our programmes and ask if we are doing all that we can to welcome as many people as possible. My first and third recommendations are particularly important as they can apply to any range of artistic endeavours, not just media and not just games. For example, a museum could curate an exhibit of art by LGBT artists, or have a ‘gay day’, a designated day to welcome LGBTQ+ communities in fellowship. If a museum is curating an LGBT exhibit, follow recommendation three and make sure that members of LGBTQ+ communities are involved. While the ultimate decisions upon the exhibit may remain with the curator, having that feedback from the community will provide a valuable foundation upon which a welcoming exhibit could be built, and a welcoming exhibit means that more people will participate. In the intersection of arts and healthcare, inclusive programming might look something like making red ribbons in awareness of AIDS, or in using art therapy to help struggling youth deal with the complicated issues of their sexuality or identity. Media benefits the most from these recommendations. Whether it’s television, film, web series, or especially games, these issues are important. There is a class of people that is being underrepresented in media and it is upon us to help change that. The world is a diverse and complex place made up of many different individuals from many backgrounds and with many stories; it’s upon us as future managers of the arts to make sure that everyone’s voices are heard, that we show everyone that we are expecting them and welcome them to participate. Appendix: Current CV or Resume Stephen Carlson 515 E BROADWAY APT 1212, EUGENE, OR 97401 | TEL.: 336.269.5004 | SCC@UOREGON.EDU Education University of Oregon Master of Science in Arts Management Expected 2016 Living Arts College Bachelor of Art in Digital Animation and Game Design 2014 Associate of Applied Science in Digital Art and Animation 2008 Experience Theatre Management and Communications  Coordinated box office sales, communicated with season ticket holders, and managed a small volunteer team as Will Call agents and Ushers for one season  Designed sound effect cues and managed the light and sound booth for two seasons  Managed a small team of volunteers in backstage technical work and set design for two seasons Inventory Management and System Development  Developed and streamlined a new uniform requisitions system for the student equipment library at Living Arts College  Coordinated with colleagues to ensure all equipment was shuttled to proper clients Student Project Management  Worked as Project Manager for a team of 10 students developing a video game: created a timeline, delegated tasks, and worked with designers to ensure the ten-week project deadline was met  Worked as Technical Director for a team of 2 students developing visual effects with a ten- week project deadline  Worked as Project manager for a team of 4 students developing an advertisement video: researching and developing systems, creating a timeline, delegating tasks, and coordinating with the team to ensure the eight-week project deadline was met Digital Arts Producer  Produced an animated short film with an eight-week project deadline  Produced a video game with a four-week project deadline Work and Volunteer History Graphic Designer; MRM & Associates, Pasadena, CA; River Mill Academy, Graham, NC; Lucid West Realty, Los Angeles, CA; 2012-2014 Equipment Manager; Living Arts College, Raleigh, NC; 2013-2014 Web Developer; River Mill Academy, Graham, NC; 2014 Theatre Volunteer; Gallery Players, Burlington, NC; 2005-2007 Appendix: CITI Training Completion Form References About GaymerX. 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